Our "Second Childhood" Through Anime
One thing I like about being involved with Japan and anime is the "second childhood" it allows us all to enjoy. In a very real sense, a new part of your brain is "born" when you start to learn a new language, and just a children are less sophisticated than adults, that new part of yourself is closer to the intellect of a child, and just as precocious, creative and impressionable, too. Last night I was geeking out while re-re-re-watching the Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie, one of the watershed films in the development of otaku culture as a worldwide movement. My wife guffawed at me: "Why don't you at least watch something new?" She didn't understand, of course, that we all love what we're exposed to in childhood, be it X-Men comics or Scooby Doo or Star Wars, and we take it with us forever. Just as Japanese in their twenties and thirties now will always have a place in their hearts for the original Mobile Suit Gundam or Fist of the North Star because they saw it when they were young, the first shows we otaku were exposed to will always be special to us, even if we were 18 years old at the time. In the context of this exciting new language and culture, we were seishun shitemasu, or "living the springtime of our lives," a phrase I've used from time to time. What Japanese anime show is especially important to you?
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:16 PM
13 Comments:
And for Macross fans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4kRN7bCad4
8:23 PM
Or more clickably.
9:32 PM
Um, does Speed Racer qualify? Boy, I suddenly feel old!
9:39 PM
Haha. that was a great show. At the New York convention we happened to get to talk to the Speed Race voice actor, who (I discovered) was also the producer and writer of the entire series -- wow. He also did Marine Boy, that bundle of nostalgia (which _no_ Japanese remembers at all by the way). He's unfortunately the Einstein who got rid of all the voice actors from the first two seasons of Star Blazers to bring in people he happened to know well, which makes Season 3 of Yamato pretty much impossible to watch in English. Oh well, that's what learning Japanese is for ^_^
1:09 AM
I know one fellow who is laboriously re- watching ALL the macross shows and movies; a lot to watch, I gather.
1:17 AM
There are quite a few, yes. Although I'm a original-series-and-movie-thank-you fan, I never got into the other series (Macross II ugh, Macross 7 double ugh, Macross Plus was good but lacked the soul of the original). It's a nice series.
3:13 AM
Maison Ikkoku.
I think that without those clouds running high in the sky, that distant train noise and the anonymous crossroads I wouldn't love Japan as much as I do.
Though, I think I'm the last living thing that hasn't watched Macross yet.
3:25 AM
Hmmm, I'd have to say Unico and the Matsumoto's work (such as Interstella 5555, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and GE 999). I was exposed to all the old stuff first!
5:36 AM
Majokko Meg-chan! But here, we got a dub of the already dubbed Italian version, so she was not called Meg, but Bia. :p
I have never seen this show in Japanese, there is a DVD box-set, I think. All I know is that the theme song has stuck with me forever and sometimes I'll start humming it out of nowhere.
7:26 AM
For my initial TV exposure, it would have to be Speed Racer for me too. :-) For my realization that it was "anime" (or "japanimation", lord help us) and not just another cartoon, the key movies/tapes would probably be Robot Carnival and Vampire Princess Miyu. And my entry into the world of fansubs and the start of my real anime obsession was marked by KareKano, which made an indelible impression on me.
Somehow I missed Macross when I was the right age, and by the time I saw any of it I was no longer entranced by the concept of giant mecha.
7:45 AM
Ah, Maison Ikkoku, that's a good one.
Sera, yes, I watched my first Galaxy Express 999 recently. It's a great show, actually better conceived than Yamato in terms of themes it deals with.
Erik, yes, you kind of have to get it at the right time. That's why I can't get into some really old shows now, I'm Macross is all about the 80s, kind of throwing down a gauntlet to the last generation (Yamato). A battleship in space? Hell, our ship has battleships for ARMS.
9:34 AM
Starship Yamato (We called it Starblazers)
Macross (We called it Robotech)
5:36 PM
My first anime obsession: Speed Racer. I especially liked the theme song!
As an adult, the series that I really fell in love with were "Gundam Wing" and "Tenchi Muyo." I've seen lots and lots of anime since then, but those series will always have a special place in my little otaku heart!
4:07 AM
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