A few days ago, Google’s personalized home page’s quote of the day box had an interesting thought:
No opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. – W. H. Auden
I think that there’s probably a bit of insight in that quote to anime. Let’s face it – anime isn’t “sensible” for the most part – it’s silly! Giant anthropomorphic robots? Impossible*! Naturally bright pink hair? There’s no such thing. Spaceships with FTL abilities? Beyond the wildest dreams of mainstream physicists. Worldwide apocalypse? Let’s hope we never see that one! Sword-fighting? It doesn’t matter how good someone is with a sword – against a larger number of people with guns, they’re doomed.
So why is anime unrealistic? Some it it is just fantasy. Who wouldn’t want to wander off, meet new people, see new places? All the better is those people are suave and sexy and the locations are wonderlands. But that’s not the whole story by a long shot, IMHO. You can’t examine people in unusual circumstance in real life – unusual circumstances just don’t come around enough. So, by imagining unusual circumstances, anime (and other forms of great literature), get to ask “what if?”
Which doesn’t make it any less silly… or any less enjoyable!
*More or less. I’m sure someone will build one someday, but don’t hold your breath.