Why I prefer anime to live action movies/TV
Let me start with an admission. I know that the animation in Japanese anime is of poor quality compared to the latest stuff coming out of Hollywood animation studios. I’ve seen how they use the same background and just float the characters over it. I’ve see how lame the characters look when they are walking or running. I can recognize that they are taking shortcuts to save time and effort in the animation process. But:
I .
don’t.
care.
Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you why I rarely watch live action movies and TV any more, unless they involve lots of humor or martial arts fight scenes.
There is something wrong with me apparently. I’m too sensitive. My body can’t seem to tell the difference between real life and real life figures on a screen in front of me. When I see people being tortured or killed on screen, or there is even a wee bit of certain kinds of drama, I get physically ill.
Here’s a catalog of some of the things that have happened to me while watching various things:
--Violent, uncontrollably shaking (American Beauty, The Matrix)
--Digestive “issues” (Firefly, Elephant Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
--Medullary nausea (Clockwork Orange)
--Sudden fever (Edward Scissorhands)
--Feeling of being emotionally tortured (The Incredibles)
I also have vague memories of being traumatized by one of the Indiana Jones movies, and of my parents forcing me to watch Elephant Man in a theatre, as a punishment for something I said to one of my friends. But you know, I can’t blame my parents for this problem, as it seems to have been with me since early childhood. My parents said I used to watch TV (even Sesame Street) from behind the sofa, so I could hide whenever it got to be too much.
So now fast forward. I am 42 years old, and watch approximately one live action movie per year. The last thing I watched at home was Hot Tub Time Machine, and the last thing I watched in a theatre…Geez, Idunno, it was probably the fourth Harry Potter movie.
I thought I was doomed to a lifetime of watching “Power of Myth” and “The Blue Planet” over and over again, with the occasional bad comedy or kick-ass samurai film thrown in.
Then I discovered anime. Wow! It’s the same bad effects I treasured from my teenage years when I used to watch Dr. Who during the Tom Baker years! I can’t get too scared or freaked out watching anime, because it is so obviously fake. Add to that the Japanese propensity for inserting completely random stuff into the story (non-sequiturs! I love ‘em) and you have a method to satisfy my whacked sense of humor. The storylines and characters are often twisted, there are androgynous characters to look at, and cool fight scenes, too. Right up my alley, you see.
I .
don’t.
care.
Now, with that out of the way, let me tell you why I rarely watch live action movies and TV any more, unless they involve lots of humor or martial arts fight scenes.
There is something wrong with me apparently. I’m too sensitive. My body can’t seem to tell the difference between real life and real life figures on a screen in front of me. When I see people being tortured or killed on screen, or there is even a wee bit of certain kinds of drama, I get physically ill.
Here’s a catalog of some of the things that have happened to me while watching various things:
--Violent, uncontrollably shaking (American Beauty, The Matrix)
--Digestive “issues” (Firefly, Elephant Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
--Medullary nausea (Clockwork Orange)
--Sudden fever (Edward Scissorhands)
--Feeling of being emotionally tortured (The Incredibles)
I also have vague memories of being traumatized by one of the Indiana Jones movies, and of my parents forcing me to watch Elephant Man in a theatre, as a punishment for something I said to one of my friends. But you know, I can’t blame my parents for this problem, as it seems to have been with me since early childhood. My parents said I used to watch TV (even Sesame Street) from behind the sofa, so I could hide whenever it got to be too much.
So now fast forward. I am 42 years old, and watch approximately one live action movie per year. The last thing I watched at home was Hot Tub Time Machine, and the last thing I watched in a theatre…Geez, Idunno, it was probably the fourth Harry Potter movie.
I thought I was doomed to a lifetime of watching “Power of Myth” and “The Blue Planet” over and over again, with the occasional bad comedy or kick-ass samurai film thrown in.
Then I discovered anime. Wow! It’s the same bad effects I treasured from my teenage years when I used to watch Dr. Who during the Tom Baker years! I can’t get too scared or freaked out watching anime, because it is so obviously fake. Add to that the Japanese propensity for inserting completely random stuff into the story (non-sequiturs! I love ‘em) and you have a method to satisfy my whacked sense of humor. The storylines and characters are often twisted, there are androgynous characters to look at, and cool fight scenes, too. Right up my alley, you see.