MGRR: Questing for the Anime Eccentric
—newgeekphilsopher
A Space captain that sounds like a demon slaying Dudley Do-Right, a transforming utility robot with a “Sexual Harrassment” alarm, and a voluptuous female sidekick who frightens insecure infernal males. Is this an example of the craziness in Anime I’ve been questing for?
Is the “Anime Eccentric” a concept invented by Western viewers of Anime to describe the bizarre sense of humor Japanese people enjoy in their animated storytelling, or is it something more complicated than that?
The image screenshot selected is from the first episode of Disgaea, an Anime I’m blogging at my home blog. It uses a style of zany humor that does not need a ton of translator notes to enjoy, it doesn’t make any overt Otaku references. It’s good on its own. Not that Otaku references are a bad thing, the eccentricity of the over the top Otaku No Video in the protagonist’s quest to become the Otaking of all Japan can equally be viewed as Anime Eccentric. It could even be argued that the Anime Eccentric exists in a very buttoned down culture where Anime is a sort of release for those living in what we know as a conformist society. Anime characters behave in a way that would be considered inappropriate for a Japanese person to behave like in public, and I guess this is why Japanese people find zany character types humourous, they are laughing at the ludicrous displays of emotion and intensity which would be unthinkable for a “normal” Japanese person to indulge in.
How common is the Anime Eccentric? Azumanga Daioh had it by the bowlful with Osaka and Tomo acting out in sheer disregard for societal norms, Kamen No Maid Guy’s Maid Guy and Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan exhibit alpha male GAR behaviour to get the audience laughing, and Lucky Star uses Konata as a vehicle for less intense but highly unusual thoughts and dialogue.
We can even trace the Anime Eccentric back to Kimba the White Lion where wacky animal characters interact with each other with slapstick humor, as do Chim Chim and Spritle in Speed Racer.
We can identify the Anime Eccentric readily when we see it, but it is difficult to recognise why we look for it in Anime. Is it because we have come to expect the Anime Eccentric to appear in Anime comedy shows, because it is a different style of humor to Western animation which uses pop culture references to build the groundwork of the jokes. The Simpsons and Family Guy both use pop culture references in their jokes, and Homer Simpson’s outrageous behaviour and slapstick could be argued to be a Western equivalent of the Anime Eccentric, but the reasons for laughing at Homer are very different for laughing at say, Maid Guy. We laugh at Homer because he is a buffoon, we laugh at Maid Guy because he clashes between his feminine profession as a maid “guy” and his overtly masculine GAR characteristics which compensate for any effeminate traits that lie in the subtext of his chosen job of the service industry, also because he is ludicrously powerful. Homer runs in terror when he is frightened, and we laugh at him because he fails to meet our expectations of masculinity at handling the job. Maid Guy on the other hand is so confident in wrangling vermin in the first episode that he frightens other people, that is, he is too confident to expect any real man to live up to his example.
Why do we look for the Anime Eccentric in the Anime shows we watch, and how does its presence affect how we percieve the characters as compared to Western animation? That is the question I will leave you with.
Now that you mention it, I can’t think of an anime equivalent of Homer Simpson. The dumb father character shows up all the time in Western live action shows as well as animation. It’s the premise for nearly every family sitcom. I guess dumb fathers aren’t funny in Japan?
Baka-Raptors last blog post..The 20,000 Hit/1,000 Comment/Otakon Form Results 3-in-1 Filler Spectacular!
@BK: In fact the whole “disappearance” of the father (let alone the retarded one) is interesting to note.
I’ll try to answer this in better form in a post, but I don’t think that anyone actually looks for the Anime Eccentric within a show. There’s also the question of Eccentricity Versus Comedy to think of; is it more about the existence of such zany characters within the setting or about what occurs between their interactions and thoughts, which themselves are setups for jokes (for example, Konata in Lucky Star’s question about the chocolate cornet. That was, at the very least supposed to be, a joke.)
Omisyths last blog post..Blade of the Immortal First Impressions: A Cross-Eyed Bandit Pretending to be a Priest Shooting You in the Face
Hmm, never heard of the term before. I think it makes sense though. I can say that I don’t look for a show solely for Anime Eccentric, but I really do enjoy them.
Ezs last blog post..Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~ Natsu no Sora First Impressions
>>Hmm, never heard of the term before
he made it up. newgeek, you ought to do more research before making your theses, just in general. Take that as constructive critisicm.
21stcenturydigitalboys last blog post..Summer 08 – For Better, For Worse, or Just For.
Wow, the Anime Eccentric. I guess I look for the Anime Eccentric simply for a character that stands out and says: “NOTICE ME”. Just like Maid Guy, Kamina, Haruhi and Osaka.
And the Anime Eccentric doesn’t really affect my view of the characters in an Anime series as compared to Western Animation. I treat the two very differently due to a cultural gap, so I have a different set of expectations for both types of Animation.
C.I.s last blog post..[And Guess who comes out on top] Of the Anime Saimoe ‘08 Group 10!
@21stCenturyDigitalBoy: I actually used Anime Eccentric as a term which was supposed to represent a sign for another terminology for the eccentric mode of humor present in Anime shows that already exists, but has no all encompassing term for it. I did my research. Most common term used to describe manly characters that fit this archetype is “manly GAR character humor”, whereas for girls it’s “erratic/eccentric/outlandish behaviour”. I got most of my research on Japanese humor types from the book ‘Wrong About Japan’ by the Australian author Peter Carey, but also from the various Translator Notes found in the booklets packaged with the Azumanga Daioh DVD box set. The article on Anime stock characters was also glanced at from Wikipedia.
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