Western audience's general disinterest in the art of anime is because they are primarily interested in its otherness/ escapism. For various cultural reasons their own society's artistic output has been severely eroded in recent decades so they've just migrated to anime. Also artistic interest in general is in the doldrums in the West and that's only been getting worse. Even for the more committed ghibli or anime fan, I'm often surprised how superficial the interest is. It's a tiny minority of the Western anime fan, who delves deeper into their understanding of what they are actually consuming. The western reaction to Boy and the Heron is quite a good test, many Western anime fans had no idea what they had just watched, because in reality they are 'culturally' illiterate in key areas. Even some people who label themselves 'ghibli nerds' seemed confused. Which is astonishing to me because that film was such an obvious homage to so much art, ideas and anime and Ghibli history it just seemed impossible not to be obvious. There is still no wiki page for Hiroshi Ono.
In the pre-Internet otaku era knowledge was power/currency in fan circles. Today, with everything easily accessible online, the ambition to know more seems to have faded — not only in anime but in many other spheres as well. In a world beset by chaos it probably shouldn’t be any surprise that finding tribes/allies outweighs scholarship.
Ah, very true, great point as usual. And yes, this is clearly not just an issue in anime, in depth knowledge is in decline in general. I mean, remember how Star Wars fans used to be? We're talking minutiae details of the world had to be known by a 'true fan'. That type of nerdish interest in detail is very much lacking in today's fanbases.
"Still, for many anime fans, real-life Tokyo must feel as exotic a destination as Macross City felt for me as a kid. And, come to think of it, most of the stuff I watched back then was set in thinly-veiled fictionalizations of real-life Tokyo, so maybe we’ve just come full circle."
Much to be said here. So much contemporary American discourse on public transit and city building are so often met with the likes of "look at how they do that over in Japan!" and as artists create fictionalized versions Tokyo based on their real experience, those fictional cities have fueled foreign perceptions about seeing Japan as this exotic future in a cyclical manner.
Japanese ukiyo-e artists' skill at illustrating their nation in fantastical ways played a big role in fueling Victorian-era Japonisme. But modern technology lets artists reach more people than any Edo-era printmaker could have ever dreamed. The trend certainly seems to be accelerating these days thanks to the ubiquity of streaming anime.
Western audience's general disinterest in the art of anime is because they are primarily interested in its otherness/ escapism. For various cultural reasons their own society's artistic output has been severely eroded in recent decades so they've just migrated to anime. Also artistic interest in general is in the doldrums in the West and that's only been getting worse. Even for the more committed ghibli or anime fan, I'm often surprised how superficial the interest is. It's a tiny minority of the Western anime fan, who delves deeper into their understanding of what they are actually consuming. The western reaction to Boy and the Heron is quite a good test, many Western anime fans had no idea what they had just watched, because in reality they are 'culturally' illiterate in key areas. Even some people who label themselves 'ghibli nerds' seemed confused. Which is astonishing to me because that film was such an obvious homage to so much art, ideas and anime and Ghibli history it just seemed impossible not to be obvious. There is still no wiki page for Hiroshi Ono.
In the pre-Internet otaku era knowledge was power/currency in fan circles. Today, with everything easily accessible online, the ambition to know more seems to have faded — not only in anime but in many other spheres as well. In a world beset by chaos it probably shouldn’t be any surprise that finding tribes/allies outweighs scholarship.
Ah, very true, great point as usual. And yes, this is clearly not just an issue in anime, in depth knowledge is in decline in general. I mean, remember how Star Wars fans used to be? We're talking minutiae details of the world had to be known by a 'true fan'. That type of nerdish interest in detail is very much lacking in today's fanbases.
"Still, for many anime fans, real-life Tokyo must feel as exotic a destination as Macross City felt for me as a kid. And, come to think of it, most of the stuff I watched back then was set in thinly-veiled fictionalizations of real-life Tokyo, so maybe we’ve just come full circle."
Much to be said here. So much contemporary American discourse on public transit and city building are so often met with the likes of "look at how they do that over in Japan!" and as artists create fictionalized versions Tokyo based on their real experience, those fictional cities have fueled foreign perceptions about seeing Japan as this exotic future in a cyclical manner.
Japanese ukiyo-e artists' skill at illustrating their nation in fantastical ways played a big role in fueling Victorian-era Japonisme. But modern technology lets artists reach more people than any Edo-era printmaker could have ever dreamed. The trend certainly seems to be accelerating these days thanks to the ubiquity of streaming anime.