10/13 Pre-class blog

Hayao Miyazaki, renowned animator and humanist artist, is famous for his dreamy representations of reality, which, of course, can only be obtained from observing reality closely. Each of his films contain minute details of human existence: someone cooking, drawing, getting water from the well, all animated with great care for the simple task that is being done. While these scenes may not necessarily advance the plot, they are there to help build the characters as full human beings with lives outside of the screen. The emphasis is not on big explosions or intricate mechas, but the experience of being alive. Though he found his fame in anime, age has made him more jaded about the state of the industry.

You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, “Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.” If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it.

Some people spend their lives interested only in themselves. Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know. It’s produced by humans who can’t stand looking at other humans. And that’s why the industry is full of otaku! (translation)

His complaint about the abundance of otaku (someone who is obsessed with anime, manga, and video games to the point of antisocial behavior) in the industry is not unfounded. As anime culture became more and more of a commodified microcosm, the anime produced became cheaper and self-referential. Though anime characters aren’t meant to be photorealistic, its hard to see the character designs in any random anime coming out this season and imagine them as a real person. Rather than the feeling of watching real people, it feels as if I am watching animals in a zoo, imitating human behaviors but never quite acting like people themselves. These idealized characters appeal to the otaku: people who never question them or critique them to improve, who never act abrasive or ugly or any other way that may suggest they have personhood of their own. In other words, these people do not exist.

Ironically, Miyazaki’s quote has been twisted into the popular “anime was a mistake” meme, with many people believing he actually said “anime was a mistake.” Simulacra to help the Western anime fan elitists like me validate themselves, perhaps?