Why do you do that? pt2

Why do you do that? pt2



So as promised here is the blog about my fascination/obsession with anime and manga,
for those of you who dont know what anime and manga is, its basically the Japanese equivalent of cartoons an comics, the main difference being......
Well everything.

Generally the art style is the key difference,
western cartoons tend to have very obscure character designs where as anime tend to have more realistic character designs,
The layout is also different, manga( usually the predecessor of an anime) have a linear story to follow where as most cartoons are episodic in the sense that they rarely tend to link one episode to another, the one  example where this isn't the case would be the "Avatar Last Air Bender" series which was heavily inspired by anime.


But this post isn't about the definition or description of anime and manga and if you are really that interested in the subject, then look it up on Google,
This post is about why i class watching/reading it as a hobby and why its such a huge part of my life.

So lets talk about that.


                                                                                           --IMPORTANT--

(I'm going to be mentioning a few animes by name which will mean nothing to some people but i will leave a basic synopsis at the end of the blog to help you understand some of the "Jargon i use")

(Scene from Toradora)

Again we have to travel back in time to when i was about 6 years old when the most popular cartoons on television for people my age were "Pokemon" and "Dragon-Ball Z" The only thing that these two shows had in common?
They were both english dubbed anime that had
been bought over to the west because of their popularity in japan, I spent a lot of time in front of the TV after school watching cartoons and those ones especially because they, as i mentioned previously followed a story, they weren't random episodes that were silly and fun they were stories that grabbed you're attention to find out what happened next.



Over time other anime became popular in the west such as (my personal favorite)"One Piece" and "Naruto" although these did not have the same lasting effect for what ever reason and the english dubbed episodes slowed down if not ceased to come out.


(Scene from One Piece)

Between the ages of 12 and 18 due to various reasons i forgot about them, in fact at the time i didn't even know anything about anime myself, and it was only around the age of 18 when  just browsing the internet i stumbled back upon "One Piece" and with the time i had i decided to Marathon through 600+ episodes in a week, and after that i started reading the Manga(Comic) to keep up weekly on the new releases,

I soon started watching other animes that i had heard people talking about and before i knew it id have watched over 100 series(usually spanning about 24 episodes)

So why the obsession? Why not just watch live action TV shows like a normal adult?
First of all i watch plenty of live action TV shows so there's that,
Secondly id rather watch a show about a group of pirates with super powers, than Emmerdale farm where someone gets cheated on or murdered every week(because that's what people want to see)
and if that makes me weird then i have no qualms with that,


Maybe its that childish part of me that doesn't want to let go of what he enjoys,
Or maybe its designed for audiences of all ages, and you shouldn't be so stuck up when you judge someone for enjoying what they enjoy.

Next time we delve into the open always online world of YouTube
Written while listening to "MGMT - Electric Feel"

--SYNOPSIS--

"Avatar Last Air Bender" - Story of a young boy who is the last of his people, and his journey to bring balance to the world.

"Pokemon" - A boy catches weird animals and uses them to fulfill his dream of being the very best like noone ever was. (its been 20 years and he still hasn't managed it)

"Dragonball Z" - Martial artist fighting aliens and robots and saving the world even if it means death, but its OK because if they die they can be brought back to life.

"ToraDora" - A girl and boy in high school, its a romance you can work the rest out for yourselves. (and yes that one girl is punching another girl, not all romances are easy)

"One Piece" - A group of pirates looking for treasure and saving people from dictators, corrupt government officials and other pirates, then complaining when they get treated like good guys,
(honestly i could write an entire blog alone on why i love this anime so much)

"Naruto" - Ninjas and fighting, not a lot to say on this one.. its not as good as the others on the list(in my opinion at least)