japanimation ruined art, cartoons, amd saturday mornings

prepare yourself cuz i'm about to unload some hate; ever since i was in highschool and there was the "japanimation" club, which showed anime and what-not during lunchtime, i've learned to despise this type of "art". and the reason is quite simple: it is perfectionistic. and in my vocabulary, "perfection" is a very bad word. basically, everything in anime and the like is perfect; perfect looking people, perfect pets, perfect love. the drawing is so horrifically idealized, but not just idealized, PERFECTIONIZED. i miss the cartoons of my youth; the hand-drawn x-men, the simpsons, even that one with the jungle book characters flying airplanes (go back and watch that thing and you tell me just how much acid they were on when they were able to come up with that idea : ) ). anyway, i need to cut my fingernails which makes typing a pain, but what's infinately more of a reason to stop typing is this: YOU already know what i am saying. you know it. in your core; in your heart, you know. you watch this stuff, you see how this asian idea of "perfection" (and likewise the complete value-less of anything imperfect) has swept through all our cartoons and all art; hell, every kids cartoon i see these days is dripping with this shit. folks, even all the hanna montana garbage and the like wreaks of the same odor: that there IS such a thing as BEST, and that that BEST thing is defined, it is pretty, funny, athletic, exciting, attractive etc. and that is the best, and that is what to shoot for, and everything else is a just a prologue to that best self that you are supposed to be.

this is a philosophy that is far more insidious than all the violence, sex, guns, drugs and war that kids (and everyone else for that matter) are surrounded with in media. the horrific idea that there is only one way to be best, that it is an objective, defined thing. perhaps, and surely in fact, it is easier for simpletons to attach themselves to this ideal because they have such difficulty in defining quality for themselves, but we can NOT allow this to be, or to be tought.

i value, and adore, and love imperfection. there is no pefect, no best, no ideal, set in stone, that we all must strive to look and act and be as close to as possible. it's a horrifically insidious, rampant, and destructive idea. it is the death of originality, it is the crucifixion of those who ask questions, who produce DIFFERENT art, who desire to not be blonde and big eyed and carry a bid sword. this sort of thing slips by because on the outside it may be wholesome and good, but the truth is is that we are teaching our young, and we are learning ourselves, to be SIMILAR, to push toward ONE perfect goal. but the truth is that that goal is not perfect. it is not you, it is not me, it is in fact no one. nor can it be, nor should it be. it's inhuman. "human" is dirt and subjectivity, imperfection, flaws, opinions not wrong or right but simply one's own. there's no dirt in anime, and if there is, it's clean dirt. and that's just wrong. "be who you are" i suppose would be my message, and i hope you'll forgive the after-school-special nature of that statement, but i guess that really is what i'm getting at. i do believe this perfectionism ruins that very important ideal

peace

-uzy