Americanisation: The Death of Anime, Development of Narutards

Below lies a VERY VERY DISTURBING video. Who likes Naruto? I did… Who likes Bleach? I did…

Watched the video? Ashamed? I watched that video more than a hundred times. At first, it was WOOT hilarious, but after a while, I wished it was never posted on youtube. MEH…

Being an anime fan, sometimes i watch anime on cable TV, most of the time I use fansubs. Watching americanised anime however sparked some flames in me. I’m not all out to spark a flame war, but the common americanised Anime Joe’s ignorance sometimes pisses off the P-Meister!! From this however, using the GREAT P-MEISTER’s INTELLIGENCE, I deciphered how narutards are created. I’ll start from the very basic on what an anime is.

What is an anime?

Dictionary.com’s definition: A style of animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art and often adult themes.

This is only partially true. Where do animes come from? I’m sure everyone knows, its manga of course!! The manga part is lost when americanisation took place. Some anime are deep, some are less deep, but its definitely not stuff for a 7 year old to watch. 7 year olds can watch, but they can’t fully understand its concepts and ideas(unless they are not born in america at least). No offense to America, but this misconception has gone on for a long time, and its time the P-Meister clears the name of Anime in the entertainment world.

The Process of Americanisation

Are Naruto and Inuyasha really anime?

Yes and no, depending on which perspective you view it. Naruto, Bleach and Inuyasha(I feel that they can be classified as the bridge between anime and cartoons) are a low tolerance animes that has a huge fanbase all around the world. Not all its fans however are true anime fans or otakus. Why?

Narrow-minded and shallow people exist, and the company with the license, sadly, have the right to suck money from these people. These american companies have exerted their influence on anime released in the US for many many years. Good examples are One Piece and Cardcaptor. Some big things that happen in Anime include:

Deculturisation: Japanese culture is the basis of many anime. The fact that the fanbase don’t want to learn more about it shows who they really are. Anime that have their culture stripped, the two examples above have been published in the fear that Americans will not understand jokes that are Japan based. This is one of the factors that differentiate anime from cartoons. Many anime do not exactly follow their manga counterparts. This difference is made even further when it is Americanised. Basically, the whole point of the anime is to learn what the manga artist wishes to convey to its readers!! The jokes are also converted, sometimes being irrelevant to the storyline as well.

Horrorifics: Honorifics often tell us how much politeness/respect is used when referring to someone else. Such things don’t need teaching. You’ll learn it a while after watching japanese anime. Blending honorifics into the English language is difficult but possible. Some explaination should be put at the side though. Honorfics have been placed in certain anime, but the pronounciation of -chan is still ch + an(english way of pronounciation). Doesn’t bother me at all as long as its there(I watch the Japanese fansubs though).

Lost in Translation: Words like senpai, sensei and kimono should be left there. I’m sure people are not dumb enough to not know what a kimono is.

Need more evidence? This one’s extreme…

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say dubbing is bad. Dubbing is more open for international viewers who don’t normally watch anime or for people who don’t want to read the subs. However americanisation spoils its contents. As long as it doesn’t steer too far from the original concept and stop viewers from appreciating anime the way it should be appreciated, dubbing is ok. From some comments online, FMP Fumoffu seems to have been dubbed quite well.

The main problem starts as you look at the type of audience it targets. Companies who like to do these americanisation does it in order to get the average Anime Joe(not otakus or true anime fan) to understand their ‘language’. Read on to find out about the Anime Joe…

What Happens When You Add Naruto to a Tard

Some people argue… I DON’T CARE, I JUST WANT TO BE ENTERTAINED, WHATS THE USE IF I CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE JOKES!! Well, personally i believe there are more than enough programmes out there to entertain. Cartoons like family guy and simpsons. If they like fighting, they could watch a cartoon, they don’t leave a trace of Japanese culture. Well… the effects are, these Americanised products have reached the heart of people who are tards.

