Otaku Culture

The word "animation" is based on the Latin word for the soul: "ani". "Animism" is a religious term coined by an 19 century anthropologist named Taylor, describing the process of a soul coming to reside in an inanimate object. Animation allows one to bestow movement to an immobile drawing and breathe life into it! It is an act of God!

The majority of television I watch is animation, mostly anime. For me, animation is able to show an appreciation of the human characteristics of reality. The details of a scene are where the heart pumps and allows activity, circulation, to occur. It is easily possible to create the impossible in animation.

Anime is a huge phenomena that at its core is timeless and is directly linked to all art forms and mediums, but it has a unique flow that allows a flirtatious relationship with creators and fans. In the United States anime is generally represented by Naruto, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and such, the drab frames one skips on a Saturday morning. But I enjoy anime that doesn't make a large impact stateside, beyond franchises and merchandise are fun elements alongside experimental theory of reality and the experience of realization.

Often times a manga (japanese comics) is animated and that is how we get introduced to certain series. In Japan beside the massive amount of manga generated by companies there are hundreds of groups (circles) dedicated to creating spinoffs of their favorite series, exploring what was left in the dark in the series. It's what we would call Fan Fiction, but the Japanese go one step further by holding conventions and festivals where they sell and trade their work. In America this would be illegal, but in Japan it helps to fuel the manga and anime franchises.

A good anime I've watched recently is Genshiken. It is about a circle dedicated to manga. There are no robots, explosions, ninjas, outer space elements or even ghosts. It portrays real people expressing their own unique feelings about their encounters. In the second season the club create their own manga and sell them at a convention. The story shows the characters trying out ideas and missing deadlines, something I can account for in my own personal endeavors. For me, it is a great series that I want to keep up on. The fact that the setting is a nonfictional world, the situations are played out as they could happen in real life and I like that element because a lot of times we are confused about our own feelings, but we don't realize it until we experience a new medium.