I wrote this post for FPS, and it was a good way of thinking about the issues that will arise next in my thesis. But here’s the real meat of the piece:
…big names like DiCaprio and Reeves could give the industry a much-needed boost by following the Tarantino and Wachowski method: fund your own anime, rather than commissioning adaptations. For the cost of a Hollywood film, couldn’t you pay the people at Gonzo or Production IG or Bones to animate your own script? What if, instead of meatsack re-hashings of classic anime titles, we got fresh product done by professionals who know the medium inside and out?
I ask because animation is its own unique medium. It can do things that film can’t. It depicts events in a manner that, while not entirely realistic, remains at its best truthful to lived experience. Anime fans have accepted this, and moved on. They understand, respect, and desire more of the art form on its own terms. They know its merits, and its limitations. In fact, they relish in them. And if Mr. Reeves and Mr. DiCaprio were the fans they claim to be, they would feel the same.
Fine, I admit it: one of the reasons I enjoyed this little rant was the opportunity to use the phrase “meatsack re-hashings” in a sentence.