Why I am an animation fan
I was a live action movie fan until quite recently, I can say I became a movie buff when I watched There Will be Blood in theaters in 2007, or 10 years ago, at that time I was really excited about live action movies. Today I don't have that kind of excitment anymore: I am now desensitized regarding this type of film. Like the effects of weaker drugs become nill when a person is already using stronger drugs, that's the way I feel about live action movies now.
Since 2011-2012 I have been an animation buff and since mid 2013 I have been watching more animation than live action film and TV. Although from 2015 onwards I have been reading more comics than watching stuff and among stuff I watched since mid 2013, about 90% has been animation.
Why? Well, that's because I first discovered the full potential of comics and animation with Miyazaki. Although I always liked comics and animation I never though they could surpass literature and live action movies, instead I regarded then as two mediums only suited for light comedic narratives. All changed when I watched Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I was doubly shocked by that timeless artistic masterpiece: it's emotional power and beauty and the fact my whole outlook about art was plain wrong. After that crucial moment I had to understand why animation could be better than live action.
While by reading Miyazaki's comic, Nausicaa, which I finished reading not very long after watching Spirited Away, I also had to reflect on the power of the comic as a means of expression: after I finished reading Nausicaa I was in such strong shock that I couldn't bring myself to focus on anything else for about 36 hours.
But, the relationship between comics and literature is very different from the relationship between animation and live action film: comics are a very different medium from literature because their sense of time is essentially different, live action film and animation are both film: Animation is more similar to live action film relative to comics/novels in that in both animation and live action, the experience of consuming it consists of watching a screen. Although it's true that photography and painting are different mediums and so is live action film and animation. Animation has greater artistic potential than live action film because it allows full artistic freedom for it's creators: the images on the screen can be anything the creators might think. So, animation represents something closer to the direct contact between the creators' mind and the audience's.
Art is communication. And animation can be regarded as a more efficient form of communication inside the medium of film than the mechanical reproduction of physical reality through live action photography. Yep, one might argue that efficiency is not everything: for a minority of persons, the difficulties in communication adds to the experience, for those people that we have stuff like Kiarostami. In fact, while film is not automatically art, since simple filming stuff is a mechanical procress, animation is always art since it always involves the active expression of the human mind in drawing the frames. Of course, it doesn't mean live action film cannot be art, only that live action film requires an active and directed effort to become art while animation is already art in it's painstaking creation process.
Since comics and animation allows full artistic freedom, as these mediums developed in Japan (and in East Asia, thanks to the massive popularity of comics in the region), the imagery used in comics and animation became progressively more attractive and their degree of sophistication increased. As a result, today, in Japan, many more young geeks are into animation than into live action film: approximately 6 times more Japanese college students reported being animation geeks than film geeks in a survey done in 2014. And I would even guess among Western developed countries anime fans already outnumber film buffs, despite animation being foreign culture and live action film being local culture. Comics and animation have reached the point now where both can be regarded as a fully developed artistic medium at least in East Asia
In future decades animation will probably eclipse live action film in popularity among serious fans of screen media, like it did in Japan. Although among commoners, live action film is going to be the medium of choice because it's the mechanical reproduction of the physical reality people live in and that is easier for most people to stomach. While more cultured people with artistic sensibility will be already used to stylization and so will consume more animation. The shift in the world's center of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, which is already occurring will also play a role since the photographic culture of the West will lose relative global influence.
In my case, after I watched Miyazaki's films I changed my perspective on the potential of animation but only partly since the quality of his films was also due to his genius besides the fact they were animated films. When I watched PMMM, which was the first non-Ghibli animation that really impressed me. That changed my perspective on the prospective number of great animation as there appear to be many. So I stopped looking for artistic masterpieces among live action movies (since that point I only discovered two new live action movies for my top 50 movies list and that was well over 4 years ago) and instead turned almost my full focus on animation: stuff like RahXephon, LOGH, Aria, K-On!, Shirobako, Kaiba, Ping Pong, Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Lain, Yuri Kuma Arashi and Haibane Renmei. Those shows are very special combinations of visual inventiveness, beauty, aggressive expression and emotional power. Live action film feels quite like a obsolete medium by comparison: you cannot achieve the same visual effects and hence attain the same level of emotional impact. It's like comparing a stronger drug to a weaker drug.
Still, even now sometimes I still find live action stuff that I might think it's worth watching for it's literary qualitities but I have not been really impressed by the visual aspects of live action film for several years. Last time I was really impressed by the visuals of live action film was with the last Tarkovsky film I watched and that was over 5 years ago. Still I liked watching the live action TV show Mr. Robot recently although it's emotional impact was dulled by my desensitization to live action film I still identified with the show's characters to feel invested in the shows' narrative and I liked it's visual aspects.
