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Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

atlasobscura.com

121–130 of 158 posts

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#121
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Evangelion, power represented civilization in various stages of decline. It's post-apocalyptic, so the state of the infrastructure shows you if an area has been abandoned, reclaimed, etc. The Evas (basically giant mecha) have to be tethered to power to work, etc. The whole theme of the anime centers around the type of arrogance Man (in this case, a single man) would show in the face of annihilation by God, and how…

Ive heard that they put in christian imagery just because it was cool and with no real purpose.

It's insufficient to say "Relevant TVTropes article", but perhaps as an entry point into that cavernous maw": http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FauxSymbolism

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#122
post #2

I thought it's just that in Asia, they don't usually hide lines or make effort to decrease number of individual wires. That's what you have on street - that's what you get in anime.

Asia is not a country. In Chinese news stories about American power failures they usually have to start by explaining that there are actually a lot of power lines above ground even though the U.S. is considered "developed".

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#123
post #80
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where to read, but it seems to me that end of the 90s, TV shows (real and anime) became less episode based but got a whole story arc, like we know from current TV shows like "Game of Thrones", "Breaking Bad" or "The Wire". I always hear people talking about how "The Sopranos" was the first TV show that did this, but anime like "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Cowboy Bebop" came out years before it.

Macross and Gundam did this in the 80s. Macross was even viewable here, as Robotech .

And Rose of Versailles did it in the 1970s. Don't forget the shoujo demographic, everyone.

This whole myth of invention being a singular moment rather than a gradual stream of improvements infects creative works more than other fields. But we all stand on the shoulders of giants.

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#124
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting, since it seems to be the opposite in the US. I always assumed that was because it was cheaper to run lines on poles rather than doing the digging that could be dozens and dozens of miles. What makes it different, I wonder?

Part of it has to be that our infrastructure is among the oldest (presumably the same reason we use a form of power socket with relatively few safety features to prevent electrocution, still have lead pipes in places, etc.).

Are those wires really 80 years old though? [1] (just the abstract) suggests overhead wires need replacement after 50 years. In any case, towns in Europe were electrified at a similar time to America. (Rural areas probably aren't comparable, with the bigger distances in the US being the reason Europe was first for this.)

[1] http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/595590/?reload=true

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#125
post #96
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soap Operas?

I was thinking of that too, especially of all the personal problems the characters had in Evangelion. I had to stop watching because of the main protagonist repeatedly asking why his father doesn't show any love for him. A lot of people are into those story-lines, and I guess it partly explains Evangelion's popularity with women too.

Yeah, Shinji is not a lot of fun. Though, he's not really "supposed" to be likeable. Over the years I've warmed up to him, though. He'll never be likeable but he's definitely sympathetic and actually rather realistic, considering the hell he's put through.

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#126
post #4

Lol... I was going to say this exactly. Evangelion and Lain were pretty popular even in the US around the year 2000, so I imagine they were near ubiquitous in Japan. Both were well-animated and the power lines a symbol that was returned to again and again. Anime/manga also loves to meme/trope things like this because animation studios are cheap and love 30s tracking shots across 2 hand-drawn panel with nothing more t…

Serial Experiments Lain remains a point of reference for me. Whenever the modern world seems especially surreal, I hear it in my head: "present day, present time!" followed by the mad cackle of laughter. It also deepened my appreciation for the electrical infrastructure when I first visited East Asia.

For me it serves (alongside Weird Al's "It's all about the Pentiums") as a reminder of what an odd time the 90's were. People were just getting onto the Internet, and computers were really slow and expensive and painful to use, but progress was being made rapidly into totally uncharted territory (both socially and technologically) and it seemed like some sort of singularity-ish event was just around the corner.

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#127
I don't see how this is much different from the establishing shots, panoramic shots, still life shots, etc. that exist in other genres as well. That being said, I do see these types of shots less often in modern non-anime film and I appreciate how anime has been carrying this tradition. Lots of classic films also have a taste for the scenic and contemplative, and it's one of the things I love about them.

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#128
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, J. Michael Straczynski was the first person to get a successful arc-based television series on TV, with _Babylon 5_ - the pilot aired in 1993. He had tried earlier with _Captain Power_ in 1987, but that only lasted a single season, and it was kind of doomed to be thought of as a kid's show because of the toyline tie-in.

Soap Operas?

Babylon 5 was even called a "space opera."

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#129
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ive heard that they put in christian imagery just because it was cool and with no real purpose.

I dunno; the biblical imagery is pretty central to the plot (Adam/Eve, Angels, Lance of Longinus, etc.) There's a strong implication that this takes place during "the rapture" and in fact, EoE shows what is basically a textbook version of rapture. It's not used with the same level of reverence it would be in the West (it's treated more of the way we would treat a story about Greek gods) so it may seem hokey to Wester…

I'm of the camp that says that the Judeo-Christian symbolism is mostly faux symbolism. Window-dressing, basically.

(FWIW I'm writing this as an atheist and a huge fan of Evangelion)

To choose an arbitrary example: Sure, there's a "Spear of Longinus" but there's no real relation to what's in the Bible. In the Bible it's an unremarkable thing, used for a remarkable purpose against a single being, Jesus. Literally any spear (or rock, or whatever) would have accomplished the same thing in the Bible.

In Evangelion... it's no ordinary object. It's a superweapon that serves as a trump card against a variety of beings, none of whom are particularly Christ-like. Oh, and there's more than one. Shinji is somewhat of a reluctant "savior" for the human race, which is vaguely Christ-like, but little else in his story matches up with Jesus' life.

Same with the crosses. In Christianity, crosses mean one thing: they're a reminder of Jesus' sacrifice and the chance for salvation. There is nothing magical about a cross itself; it's just a reminder of events past.

In Evangelion, crosses are over the place. Misato wears a cross, Lilith is nailed to a cross, the Angels make cross-shaped explosions, the Evas are transported on cross-like frames, and people apparently turn into glowy crosses during Instrumentality.

But there's no Christ figure in Evangelion, and nobody seems to be pining for one. They don't even seem to be aware of Christianity for the most part, and are certainly not reverent of it. In fact, it's just the opposite - all the major players in the story seem to be determined to fashion their own fate for man, rather than submitting to a higher power. Ultimately, you could cut and paste out all the crosses and replace them with some other evocative token, and the story would remain unchanged.

Re: Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?

#130
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Macross and Gundam did this in the 80s. Macross was even viewable here, as Robotech .

And Rose of Versailles did it in the 1970s. Don't forget the shoujo demographic, everyone. This whole myth of invention being a singular moment rather than a gradual stream of improvements infects creative works more than other fields. But we all stand on the shoulders of giants.

But who did it first?!?!? xD
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