A light response on literature and anime as media.
I am not certain as to the stimulus behind the comparisons between two distinct media, and while not even outright (literature spans the full spectrum of creative and uncreative output of humanity so I guess such complete inspection would be unnecessary and tiresome), it is quite true that fiscal impetus is a primary driving force on televised works. Thinking of literature meant primarily to be entertaining (and thus might cater to even the lowest common denominator - which isn’t always the case as my friend touched on in his Honey and Clover article Mike so graciously linked), many cases come up which are, in a way, just as intellectually uninspiring as anime: The Da Vinci Code, many science fiction works, I would like to mention more but it had been too long since I read a non-academic work. In contrast, writing and publishing a book with a very small intended audience is quite possible, however I do not believe that animated shows easily lend themselves to such solitary efforts, Makoto Shinkai being an anomaly - it simply costs too much and distribution used to be a problem. Although with increased computing power (efficiency) and with the internet, anime might see an increase in independent, thought-provoking works whose primary objective is to show something to the audience for the sake of making them think (see Yasuhiro Yoshiura). (more…)
