Shintaro Ishihara talks about anime

So true. Ampanman is almost photorealistic.

I’m pretty sure he’s thinking of Evangelion. If you take out the giant robots and weird monsters, it’s pretty much spot on with Japanese society.

Almost universal insanity, serious daddy issues, multiple adult-child relationships hinting at statutory rape, slavish devotion to duty, government conspiracies, living on beer and instant ramen, masturbation, a plot to eliminate individuality, use of Catholic symbology because it looks cool, uwaki, suicide attacks against impossible odds, an aging society, historical revisionism, and presentation of a 14-year-old clone-girl as the otaku fantasy woman.

Yup, it “isn’t unrealistic like Western style animation, nor do its characters feel made-up. ”

This was obviously a very ignorant comment from the governor, but I’m hoping there was some kind of misunderstanding here. As much I didn’t want him to use Anpanman as an example, I do think Japan did revolutionize animation in a way that was so original, Disney never saw it coming.

Disney is and always will be the godfather of the study and execution of animated characters — the characters’ ability to have “life” in its motions and interactions in situations to tell a story. If you think about what made Disney so great to begin with was its ability to instill “magic” and “wonder” of our imaginations — fairytales — something that tapped into the hearts of our childhood in all of us. Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Dumbo, Sword in the Stone, Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland — you name it. All wonderful classics that should never be undermined.

What Japan has done however was allow animation to be the vector of adulthood and real life drama which tapped into our adult life in a way it was never done before. Some classics like Ashita no Joe, Ace o Nerae, or even something like Black Jack comes to mind. I’m not saying those were the first anime to appear in Japan, but it all exploded from there when those same ideas started to fuse with the vast array of science fiction to the complex anime world we see today.

Not too many years ago as many of you probably remember, even with such a rich history, Disney started to struggle to find an audience as their ticket sales started to dwindle. I think Disney’s attempt to keep up with their own standards staying on the top of the food chain of the technical aspect of animation is further demonstrated by partnering with Pixar.

I’ve always wanted to smoke what he’s been smoking all these years.