By RedWordSmith

In the past weekend, I’ve watched a fairly eccentric mix of anime, including Elfen Lied, Taruto, Hand Maid May, and Initial D. I’m truly reminded that although not all anime is for everyone, there’s probably at least one anime out there for anyone.
If Elfen Lied were given a rating by the MPAA, it would probably be NC-17; I have a lot of difficulty imagining it getting anything less than an R rating. On the other hand, Taruto is a more or less child-friendly series, at least for the dub, and has villains that reject kidnapping as “too evil” for them to carry out. Most animes fall between these two extremes, and this is the case with May and D. But the subjects of these animes set them apart in their imaginativeness; one is about street racers and their cars, and the other is about a robot maid whose height could measured in inches.
The wide variety of anime available is a testament to liberating nature of the medium. The thing that has drawn me most to anime is the presence of a soul behind so many of the series and movies. Most animes have something – an intriguing mystery, a moral message, a genuinely tragic character – that lends the show a depth which is missing in a lot of western work, live-action or otherwise.
Even when ideas are taken from anime, as in The Matrix, there still seems to be something missing to me. The superficial elements of a good anime – mecha, a strong villain, over-the-top action – are present, but some sort of the real psychological meat of anime is missing.
I am NOT saying that good storytelling, like the type found in lots of anime, cannot happen in the U.S. and Europe. If anime ultimately reminds me of any other art form, it’s the plays of ancient Greece. In a few places here and there in the marketplace, and in far too many underfunded amateur works on the Internet, this sort of soul, this dedication to plot, is present. Let’s hope that both anime and high-quality entertainment and art continue to have a larger impact. And if it’s possible for them to both progress at the same time, that’s all the better.

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