Animage interviews

Making up for long time absence

2011-04-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

God, it's been ages since I posted my introduction. My fascination with Japanese animation artists has not faltered yet. I've been working on a wiki page on Japanese animation artists.

I LOVE Japanese anime magazines like Animage, Newtype, and etc. Okay, I have lost interest in Newtype magazine, but I still buy Animage magazine for their quality interviews. Also I discovered quality anime art magazines Quarterly "S"(Esu), Animation Note, and Animage Original thanks to Kinokuniya bookstore in San Francisco.

Newtype has decent columns by Japanese animation professionals, but it is just too sporadic on behind-the-art features. They do cover very well made TV episode (Naruto Ep.166 for example). Anime creators do put short-run columns, but I have no interest in what they had for breakfast. Still, fans here are buying Anime magazines for trinkets and pretty pictures. I wasn't too impressed in Megami magazine because it's pretty much about Akihabara Anime Otaku magazine focused on Moe Anime girls and voice actresses. I'm surprised that it survived for several years when other similar magazines went out of print. Let see... Anime V, "AX" by Sony, and etc.

I poke fun of Playboy phrase, "I buy it for the article". That is what Anime fan in the US have been doing for past two decades. Since they can't read Japanese, they will not write anything interesting on realm of Anime on internet. All they do is shell out $12 forfor trinkets and pretty illustrations which eventually wind in a storage or a trash bin somewhere.

As I stated on the introduction that it's important to refer to that country's publications when you talk about foreign media that you're interested in. German language publication for German pop music for example. I've realized that someone has to bring these material in English because not every Anime fans have luxury of time; geographical advantage; tuition/travel money to learn another language. One thing that makes unhappy about nonfiction writing about Anime world is that their bibliography is too limited. I'm not too happy about many "fan" writers based their references solely on some English language publication which are based from another English language publication. You get my drift?

Many older fans are emphasizing teaching art behind anime, but there is practically few English language materials out there when it comes the art. No one talk about why and how did these creators made visual medium that many young people identify themselves with. As matter of fact, more and more young people are inclined to draw anime/manga style art and plus increased enrollment in art schools. Unfortunately, art schools are not well prepared to teach anime/manga style because faculty is not familiar with how Japanese animation works. No one is prepared to show young people on correlation between life drawing technique and anime/manga style illustration. There are "how to draw manga" books, but hacks, who never been to the industry, are publishing their own god-awful "how draw manga/anime" books. It's a shameless behavior that doesn't help anyone.

There are a lot of work to be done still.

Introduction

2009-03-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm creating this site to post rough translation of any Japanese language interviews, articles, and factoids from Anime magazines and related books which may entertain non-Japanese fans of Anime and in hope to aid academics to write more reliable paper on subject of Anime.

There are some English language books out there talking about Japanese animation, but in very limited scope. Limited scope as in mainly focused on cultural background and history. Rarely anyone talks about visual art side of Japanese animation. Basically, how did they made their animation. There are so many subject matters on it, yet books only talk about filmography of well-known directors. That is why I'm still awaitng for possible release of Peter Chung's (director & creator of cult animation "Aeon Flux") book on japanese animation studios.

As a Japanese Animation fan, I have noticed that a lot of college student fans write their passionate analytical papers about their favorite Anime titles. Of course, most of these students themselves are not native or professional users of Japanese language, so it's like trying to make a silk purse with sow's ear. With English language books focused on one particular face of Japanese animation, notably cultural and historical views only, it's very difficult for fans to write reliable and diverse subject matters when language barrier prevents them from exploring further.

When writing an essay, thesis, or research paper, on a foreign media, isn't it better to obtain some reference materials from country of its origin when its possible? If a person is going to write an article on German films out his love of German pop culture, then wouldn't it be better to obtain some reliable reference materials in German to back his view? Internet is supposed to be unlimited source of information, but most fans here don't read Japanese. Therefore language barrier deters them to explore and discover new information.

With recent popularity of Hayao Miyazaki, western writers and fans are coming up with books practically focused on his works and life. Very few people do talk about animation artists other than Miyazaki and they're very limited. Sometimes their view of Japanese animation industry seems to be revolve around Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli when there are hundreds of other animation studios and thousands of artists in Japan grinding out their own unique expression of commercial animations. Of course, blog sites like 'Anipage Daily' recognizes the diversity and its author writes eloquent articles about obscure and talented Japanese animation artists other than Miyazaki.

Due to limited resource and connections, most western Anime magazine writers don't have luxury of time to do in-depth interview with all kinds of veteran artists. Canada's "Protoculture Addict" magazine is known for their review articles, but like any other western Anime magazines, their interviews and behind-the-scene are weak.

I could be wrong, but I think that most fans here who buy those Japanese magazines like Newtype, Animedia, and Megami, and Animage magazines for pretty promotional illustrations rather than article contents.