I was a live action movie fan until quite recently, I can say I became a movie buff when I watched There Will be Blood in theaters in 2007, or 10 years ago, at that time I was really excited about live action movies. Today I don't have that kind of excitment anymore: I am now desensitized regarding this type of film. Like the effects of weaker drugs become nill when a person is already using stronger drugs, that's the way I feel about live action movies now.
Since 2011-2012 I have been an animation buff and since mid 2013 I have been watching more animation than live action film and TV. Although from 2015 onwards I have been reading more comics than watching stuff and among stuff I watched since mid 2013, about 90% has been animation.
Why? Well, that's because I first discovered the full potential of comics and animation with Miyazaki. Although I always liked comics and animation I never though they could surpass literature and live action movies, instead I regarded then as two mediums only suited for light comedic narratives. All changed when I watched Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I was doubly shocked by that timeless artistic masterpiece: it's emotional power and beauty and the fact my whole outlook about art was plain wrong. After that crucial moment I had to understand why animation could be better than live action.
While by reading Miyazaki's comic, Nausicaa, which I finished reading not very long after watching Spirited Away, I also had to reflect on the power of the comic as a means of expression: after I finished reading Nausicaa I was in such strong shock that I couldn't bring myself to focus on anything else for about 36 hours.
But, the relationship between comics and literature is very different from the relationship between animation and live action film: comics are a very different medium from literature because their sense of time is essentially different, live action film and animation are both film: Animation is more similar to live action film relative to comics/novels in that in both animation and live action, the experience of consuming it consists of watching a screen. Although it's true that photography and painting are different mediums and so is live action film and animation. Animation has greater artistic potential than live action film because it allows full artistic freedom for it's creators: the images on the screen can be anything the creators might think. So, animation represents something closer to the direct contact between the creators' mind and the audience's.
Art is communication. And animation can be regarded as a more efficient form of communication inside the medium of film than the mechanical reproduction of physical reality through live action photography. Yep, one might argue that efficiency is not everything: for a minority of persons, the difficulties in communication adds to the experience, for those people that we have stuff like Kiarostami. In fact, while film is not automatically art, since simple filming stuff is a mechanical procress, animation is always art since it always involves the active expression of the human mind in drawing the frames. Of course, it doesn't mean live action film cannot be art, only that live action film requires an active and directed effort to become art while animation is already art in it's painstaking creation process.
Since comics and animation allows full artistic freedom, as these mediums developed in Japan (and in East Asia, thanks to the massive popularity of comics in the region), the imagery used in comics and animation became progressively more attractive and their degree of sophistication increased. As a result, today, in Japan, many more young geeks are into animation than into live action film: approximately 6 times more Japanese college students reported being animation geeks than film geeks in a survey done in 2014. And I would even guess among Western developed countries anime fans already outnumber film buffs, despite animation being foreign culture and live action film being local culture. Comics and animation have reached the point now where both can be regarded as a fully developed artistic medium at least in East Asia
In future decades animation will probably eclipse live action film in popularity among serious fans of screen media, like it did in Japan. Although among commoners, live action film is going to be the medium of choice because it's the mechanical reproduction of the physical reality people live in and that is easier for most people to stomach. While more cultured people with artistic sensibility will be already used to stylization and so will consume more animation. The shift in the world's center of economic and political influence from the West to Asia, which is already occurring will also play a role since the photographic culture of the West will lose relative global influence.
In my case, after I watched Miyazaki's films I changed my perspective on the potential of animation but only partly since the quality of his films was also due to his genius besides the fact they were animated films. When I watched PMMM, which was the first non-Ghibli animation that really impressed me. That changed my perspective on the prospective number of great animation as there appear to be many. So I stopped looking for artistic masterpieces among live action movies (since that point I only discovered two new live action movies for my top 50 movies list and that was well over 4 years ago) and instead turned almost my full focus on animation: stuff like RahXephon, LOGH, Aria, K-On!, Shirobako, Kaiba, Ping Pong, Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, Lain, Yuri Kuma Arashi and Haibane Renmei. Those shows are very special combinations of visual inventiveness, beauty, aggressive expression and emotional power. Live action film feels quite like a obsolete medium by comparison: you cannot achieve the same visual effects and hence attain the same level of emotional impact. It's like comparing a stronger drug to a weaker drug.
Still, even now sometimes I still find live action stuff that I might think it's worth watching for it's literary qualitities but I have not been really impressed by the visual aspects of live action film for several years. Last time I was really impressed by the visuals of live action film was with the last Tarkovsky film I watched and that was over 5 years ago. Still I liked watching the live action TV show Mr. Robot recently although it's emotional impact was dulled by my desensitization to live action film I still identified with the show's characters to feel invested in the shows' narrative and I liked it's visual aspects.
Last edited by Guaporense; 06-22-17 at 01:54 AM.