Comedy, The Anime Way #0 – An Introduction

Comedy, The Anime Way...

After comedy, my next great love is for Japanese anime and manga. That’s animation and comic books for those who don’t know.

My interest in the animated art-form from the Far East has resulted in several things for me personally; namely being the secretary for the Nemacon (the North East Manga and Anime Convention) in Middlesbrough, operating as a reviewer and reporter for the website Anime UK News, and most recently working as the “Manga Expert” for MyM magazine.

Because of my fondness for anime, I’ve seen quite a lot of shows that have never, and most likely will never, get shown on British TV, probably due to the ‘risk’ of showing something from a non-English speaking country and the apparent cost of broadcasting such shows on the box.

That’s a shame, because there’s so many great shows out there, and this includes an awful lot of comedy that we never see. While it’s true that some of the comedy doesn’t translate all that well over here due to certain cultural references or jokes that don’t transcend language barriers, there’s plenty of stuff out there that the British might just like. There’s anime which, in some aspects, put English-speaking comedies in the shade.

For example, there’s a series called One Piece, a comedic adventure series about a group of pirates. Chances are you’ve probably never heard of it, which is surprising given the gigantic commercial success of it. Let me put it this way: Last of the Summer Wine broadcast just under 300 episodes in a period lasting over 35 years. The Simpsons has so far broadcast around 500 episodes over 23 years. One Piece has broadcast over 550 episodes in just under 13 years!

On average, that’s one new episode every week for over a decade. Plus it’s made eleven films, and the printed manga currently runs into 66 volumes, having sold over 260 million copies. Kind of makes The Simpsons look worthless (but given the quality of episodes over recent years, this is no surprise).

However, One Piece is just one comedy series. There are countless others, covering just about every type of comedy. From the surrealness of FLCL to the romantic class-ridden humour of Ouran High School Host Club, from the musical K-On! to the over-the-top ridiculousness of Gurren Lagann.

Anime and manga creators are even willing to cover some subjects that you might not expect. For example, as any decent QI fan will tell you, the Japanese are a bit sensitive on subjects like the atomic bombings at the end of World War II. So you probably wouldn’t expect them to make a comedy about the war. You also wouldn’t expect anyone, anywhere in the world, to make a series in which all the characters were stereotypes in this day and age.

If you believe all this to be true, then you’ve probably never heard of Hetalia: Axis Powers, probably the most politically incorrect comedy ever made. A comedy, about Word War II, by the Japanese, in which all of the characters are the stereotyped personifications of the nations of the world, including cowardly Italy, over-polite Japan, and a certain cynical gentlemanly punk called England. Not only is this a series which is currently being made at the moment, it’s so popular there is a “Hetalia Day” held all over the world to celebrate it.

Hence this monthly column. The plan is to go through as many comedy anime and manga as I can find, and cover them one at a time, in the hope that at least someone will find them funny. And fingers crossed at least one of our readers will go out and experience something different.

If I can do that, I’ll be a happy anime fan. Or “otaku”, to use the jargon.

The first official issue of ‘Comedy, The Anime Way’ will be here on the 15th July, in which I’ll talk about the comedy anime I ever saw, sci-fi comedy Martian Successor Nadesico.