Q: Why Japanese Animation is different from American Cartoon?

 Japanese Animation already have occupy a stable branch in movie culture. It is a kind of cartoon in its form but have much difference from American's. Usually American cartoon attracts people by acrobat activity or comical gags. But Japanese Animations have consistent story as a drama and some of  them rather nearer novels than cartoons. From the point of its technique, it has as much intensity as American movie, too.

 Originally Japanese have a tradition to represent their story through pictures. 'Choujuu-giga' in Heian period in which many animals play like human, or Emakimonos in Kamakura period that tells us warriors activity or usual human living in those days, shows us how much important role had to tell some stories in Japanese tradition.

 And also Japanese Manga that is the base of Japanese Animation also has different start point from American comics. Osamu Tezuka who decided its direction was a medical student to long for SF novelist. He once competed with Sakyou Komatsu who is famous SF novelist in Japan. Therefore he represented his own stories through the series of his Manga. In his Mangas the spirit of humanism and the sense of tragedy penetrates. For his existence Japanese Manga can be a media to represent human dramas.

 This stream was accepted in the whole Japanese subculture. You will find this spirits in Gozira and the early series of Urutraman. Especially Kinjou who took the charge of scenario in Urtraman and Urtraseven described his humanism with the feeling of sadness. He was born in Okinawa which is separated island from Japanese main islands and have its own  history to be occupied Japan and U.S. Therefore, in his story, a creature from other world is not always evil invader to the earth. Some of them are lonely foreigners and their own necessity to invade our earth. Including his work, some Japanese excellent Animation stories succeeded to describe villain' s parts with the sense of tragedy.

 It was very fortunate for Japanese Manga  or Animation that many young people who wanted to be novelist or movie director. Regarding movie, Japanese movie industry had been a declining industry science 1970 and its budget was limited. Therefore many talented people came to the world of TV animation.
 

Q: Why some Japanese Animations tend to describe human inner mind?

  Last Japanese Animations like ‘Evangelion’ or ‘Lain’ attract us by deep descriptions of human inner mind that is found young people. The hero or heroin in them is not smart as we expected. They are shy and have introversive characters. They will not battle against enemies bravely rather are forced to do. They do not represent our ideal but our real life.

 The most significant point we should notice is that they seek true human relationship but do not act according to authorized social justice. It reflects recent Japanese society, in which many Japanese children are forced to obey social restriction so much as they can not communicate with others naturally.

 As I already pointed out in WHY: Japanese society, Japanese people had endeavored to gain social prosperity. During the age of economic growth, they did not feel social restriction so hard, because it gave them social benefits. But once the limit of this growth had appeared they lost the reason to accept it. In this situation they are puzzled between what they will and what they must. Many of them feel that their usual lives are far from true lives. These animations describe their spiritual distress.

 It is very sorry that there are the people who dare to justify themselves only by social authorities. They do not mind this kind of distress and rather oppress others by their justice. Unfortunately in Japan there are many people to despise others for their lack of social ability. They regard some people who are not familiar with their common sense as ‘strange’ and bull them. Now the bulling is most serious problem in Japanese education.

 I think Japanese people should be familiar with the way to communicate unknown others and accept more ‘strange’ things which can be found both in others and their own mind. If they can, they will be able to reflect their society and change it, as they want. Japanese animations represent the distress to find this new way for communicating.
 

  The Home Pages that introduce Japanese animation
     Evangerion: Guide to Neon Genesis Evangelion (It introduce the story of Evangerion)
     Lain: Protocol of lain's world (It introduce the story of lain)
           Close the World

APPENDIX 1: The GOZIRA as a apostle to modern society

  Usually, concerning as messengers of God, we think of angels. Already we image something beautiful and tender like Cupid. But they are originally awful apostles to transmit God's will and, in many cases, represent his angry to harm people. Therefore, they are apostles to warn the people by their violence and force them to turn back the God immediately.

 GOZIRA, the most famous Japanese Monster among movies is, in this sense, the terrible apostle to the people as the product of hydrogen bombs. He rebirths against scientific human power and accuses their arrogance with his reckless violence.

 The first movie of GOZIRA was born in 1954. In those days, the memory of the War was real among Japanese people and you can see the direct reflection of their scar in this movie. The prospered big city is crashed only a night by GOZIRA, but it is Japanese vivid recollection that they had experienced about ten years ago. On the other side, there were many experiments of hydrogen bombs and a Japanese fishing boat, DAIGOHUKURYUUMARU, was damaged by it. It was very impressive for the people who received atomic bombs two times (in Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

 We can, therefore, find the will to protest human War in this movie. In fact, it was produced as a antiwar movie and has been regarded as so. But it is enough to recognize the existence of GOZIRA because Japanese people are also assailants to the War as well as suffers. Japanese arrogance harmed many other Asian people and caused the World War 2 in East Asia. In this sense, GOZIRA accuses not only war but also human arrogance generally and remind us human sin itself.

