Not Your Childhood Cartoons...

Just finished watching Ergo Proxy and it was definitely one of the best thinking animes I've ever seen. Any anime that requires lengthy paragraphs at the end episode explaining all the historical, philosophical, and religious references isn't your standard fare anime which got me thinking about something else.

Last week, at a coworker's Christmas party, my friend asked me why I still watch anime. His question is one I've actually heard quite a few times over the years, and demonstrates a common misunderstanding of exactly what anime is.

When non-anime people think of the medium, I believe the common perception is that of cartoons, and all the childish connotations that go along with them. But they would be drastically wrong, not that some don't fall into that category.

The truth is that anime is as diverse as any modern mass media format. It would be like seeing a reality TV show on FOX and thinking that it is representative of all American programming. Like actual TV shows, some anime of course caters to a younger audience, while others are geared for a much more mature and higher educated group often delving into areas left unexplored by American television such as the metaphysical (Ghost in the Shell), political intrigue (Patlabor) and the psychological (Ergo Proxy). To tackle these ideas in the States, you usually have to shell out $10 to see a multimillion dollar movie.

Honestly, in a time that regular TV is dumbing down their plots in order to cope with the ever shorter attention spans of Americans, most of the anime I watch is smarter and more complex than the majority of prime time programming. With that said, some of anime is decidedly childish but then again, so are many of the modern plots on television today. And it would suck to be serious all the time anyway.