Animate this!

Published: Tuesday, December 1, 1998

Tuesday, December 1, 1998

Animate this!

As American audiences' interest in anime, or Japanese animation, grows companies are becoming more aware of this creative industry's potential

By Amy Tay

Daily Bruin Contributor

Normally, Dixon 2160E is just another quiet lecture hall. But when the Japanese Animation Club meets there on Tuesday nights, it transforms into a world where anything is possible. The dead are brought back to life, men turn into women, and ordinary sixth-graders can leap hundreds of feet into the air.

It is the world of anime.

The UCLA Japanese Animation Club, or the anime club, was founded in 1992. The club began with informal, off-campus anime showings among a small group of friends.

"We talked about anime a lot and we decided to get together and watch our collections," said Monique Celeste, an alumna and one of the club's founders.

As time passed, word about the club spread and more and more people joined. Realizing that they needed to find a bigger place, they rented a meeting room in Ackerman.

The push to formally organize the club came when 20 people showed up at a single showing. At that time, an official proposal was submitted to the Center for Student Activities, and the anime club was born.

Today, the organization has attracted over 200 members and is one of the largest groups on campus.

Headed by president Ardith Santiago, a fourth-year East Asian studies student, and vice president Rhona Medina, a third-year East Asian studies student, the club meets weekly. There is a $15 yearly membership fee, but anyone is welcome to drop in.

While club members meet mainly to watch anime videos, paying members can also check out tapes from the club library. Drawings for free prizes such as posters are held once a quarter.

Although most of the club members are already devout anime fans, going to club meetings usually offers them a wider variety of anime than they would normally watch.

"We expose them to different genres, not just the genres they know," Santiago said.

Despite its large following on campus, some may still wonder what anime is all about.

Simply stated, anime (pronounced ah-nee-may) is animation produced in Japan. It began in the late 1950s when the Japanese comic book series "Tetsuan Atom" by Osamu Tezaku was animated and serialized.

Anime hit American television shortly after that, when NBC purchased the rights to the series in 1964 and imported it under the title, "AstroBoy." Other titles such as "Speed Racer" and "Captain Harlock" were also brought over around this time.

Teenage affinity for anime sprang largely from a fundamental difference between American and Japanese animation: anime targets a broader audience. Thus, while American shows are mainly "kiddie material," anime includes mature topics as well.

As Eugene Kim, a first-year computer science and engineering student put it, "Cartoons in America are for little kids, but anime is made for everyone."

In fact, Japanese animation covers diverse genres such as soap operas, drama, romantic comedies, science fiction and fantasy-adventures. Anime also comes in the form of "hentai," which is essentially animated pornography.

"It's not your typical Saturday morning cartoon," Kim said.

This "mature anime" found its way to the United States during the 1980s, when Japan's economic success prompted a surge of American exchange students.

Although these students were sent abroad to learn the secrets of Japan's success, they also discovered the joys of anime. Bringing home a wealth of videotapes, these students were able spread anime among American youth.

Although people are drawn to anime for various reasons, universal appeal seems to be found in its divergence from American animation.

"It's popular because it's unusual - there is no equivalent in America," said Dory Schachner, a second-year psychology student.

Anime fans note that while American cartoon characters are generally simple, two-dimensional figures with crude features, careful attention is paid to the facial and body features of anime characters. Also, shading and the use of light and dark create multi-dimensional figures and rich scenery.

"Anime in general is very good animation compared to what we have here," Kim said.

Anime fans, finding American cartoons much too predictable, also enjoy the creative storylines anime shows offer.

"They give an odd slant toward mature themes," said Kenneth Armstrong, a first-year undeclared student.

For example, in "Ranma 1/2," the main character changes gender every time he touches water. Also, the protagonist in "Yu Yu Hakusho" is killed by a car and must prove himself worthy of being brought back to life.

Furthermore, rather than being written in discrete, half-hour episodes, anime stories are drawn out over multi-episode series.

Anime fans seem to enjoy this feature.

"It makes you want to watch the next episode and lets you have more convoluted plots," Schachner said.

Despite anime's undeniable popularity, it has more or less remained an underground phenomenon in America.

There are several reasons why anime has not been inducted into mainstream culture. For one, it has yet to be widely advertised in the United States.

Another obstacle to anime's ascent to the mainstream has been accessibility. For the most part, fans cannot simply walk into a video store and buy their tapes; they must depend on private subtitling groups and tape trading.

"It is almost impossible to find what you are looking for," Armstrong said.

On the bright side, however, American corporations have finally realized the profitability of marketing anime in America. Disney, USManga Corp., AnimEGO and Orion Home Pictures are among the key players here - purchasing the rights to a myriad of popular anime titles from their Japanese producers and releasing them to American fans.

By commercializing anime, these companies will help further spread anime not only by making it more widely available, but also by providing better quality tapes and laser discs than those currently available.

As such, the future seems to bode well for anime, and today's fans are optimistic about its prospects.

"It's already gotten big since it started, so I wouldn't be surprised if it went mainstream," Schachner said.

But whether or not anime makes it to mainstream culture, it has already had a definite impact on those who watch it. Not only has it sparked an interest among teens to learn Japanese, one of the most difficult languages to master, but it has provided a window into the Japanese world as well.

"It teaches people about Japan, how their culture is a little different from ours," Kim said.

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