Judging from the little anime I have seen (Neon Genesis Evangelion and first eps of many major titles), I'd say that anime can be remarkably multichannel multimedia.

Meaning that you will get data from multiple medias and channels simultaneously; for example, you might be watching a scene where you try to see characters doing something that's visually meaningful (ie. gestures), listen to what they are talking about and try to hear what's on the radio in background as well.

This, of course, because all channels will contain data that is meaningful, a radio program with something sarcastic or otherwise amusing for instance.

This should not be anything charasteristic to anime, but so it seems. Correct me if I'm wrong.

For all that I can only say... makes my brain hurt to follow it, especially since Japanese sometimes speak so damn fast/short expressions that the subtitle will be gone in secs in any case. But that's just good.

Foreground video, background video, foreground audio, background audio, twisting double-meanings that take a few extra seconds to parse (& the good stuff won't slow down for you), and the occasional "I missed that entire scene because I was still laughing so hard from the previous one."

Add to all this (for those of us who don't (yet) speak Japanese), subtitles. Right now, I know enough japanese to catch bits and pieces of spoken dialog. This then gives me 1-2 audio-dialog, 1 visual-dialog, and 1-2 video tracks to attempt to follow. That's up to five raw channels. In addition, the audio channels and the subtitle channel are presenting the same information not only in different languages (with different connotations & alternate meanings), but also through different senses. You get to have fun decoding the audio signal & decrypting the video signal completely independently and allow them to meet in the middle, & play off each other...

And that's not even getting into the content coming through those channels, which can be deeper/more-multi-meaning/funnier than your average human can keep up with in realtime.

This is what makes anime head-filling. This is why anime is unique, and why it can be so nifty.


I'm almost afraid to continue my studies in Japanese. If I continue on, I will no longer need the subtitles, and will lose a channel of content.

Subtitles do not detract from anime, they enrich it.

Unlike normal film or anything else that is live action, in anime you can control Everything! The director, the animators, the voice actors, Everyone knows what part they have to play and what they will contribute to the whole final project.

This was my arguement in the anime ain't anime without tentacle rape node. As you have complete control in Japanese Anime, espeically over what things look like, there is a tendancy to make things as sexy as possible.

All these different channels mean something. Nothing is there by mistake (bad writing not included). If Shinji Ikari is listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor on his SDAT walkmen then there is reason behind that. Evangelion is a very good example to use becuase the series director Hideaki Anno crafted so much detail into character development and religious and mythical symbolism.

Of course it makes your brain hurt. That's part of the fun. Trying to track everything at once, discovering why Unit 01 is purple or why the ending song is called Thanatos makes Neon Genesis Evangelion in particular, and most anime in general very interesting to watch.

To quote the master Anno Hideaki himself, "Even names that have no bearing on anything actually came from the countless rules that govern these things."

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