I've been starting to watch a little anime here and there, trying to get my feet wet, if you will. You can see some of the anime I have on my Netflix queue to the right (although for some reason the RSS feeds from Netflix are wonky).
The problem I'm having is that there is a huge culture difference between Japan and the U.S. in that the Japanese - like much of European culture - is more comfortable with sexuality than Americans are (and I use the term "Americans" to refer to residents of the U.S. and not to all North Americans). What's commonplace for Japanese anime wouldn't necessarily sit too well with conservative American audiences.
I've done a lot of research into some of the popular (and maybe not so popular?) anime movies and series in the last week or two and it seems to me that much of it includes at least mild nudity. Its not usually gratuitous nor is it usually strait up sex scenes. Its just the fact that the Japanese culture feels more comfortable with that aspect of humanity than we do. Nudity in anime usually is there for one of three reasons (unless its hentai, but I don't want to get into that...).
1) Fan service
We'll start with the most shallow of the three reasons. :P Simply put, eye candy for the fans. Usually not needed, much like a lot of the nudity in Hollywood films and TV shows, but just there to grab people's attention and make them keep watching.
2) Symbolism of cleanness, purity and/or innocence
Something that actually means something to the writers or to the viewers isn't usually considered gratuitous, at least most of the time. Much of this type of nudity is intended to help the audience see what ideals are important to a character, what their intentions are, what their motives are, without coming right out and using dialog to express those thoughts. Many times this occurs in the shower or in water of some kind. This kind of leads into the last point...
3) Symbolism of loss of identity, loss of self, being lonely and the vulnerability that comes with those feelings.
The problem I'm having is that there is a huge culture difference between Japan and the U.S. in that the Japanese - like much of European culture - is more comfortable with sexuality than Americans are (and I use the term "Americans" to refer to residents of the U.S. and not to all North Americans). What's commonplace for Japanese anime wouldn't necessarily sit too well with conservative American audiences.
I've done a lot of research into some of the popular (and maybe not so popular?) anime movies and series in the last week or two and it seems to me that much of it includes at least mild nudity. Its not usually gratuitous nor is it usually strait up sex scenes. Its just the fact that the Japanese culture feels more comfortable with that aspect of humanity than we do. Nudity in anime usually is there for one of three reasons (unless its hentai, but I don't want to get into that...).
1) Fan service
We'll start with the most shallow of the three reasons. :P Simply put, eye candy for the fans. Usually not needed, much like a lot of the nudity in Hollywood films and TV shows, but just there to grab people's attention and make them keep watching.
2) Symbolism of cleanness, purity and/or innocence
Something that actually means something to the writers or to the viewers isn't usually considered gratuitous, at least most of the time. Much of this type of nudity is intended to help the audience see what ideals are important to a character, what their intentions are, what their motives are, without coming right out and using dialog to express those thoughts. Many times this occurs in the shower or in water of some kind. This kind of leads into the last point...
3) Symbolism of loss of identity, loss of self, being lonely and the vulnerability that comes with those feelings.
Probably the deepest meaning of nudity in anime. The culture that produces this anime usually delves deeper into the minds and hearts of the characters - dealing with very serious topics such as loss of identity and the like. One popular anime that focuses heavily on this as a plot point is Ghost in the Shell.
Most of this info I've covered here came from Anime-Myth.com, one of the sites I found in my research of this topic. I just thought some of the ideas and thoughts behind putting nudity into anime were quite interesting. In American film and television productions, nudity is put in almost 100% for "shock value" or fan service, very little (if any) of it is symbolic of a greater idea or thought that the writers want to subtly make you aware of. Its almost exactly the opposite in many Japanese animation productions, where little of it is gratuitous and the majority of it is non-sexual in nature and put in merely to help you understand the character(s) better.
Most of this info I've covered here came from Anime-Myth.com, one of the sites I found in my research of this topic. I just thought some of the ideas and thoughts behind putting nudity into anime were quite interesting. In American film and television productions, nudity is put in almost 100% for "shock value" or fan service, very little (if any) of it is symbolic of a greater idea or thought that the writers want to subtly make you aware of. Its almost exactly the opposite in many Japanese animation productions, where little of it is gratuitous and the majority of it is non-sexual in nature and put in merely to help you understand the character(s) better.
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