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).
Figure 1.0: Random image to break up the monotonous text.
Getting to the point, it is a bit unfair to compare anime and intellectual (erudite even) literature, as one should not easily compare mudkips and charmanders… I’m such an analogy shark XD. However both achieve their purposes and there is still much room for anime to expand as a medium of discourse and entertainment.
Literature as a medium I believe is created by many people to provoke thought as its primary aim (of course that is in general). The hackneyed novels are the exception I believe, because even J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter (as bad as that is, IMO) to stimulate the little ones to think. Even those dime-a-dozen novels, with their limiting setting, sometimes give way to works of exquisitely crafted art. (Whenever someone cannot escape his conditions and has to write about it in trite books, sometimes a genius crafts their own way out in their own works.)
My point still stands. There isn’t any excessive commercialization in literature (solely) unless it is translated into other media (like Lord of the Rings), whereas even the most independent anime, like Shinkai’s works, find their way on to DVDs.
Euler was the captcha word. lol
I think the indie-anime realm is still unexplored, and looking at indie-films, I would like to see some of these efforts in anime. Everyone is joyous, but nobody cares… popculture. Independant film and music, art, and other media in Japan are flourishing, so it is only a matter of time before more “Shinkai”s come along… question is, would we, being in the loop of pop-anime realm be aware of it, would it come in the form of manga first (plenty of those already), or would it evade 4chan, suki and the likes?
Charmandar salad in my belly!