Things about Anime that non-fans get wrong, annoying you

[Joshawott]

"Death Note aired in Japan on the Nippon Television (NTV) network every Tuesday at 24:56 [1] The series began broadcasting on NTV on October 3, 2006 and ended on June 26, 2007" - List of Death Note episodes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I meant in Japan, where they aired it first. Of course I didn't watch it in Japan, but they really did air it around that time. If it was targeted at kids, why didn't they use an earlier time slot in the first place?

Of course there are cartoons and anime meant for adults. Stuff like Family Guy aren't for kids - and even some of The Simpsons. You don't want to let your kids watch Homer Simpson drunk driving around the town and hitting trees.

Wait, there are 24 hours in a day...what's 24:56?! Do they mean 00:56am? Because that's a digital clock fail.

Also, a lot of non-fans always criticise the Japanese voices etc (I've constantly been mocked by my older brother about the high pitched voices), when y'know, the majority of what I watch is English dubbed. To be fair, a lot of anime 'fans' dig their own hole there with their "OMG DUBS R EEEVIIIL!!!!!"

 

[GoldenrodGOD]

Actually, you're wrong here. Anime is just another word for cartoon. Anime is a borrowed word from English for animation. In Japan, anything animated = anime.

So that just contradicts the whole 'anime = kids cartoons' thing again with South Park/Family guy/whatever =_=

 

[Almonds]

Wait, there are 24 hours in a day...what's 24:56?! Do they mean 00:56am? Because that's a digital clock fail.

Yeah... I think that's a clock fail, too. But it DOES mean the show aired after midnight in Japan, which is SO NOT prime time, and again, which means it wasn't targeted at the usual general audience of anime - the kids. I still think Death Note was NOT aimed at kids.

Oh, and speaking of Death Note, there were these other interesting sort of people that I got mad at. They used to say all anime are for kids and are too stupid for our brains. So when I asked them "Then why the hell are you watching Death Note?", they replied that Death Note was on a "higher" level - that it shouldn't be compared with other stupid anime. Yeah, I can't say that I don't agree - Death Note has an excellent storyline and its base theme is very interesting. However, I'm not here to worhip Death Note.

What I really want to say is that all anime have their own values, and people seem to keep missing that. Like, the majority of people I've met all said Miyazaki Hayao makes the best anime and his works are the only anime worth watching. I don't deny he is one of the best, but that doesn't mean other anime are all worthless. There are a lot of other anime that are equally enjoyable and have something worth learning from. Take Bakuman for instance - it aired at an education channel in Japan for gods sake! It depicted stories of mangakas very well that I learned a lot from it, and I'm sure anyone who had seen it would agree.

Also, a lot of non-fans always criticise the Japanese voices etc (I've constantly been mocked by my older brother about the high pitched voices), when y'know, the majority of what I watch is English dubbed. To be fair, a lot of anime 'fans' dig their own hole there with their "OMG DUBS R EEEVIIIL!!!!!"

Well, yeah. People who don't like anime very much seems to HATE those high-pitched voices the girls almost always have. A lot of people seem to dislike those anime girls' voices being cute and child-like and girly. Personally, I don't like them either, but I don't go around complaining about it. It's just part of the anime culture.

 

[Adamant]

Death Note is the adaption of a comic that ran in Weekly Shonen Jump. Weekly Shonen Jump is aimed at kids (male kids aged 8-12 or thereabouts, specifically). Thus, Death Note is aimed at kids. Thinking otherwise makes you inarguably wrong.

It's really not any more complex than that.

 

[SSJ_Jup81]

Yeah... I think that's a clock fail, too. But it DOES mean the show aired after midnight in Japan, which is SO NOT prime time, and again, which means it wasn't targeted at the usual general audience of anime - the kids. I still think Death Note was NOT aimed at kids.

It was probably aimed at junior high school kids and high school kids, hence the time slot. Junior high and high-school kids stay up late over there, mostly for school reasons, but they do.

So that just contradicts the whole 'anime = kids cartoons' thing again with South Park/Family guy/whatever =_=

How is it a contradiction? Anything animated = anime. Anime is short for the word "animation". Japan has quite a few borrowed words of this nature. Conbini comes to mind, which is a convenient store. There are others I've heard when over there, but my mind is blank at the moment.

