Akadot - Article: A review of "Anime Explosion! The What? Why? and Wow! of Japanese Animation" page 1

Face it, we've all had that experience with anime where we've been watching the screen and the obligatory cute girl shows up. Nice. Kind. Sweet. Clueless as the dirt on the ground. However, in almost guaranteed fashion she plays a pivotal point in saving the day or hardly ever gets harmed. (Flute from Violinist Of Hamlin comes to mind.) And the next reaction is "Whaaaa?" Of course she's important to what is going on, she is "yasashii". Gentle, meek and kindly. She is using Japanese values to save the day and leads the hero in the right direction. If this shines a little light on the ditzy female heroines in anime, pick up a copy of Anime Explosion! The What? Why? and Wow! of Japanese Animation by Patrick Drazen.

This book is useful in two fronts: 1. As a very fun primer on Japanese cultural thinking, and 2. Figuring out why anime never seems to go the way we expect. Mr. Drazen, like others of the Stone Bridge Press club, does his homework in spades and keeps his opinions out of his subject matter. He gives his readers one concept at a time to work on, building on the last chapter to reference the new one, giving us easily understandable examples of Japanese thinking.

One such example is the concept of "Wa", harmony, in chapter 3 " The Social Web and The Lone Wolf". Whereas most people in the U.S. think "Wa" means a slavish drive to conform, in Japan it means keeping your particular group as happy as possible, whether it is your family, your co-workers or your country. This means everybody works together towards a larger goal; how you are expected to work for others is how they are expected to work for you. This is why Miki's parents in Marmalade Boy don't just order Miki to just accept how they are living, but they try to make her happy in order to respect her feelings. (In their own strange way, of course…) When the combined family seems to be in genuine relationship trouble, Miki finally goes along with her family's way of living in order to seal the rift.

The above is an example of how Mr Drazen shows us the underlying culture in anime. He takes us from our own thinking, explains the Japanese concept, and then moves on to show us exactly what is being meant. Mr. Drazen does a wonderful example of this using update but not too obscure anime titles for his examples. He also takes a few of the modern anime classics and goes more in-depth with them in their own chapters, such as Key The Metal Idol and Giant Robo. Even a supposed cheesecake-fest such as Plastic Little has the topping scraped off to reveal its very Japanese, yasashii, un-sexually-charged filling. The metaphors and characters used in these series are to evoke the emotions and thought of a very different culture than ours. The most amazing thing is when the Japanese use non-Japanese symbols to make their point, as with Evangelion.

Anime Explosion! is very much like Frederik Schodt's book Dreamland Japan, Writings on Modern Manga in respect to length and cultural research. However, it is not quite as dense in information, and that is not a drawback. The concepts Mr. Drazen explains are difficult to grasp fully; although easy to explain in words, they are harder to actually get those words to mean what the Japanese are feeling. After reading this book, you might end up dusting off the old anime collection in your house to watch again in a new light and see what the Japanese were truly trying to portray.

This book is one that is more valuable in a cultural sense than anime-related. Those who study Japanese culture and watch anime as a by-product might want to supplement your reading by picking up Anime Explosion! The What? Why? and Wow! of Japanese Animation . Even if you just want to figure out all of those entirely unfathomable (to us, anyway) endings, this will be worth the time.

Maybe we won't want to see the annoyingly cute girl die after all...