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Why Is Anime Obsessed With Power Lines?
- rebuilder 9y agoIn addition to the reasons given here, I'd say that as far as bang-for-buck in terms of visual realism goes, power lines are pretty effective. They look complex but are quite fast to draw with line tools or model in a 3d package and usually can be represented with minimal shading. Creating the impression of modern urban landscapes is largely a question of creating very detail-dense images, and power lines are a pretty cheap way to add a lot of small detail.
- thriftwy 9y agoI 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.
- donquichotte 9y agoI was told that at least in Japan, this is done because it's easier to rebuild after an earthquake than digging up and reburying broken power and communication lines.
- kqr 9y agoHuh, cool. That's a great illustration of the two general ways to achieve reliability. Either you make it rather hard to break in the first place (bury powerlines underground, write software with strong type systems) or embrace the fact that either way, it will break eventually, so maybe it's just better to focus on making it easy to fix (powerlines in the air, write Erlang-style software that reboots quickly in the face of error.)
- ivm 9y agoYes, same in Chile.
- johansch 9y agohttps://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/07/bangkoks-tangled-power-lines-are-going-underground/490763/ https://www.citylab.com/solutions/2016/07/bangkoks-tangled-p... "That Time Bill Gates Accidentally Shamed Bangkok Into Burying Its Power Lines"
- ginko 9y agoThat was my understanding as well.
- Symbiote 9y agoI thought that when I visited America. Streets in many towns look like this [0]. In much of Europe, you'd need to be in a very rural area for the power lines to be above ground. It's a bit more common for telephone lines to be above ground, but that's still something seen in villages rather than towns. [0] https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/01-main-street-louisville.jpg?fit=1200%2C667&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/brokensidewalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2016... or https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jpg https://ak9.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/2544149/thumb/1.jp...
- Coding_Cat 9y agoSwitzerland (the geneve/lausanne area) has a lot of overhead wiring too. I must say, you never appreciate underground wiring until you no longer have it and a storm picks up. I would consistently lose power whenever there was a big storm. Hardly ever happened when I had underground wiring.
- Kihashi 9y agoThat'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?
- emodendroket 9y agoPart 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.).
- Symbiote 9y agoAre 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 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/595590/?reload=true
- svachalek 9y agoAsia 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".
- exelius 9y agoLol... 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 to animate than a bit of lens flare. IMO it started as a style thing but quickly became a “this is a cheap way to pad our runtime” thing.
- sevensor 9y agoSerial 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.
- exelius 9y agoYeah, I feel Lain is one of those underrated classics that people really only watched if they were super into anime around 2000-2004. Any later than that and the reaction was kind of "well, duh, of course that's what happens". I feel the same way about much of the societal commentary in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex -- they totally nailed the way groups like ISIS and the alt-right would spread like wildfire over social media, and the way that "fake news" makes finding the truth an exercise in futility. It was so accurate a decade before any of it happened that anyone who watches it now is unimpressed because it seems so topical as to be trite.
- distrill 9y agoI saw lain a few years ago for the first time and I wasn't underwhelmed at all, I thought it was great.
- ZenoArrow 9y agoI remember enjoying Serial Experiments Lain back in the day, good to hear it still holds up. If you (or anyone else reading this) enjoy cyberpunk anime, I can recommend checking out the UK dub of Cyber City Oedo 808. Very different from Lain, but has a classic 90s anime feel, and has more of an adult-oriented tone without being unnecessarily graphic. The UK dub has a different soundtrack from the Japanese release, has only been released on VHS, but luckily all three episodes are easy to find on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBXPsetOHM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwBXPsetOHM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSTGjmRHps https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSTGjmRHps https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NRb_7W0Ffc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-NRb_7W0Ffc
- xefer 9y agoIn that great documentary "Crumb" cartoonist Robert Crumb shows his notebooks in which he keeps pictures of all sorts of mundane infrastructure that he incorporates into his drawings. It's really effective in this sequence "A Short History of America": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IFVUHg_tUc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IFVUHg_tUc That one always gets me...