Let me explain what tards are:

There is a common concept that people lose attention after 45 seconds. Look at common TV programs. They are filled with violence, sex and celebrity nonsense. Yes, I agree I get distracted in 45 seconds, that doesn’t mean we don’t think for 45 seconds!! Scenes that trigger thinking bore some people. People who don’t think when they watch anime are tards! Thinking is an important part in anime literature and culture.

Upon watching Naruto, which is better(but still not good enough) in the sense that it isn’t fully Americanised, a small bit of culture is put in front of their eyes. As if it were their first time masturbating, such tards become intense Naruto/Bleach/Inu tards! They become overzealous fanatics who often only appreciate anime of a particular genre. I call this genre “brainless”(The anime may not be brainless but is appreciated in a brainless way)! They obviously haven’t watched the better ones. However, this overzealousness should not be confused with that of an otaku.

What is an otaku? Not a tard…

IMHO, otakus are cool, because of the fact that they are able to express their passion in such a significant way. Cool to themselves, cool to me, (not cool to the society though)… In fact, I believe otakus are very intelligent people, with a deep sensitivity for literature. Everything else in the world matters not to them. However, i believe, if everyone was an otaku… there won’t be wars(except those in anime)…

Americans have a very eccentric way of expressing themselves. To be cool or unique to them is to be different. They struggle in many ways to be different. You’ll understand if you watched American Idol. Since america culture is spreading everywhere, I dare say that this implies to the whole world, except with less magnitude(sorry Americans, but its true).

So how do we differentiate an otaku from a narutard? Otakus don’t go around boasting about being an otaku/fear people calling them narutards, they have more worries about their collection. Otakus are nerds, but they are not retards! There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd, it just shows their passion. There’s something wrong with being a tard… it shows they can’t think.

So everyone who follows naruto is a tard? no… Naruto isn’t brainless as it seems. However, handing naruto to tards is like giving chopsticks to a baboon. They will never figure out how to use it. Naruto has parts which inspire thoughts, however less than that of other anime. Read on to find out more.

Is Naruto bad? Quite bad…

Besides its fanbase, I don’t see the problem with Naruto that it should become taboo in daily anime language. Naruto is quite a bad anime, but it got rebuked more than it should have been. We should give Naruto some empathy. This empathy i will give will be in comparison of a really old manga which i read, called Dragonball.

Dragonball is an amazing manga(I didn’t appreciate its anime as much, it was a little slow filled with staring scenes), after a tired day of study/work, its ok to read a little DBZ to chill. Besides, it has unique artwork and is a great manga for somebody to chill. It doesn’t really wrack ur brain like Eva does and its relaxing to read. I must state that Dragonball came at a time when its style was still refreshing, Naruto was a little late.

Still, I can understand anime fans who watch Naruto. It certainly is in-between an anime and a cartoon. It isn’t particularly brainless if we were to consider what the purpose its artist, Masashi Kishimoto, intended its fans to use the storyline for.

Naruto started out with pretty amazing fresh concepts, one I like was the Neiji family concept. The artist has proved himself to be quite creative, only to have his work fall into the hands of tards. Even so… the development is rather bland as it carries on but dragonball has its bland parts too. The only commendable thing right now is its epic length. Still, I believe right at the end, there’s gonna be a BANG! Problem is… when is the end…? Anyway, thats another story for the Sojourner to tell…

Conclusion

There are many anime which are stripped off its original concepts, however I feel that the problem with this misconception of anime fans can be cleared with a little more exposure. If american anime companies were to do as well as fansubs, perhaps allowing the viewers to turn to different type of subs depending if they were a cartoon fan or anime fan, I’m sure more people would view the ones that retain and explain japanese culture. Perhaps the average IQ in the world would become 110 or so…

*Breathes out smoke* Finally the P-Meister is relieved. I wrote that out of a little fury. I’m sorry if I offended anyone. =) Hope you enjoyed the P-Meister’s ranting.