Friday, October 14, 2016

Otaku no video essay


The start of my anime adventure
The beginning of my anime journey was when I was  4 years old. My brother Casely,  was about to start his first year of college. He decided that we needed to bond over something, so he decided that we would watch Dragon Ball Z together. At  first I wasn't interested in the show, it wasn't like the stereotypical shows or movies I would watch; it did not have princesses and princes, but for some reason I grew to like the show.  It might have been Goku's naive what kind personality,  Vegeta's determination to one-up Goku, Bulmas’  intelligence, or just the fact that things blew up every other episode. But I grew to love the show as much as I did this bonding with my brother. By the time Casely left for college I would be watching every episode by myself.  This started my  love for anime.


For me as an otaku, I guess I never knew what an otaku was to define myself as one. I was just a lonely child who used tv to not feel so lonely. I was a;so very smart for my age , I was reading Harry Potter book 2 by the time I was in 1st grade. Anime was just a way to for my creative brain to process things.  After my discovery of Dragon Ball Z, I would only watch that anime. Honestly, I thought it would be the only anime I would ever watch. However,  I then discovered Sonic X. The show was in English dub, and would come on every other day. Sonic X was completely different than Dragon Ball Z,  the show was more geared towards children, yet it underlying serious themes. The show made me understand the concept of death, how it was ok to be selfish because we were only human, how having a disability did not make you invalid and even more. It made me realize fat anime was not just one genre.  

This completed my descent into the world of anime.  I started researching online about different animes and realized I like the genre shonen the most. However, learning my favorite genre did not stop me from discovering more anime’s over the years. However because of the shonen genre of anime I  discovered my favorite anime of all time: ONE PIECE.
Favorite anime of all time


The start of fanfiction and ocs
By the time I was 10 I knew I had a strong love of anime, but I was also very picky about certain elements. My family members would call me out on how I would always call out the cliche parts of a movie or t.v show, say the character was too 1 dimensional or ranting about the plot holes that would occur in what we were watching.  To them I was a little movie critic. My families call out made me realize that I wanted to rewrite several things that I watched. Especially with certain animes. I loved to write up epilogues for my stories, that never had concrete endings. But most of all I loved to write up my own characters. I would give my characters a whole background, a personality, and flaws. I would then write them within some of the anime I would watch. An example would be how I created two characters for the second anime I ever watched: Sonic X. I made the characters Sonia and Sunny. Two hedgehogs that were his little sisters. I did not know they were original characters or ocs as they were known by the fanfiction world until my best friend Maddy showed me fanfiction for the first time ever.
Fanfiction was my final descent into my Otaku lifestyle. I was introduced to it by my best friend, Maddy. It was completely by accident, to this day Maddy regrets introducing me to it, but I started reading it and I was hooked. Fanfiction led me to the world of fandoms, rewrite of anime’s, and ocs.  It made me completely commit to anime. I would read One Piece fanfiction and revel in it. And when Ace died in the anime I would just read fanfiction where he was saved to soothe the pain. This led me to start writing some of my own fanfictions, as well as it increased my courage in accepting that it was okay to like anime. It also led me to joining creative sites like tumblr and deviantart.
Finally I started to buy thing related to anime from the store Hot Topic. Those things were t shirts that had anime on them, anime bracelets, plushie dolls, and posters, The items I got made me feel like a true fan, and to this day I still will buy some anime items, including DVDs and mangas. I still have never cosplayed or ever been to a Con but those things are part of my bucket list so I hope to go one day. Right now I am content with my fanfiction, fandoms, my purchased items, and my anime.

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Astro Boy 2003: Power up






The 2003 version of Asutoro Bōi: Tetsuwan Atomu(japanese translation) or Astro Boy was directed by Kazuya Konaka and written by Chiaki Konaka. The studio that produced this was Tezuka Productions, which is known for other famous animes like Samurai Warriors and the 1980 version of Astro Boy. Finally the show was licensed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Mill Creek Entertainment. This show was meant to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original 60s black and white anime. The original run of the show was from April 6th, 2003 to March 28th 2004; the anime in all consisted of 50 episodes.
In all Astro boy is Action, adventure, and sci-fi anime. The synopsis of the overall anime is set in 2043 in a place called Metro City, it is a place where robots are commodity in human lives. A famous doctor named Tenma Umatarō other wise known as Dr.Tenma has disappeared right after he was on the cusp of a major construction of an AI robot using a new technology called Kokoro (which is heart in japanese). Professor Ochanomizu, who replaces Tenma as head of the Ministry of Science, discovers a boy robot and brings him to life after giving him the name Astro. Astro discovers that he can fly via rocket boosters in his hands and feet, has superhuman strength, and other such abilities. The series then consists of Astro having to help save Metro City, while discovering his past which connects with Dr. Tenma. He also has to  deal with robots and villainous robot-hating humans who threaten his friends, fellow robots and Metro City.
Why I chose this anime.  When I was a child Astro Boy would show on Cartoon Network late in the evening. I was drawn to its colorful animation, characters and morals of the show. I also enjoyed the music that played in the background as well as the theme song:










