Otakuism

Lecture mode *ON*

This editorial is written partly in response to THAT Animeblog’s article on the state of Kyoani and partly because I’m tired of writing first impressions for everything I watch. Crusader, Impz, and Lupus did a good job talking about where Kyoani is now, but also talked about its role in making anime mainstream. I’m going to explain why not only can anime never become mainstream, but also that it doesn’t really matter if it does or not. This is long and somewhat rambling, and some points may be inaccurate, but read it with an open mind anyways.

Look at any form of entertainment media and you can basically classify all its works into three categories: crap, good but forgettable (forgettable being a subjective term. Let’s just say it won’t be remembered in the popular conscience in the next fifty years), and the classics. Anime is no different in these regards. There’s your classics, like Gundam, Evangelion, Sailormoon, any work of Osamu Tezuka, and perhaps Haruhi. Classics don’t necessarily have to be good, people just have to remember them a long time. There’s stuff like the works of Satoshi Kon, Studio Ghibli, and Studio 4C, which are both classic and popular mainstream wise, or at the very least can be taken seriously. Note that it’s hard to define classics because the medium hasn’t been around that long, but there is still a general consensus on which works will stand the test of time.

Then there’s the merely good categoy. Shows of the moment, like Nanoha, My-Hime, Shakugan no Shana, and many, many more. There’s nothing wrong with these shows and they’re often very good and enjoyable to watch. But it’s unlikely they’ll be remembered. They’re not serious like Ghibli or ground breaking. Usually their plots are made of cliches, fanservice, and moe. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with them. As long as they’re fun to watch it really shouldn’t matter how serious or classic it is. Crap shows are self-explanatory. Everybody agrees they suck.

So anime is basically similar to every other art form. So what does it take to become mainstream? That’s a difficult question. It varies from culture to culture, but generally that which is considered mainstream panders to the most people possible. Hollywood is a good example. All a movie needs to be popular is a non-confusing plot, maybe a romance, and some action. Any subject matter entering more forbidden or less conservative realms, sex, graphic violence, drug use, and other extremes will be less part of the mainstream. Grindhouse is a great recent example. It had all of those things and wasn’t exactly well known in the mainstream. Doesn’t mean the work was bad, but its subject matter was either too obscure or extreme for common taste. It was servicing a niche culture, that of the comedy horror fan and also B-movie fans in general.

This is where anime comes in. Anime is the epitome of a niche culture. Not only is its medium a niche, animation, but it draws its subject matter from other niche’s: fantasy, science fiction, eroge’s, supernatural, etc. Niche culture can even be amazingly popular but not accepted in the mainstream. Look at science fiction. The only “good” sci-fi you can socially accept is Star Wars, and there’s even debate of whether it’s sci-fi or not. Star Trek still carries a stigmatism in many people’s minds. This article from Wired does a good job at pointing out how much publicists and authors hate the term sci-fi, even though that’s what the work is. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings is the closest fantasy has got to the mainstream (and it was only the Lord of the Rings movies that made it popular). But there are a lot of good stories in the sci-fi and fantasy genre’s, they just aren’t accepted by the mainstream. Anime is no different.

So we can basically see that anime is a niche culture with little hope of being accepted in the mainstream. It’s subject matter is obscure and its animation isn’t taken seriously, not to mention the various problems of fanservice, hentai, and lolicon. No matter how good, realistic, or classic a work is, prejudices in the mainstream will work against it. Now the question: is that a bad thing? Does anime need to be in the mainstream to be popular? The millions of sci-fi, fantasy, and other fans of niche cultures will probably tell you no. Hyperion by Dan Simmons is a masterpiece of literature, even if the mainstream doesn’t know it. Just because a story is merely “good,” or is cliche or made of a miserable pile of moe, it doesn’t degrade its worth. It has value as long as people enjoy it.

The collective works of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith come to my mind, partly becauce I’ve been reading them recently. All of them wrote in the pulp magazines of the day, the lowest of the low. But they wrote good stories, sometimes excellent ones. Lovecraft made his own genre of sci-fi and Howard created the Sword and Sorcery genre, niche cultures in thier own right. Just because the mainstream didn’t know them or didn’t care for them doesn’t degrade what they did. They made important contributions to literature that are still remembered today. All I’m saying is, it doesn’t matter whether people call what you watch trash, boring, or even hentai. As long as you enjoy it, then that work has value. Time will decide whether anime is ever mainstream or not, or if it has worth in “critic’s” eyes. In the meantime, I’m going to watch Gurren-Lagann, because I enjoy mecha and tits. How’s that for mainstream?