I AM an avid fan of Japanese anime of many genres including shounen (for young boys), shoujo (for young girls), fantasy, slice of life, action, and others. Even if the works are fiction, most anime are elaborate in their narratives about human nature and struggles.
Anime wasn’t all “blood, gut, and porn.” According to Cooper-Chen (2011), despite the differences in culture and probable difficulty in understanding them, global fans still feel engaged with anime because of the universal values like friendship, bravery, fighting the good fight, and perseverance embedded in its stories, aside from other similar emotions projected in the series.
Compared to most western cartoons, anime are also much more plot-focused and are thus able to go into deeper situations and deeper morals.
For example, in most shounen fighting anime, death is often an essential turn of events. Some storylines show the celebration, glory, and values of death. Dying was not something to simply mourn about, but to draw something good from.
However, in most American animations, there is little presentation of death, often very rare, maybe until recently. Death is usually perceived as something kids would not understand, and may often be thought of as “too dark” in the western media point-of-view.
Japan has also started paving the road for more adult-oriented anime, exploring complex human emotions and genres. This includes painting the characters with more possible tendencies, choices, and arrays of reactions.
Olsen, Stian & Johnsen (2012) also stated in their research paper that while in American animation, the hero and his or her goodness is clearly defined, Japanese anime usually gives characters a mix of both good and bad qualities, blurring out the line between good and evil.
A protagonist, for example, may succumb to his evil tendencies and opt for choices that protagonists should ideally not engage with, but still did so, maybe because of mistakes or demands of the moment. But as the storyline progresses, a protagonist will redeem himself eventually.
Certain anime like Naruto, and Yu-Gi-Oh! tell about “dark” beginnings of a protagonist.
Uzumaki Naruto was a child hated by the village because they think he was the incarnation of the demon fox that destroyed Konoha, the ninja village, years ago, while Yugi Muto possesses an Egyptian artifact that granted him “great and terrible power.”
It was said that whoever solves the Millennium Puzzle “will receive a dark knowledge and strength,” which Yugi earned after solving the puzzle.
In the middle of their plots, Naruto, for several times, was inches away from being consumed by the demon fox inside him and nearly destroyed his allies. Yugi was also consumed by much pride and anger at one part and tried to use his capabilities to vainly destroy his enemies under wrong motives.
In the anime Bleach as well, Kurosaki Ichigo had struggled to suppress his Hollow (monster antagonist in the series) side which tried to take over his being. However, in the series, when Ichigo was able to master his control over the dark being, he gained power out of it.
The anime tried to tell the audience that all people have “darkness” within them – evil tendencies. But if people intentionally tap into their “darkness” and commit malevolent acts consciously, or get pleasure from doing so, their darkness turn to become evil.
The series also shows that if one is able to overcome his or her own personal demons, it will benefit him greatly in life.
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