Greetings. (Are You There God? It’s Me, Gigantor)

Welcome to Oh Tetsuo. A pragmatic look into the beautiful and often-times frustrating world of Anime. A branch of film that’s brought us the feverish intensity of Akira, the wonder of Serial Experiments: Lain, and the stabbing abdominal pain that is Big Wars. A waning trend in America that’s had dozens of ebbs and flows over the past thirty years, and rightfully so.

Like any genre of film, as a general rule, you’re looking at a twelve-parts-crap to one-part-genius margin ratio. For every Dark Knight, there’s more than a few Daredevils.

Oh Tetsuo is here for the fans and social-users alike, presented to be an editorial outlook in plain, understandable English without constant use of insider slang or attempts at educational nonsense. This is for a few reasons; first of all as a part-time music critic, I only know how to be a jerk, and, second, there have been lots of excellent online resources for learning all you need to know about the rich world of Japanese animation. Like all avenues of nerd-dome, fan resources are plentiful, I’m just here to spout off my thoughts on a genre I love to readers with a base understanding of the art-form, or at least for insomniacs that like to read.

To establish the map, so to speak, I figure I’ll give a quick overview on my thoughts. Consider it an FAQ for my particular brand of douche-baggery.

1a.) I really love anime.
1b.) Most anime is genuinely awful.

Important thing to understand. Anime often suffers two true stereotypes. It often has non-liner storylines and addresses issues of a more philosophical nature through metaphor and ambiguity, and, just as often, resembles a Michael Bays wet dream with depth replaced by large-breasted 16 year-old bounty hunters that blow things up and drive cool cars.

…also there are robots. Whoooole lotta fuckin’ of robots.

2) Not all popcorn anime is inherently bad, just as not all art-school anime is inherently good.

3) No matter how objective I attempt to be, I’ve always got a soft-spot for a lot of the sitcom stuff I got onto when I was younger (Ranma ½, Tenchi Muyo, The Slayers, etc)

4.) Combination of 3D CG and traditional 2D was maybe the most dreadful directorial choice in the history of the form.

5.) Not everything Hayao Miyazaki has done is flawless (though, a lot of it is pretty close)

The rest of the bridges we’ll cross when we come to.
Cheers,
- Aj