Anime: The Only Thing to Come From Japan Since Tokyo Drifting

     Anime is booming. It's becoming the preeminent form of animation and entertainment in general in Japan and now it's swimming across the Pacific and taking residence in our TVs here in America. With phenomenons like Pokemon, Dragonball-Z, and Avatar: The Last Airbender (I'm sure true anime fans will crucify me for claiming that those are good animes), the U.S. has a adopted a sub-culture of appreciating this art form. The question still remains of Why Anime? and Susan Napier attempts to tackle that question in her opening chapter.
     A key subject of discussion she addresses is the anime's place in culture. She looks at uniquely Japanese art forms like Haiku and woodblock carvings and wonders if this will be a passing genre limited to the shores of the Japanese islands. She believes that is not the case and that it's gaining steam internationally.
     Additionally, Napier acknowledges the difficulty of defining exactly what animation is. She clarifies that calling animation a "Japanese cartoon" is over-simplifying the art and that the genre ranges from cute children's cartoons to post-apocalyptic dystopias in which complex and in-depth stories are able to be told in ways most cartoons can not.
     Finally, Napier brings up the adaptable and relevant nature of anime to today's society. In a world where identity and purpose is being shifted daily, instability gives anime the ability to keep up with society's inability to make up its mind. Where other forms of animation will be outdated soon, anime defines and symbolizes the world's lack of satisfaction with itself.
     Anime is something worth considering. Although I've never personally delved too deeply into anime, I can now appreciate its place in this world as more than a product of Japan's strangely cartoony outlooks. I'm not necessarily sold on anime as being the best or most complete form of animation or art but reflection on this article has shed light on it's cultural importance.

We Love Him to Death (Note)

Death Note is a pretty terrifying concept about a guy who finds a notebook that murders whoever's name is scribed in its pages. This idea has some pretty glaring differences with its animated counterparts Looney Tunes and Uncle Grandpa, but coming from the same general creative form of putting pen to paper to animate a story, there are bound to be some similarities.

Similarities:

- Both Death Note and the traditional cartoons we've been watching follow a distinguishable narrative that can be followed throughout the episode.

- Death Note, like many other animations, asks us to forget what we believe about the world and assume new laws about what is real and what isn't for the sake of the story. In Uncle Grandpa, we're led to believe that the laws of physics are mere guidelines to be laughably avoided any chance you get and Death Note has the audience think accept the idea of the "World of the Death Gods."

- What separates Death Note from programs like Road Runner and other Looney Tunes experiments is actually what draws it closer to some of the more modern absurdist animations like Uncle Grandpa and Adventure Time and that is through the heavy use of dialogue to tell the story.

Differences

- Death Note begins to separate itself from these other shows in simply its aesthetic. The animators use dark and cool greys and blacks to create the world, a stark contrast to the overtly cartoony nature of Adventure Time and Uncle Grandpa.

- Disney's fairytale ending, magic, and sense of wonder has no place in a show like Death Note. Its dark premise and slower pace of story (and probable sad/scary conclusions) sets it apart from Disney's Princesses.

- The characters themselves in Death Note are more complex and thick than the simple one-dimensional perennial good guys or bad guys that we find in Disney shows, Looney Tunes, and Uncle Grandpa.

Adventure Time to Make Sure Our Kids Aren't Taking Hallucinogenic Drugs

    Episode 1 of season 2 of Adventure Time, "It Came From the Nightosphere," is- other than a pleasant blend of Satan-conjuring and daddy issues- ultimately a new way to encourage a child's wonder and facilitate his imagination. It's style combines an "Uncle Grandpa" level of absurdity with Warner Bros.' dry sense of humor when it comes to tackling normal storytelling. Warner Bros. has the highest level of influence here with it's ability to take a normal idea (the character of Marcilene is in a fight with her dad) and turns it into a completely insane adventure (she and her friend Fynn end up chasing her dad everywhere in an attempt to stop him from stealing everyone's souls).
     Embracing this new style of complete absurdity to tell simple stories is a form many shows now employ. "Regular Show," for example, has that same buddy comedy dynamic where the two main characters, a lot like Fynn and Jake, find themselves constantly getting into extreme situations. "Uncle Grandpa" of course is also a classic follower of this format. The intended audience for this show and the others like it is the same audience the majority of cartoons have always target: children. the evolutionary aspect of these current shows however is that it caters to a more grown-up demographic as well with its subtlety and originality.
     The gags for this particular episode used extremely weird situations and juxtaposed them with normal issues to create humor. The main girl of this episode is having trouble with her dad, which is an inherently not funny concept until we find out that the reason she is upset with him is trivial and silly (he stole her fries) intentionally contrasted to his insane and dark occupation (ruler of the underworld).

Michael Jordan Should Have Stuck to Baseball Instead of Acting

I found it hard to believe that movies like "Space Jam" had to be the nail in the coffin for movies that feature both live and animated characters when it is obviously such a classic '90s movie to most of us.