Either way, to me, aside from the drawing style anime and cartoon are the same to me. They're both dealing with animation. The definition of an animated cartoon is, "a motion picture consisting of a sequence of drawings, each so slightly different that when filmed and run through a projector the figures seem to move." Sounds about the same to me.

I'm pretty sure, though, that over there even with imported stuff, they use "anime" for pretty much anything that's animated, even though they have a Japanese Cartoon Network (which is way better than ours, imo).

 

[Adamant]

I'm pretty sure, though, that over there even with imported stuff, they use "anime" for pretty much anything that's animated

Of course.
Switch to TV Tokyo and stay around for a couple commercial slots, and you'll probably come across the currently running ads for some new, cheap Tom and Jerry DVDs, which they obviously refer to as "anime".

The western adoptation of the word is pretty silly and unnecessary, especially when it's used solely to differ between "cartoons from Japan" and "cartoons from somewhere other than Japan" - because as long as it's not from Japan, its place of origin stops being notable, I guess.

 

[SSJ_Jup81]

Of course.
Switch to TV Tokyo and stay around for a couple commercial slots, and you'll probably come across the currently running ads for some new, cheap Tom and Jerry DVDs, which they obviously refer to as "anime".

The western adoptation of the word is pretty silly and unnecessary, especially when it's used solely to differ between "cartoons from Japan" and "cartoons from somewhere other than Japan" - because as long as it's not from Japan, its place of origin stops being notable, I guess.

Hm, yeah. I thought so. I'm pretty sure I even heard the term whenever coming across Cartoon Network over there for the American imported shows, like Ben 10 and that imaginary friend show with that blue thing and Chowder and those other shows I probably would have never even remotely seen if it hadn't been for my friend's nine-year-old son who liked these programs and really wanted me to watch them with him.

 

[Cyber Jet]

I hate when people think anime is only made for 5-11 year olds or is hentai.

 

[GoldenrodGOD]

It was probably aimed at junior high school kids and high school kids, hence the time slot. Junior high and high-school kids stay up late over there, mostly for school reasons, but they do.How is it a contradiction? Anything animated = anime. Anime is short for the word "animation". Japan has quite a few borrowed words of this nature. Conbini comes to mind, which is a convenient store. There are others I've heard when over there, but my mind is blank at the moment.

Either way, to me, aside from the drawing style anime and cartoon are the same to me. They're both dealing with animation. The definition of an animated cartoon is, "a motion picture consisting of a sequence of drawings, each so slightly different that when filmed and run through a projector the figures seem to move." Sounds about the same to me.

I'm pretty sure, though, that over there even with imported stuff, they use "anime" for pretty much anything that's animated, even though they have a Japanese Cartoon Network (which is way better than ours, imo).

Lol. Dude. I don't think we're on the same page anymore XD

So that just contradicts the whole 'anime = kids cartoons' thing again with South Park/Family guy/whatever =_=

You said anime is any cartoon, correct? So, that contradicts what non-anime fans usually believe: that anime is just little kiddy cartoons. But, if anime can be any cartoon, what they're saying is that South Park/Family Guy is also for kids? That's why what they're saying is a contradiction. Not the anime = cartoon thing...don't even know what we're going on about now XD

EDIT: Wait...does any of that even make sense? Probably not. Oh well. Moving along~ ^.^;;;

 

[P-fan]

It's either:

a) Anime is just little kids' shows.
b) All cartoons (As in non-Japanese) are anime.

WRONG! WRONG! ALL WRONG! TT_TT

back in the 80's Anime in America air as children shows, mainly giant robot show. Force Five air to tie in with the Shogun Warrior toyline. That might explain why they're view as kids show. Some of them was edited into movie in order to market them.

Harmony Gold were attempted to bring Macross to the US release it on videos, but they didn't well because it a cartoon.

There was a Youtube user call Random DCE, who make Handy Danny Guide. For Yu-gi-oh! he mention that it was based on a card game when it originally started as an manga and it didn't started as an card game. He even compare it to Pokemon.

 

[Yamato-san]

Actually, you're wrong here. Anime is just another word for cartoon. Anime is a borrowed word from English for animation. In Japan, anything animated = anime.

