Anime is still new to me. I’ve got a 60 day trial on Crunchyroll that’s about to end. Will I spring for a subscription? Probably. Amazon Prime is the only streaming sub that I have but that’s mainly for the music. Crunchyroll’s offerings seem endless and the recommendations are excellent so far.
What I’ve found from anime is that I haven’t seen a crappy series or movie yet. That brings me to the comparison between anime and movies or shows with live actors. While that may seem like a ridiculous comparison as in ‘Pshaw, anime is just for kids. It’s silly. You can’t compare it to a REAL movie or show’. Well, you can. Stay with me on this.
Jennifer Aniston is one of my favourite actors. Will I ever meet her? No. I’ll never meet her or see her in person, no email or phone call…nothing. So, to that extent Jennifer Anniston isn’t real. She only exists on a screen. Now I don’t like all of her roles. Much of an actor’s style in a production comes from the director. The director decides which take they keep and which ones are edited out. That decision can make or break an actor or a whole film. Hang on, probably the writers can make or break a film, let’s put that ahead of the director’s role. So while Aniston is usually a competent actor, she’s not always perfect.
Right now, the movie ‘Twisters’ is on Prime. If you’ve seen it, maybe you agree with me that it’s terrible. The script is awful, the acting is iffy and it seemed to go straight to streaming. There are other examples, many others. Twisters was probably expensive to make, lots of CGI aside. While there were no ‘name’ actors in it, the ones that were had to paid something. As far as entertainment with real actors goes, it’s definitely hit and miss.
In anime, the characters can look the same, act the same, even sound the same in every episode or movie. The voice actors are a huge part of any anime product but retakes are much easier because the visuals stay the same in each take. Once the director and artists have the visuals finished, once the writers have written the script, all that’s left is the voices. Take, retake, take again until it’s perfect. In the case of anime, I’d say that it’s easier to come up with a saleable product than it is to create one with live actors.
As for those actors, in anime they’re obviously not real but we can often feel as close to them as we can to someone like Jennifer Aniston in some of her roles. These movies and shows are all about suspension of disbelief. For the time we’re watching them, we are in their world. Whatever our world is like, we can exist in a different world for however long the production lasts. That’s why we entertain ourselves with art, right? It’s escape. Well, my belief is that we can escape just as easily in anime as we can with live actors.
This post is more about me sorting out my thoughts than it is settling a point. I’ll post more on this but for now, let me know what you think. Does this make sense to you? Are you a fan of anime? Who is your favourite anime character? Your favourite ‘real’ actor? Join the discussion. Comment below and I’ll reply.
Cheers! Thanks for reading.
Brian Mahoney
December 17, 2024