 For Japanese people the atomic bomb is a symbol of human sin. Japanese do not have the sense of the unique God that is found in Old Testament. But they recognize it under the name of Nature, which allow to us alive but revenge our arrogance furiously. For Japanese, originally, GOZIRA is the apostle to punish human arrogance.

 It is the reason why Japanese people do not have their grudge against American in spite of their attack by atomic bombs. They recognize most of responsibility of it is attribute to them. But it does not mean they allow American nuclear weapons without any condition. At least Japanese people are dissatisfied with the ignorance of nuclear bomb because it symbolizes human arrogance and sin. To look back toward Hiroshima and Nagasaki is to consider human sin and, therefore, the phrase in monument to apologize to victims for atomic bomb does not show its subject clearly.

  Yasurakani nemutte kudasai. Mou ayamachi wa kurikaesimasen kara.
 (Rest in peace, because the same mistake will not be repeated.)

 As long as GOZIRA is an apostle of God, human can not beat him by their weapons. We can not defeat him without God's satisfaction, which needs some atonement for human sin. In this story this atonement was accomplished by the sacrifice of Dr. Serizawa's life. He killed himself with GOZIRA by Oxygen Destroyer, which is in itself a demonic product of human science. It means we need to abandon human scientific ability whose products brought by it overcame ourselves. This contradiction was described in this story with confused human relationship. Dr. Serizawa was respected by his fianc? but not loved. His character symbolized human scientific ability that can not accompany with our mind. It is also found in Dr. Yamane who hoped to keep GOZIRA alive for his study.

 Unfortunately this contradiction between human ability and natural circumstances is not solved yet. Rather it becomes serious more and more. As ancient philosopher pointed out, we continue to repeat similar failure until now. Recently there was serious nuclear accident occurred in Japan. The most shocking thing for me was the people who manage or handle it did not have sense to image the danger of nuclear accident. I guess they are so busy and forced to complete usual task that they lose it. Japanese society succeeded in economic development but people have lost the afford to reflect their own society.

 In Old Testament prophets accused Jerusalem with her people. They worshiped idles that they had made and forgot their true God. In our society these idols are societies that we constructed and many people lose themselves to serve them. Even though the prosperity of Japanese society gave us economic wealth, it causes a kind of obsession that forces us to keep up with their society anyway. They can not find the place to rest easily in spite of their riches and lose the ability to judge something essential concerning their own life.

 Even the prophets and priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them. The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left. (Isaia28: 7-8)

This kind of obsession always comes with enthusiasm, which was brought by human power. It gets drunken people by temporal success but forces them to serve it by obsessive fear. You will find it also in the history of socialism in our age. GOZIRA is negative power to destroy human illusion and, actually, breaks human society with the thing that they made, as Nebuchadnezzar did to Jerusalem.

 This mythic motive is also found in Japanese animation 'Evangelion'. But it failed to complete the story because it could not find the God to atone for human sin in spite of its name. The GOZIRA wanders about our world as an apostle of furious God.
 
 

APPENDIX 2: Japanese Animation: Lain

 ‘Lain’ is the most difficult (philosophical) animation in Japan, and then I can not comment on it too much. But you can see the life of Japanese girl students and may feel their problem in inner mind. What I show is last two stories of TV series.

 The heroin Lain in this story is a girl immerged from a hidden imaginative world through Internet. She, however, has her own body in real world and got precious friendship with Arisu (this name is very rare in Japan). She can operate all beings in real world including human memory as data in computers. But she did not operate Arisu’s mind.

 Eiri who realized Lain in real world tempts her to operate Arisu’s mind. But she asks him significant question. ‘Even if you created me to rule real world, you could not do anything before computer networking appeared. Is there anybody who waits you?  You’re substitutive god for him.’ It makes him frozen because he believes he is God. He realizes his ugly body and attacks her and Arisu. But Lain kills him with words: For you human body is meaningless, isn’t it!

 But she feels sorry to see Arisu’s Upsetting and delete her existence with her history.

 After that, she is tempted by her shadow to be God. But she rejects it and decides to live with others behind their back. In last scene she meets Arisu again in her future with the phrase ‘HA-JI-ME-MA-SHI-TE (How do you do)’.

 In computer world all beings are regarded as information, which can be modified by human. But in real world, where we have our own bodies, it is not true. This animation represents the precious meaning of real world with the importance of human relationship.