Mad Randomness – just a Japanese animation quirk? A short ode to originality…

Posted on | September 20, 2006 | 3 Comments |

| *SHOCK HORROR!* Western animation on an anime blog???? Blasphemy!!!

The mental path to which I got to thinking about this post will probably be completely irrelevant, but I think I’ll say it anyway, cause it makes the post longer and maybe makes me feel like I’m not plucking things out of nowhere.

As I said in my returning home post, I’ve started Neurobiology this term. If there are any medics or people of that disposition in my audience, you will know how mind-bogglingly complicated and badly organised brain anatomy is and how difficult it is to explain. And so, there I was, sitting in my lecture with 3d specs perched precariously on the bridge of my nose, while Dr Dawn tried her best to explain the ins and outs of all the knobbly bits and bobs. Needless to say, my mind wandered.

And what popped into my head but an old sketch from an American cartoon of the late ’90’s, the Animaniacs. (Specifically, the sketch was “Brainstem” from Pinky and the Brain). Looking it up on Youtube revealed that not only the songs, but entire episodes were available for perusal. Needless to say, work that evening was done rather slower than usual.

But this episode reminded me that although the Japanese are clearly king with respects to total randomness and ridiculous numbers of pop-culture references fused with mindless comic violence (Excel Saga and Pani Poni Dash! are the two shows that spring instantly to mind), the Americans can also hold their own. Animaniacs was one of my absolute favourite shows of the late ’90s and continues to be absolute genius when I watch it again. I realised recently that the reason I enjoy cartoons these days that I also enjoyed when I was younger is that they have a separate humour component that is also aimed at adults and it is this fusion of the two genres that makes it so satisfying to watch.

|Excel Saga had, amongst other things, yuri. ^_^

This vein of “easter egg humour” was common in a lot of cartoon shows of the 80’s and 90’s, such as the aforementioned Dangermouse, Scooby Doo(Not including the dubious Scooby and Scrappy doo) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This was entirely separate from the other brand of childrens show which relied on slapstick humour or mock violence to get laughs (Tom and Jerry, Road Runner and the rest of the WB cartoons, Wacky Races etc.) Of course, there were the shows in the middle such as The Flintstones, The Rugrats and other such “sitcom” type shows.

As far as I was concerned, the only cartoon to successfully combine the slapstick and adult comedy genres successfully was the Animaniacs, first airing in 1993. The format of the show became a perfect comedy sketch-show, with long sketches based on recurring characters spaced amongst one line gag sketches such as Good idea, Bad Idea and Mime Time and brief musical skits.

In fact, looking at it now, it could quite conceivably be classed as a revue.

The genius of the Animaniacs was that not only was it slapstick and appealing to kids, it had old pop culture references (for example, Goodfeathers, a parody of…well, you know…, and Mr Skullhands, a parody of Edward Scissorhands, as well as many episodic references), and mixed in the odd bit of political humour such as Bill Clinton playing sax in the intro and Al Gore cosplaying as Eeyore. Not to mention the absolute genius of Pinky and the Brain.

| For slapstick violence, look no further than Dokuro-chan…

Getting back to my point, if you mix childrens and adult genres in Japanese anime you end up with something like Animal Yokocho, which is broadly similar in its 10 minute sketch episode nature and slapstick randomness (though with significantly less violence ^_^), though it lacks the huge numbers of pop-culture references. In fact, thinking about it now, Iyo reminds me rather closely of Yakko Warner.

The only anime that I can think of that has the same number of pop-culture ingrained in it as Animaniacs is probably Pani-Poni Dash!, possibly the only anime that is impossible to watch without encyclopedia sized liner notes on hand.

In conclusion, although you will doubtlessly see me fawn over anime that seamlessly combine childrens and adult genres such as Animal Yokocho, be aware that in some respects, in this genre, the Americans just may have the winning example.

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Category: Animal Yokocho, Anime, Editorials, Western animation

Comments

3 Responses to “Mad Randomness – just a Japanese animation quirk? A short ode to originality…”

Zzz...
September 20th, 2006 @ 4:36 pm

Ahh…Animaniacs…fond memories, fond memories. You know I never thought of looking for it on Youtube. Moment of blindness I guess. Thanks.
moetics
September 22nd, 2006 @ 1:26 am

Animeniacs is still the greatest American afternoon cartoon ever. I dunno what’s on nowadays but Lunatics or imported BS like Yugioh GX certainly won’t top that.
Bridge Bunny
September 22nd, 2006 @ 5:35 am

The theme song is godly. As is Pinky and the Brain’s.