Anime, Shm-anime

...okay, okay. I know that anime is the only worthwhile animation around right now for kids and adult geeks alike, but I've gotta say--enough. I'm all for anime in it's best form, i.e. Samurai Champloo, Akira, Steamboy, Porco Rossi and Princess Monoke. But that's really about it. I find the rest of it pretty mundane at best and downright bollocks at worst. And I find the current craze amongst comic fans downright depressing. Instead of going after the best across the board, I see people picking up every mediocre offering out of Japan and worse, fake anime from domestic poseur creators, regardless of quality. Meanwhile I see a lot of worthwhile work being passed by and domestic comic and animation sales drying up.

Here's my take on it. Anime and Manga (the print version of anime) is the media incarnation of fast-food. Just like Micky-Dee's, you have basically the same flavor at every stop and the only difference comes down to individual stores being managed better or worse. From what I've seen, the stories are mainly redundant and the artwork looks so similar that you can't tell one creator from another with some rare exceptions.

Having said that, I have two notable home grown alternatives. First off, check out Avatar: the Last Airbender. Though the form takes liberally from Anime, there is definitely much more creativity and dimension given both to the look and the story, taking from several Asian traditions and mythologies and adding a healthy dose of technology and quest-type adventure, Avatar has strong maleand female characters, morally complicated story lines and three-dimensional villinas. The lessons the cartoon delivers are not only relevant and decidedly un-preachy (no "...and knowing is half the battle! Yo Joe!" in this afterschool offering) but also involve the viewer in the moral decision making.

The second reccommendation is actually two: Ben 10 and Teen Titans. As a fan of all things retro-futuristic, Ben 10 and the Teen Titans supply all the stylized, flashy and three-color glory of the pulps and comic books of days past. Both recall the era that gave us the originals from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Seigel and Shuster, Bob kane and all the rest. Throw in a liberal dose of Cold War-era paranoia, giant monster chic and 50s pop illustration and you've got it. Both shows look fantastic, are genuinely engaging and strip away the convuluted, thousand-character casts of many of the comics out there right now.