An Aria About Anime

Can you name the show?  Hint: there is more Jazz than classical music here

I have two main interests in my life that on the surface are on the complete opposite ends of the culture spectrum.  That is because I can espouse my love for Anime and Opera in the same breath.  However, after being both an Anime fan for a number of years and becoming more and more of an Opera buff over the past few years, I have noticed that many of things I love about anime can in fact be found in many great Operas.  That is why I am writing this, in hopes to explain why Opera and Anime have such a similar appeal.

#1: Production Values out the Wazoo

Any visual medium will strive to create things that boggle the mind.  Maybe it is a giant robot with impeccable design, maybe it is a mythical creature that seems to have come from an ancient text.  In anime, we get these things all of the time since the only limit on what we see is the artists drawing ability.  In opera however, the limitations of having to put something on a stage and make it something that an actual human can interact with all the more impressive in many ways.

Such a shame that he’s going to kill such a beautiful creature. 

For instance, in the Opera Siegfried, part 3 of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, the character Siegfried has to go kill a dragon.  So opera companies the world over have built dragons to be used in their plays.  My favorite example of this is when an actual train was used in opera, with steam and everything.  This was back in the 1800s, so sorry, but no pictures.

Just imagine Ryuko and Satsuki singing here and the background not changing as much

Of course, their are other things like costume work, props, and other things that Operas do to make the stage feel like another world.  But compare the stage you see and the anime on the screen, are they not both fictional worlds brought to life before your eyes?

#2: Love Dodecahedron

Stop me if you have heard this one before.  A young man is in love with a woman, but the woman he loves, loves someone else (who may or may not be the young man’s sworn enemy).  And the young man’s childhood friend is secretly in love with him, but she has never had the chance to tell him how she feels.  You know that story, it is the story of countless Shoujo anime… and the plot of Carmen.

It is sadly never that simple.

Of course, Operas being a single event kind of thing, you don’t get the will-they-won’t-they, so common in anime.  Other than that though, you get so many similar love stories in anime and manga.  The artist whose love dies of an illness: Your Lie in April and La Boheme.  A playboy who the ladies can’t help love: [Insert Harem show here] and Rigoletto.  The point is: if you watch anime for the romance angle, you can be easily served by going to an opera.

#3: The Power of Emotions

Pavarotti, is that you?

But maybe you the reader are a soulless monster who doesn’t know this hu-man emotion we call love.  Well don’t worry, because if Operas have one other thing well represented it is hyper-exaggerated emotions.  Just like your Shonen protagonist who fights against the odds and wins just because he has that burning heart.  Done.  Maybe you like your angst-y protagonists with a chip on their shoulder and a grudge against the world?  Done.  Do you have a burning rage in you, one so strong the very tattered vest you wear bursts off you in a torrent of flames?  Done.  And if you like energetic characters that seem like they could never be put down by the world?  Done and Done.

Now maybe this is just me, but the extreme emotions that characters express are one of the funnest things about anime for me.  Whether it is the screaming mecha pilot or the manly tears of Kenshiro, it is these over stated emotions in ridiculous scenarios that make anime special.  And while the “what” that characters are passionate about is different in opera, the “how” passionate they are is actually very similar.

#4: These Creators are Crazy

Now I’ll admit that this one applies to almost every medium full of creative people and artists.  For instance, legendary grumpy person Yoshiyuki Tomino admits Gundam Recongista in G is a bad show because it is just too logical.  Also, his greatest regret is that the Japanese government isn’t going to watch his show.  Mamoru Oshii doesn’t understand friendship and doesn’t like talking to people either.  And Hayao Miyazaki pretty much hates all otaku, kinda like Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster.

  Crazy Person

On the opera side of things, let’s look at one of histories biggest megalomaniacs: Richard Wagner.  Example 1: Wagner’s biggest patron was the famous king Ludwig II, who is famous for trying to live life like a character from Game of Thrones.  Example 2: he had an affair with a woman named Cosima, who just happened to be the wife of Franz Liszt (as in one of the most famous pianists of the 19th century.  He was one of Chopin’s contemporaries).  Example 3: He created a theater in a small town called Bayreuth that only plays his operas.  And the only reason anyone ever goes to Bayreuth in modern times is for his operas.

Crazy Person

Again, the joy of investigating crazy people isn’t limited to just anime or opera.  We all know that Edgar Allen Poe was weird, that Tim Burton loves ruining childhoods, and that Vanilla Ice is a stark raving lunatic (and the stand user is strange too).

#5 It’s all about the Music, MAN

Now I’d be doing you all a disservice if I didn’t talk about the musical aspects of operas and anime.  The difference musically between these two is that in Opera the music is the main point of what you are watching, while anime music is often in the background.  Look at how in a show like Kekkai Sensen (read my posts!) they play all sorts of music.  When there is a chase scene there is a catchy tune playing to get you pumped up, at a moment of victory Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is played, and if you are going to destroy a monster truck that has been rampaging in New York City of course you play Jazz.  The point I’m making is that all of these different musical pieces are done to enhance what you are seeing on the screen.  Now I am not saying that the plot and action of the opera is meaningless, but I have always seen those things as an excuse for great music.  For instance, let’s look at an aria from the opera Faust by Gounod called the Golden Calf (that is a biblical reference I’m not getting into).  The actual song is sung by a the Devil Mephistopheles about how mankind is greedy and falls to the will of the devils.  That is fine and all, but I mainly listen to this because I love the performance.  In the end, to me I go to the opera for music then action, and with anime it is reversed.

  He sure looks the part

But Samsura I hear you say: I don’t understand what the people on stage are saying.  Well, I don’t understand Japanese, and that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying anime; plus most theaters have some form of subtitles.  But Samsura: I don’t want to sit in one place for multiple hours watching the same thing.  Then I guess you can never binge watch a show again or see a Peter Jackson movie.  But Samsura: I don’t like classical music.  So for this one, I have to be a little self righteous.  Compare two famous arias (a solo): Nessum Dorma and La Donna e Mobile both sung by Opera star Pavarotti.  You can’t say after hearing these songs that they sound similar, and their actual meanings are completely different too.  It’s a lot like how hearing say “Do You Remember Love” (Macross) or the Totoro theme are enough to make me cry, it is the delivery before the context that really speaks to me about this music.

So overall, what I’m trying to say is that if you like anime (and those who bother to read this probably like anime) maybe, just maybe, there is an opera for you.  Oh yeah, and if you are into tentacles, then have I got something for you:  The Octopuses Aria Un di Ero Piccina

One of (I was a child), At the temple I saw a monk In a screen all done in symbols, Rattling off the veil of mystery … It was a plague On a large dead sea Color Bronze; And there was a sky Red as blood, On a red bruise; And a large beach, A large beach dead Gray and white … A girl sits giaceavi, Skinny limbs, Scattered hair And in the mouth of a rice Who was a spasm … On the Dead Sea Meanwhile, a large octopus The head stood … And the girl with the big Falcato guatava eye out; This, to put down the look of terror, All affisava! On the Dead Sea The slimy tentacles He moved the monster, and his legs, Pei kidney and shoulder, Then by the hair And the forehead and eyes And the slender chest heaving, And for arms Clasps and ties! Clasps and ties in the face! She smiles every hour! She smiles and dies With an extreme agony Which seems a rice … it smiles He dies, and dies! And the monk in a loud voice: “That octopus and Pleasure … The octopus and Death! “

About Samsura

As someone of questionable tastes and even more questionable ethics; if we laugh at the same things you are one of two things: A person of discerning taste or a weirdo. Guess where I fall.