During my visit to the Japan Society, I learned that anime is a serious art form. The word “anime” is taken from half of Japanese language meaning animation, and anime can be released by television broadcast, video, and online. That is why Japanese anime is very popular and well known all over the world for their animation in term of their style, sound, and character design.
When I first enter the exhibit, the first thing I saw was this anime called Afro Samurai by Takashi Okazaki, which I was very pleased to see all those characters in Afro Samurai. I enjoy watching his work and the concepts he had for creating this African American character. Especially, the details of the African American man with his symbolic Afro hair wearing a traditional Japanese samurai uniform, and holding the sword had shown the artwork of the artist. The fighting scenes were the ones that capture most of my attention because the fighting of the two warriors made me very nervous, and the sound itself made a lot of effect to bring this anime into life.
Another anime I liked watching very much in the Anime Film Screening Room was The Place Promised in Our Early Days by Makoto Shinkai. The first time when I walked in the room, I can feel all the actions and sound effects of each anime film. I chose this anime film because it was about persuading your dream, and nothing can ever come between the processes of achieving them. I also realized all those anime films were developed by putting all the drawing frames together to make an animation film. Without these frames, the audiences would not be able to see the movements and actions of the whole animation. This was certainly a serious form of art because each individual frame was either drew by hand or computer to represent each scene and character.
In addition to anime, manga (Japanese comic) is also a serious art form because it is very popular all over the world. Manga is a series of comic book that are usually drawn in four or six boxes with text of story line. For example, there was this manga called Mu: For Sale – The Afterlife of a DJ by Hitoshi Odajma; I was able to see many of the original and copy of the preliminary drawing sketches. Each piece of drawing was divided into six boxes and drew in with details. Those drawing sketches were either done in pencil or marker that were organized in number order. The color that was used in the drawing was basically black and white. Therefore, the printing of mange only uses one color printing, which is black. However, in a magazine printing of mange was done in are four process printing (CMYK).
Most of all, as an animated artist myself, I understand that each anime or manga artists had dedicated a lot of time in their artworks for people to read and watch their pieces. I know how effect those artists had put into their work, and just wanted the audiences to agree with the artwork they had done. That is why anime and manga should be a serious art form for people to care about.