- stephengillie 9y agoThat's a great expression of how expansion and exploration drive technological progress. Much of the technology in the later video didn't exist when the video started, and was created on the newly-explored continent.
- ableal 9y agoComments there mention three later 'alternate futures' panels. They can be found through this page: https://boingboing.net/2009/08/07/r-crumbs-short-histo.html https://boingboing.net/2009/08/07/r-crumbs-short-histo.html
- PeachPlum 9y agoCrumb's "A Short History of America" in one http://i.imgur.com/h1D5Qo3.jpg http://i.imgur.com/h1D5Qo3.jpg
- Marinlemaignan 9y agothanks for sharing that!
- edpichler 9y agoThis makes me wonder about how complex is the world we are living today. The large amount of niches humanity created, unceasingly. On our complex societies, even a micro blog about "power lines in anime" have an audience, and got a journalist's attention to create an interesting article.
- ekianjo 9y agoBecause that's what Japan looks like, duh! Any place in Japan has basically power lines all over the place, even in cities like Tokyo. And also because it's easy to draw and show for 5 seconds in every anime to save on the precious animation budget because it's super static and goes everywhere. Added bonus it can be added into any decor and you would not notice it's the same pattern imported all over again in between animes.
- ljf 9y agoThis - my brother lives in Tokyo and for a time lived on a street that had pylons running down the middle with a little park running underneath them - it was considered a pretty nice place to live due to the park and green space that it had - even though you were bang next to a pylon.
- Jgrubb 9y agoI only went to Japan once, but I was struck by the power grid in a way that has made me notice it everywhere ever since. We went out to a ski resort in the summer (Fuji Rock) and even out in the mountains there were giant, modern pylons all over the place. A huge contrast to rural New Jersey.
- GuB-42 9y agoIt is true that it is what Japan looks like but it is still interesting to see how detailed the depiction is. Compare to the Simpsons for instance. It is set in present day American suburbs, but it doesn't look at all like a photograph. All the small details are missing unless they are relevant to the story. In the west, even if real life photographs, power lines are commonly seen as a nuisance and avoided, or even edited out. It is clearly a different approach to animation. I think we can make the parallel the way hands are drawn. 4 fingers for western animation (simplified), 5 for anime (realistic). The animation budget argument makes sense, and it certainly a good explanation for pylon or railway crossing shots. But I don't think it explains everything, both obscure series and big-budget animation films have their fair share of power lines.
- vanpeebles 9y ago
- hulkisdumb 9y agoMy guess is that + all the other reasons given, they just look artsy and pretty especially against the sky as a background
- vinceguidry 9y agoI propose a more prosaic explanation. Anime artists probably spend a lot of time looking out their windows. Unless they're doing very well for themselves, they probably see a lot of power lines. So the one thing they look at and study the most, is very likely to be power lines.
- justaman 9y agoPower lines are awful. They are an eyesore that destroys an otherwise beautiful landscape. I hope we can start putting these underground soon.
- hnarn 9y agoIn most of northern Europe, above-land powerlines are considered "old school" and are eliminated to whatever extent possible. Not only does it look bad (not a great business case), they're also vulnerable to the elements, especially in extreme cases with storms causing trees to fall on them. In most cases, you can only see them in rural areas, where the cost of burying them does not make sense.
- sarah180 9y agoSonoma and Napa counties in California recently burned. The official causes are not determined yet, and the litigation has barely started, but there is some evidence that this was caused by improper maintenance of above-ground power lines by PG&E—which has (unsurprisingly) vigorously opposed measures to bury or further shield them for years.
- crims0n 9y agoI agree but underground lines are often 2-4 times more expensive than above ground - for that reason alone I don't see them going away in our lifetime.
- MiddleEndian 9y agoMany urban areas in the US have them buried. None of the places I've lived in Boston have visible power lines but most of the surrounding areas do. It's nice to not worry about weather being a threat to your electricity even if it's more expensive to maintain under standard circumstances.
