Do the Impossible, See the Invisible

So this week I want to post on a subject that's very close to my heart. This week I'd like to talk about anime. As you're on the internet you probably have a vague idea of what anime is so I'm not going to patronise you, let me first put three common misconceptions to rest before we continue.

1. It is not all pornographic.
2. It is not all "like pokemon".
3. Dragon Ball Z is really old now, you're just embarrassing yourself.

Anime is basically cartoons from Japan for teenagers/ adults and I love it. Like really love it. You know that tingle you get down your spine when you hear that song that reminds you of her? I get that whenever I see a giant robot punch another giant robot in the robot face.

Giant robots: statistically more likely to be bad ass than any woman

So what makes Anime so good? Why do I love it so much? Have I ever felt the touch of a woman? All of these are perfectly good questions (apart from the last one, you're kind of a jerk internet) and I intend to answer them.

One of the things I love so much about Anime is the fact that it inhabits a place between the realistic and the ridiculous. We're dealing with a cartoon here so obviously things are going to be exaggerated,  over the top and needlessly overblown sometimes but often there's still a grounding in some form of reality that allows you to suspend belief.

Most of the time these things are boobs

When it comes to anime I often forget that I'm watching a cartoon because the unreality of certain things are fused with realistic and relateable character motivations and/or well crafted feasible yet fantastical worlds. This allows story tellers and artists to create characters and events that are totally impossible in any other medium of story telling. In a world where the same recycled mundane fodder is constantly fed to us though western media (I for one am fed up of vampires and zombies) it's refreshing to be able to experience narratives that can make you laugh, cheer and cry, all inside 20 minutes.

If you know who this guy is, you'll know what I'm talking about

Another thing that never ceases to amaze me about anime is that there is so much of it. It's at least as varied as normal television shows and there is totally something for everyone. Do you like kittens? there's an anime for that (Chi's Sweet Home) are you into gritty, realistic science fiction? there's an anime for that (Planetes) are you a school girl who likes to play rock and roll? there's an anime for that (K-On).

Whoever you are and whatever you like there is an anime out there for you. While you're sat in your living-room watching another re-run of Scrubs a young man is raising a revolutionary army to fight for the right to live above ground (Gurren Lagann), a space pirate and his rag tag crew of outcasts are on the run from a team of 12 cyborg asassin maid girls (Coyote Ragtime Show), a prince is being forced to become a terrorist to save his island home from a totalitarian global empire while his childhood friend hunts him down (Code Geas) and a bunch of school girls are going to the beach (Azumanga Daioh). Whatever Dr Cox has to say to  JD about him being a big girl, it can wait.

Stay Crunchy Internet