As you know from previous posts, the bloggers from THAT are making posts based on a single word randomly chosen from a list you guys suggested. That word was “Britney”. Of course, the first thing you think is Britney Spears, the infamous pop star singer. And what a coincidence, she has recently made a new animated videoclip for her song “Break The Ice”
As the videoclip above reveals you, even “Miss Virgin (only in the ears and I’m not even sure about those)” Britney Spears is trying to use the anime genre to regain some of the fans that’s ben losing over the years due to her actions. Unfortunely, this is a tendence that’s recurrent in Western culture.
Exploitation is the game
Okay, first of all let me explain what kind of exploitation I’m talking about, since it has several misleading meanings. I’m mostly refering to the Exploitation Film genre, where the goal is to get audience with the kind of “lurid content” the production has than the actual quality of the film. This is what happening these days with Anime. Having realized that Anime is more and more a point of interest for a increasing number of people, several media have already tried to implement anime elements to gain some of that raw resourse. Of course most of the time leads to a degradation of the content and gives the Anime genre bad fame, although rarely there are projects who actually does the opposite.
“Hmm…nice pussy. Fap, fap, fap.”
Imitation is the worst way of flattery
It’s easy to see several of these exploitations. One good to start looking is cartoons, with a endless list of examples. Some cases are blatant obvious, like Kappa Mikey ( and Dancing Sushi, OMG MY EYES!!!) Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi or American Dragon:Jake Long ; others aren’t that obvious like Teen Titans and Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s funny, considering that at the start producers were trying to Americanize imported animes, like Robotech/Macross production or the raping of Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto and others. Now they care to Japanize their own cartoons… By the way, before you jump into me, I don’t consider Samurai Jack exploitation, since it has his own unique style, filled with cinematografic scenes and stylized design. The only common point is using a japanese samurai and thematic.
Show me your Kung-Fu
Of course, the movie industry also wanted a piece of the pie, considering how greedy they are. I could rant non-stop with the Matrix Triology but let’s use other examples. And yeah, I’ll use Animatrix, which is a rare example of an hommage to Anime instead of whoring (it’s easy to explain, the Wachowski brothers asked real Japanese animators to do the episodes.) Unfortunely, the same doesn’t happen with Kill Bill, which is a total slut, ripping off anime elements from all origins. The whole thing is a huge irony, with a short anime depicting O-ren’s past and the movie itself is based on the exploitation genre. Oh, and let’s not forget that Quentin Tarantino wants to do 2 anime based on Kill Bill…
I know kung fu.
Look, I can draw too!
The Internet is a huge Show and Tell, so using Anime (or on this case , Manga) thematic on your webcomics to get readers is very common. To be accurate, it’s hard to say that it’s exploitation, but in principle it is always a case of “OMG, I totaly like Anime. Let me try to be a net god and draw crappy MS pain figures and get readers”. Trying to avoid the infinite list of shitty webcomics, just gonna mention a couple of cases which aren’t shitty. The first one is the easiest one: Megatokyo. I know I’ll be flamed/worshipped for this but MT DOES exploit the genre. But what compensates for it is the quality of the drawings, so it balances things out. Except when he does stickman strips…Second case is Mistakes of Youth. Yeah, he may use a Anime-ish style with half decent drawings, but it’s on purpose since the whole webcomic is about Anime irony.
“Mom, why my game has girls with bouncy tits and mini-skirts?”
I’ll keep it short here, because I can’t stand crappy games. And the crappiest one ever is Sudeki, made by a Swedish company. A swordsman, a mahou girl, a catgirl and a inventor, all in Anime style with crappy story, crappy gameplay and crappy design. I warn you, stay away from this game like lolicons from an actual social life.
Look at the back of your manga, it may be: Made in Canada
Even the black and white are being copied: there are several artists outside Japan making mangas , like Van Von Hunter or Ninja High School. In this case, this exploitation was welcome; 20 years ago, these guys helped to popularize the manga genre in Western markets.
So, it’s easy to understand why Lil’ Britney tried to ride the wave of Anime and profit from it (Also, noone wants to see her real face these days.). Meanwhile, I’ll stick to my “Made in Japan” originals.
Please, kill me and end my suffering.
16 Comments
The video is fucking fail.
@LDC: No kidding? That’s what happens when Westerners try to make anime…
LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE
lol
Hm.. I disagree.
The video is quite good eyecandy. Shameless ripoff, but idc. The music however… -_-’
I had sound disabled, so maybe it only shines with a good hardstyle radiostream running in the background.
ears, LOL
Well… zAPPzAPP has a point here.
The animaton is crappy, sadly albeit still better than animation in some series.