- Viper007Bond 9y ago100% of new construction where I live in Oregon uses underground power lines. It's easy to do when you're putting in first time infrastructure. Super expensive to do it for existing housing though.
- jamiewildehk 9y agoIt's a beautiful trope that immediately ties you to the location. The shots of trains passing is another - you can tell the train type and company being detected often with a scary level of accuracy. (fd - haven't lived in Japan since 2008)
- Isamu 9y agoEven before I read the link, I thought: Serial Experiments Lain. The power lines are almost an additional character. Also: I think this is where the X-styled hair tie started. I remember some discussion of it at the time, and so many characters since then have had some reference to it.
- calebm 9y agoMe too :) I loved Serial Experiments Lain's foregrounding of things like power lines... many people might find them unattractive, but good art can change how you see things.
- peterwwillis 9y agoAnime background/setting tropes: - cicadas - airplanes - power lines - traffic signals - artificial riverbanks - lush sprawling forests - the roof of a building
- gravy 9y agoHonestly. I went to Japan just last month and the fact that all of this is everywhere is just crazy.
- ghostbrainalpha 9y ago> The fact that traffic "signals, airplanes, and the roof of a building" is everywhere is just crazy? What does that mean?
- nkoren 9y agoMeans you've gotta go to Japan, mate!
- starshadowx2 9y ago- train crossings - shrines/temples - cafe - classroom/school
- tintar 9y agoexcellent, but left out a small but very important one: - ice cubes shifting/clinking on their own in a glass
- kazagistar 9y agoThe best creators will innovate these sorts of flourishes, picking things that are thematically and tonally consistent and have a real purpose. Then other creators will copy them, as an omage to the original work in order to ground themselves in the artistic movement they wish to belong to. This is how we end up with such a distinct anime aesthetic; a slow accretion of unique elements forming a distinct culture as multiple generations of artists influence each other in blatant and subtle way.
- coolandsmartrr 9y agoShort Answer: Anno Until their depiction in Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1995, power lines were virtually non-existent in anime. After all, why draw them when they take up more time and effort during a time-packed production schedule? However, Hideaki Anno, the director of the aforementioned anime, began to implement them in backgrounds, bringing in a new kind of mechanical urban aesthetics. Anno has a certain kind of obsession with mechanical structures, such as power lines and rail tracks, as he likes the way they continue into a distance. He continued depicting them in his later works, such as Kare Kano as well as live action features such as Shiki-jitsu, Love and Pop and his recent blockbuster Godzilla Resurgence[1]. Given how Evangelion revolutionized anime, the industry quickly followed its influence including its aesthetics. Source: I've interviewed him. [Link](http://rickyreports.com/archives/annohideaki/ http://rickyreports.com/archives/annohideaki/) [1] Well, it is rather an essential feature to portray destruction within this long-running monster franchise.
- da02 9y agoWhich article(s) do you recommend for going into more detail on "Evangelion revolutionized anime"? I remember reading on how one of the people involved was surprised at its popularity despite all the "characters being messed up".
- k__ 9y agoI 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.
- blincoln 9y agoAFAIK, 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.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lhorie 9y agoIronically, one theme that is becoming quite popular nowadays in manga/anime/light novels is "isekai" (i.e. main character gets transported to another world, typically a medieval fantasy similar to LoTR)
- rootsudo 9y agoReally, the conclusion: "There's many powerlines in Tokyo." Well, no duh.
- bischofs 9y agoI dont mean to be terse, but why is this article on the front page?
- nvarsj 9y agoProbably because groups of hackers and anime nerds have a fairly large overlap, esp for those who grew up in the 90s/00s. I spent many nights as a teen watching classic anime (Robotech aka macross, etc) on kqed (bay areas pbs station).
