{"id":38012,"date":"2022-06-08T17:22:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T21:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/?p=38012"},"modified":"2022-06-08T17:22:03","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T21:22:03","slug":"ask-john-has-commercialism-reduced-the-artistic-integrity-of-anime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animenation.net\/blog\/ask-john-has-commercialism-reduced-the-artistic-integrity-of-anime\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask John: Has Commercialism Reduced the Artistic Integrity of Anime?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong>
\nDo you think that the commercialization of anime has hindered its artistic integrity?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong>
\nThe art form now recognized as anime has always been a commercial product. Modern anime began with Toei\u2019s 1958 theatrical film Hakujaden<\/em>. Granted, productions including 1935’s Chagama Ondo<\/em> and 1943’s Momotaro no Umiwashi<\/em> existed before Hakujaden<\/em>, but such productions are typically deemed anime only in a historical, academic sense. Modern anime developed not as experimental art or political propaganda but rather as mainstream populist commercial entertainment. But that’s not to say that anime didn\u2019t also exhibit artistic credibility from its earliest days. Particularly anime productions as early as Osamu Tezuka\u2019s 1962 short film Story of A Certain Street Corner<\/em> (Aru Machikado no Monogatari) and Toei\u2019s 1963 film The Prince and the Eight Headed Dragon<\/em> (Wanpaku Oji no Orochi Taiji) exhibited prominent unique artistic characteristics. Early television anime series including 1967\u2019s Boken Gabotenjima<\/em> and Skyers 5<\/em> were action\/adventure cartoons intended for mainstream viewers, yet the shows incorporated highly stylized camera angles and use of lighting and shadows. Particularly the golden age of anime, roughly 1979 through 1988, coincided with Japan\u2019s economic bubble era. Because wealthy Japanese investors and corporations were so flush with funds during that period, producers greenlit the production of bizarre, esoteric, artistic anime just because they could. As a result, the golden age produced landmark arthouse style anime including Angel\u2019s Egg<\/em>, Manie Manie Meikyu Monogatari<\/em>, Twilight Q<\/em>, Machikado Meruhen<\/em>, Birth<\/em>, Greed<\/em>, Samy Missing 99<\/em>, Robot Carnival<\/em>, California Crisis<\/em>, TO-Y<\/em>, and Heart Cocktail<\/em>. Moreover, the creativity flexibility of the golden age allowed individual animators to tremendously influence the entire medium of animation itself. Skilled pencilers including Hayao Miyazaki, Yoshinori Kanada, and Ichiro Itano rose to prominence and influence in the 1980s. And the design aesthetic of golden age anime is still beloved today because that design aesthetic frequently emphasized meticulous hand-drawn detail. Look at the landscape impact effects in Birth<\/em> (1984), the tremendous texture of the Macross cruiser in the 1984 Macross<\/em> motion picture, the climactic destruction of Tokyo in Megazone 23 Part II<\/em> (1986) for examples of the extraordinary visual detail commonplace in 80\u2019s anime.<\/p>\n