Week 2: Understanding Comics
The narrator lightly touches on the differences between Eastern and Western sequences, and in extension, the differences in story telling. He says 'action to action' sequences are MUCH more dominating in the West. Action to action still dominates in Eastern works, but to a "lesser degree".
Easterners use 'subject to subject' sequences as much as action, but most importantly they take a slower pace, using 'moment to moment' and 'aspect to aspect'. Easterners seem to be more concerned with creating an atmosphere and sense of feeling by showing us several snapshots of the same moment from different perspectives. The author says Westerners have a faster pace of storytelling because we are a more 'goal oriented' and generally fast paced culture, where as Easterners treat
manga more as an artform.
These ideas got me thinking of the differences in our cultures and how it effects storytelling. Political cartoons predeceased comics, and were typically short and to the point. They had to be. A quick, striking message. Right to the point. Manga however originated from more traditional mediums of artwork, dedicating more emphasis to each image allowing us to drink in the moment at our leisure. Imagine an early comic and early manga (drawn on scrolls). Which would you be more likely to hang on your wall as a piece of art? My answer is pretty obvious.
I was raised on American cartoons but eventually became a big anime fan as well, and I do notice key differences in storytelling. I find that anime is much slower paced, almost to a fault at times. American cartoons are very goal oriented and seem to prefer telling only short stories. The benefits to this is that there is always a resolution (usually within a 20 minute episode) and the entire plot is wrapped up nicely with a little bow. No loose ends. The downside- it seems there is no real, long term character development. One of the reasons I got bored of Scooby Doo as a child was because it was SO predictable. Nothing ever really changed and the outcome was the same. It's a nice change of pace to invest in an anime and go on this long, life changing journey with characters you get to know very well. If only they could cut back on the 5 minute intro and outro songs though!
Easterners use 'subject to subject' sequences as much as action, but most importantly they take a slower pace, using 'moment to moment' and 'aspect to aspect'. Easterners seem to be more concerned with creating an atmosphere and sense of feeling by showing us several snapshots of the same moment from different perspectives. The author says Westerners have a faster pace of storytelling because we are a more 'goal oriented' and generally fast paced culture, where as Easterners treat
manga more as an artform.
These ideas got me thinking of the differences in our cultures and how it effects storytelling. Political cartoons predeceased comics, and were typically short and to the point. They had to be. A quick, striking message. Right to the point. Manga however originated from more traditional mediums of artwork, dedicating more emphasis to each image allowing us to drink in the moment at our leisure. Imagine an early comic and early manga (drawn on scrolls). Which would you be more likely to hang on your wall as a piece of art? My answer is pretty obvious.
I was raised on American cartoons but eventually became a big anime fan as well, and I do notice key differences in storytelling. I find that anime is much slower paced, almost to a fault at times. American cartoons are very goal oriented and seem to prefer telling only short stories. The benefits to this is that there is always a resolution (usually within a 20 minute episode) and the entire plot is wrapped up nicely with a little bow. No loose ends. The downside- it seems there is no real, long term character development. One of the reasons I got bored of Scooby Doo as a child was because it was SO predictable. Nothing ever really changed and the outcome was the same. It's a nice change of pace to invest in an anime and go on this long, life changing journey with characters you get to know very well. If only they could cut back on the 5 minute intro and outro songs though!
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