- blattimwind 9y agoTo highlight the location using archaic and outdated infrastructure? I mean, a two-prong 115 V outlet would be kinda hard to see in comparison, no? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- walshemj 9y ago100v in japan at either 50hz or 60Hz depending on where you are!
- swayvil 9y agoBecause they are graphically striking, lush. Also they are magical objects. A visible shout of power. Speaking as an artist, it's low hanging mangos on a silver platter. Of course we're gonna do them.
- bitwize 9y agoIt isn't just powerlines. Anime -- especially well-done anime -- has a way of focusing on the mundane in order to establish an emotional connection to the setting. Thr anime movie Your Name is riddled with brief, but sumptuously animated and richly detailed, close-ups of doors opening and closing. These include simple doors on a rustic rural home as well as the automatic sliding doors on a Tokyo railway car.
- shove 9y agoNo one mentioned this specifically, but as someone who's dabbled in animation a bit... Power lines are fantastic for selling depth / perspective. The poles are long and slender vertically as are the wires horizontally. When you parallax, it's a nice way to have a mid-ground layer that doesn't obscure too much of the background and naturally pokes up above shorter foreground elements. Not saying the other thoughts re: theme etc aren't valid. Just something else to consider.
- rhn_mk1 9y agoNot directly related, but this made me think of general role of power lines in art. When they are drawn or painted, they are valuable: they obviously carry a message, someone took the time to draw them. On a photograph, they are considered something to avoid, or an eye sore to erase. Perhaps because often photographers want to convey what they perceive, not what they see. I can say that about myself - I tune out all the utilities from a beautiful piece of architecture like banner ads from an interesting website. But when it comes to taking a photograph, they come back with full force, often leaving me hopeless. I wonder if there exists a way for a photographer to embrace and love the "ugly" signs of civilization. Perhaps give them a compositional role?
- itsjustme2 9y agoI 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.
- jcl 9y agoI think anime's predilection for establishing shots may be due in part to its manga roots... In "Understanding Comics", Scott McCloud analyzed the transitions made between panels in various works, and he found that sequences of transitions between different views of an environment (what he called "aspect-to-aspect") were common in manga but were nearly absent in American or European comics. I believe he attributed this to the fact that manga typically has higher page counts than other comics, allowing the authors to invest more in setting up scenes.
- nice_byte 9y agoBecause that's literally what Japan looks like? I've been to Tokyo and Kyoto, there are power lines/wires hanging everywhere. I don't know for sure, but I assume they don't have this infrastructure hidden underground because of earthquake concerns.
- lemoncucumber 9y agoBrought to mind this post for artists about how to accurately draw power lines: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-artists-need-to-know-about-utility.html http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-artists-need-...
- cgmg 9y agoTo quote bitwize from this thread: Well-done anime has a way of focusing on the mundane in order to establish an emotional connection to the setting. For anyone who wants to understand this aesthetic, I strongly recommend watching The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭), which is only 46 minutes long. There is something breathtakingly beautiful about this film and other ones like it. They engender a strong feeling of longing and gentle sadness (nostalgia?) by bringing focus to the little things in life. It's a sentiment that tugs at the human soul. Look up mono no aware (物の哀れ), which may be translated as 'a gentle sadness at the transience of things', as well as wabi-sabi (侘寂). Both of these are central to Japanese culture and history. Edit: I also recommend checking out '5 Centimeters Per Second' and 'Your Name', both directed by Makoto Shinkai. To quote Ronnie Scheib's review: Shinkai has been hailed as the next Miyazaki, and his dreamy mindscapes often equal or surpass the anime maestro in breadth of detail and depth of emotion. Shinkai extends the innate possibilities of the anime dynamic, reapplying its principles of lush effects, inflated background detail and sometimes undernourished character animation to mirror the interiority of the characters in every nuance of their surroundings. Some images from 5cm/s: https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=5+cm+per+second&oq=5+cm+per+second https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=5+cm+per+second&oq=...
- nalerica 9y agoThis is absolutely correct. I am a lover of anime and approve of this statement