When I was a teenager, when I moved away from Dragon Ball. I was looking for the one anime, that would deliver something that would make me look at life under another light. The kind of thing that anime fans, especially one particular kind, always talk about. The one anime that change your outlook on humakind, yourself, the society, the universe. Some will answer Evangelion, other will answer Gundam, I had sat through the former, watched some of the latter. But none of them did it to me. In turn, as the end of the century came to a closure, I STOPPED enjoyed anime. A really bad timing because France was facing its dark age of anime, where the only anime you could watch on mainstream TV was Pokemon.

I was age 17. I was a demanding anime fan who wanted that message that anime fan and critics had been talking about. I was of course starting to study philosophy classes at school (mandatory lessons by the way, I had no other choice). I was dumb at that period. I was also a snob who pretended to be “above” the casual watcher or reader. Gone were the innocent eyes and heart I had when I watching my episodes of Cobra, Harlock, City Hunter, Saint Seiya and the good old series aired in France during the 1980s.
I lost my way as an anime fan. I could not enjoy anything for its face value.

But one day, something unusual aired on TV. Not because I have never seen it before, but because it was the first anime that is not called Pokemon and had decent production value. It is a magical girl show, a genre I have grown to hate since Sailor Moon. It was called Card Captor Sakura.

Somehow, I have gotten back this candid mindset I had when I watch my first animated series.

I started rewatching series I never thought I would like one day, one of them being “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Yes, I used to dislike it, but now I just enjoy it. I also picked up on anime from IRC network like FMP or Noir, with this renewed candid mindset, but while still being discerning.

One day, while my father was watching this movie about a one-armed swordman, I asked him:

“Father, you have been often watching the same old kung-fu movies featuring the master-student conflicts, schools vs schools rivalry, hot babes kicking ass, hardcore training that would make marines weep like little girls, bitter revenges, hate, love and bromance, awesome long drawn brawls and exagerrated techniques that make people’s heart explodes after ten seconds. We have watched this genre together since two decades. We also watched war movies, action movies recycling all the same old tropes. So why do we keep watching them when we may find something that could be thought-provoking, meaningful, life-changing or enlightening?”

To that, my father answered:

“If it entertain us while serious, meaningful, thought-provoking and enlightening shows bores us to tears, who give a shit about it? You want enlightement? Look instead into yourself or an actual philosophy and religion.”

Now, this brings in mind the desire to shun “cliche” while seeking “originality” at all cost, I think that was one of the things at the root of my loss of enjoyment.

There are nothing original anymore, you all know that. What you think is original and had been made in the twenty last years may have drawn its inspirations from way back. Cliche had become a term to donwplay the merits of a show. There are cliche, bad cliche and worst cliche. Some are universally agreed on, others are left to one’s tolerance. I think what matters is how a writer use the cliche.

Why this small tangent on cliche? Because the anime fans with their so called “sophisticated tastes” throw “cliche this, cliche that” just to downplay something they watched while praising something else that may just happen to be trash in the eyes of others. To me, it is bullshit.
In my eyes, it is a matter of tropes someone enjoys or just don’t, and how the whole cake is cooked and presented. Of course, you may now dislike things you used to like, or like things you used to hate. Of course, things that are shit in your eyes may remain shit. I mean, I disliked soap opera and I still dislike soap opera :D

Entertainment? Fuck yeah. Still discerning? Of course.

So I laugh at all anime fans flaunting their sophisticated and superior taste. I mean, why so serious? Take it easy!

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 9:14 pm and is filed under Anime.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.