Whether more familiar as “Japanimation” or “anime,” Japanese animation has become a worldwide phenomenon infamous for racy plot-lines and wild characters, but it is a legitimate art form with a rich history.
“There are no limits to what you can create,” said John-Paul Michael, computer science sophomore and Japanese Animation Cultural Society president at LSU. “You can bend reality.”
JACS is a provisional student organization at LSU that is being revamped. Begun in 1995 by a graduating student, JACS showed the movie “Street Fighter” at the first meeting.
The club has expanded its viewings from movies to anime television shows and music videos, and members make suggestions and bring new anime shows to view every week.
Japanese animation is divided into two categories, manga and anime. Anime is made up of colored pictures which are less detailed to create a moving image. Manga, anime’s Japanese comic book counterpart, is drawn in black and white, with more precision given to the characters’ faces and the backgrounds, similar to comic book cartoons.
“Because of the Internet, it is easier to get licensed material and also depends on the companies’ policies,” Michael said.
According to “Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation,” a book by Antonia Levy, anime and manga contain the “myths, and legends, its religion, artistic traditions and philosophies” of Japanese culture, which makes it difficult for viewers outside the culture to understand the information presented.
Sometimes criticized for its content, anime and manga are derived from ukiyo-e, which are woodblock prints that are used to create a visual image, but leave some of the story up to the reader’s imagination.
Animators use politics and people as springboards for their plots and characters.
According to “Manga” by Iain Sinclair, ukiyo-e emerged in the 19th century with satirical drawings using speech balloons and some Western drawing techniques. Influences of the American comics in the 1920s helped stylize manga, but illustrators kept the authenticity of the ukiyo-e.
Anime did not emerge until after the popularity of the cinema grew. According to the anime director Osamu Tezuka’s official Web site, Osamu Tezuka World, Tezuka, the “God of Manga,” began using direct and stage-like manga in the comic books and adopted techniques from French and German cinema soon after the end of World War II.
Tezuka used suspense, drawing a scene over many pages, to create an emotional scene. Tezuka based his characters’ features on pre-war Disney cartoons such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Huge eyes and round heads could evoke a wide range of emotions including love, excitement, fear and hate.
Michael said rotoscoping, a combination of computer-generated imagery and drawings, is an anime technique that creates a more realistic blend of special effects and realistic-looking characters. Some designers only use CGI, which creates a more computer-generated look for the production.
Underground networks originally distributed anime without licenses, but companies now manage the production. Michael said that the quality of the film depends on the company, because some companies are more interested in the profits than the quality.
The anime and manga community spans the globe, but conventions like the ones in June 2004 in Houston and the Anime Expo 2004 allow these individuals to meet others who share this interest. Anime companies visit these conventions, and some anime fans attend dressed as their favorite characters.
“Some people think that it’s just cartoons, but [the designers] spend time on the characters and develop them,” Michael said.
JACS meets in the Design Building every other Sunday at 2 p.m. At the last meeting, members watched a trailer from an upcoming anime movie and an episode of the “Paper Sisters,” an anime television series about three sisters with magic powers who run a detective agency. The sisters can magically manipulate paper into useful objects. JACS is currently developing a Web site for the organization.