Personally, I'm not gonna get into some hissy fit and go "anime are SO not cartoons" every time someone talks of them as such, but I do feel that the cultural take on animation is, for the most part, different enough that I could appreciate separate words being used to describe each one. Technically, while "anime=all types of animation" is true, and the same could be said about the word "cartoon", the evolution of language seems to be turning both into more specific terms, and it's worth noting that even the Japanese themselves will differentiate their own animation from foreign animation, and yes, they're even throwing around the word "cartoon" to do so. If you go on 2chan, there's a section for 海外アニメ漫画 (kaigai anime manga; foreign animation and comics), and interestingly enough, it uses the word "cartoon" in its URL. And on Pixiv, there's a tag for カートゥーン (cartoon), images of which are mainly based on animated shows from the west (the link should be SFW, unless you have a Pixiv account and have the filter turned off, in which case, you should know what to expect). Likewise, with a show like Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, both sides of the hemisphere remark about it using a "cartoonish" style. So, the next time you hear someone say "Mickey Mouse is anime", in some ways, that is both correct and incorrect.

 

[TokyoShojo]

This is a misconception usually held by people who are fans of a certain part of Japanese culture outside of anime: that anime is a horrible misrepresentation of Japanese culture. If someone says something about Japanese culture (e.g., "Most Japanese middle schools and high schools require students to wear uniforms") and say they learned it from anime, it's common for some one to say "Just because it was in anime doesn't mean it's true!" But just because something is in an anime doesn't mean it's not true. While some things in anime are exaggerated (e.g., people being born with hair colours like pink, blue, or green), you can actually learn some things about Japan from anime.

 

[Almonds]

This is a misconception usually held by people who are fans of a certain part of Japanese culture outside of anime: that anime is a horrible misrepresentation of Japanese culture. If someone says something about Japanese culture (e.g., "Most Japanese middle schools and high schools require students to wear uniforms") and say they learned it from anime, it's common for some one to say "Just because it was in anime doesn't mean it's true!" But just because something is in an anime doesn't mean it's not true. While some things in anime are exaggerated (e.g., people being born with hair colours like pink, blue, or green), you can actually learn some things about Japan from anime.

True - some represent the Japanese culture very well without exaggerating stuff.

Hikaru no Go, Death Note, Bakuman... They all portray parts of the society very well.

Detective Conan, Kindaichi aren't restricted to only Japanese culture, but there are still things anyone can learn from it.

 

[Adamant]

If you don't know whether what you "learned" is true or not, it's not much of a learning tool, is it? It's like using Bugs Bunny cartoons as your sole source of information about 1940s American society.

"Learning" stuff about other cultures from their cartoons should be discouraged, because... well, they aren't accurate representations. Use trustworthy sources for your education purposes.

 

[Blazaking]

Slice of Life anime tend to be closer to reality than other anime, so I think that it'd be alright to trust some of the normal things you see in them.

 

[Adamant]

And American drama movies from the 40s are more realistic than Bugs Bunny, but trusting "seemingly normal" things in them is still going to bite you in the ass and make you look like an idiot. Married couples sleeping in separate bedrooms were not the norm in 1940s America no matter how often you see it in movies from that time.

No matter how realistic the work might seem, using entertainment fiction as your sole source for a cultural fact is a terrible idea.

 

[Blazaking]

What about a recurring fact that appears in many anime? I didn't understand why characters changed their shoes in school at first, but after seeing it in several anime, I concluded that it must be a part of Japan's normal culture.

Putting that side, however, I do agree that using fiction as your sole source of information is rather risky.

 

[Adamant]

What about a recurring fact that appears in many anime?

Married couples sleeping in different bedrooms (or at the very least different beds) appears in pretty much every piece of visual American fiction produced in the 40s and 50s that shows a married person's bed. Still doesn't make it an actual part of that time's culture.

 

[TokyoShojo]

I don't use anime as my "sole source" of information about Japan...

 

[Adamant]

I don't use anime as my "sole source" of information about Japan...

If, and I quote, "someone says something about Japanese culture and say they learned it from anime"... that kinda implies they used anime as their sole point of reference for that factoid.
While you can pick up some correct factoids about Japan from its cartoons, you'll also pick up a bunch of misconceptions, and you have no real way of knowing what are facts and what are misconceptions until you check with some more trustworthy source - in which case you'll learn the correct facts from that source, not from the cartoon you watched.
While something being in a Japanese cartoon doesn't necessarily mean it's not true, it doesn't mean it has to be true either, and being that the cartoon won't tell you which of the two is the case... you can't really learn much from anime.
And that is why using Japanese cartoons to learn about Japan should be discouraged.