CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Enthusiasm for Japanese animation is spreading rapidly on an international scale. Comic books as thick as telephone books, called manga, can be found on subway seats in Tokyo and in the hands of students and professors alike here in Winston-Salem.
The animation itself, called anime, is not like the Warner Brothers and Disney images that come to most Americans' minds. In both manga and anime, cartoons encompass adult themes such as violence, environmentalism and pornography.
Joanne Izbicki, an assistant professor of history, first glimpsed anime at a noodle shop in Japan 14 years ago. It was "the most appealing animation I'd ever seen in my life," she said.
Freshman Jourdan Bickham first became interested in anime at age 15. "It destroyed everything I'd ever seen by Disney," he said.
Bickham's friend's father, who had been stationed in Japan, returned with several anime videos. His selection was of the more violent, bloody genre, and 15-year-old Jourdan was instantly attracted. "Soon I was renting everything I could find in the store and was always pressing them to order more," he said.
Izbicki's favorite manga series, "Ranma 1/2" by Takahashi Rumiko, subtly discusses the gender issues in Japanese society through the trials of a father and a son.
The two characters mutate when cold water is thrown onto them and can only change back with hot water. The father turns into an panda and the son into a girl.
This gender change presents infinite pos-sibilities for comic storylines and lots of amusing shower scenes.
Among the more serious series is "Barefoot Gen," which describes a young boy's experience following the bombing of Hiroshima. Anime shows the massive devastation in a simplistic, more understandable way.
"[Filmmakers] couldn't have the same impact with today's film and movies," Izbicki said.
The characters in both manga and anime are of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and little thought is given to such distinctions.
Izbicki said she saw a huge surge in interest while earning her Ph.D. at Cornell University. In 1987, a group of eight watched anime videos on a television set while one person translated throughout the film.
By 1995, the university was showing several anime films with subtitles every Saturday night in an auditorium holding about 150 people.
Manga comics can be found locally at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find Comics in Silas Creek Crossing Shopping Center.