A crappy show made in Canada or wherever, with absolutely no originality may be a slut. But a crappy anime made in Japan, with an equal originality value is a bitch. Let’s face it, most of the modern productions have the same purpose! Regardless of nationality. Some series are better, thanks to some ambitious artists and scriptwriters, but more than half of these series is worthless cliché and a waste of time. And some people want us to even pay for wasting our time and eyesight on such shit.
she looks ugly even in the anime..and i swear the beginning with her jumping off the roof is a rip-off of ghost in the shell stand alone complex, with the major jumping off a roof, does a flip and lands/ slams on to something..a very common thing in gits…a very good example is in the opening..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdFR3abpsXc
at around 1:10 to 1:16.
that was just a scaring video…
As a con-goer, my gut reaction is to say that the rash of anime-styled webcomics floating around the Net are probably the most obnoxious example of ‘Westerners’ taking advantage of the Japanese animation style. They are always at cons in full force. Yet to be fair, a lot of the artists have a deep respect for the Japanese tradition. And I don’t think cultural boundaries should stop people from adopting another country’s style. Else, much of the same could be said of J-Rock, which I personally love!
What TRULY deserve to be written off as blatant examples of abuse are videos like the said Britney Spears one. At the end of the day, we all know its just a popularity gimmick. Curse those who cheapen the anime style for their own selfish ends. And kudos to Ex for an interesting read, about a topic thats been on my mind for a while.
Don’t know that I’d call MT using anime to get readers. It’s been around for what… 8 years or something now? If I remember correctly, some of the first comics were about conventions and cosplay. His style has evolved over the years, but even in the first year, it was more along the lines of anime and manga as opposed to “western” comics. I don’t know that it can be argued in this case that the artist has made a deliberate choice of using anime to draw readers.
I wonder if Britney Spears watches anime o.o
Anyway, I agree with Coaxen, you only mention Western culture exploiting anime…but I was thinking countless animes produced in Japan are just rip offs of another popular series. Aren’t they also simply exploiting the popularity of the first successful idea in hopes of having the same success? In fact I’d say there are waaay more exploitation animes/mangas made in Japan than any exploitation anime/mangas in the Western entertainment industry.
It’s an okay video. So they exploit anime. That was a bit of an issue since the 80′s. What’s the need to raise a ruckus about it now?
You have a valid point on how Western culture is trying to basically “whore” the anime genre to earn a quick buck, but I think we have the inevitable issue of whether or not manga and anime are truly genres and mediums which artists can freely use and change to their own vision. Too often, anime/manga fans seem to judge the value of a series by whether it was “Made in Japan” as you say and discount any attempt by a Western artist at this style of art as a “rip-off” regardless of quality. So far the Western industry hasn’t had too many successes at this medium and genre, but I feel part of the reason is that true anime/manga fans aren’t READY for a such a revolutionary thing as GOOD Western anime/manga.
At least in the clip she blows herself up,
wishful thinking narrative: in the future after realizing how much of a jackass she was she decides to build a time machine to go back to the past and kick her own ass (clones) next ep will be her vs her backup singers.
Samurai Jack was in its own right… interesting, the creators did do something different than all the other children’s (?) cartoons….
That bitch vid was nothing but fail and a piece of shit I don’t think anyone can stand her anymore. Kobukson is right… nearly all of us aren’t that accepting to Western animation for music vids and whatnot….
If anything, just ask some Japanese studio to do your vids, so long as it’s not pop and all that nonsense, like take for example… the progressive metal band Dream Theater, where the song Forsaken got animated by… get this: GONZO. Yea, I know it doesn’t look like the art that Gonzo would put in the anime series they would make, but at least the art in the vid fit the song. It was awesome that it got aired on Headbanger’s Ball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-7hRPx9w6M
Is that exploitation to anyone?
“Trying to avoid the infinite list of shitty webcomics, just gonna mention a couple of cases which aren’t shitty. The first one is the easiest one: Megatokyo. I know I’ll be flamed/worshipped for this but MT DOES exploit the genre. But what compensates for it is the quality of the drawings, so it balances things out. Except when he does stickman strips…”
Hey when you put it that way, EVERYTHING related to anime exploits the genre? Like “OMG ITS AN ANIMU BLOG … ITS EXPLOITING THE GENRE BECAUSE IT TALKS ABOUT ANIMU”? Hey, so what if he likes to draw anime style? I mean if he drew like Marvel comics style then wouldn’t he be exploiting the American Comics genre?
And FYI.. HE doesn’t draw the stick figures… Dom does.
And like everything else out there, there are good and bad. So what if there’s a few bad comics online once in a while? Just like how there are epic blogs, epic youtube videos, etc, there’s a plethora of shity blogs, youtube videos and just about anything else you can name.
Anyways, most of this article is illogical or elitist IMO.