When we watched the original Astro Boy in class I was surprised on how both different and similar the original was to the 2003 version. Sadly I had only watch the dubbed version so watching the subbed version was an experience in itself.  The episode I watched was called Power up and it was the first episode of the series. It starts with us seeing the inside structure of Astro while hearing his subconscious asking for his father. We then see Professor Ochanomizu and several other scientist trying to turn Astro on. However there is not enough energy This leads to Professor Ochanomizu calling the energy plant and having them use the energy of the city to power Astro up, this causes the city to black out. However finally with all the energy used Ochanomizu is able to power up Astro and he awakens.

Astro Boy's birth
In the next scene we see Astro being observed by scientist While playing with Ochanomizu. The scientist are shocked that this is this Ultimate robot but Ochanomizu explains that last Astro has the ability to have emotions and process thoughts like a real boy so he will develop as a real boy, even though he is a robot. This is because of his Kokoro that he has in his robot body. Ochanomizu hopes that this will close the gap between humans and robots and they will become friends. However the scientist wave it off as not important and leave. 
Astro's child like personality
We then meet Yuko, who is professor Ochanomizu assistant, as well as pet robot flamingo as well as Robita, Astro’s nanny robot. Ochanomizu  leaves for a meeting and leaves Robita in charge of Astro. However Astro’s curiosity overtakes him he escapes, and falls off a ledge into the city where he miraculously is able to activate his rocket powered boots and flies. This leads him to explore the city.
Astro's escape
Astro's flight


In the meanwhile we meet Detective Tawashi, who is apprehensive about Astro Boy having Kokoro, saying that a thinking and feeling robot can be dangerous, while Ochanomizu disagrees. They both see Astro’s fall and flight and rush to find him. Meanwhile Astro goes through some misadventures while exploring Metro City. However a rogue robot from the energy plant named Magnamite comes out to destroy the city. Ochanomizu tries to go and stop it but
Magnamite almost kills him, however Astro comes by and saves him. Tawashi then tries to use the police force to stop him but it fails. Astro tries to reason with Magnamite but that fails and Magnamite almost squishes him. This causes Astro to have a quick flashback to an unknown man (which is Tenma) as well as other scenes. This causes Astro to fly Magnamite up, during this they communicate and Astro learns that the robot has too much energy which causes him pain. 
Astro flying Magnamite up


Astro then absorbs all the energy saving the day as well as Magnamite. Astro then flies off glowing which is the excess energy turning into light. We then end the episode seeing a mysterious man (who is Tenma) calling Astro “Tobio.”

This anime feels more like a shoju compared to the anime in the 1960.With this anime compared to the old one this one seems to have an ongoing story.  For one thing Tenma is seen as an antagonist slash  mysterious figure. As Astro seems to think that Ochanomizu is his original owner. Astro Boy is also more childlike in this anime compared to the ones in the 60s as he seems very playful with everything. However like the original Astro still has a good heart and wants to help everyone.
With the way the themes seem to be it seems to be going towards a direction of discrimination, fear and ultimate understanding. The way Professor Ochanomizu talks about Astro being the bridge between man and machine we see as a sort of savior story. However the savior is not overall perfect and still has to grow and develop learning about themselves as well as the people surrounding them. This is what Astro needs to do. He will also figure out his origins as well as connection to Dr. Tenma. This will probably be the whole series and there will be some major arcs compared to the original where most of the story were stand alones, except maybe a few arcs.
Thus Astro Boy  will be a very interesting anime to watch to anyone who is interested and shows that have arcs, depths, good characters, and just like watching funny anime's I would suggest this version of Astro Boy.

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