Time for yet another
Declined submission (no thanks):
| A Thinking Person's Anime — No Irony Intended |
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Japanese animation, despite having a wide audience on the Western shores, is still considered a treat for kids and obsessives, a form whose range barely covers from cute, fuzzy whatizits to —uh— stag films. But when we're ready to dismiss the thing altogether, something comes along that shows more nuance than the usual 30-minute saucer-eyed show. Something that focuses on character and mood, and has style in spades. Something like Cowboy Bebop.
So, what is Cowboy Bebop? It's a jazzy show that, in the words of TeeVee collaborator Nathan Alderman, "takes old familiar themes, invests them with maturity and soul, and does so with style." It's the story of a crew of interplanetary bounty hunters, a story that tends more to meditations on failure and loneliness than to celebrate gee-whiz action. And without a single giant mecha in sight. Who knows if this show is a crossover success, a trendsetter among run of the mill cartoon fare, but it no doubt is a cool singularity and a lot of fun. |
Feedback:
- Might want to mention another intelligent and brilliant series, Serial Experiments: Lain.
- It's a good show alright, but I don't know how much exposure people will have gotten to it.
- as much as i love a good anime, i don't see what the potential for discussion here is. i doubt the editors will either.
- I disagree... Most great art emerges from refinements of "low culture." Think Impressionism and Jazz. Plasticians are sufficiently articulate to make this topic a potential winner.
- Most American anime-viewers are the sorts we used to laugh at when they wore black and hung out in coffeeshops talking about philosophy because they were unemployed.
- Great entertainment this may be, great art- absolutely not. This story isn't even timely.
- Dude, American anime fans are some of the biggest geeks around. Trust me on this.
- Best... Plastic... story... ever!
- just saw jin-roh: the wolf brigade - soldier with a conscience (maybe)
- People who watch anime have heard of Bebop long, long ago. Those who don't still don't care.
Seems like nobody cared for bringing some attention to the article Nathan Alderman wrote about Bebop. Still, I like what he wrote, giving the show the Vidiot's seal of approval. I noticed, though, that when it was originally published, Mr. Alderman's bio simply stated he "is a writer, editor, and web designer from San Antonio, Texas." Currently, it also adds: "He has learned, only too well, not to say mean things about anime fans." Do you think the fact that he wrote the following paragraph had anything to do with it?
And as for you anime fans... liking Cowboy Bebop has made me feel a bit more charitable towards you all. But if even one of you starts whining about how Bebop is getting popular with sullied masses and ruining the pristine sanctity of your fandom, I'm seriously going to go to that basement you're living in and stomp on each and every one of your imported model kits. And not even the sight of you in a poorly-fitting homemade costume will stop me.
(On a completely unrelated note, what does Mr. Alderman have to do to get his own "About" page on TeeVee? He has written a not-so-shabby seven articles in little more than a year, which should amount to something... If he ever gets such a page, I guess it would look something like the one I rolled myself.)
By the way, the link in the submission mentioning "stag films" points to a Nerve article that's gone Premium.
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One Man's Anime
by Jack Murnighan
Just how much animated Japanese porn can our writer take? |
Not to worry; if you'd like to read it, you can always look it up at the Internet Archive; the Archive wasn't returning the pictures included in that story when I last checked, though. Pity.
{Later...}
Serendipitious happenings! I found through my referrals that someone arrived to this weblog from an old page of the Reverse Cowgirl's blog which contains the following picture:
As Tom Wolfe would have put it: Cosmo!
{Edited on July 31, 2003. Changed "If he such a page" to "If he ever gets such a page".}
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