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Anime in Japan: Fueled by Psychs

TearItDown

TearItDown

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Joined
Feb 4, 2010
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So me and my friend were discussing this.

Any of you watch anime in the 90s? Specifically Dragon Ball Z/Pokemon?

Until 2002 psychotropic mushrooms were legal in Japan.

It is known that DBZ was actually intended for adults. It was made for the japanese business men. Now think about the animes themselves. Crazy looking characters and creatures, flashing lights, shooting beams/energy balls and the like. We feel there was a huge connection between the legality of mushrooms in Japan and the rise of anime (until they were made illegal in 2002).

What do you think? Don't just post, "no, lol." or any nonsense like that. It may take some thinking outside your comfort zone to get down with this idea, but there is definitely something there.
 
I doubt it mainly because the culture of Japan is such that drugs of any stripe, excluding nicotine, are generally looked down upon. They take social norms extremely seriously and have a really low incidence of drug use. I mean, yeah, mushrooms were banned in 2002... and basically nobody noticed.

'course, they all chain smoke, so there's that.
 
TearItDown said:
It is known that DBZ was actually intended for adults.
Click to expand...


No it isn't, it's in the shounen (young boy) demographic, it is intended to be watched by kids from the ages of 10-18 years old. That's why it was published in Shounen Jump. It's quite generic/shitty (well the parts of the story that made up the original DB were pretty good) and I'm not seeing your drug connections at all.


tear it down said:
We feel there was a huge connection between the legality of mushrooms in Japan and the rise of anime (until they were made illegal in 2002).
Click to expand...

Um, no please do some more research into the history of the industry. It's rather demeaning to the creativity of the animators, writers, and directors to make such a claim. Plus most of stuff they make isn't half as random and trippy as American animation, since animation is taken seriously as a storytelling medium in that country, and not pigeon-holed into children's and adult-comedy demographics like here.

(If I took up a condescending tone at all in there, forgive me, it was unintentional.
 
I think you'd have more success drawing connections between super mario bros and psychedelics. Alice-in-wonderland style mushroom power-ups! =D

screen1up.png

Whoa, its blowing my mind

IMO, video game design, much like other forms of art, has been heavily influenced over the years by psychedelics, as well as other drugs.
 
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japan has such a nice aesthetic! it's awful what's happened over there, the place still looks like an apocalypse :/

i always thought the zelda series was quite strange and magic. even some of the concepts of the games; like Majora's Mask where you rewind time, and wear different masks with different powers, not to mention how haunting some of the characters are! :D
 
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atara said:
I doubt it mainly because the culture of Japan is such that drugs of any stripe, excluding nicotine, are generally looked down upon. They take social norms extremely seriously and have a really low incidence of drug use. I mean, yeah, mushrooms were banned in 2002... and basically nobody noticed.

'course, they all chain smoke, so there's that.
Click to expand...

what about their massive problems with methamphetamine and benzo's? also methylone was quite popular over there.

i'm pretty sure they do lots of speed but don't admit it during surveys. hence the benzo problems cos what goes up must come down.

are they going to piss test every jap? somehow i think not. do people lie? when there is a need to cover stuff up yes.
 
^^
i knew them sneaky japs had to be using some kind of substance to get ahead academically all the time lol.
 
I was pretty big into anime a few years back.
Can't say there was much psychedelic influence that I noticed.

FLCL was great though.
 
How is it demeaning at all to say that they were heavily influenced by psychedelics? You know this is a drug forum, right? Watch an episode of sailor moon or DBZ and tell me you wouldn't see japanese business men enjoying it on mushrooms.
 
While DBZ can be pretty mindfucked to watch when you are off your face.....I mean....the constant gurning....its like they are having the best pills in the world!.....

There are actual animes which are fully created to mindfuck you.

some of you have mentioned FLCL, which used to hold the top spot for this IMO

But after that was Paranoia Agent......get a few hundered mg of your favorite PIKHAL and check that out.....wow

Currently, the best I have seen is this series called Genius Party, and it's sequel Genius Party Beyond....there are some UBER trippy ones in there like Limit Cycle which leads you into a mindfuck about humanity's quest for god....

some of those are amazing....I primarily love to watch them on 2ci, 2ce, 2ct-7 with a splash of Nitrus.....ahhhhh just talking about it now and its only monday =(....sometimes the nitrus triggers a sort of glitch in the drawings which can end up totally awesome or can ruin certain scenes as a common visual is the tendency for the screen to get stuck in some sort of glitch loop


But I get what you mean OP - but there are way better examples than DBZ.... what about the entire Final Fantasy game series??? The item "Ether" is the item that gives you Magical Power! What more of a reference do you need?? hahahaha


//Nick
 
ebola? said:
Anime is what happens when one lacks access to psychedelics. :P

ebola
Click to expand...

You need to watch something by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Avalon, Angel's Egg, The Sky Crawlers) or by Satoshi Kon (Memories / Magnetic Rose, Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, Paprika)

It will completely change your opinion about anime and make typical Hollywood fare look like trash designed for crackheads.

I mean, just take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP2Pt6m3yKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN_XcMuvOz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfs7OQ_Cwk (!!!!)

OP:
Japanese culture looks down upon psychedelic drug use. I believe MDMA is still kinda popular, but by far the most popular drug in Japan is speed. Most of the trippy stuff from anime comes from traditional Japanese folk culture and religious/cultural "memes".

Plus DBZ and such are pretty trashy anime for pre-teens/young teens. Very little mind-fuck in the meaningful sense.
 
Like I said, I think it's really stretching to try and connect much anime with psychedelics. I think it's one of those connections that you notice only because you WANT to see it.

BUT! Having said that, a friend recently told me about this anime called Fractale.
Now THIS looks like an anime with some legit psychedelic influence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwcYIIX_eM
(Skip to the intro at 6:36 and see what I mean)
Also I lol'd at the reference they make to "data narcotics". It looks like he was at one of those hippie swap meets. I haven't watched much of it yet, but it looks good.

Also, semi-related, I would highly recommend Ghost Hound. It's all based on lucid dreaming, astral projection, out of body experiences, etc.
http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/Ghost-Hound/Watch
 
levictus said:
You need to watch something by Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Avalon, Angel's Egg, The Sky Crawlers) or by Satoshi Kon (Memories / Magnetic Rose, Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent, Paprika)

It will completely change your opinion about anime and make typical Hollywood fare look like trash designed for crackheads.

I mean, just take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP2Pt6m3yKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN_XcMuvOz0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHfs7OQ_Cwk (!!!!)

OP:
Japanese culture looks down upon psychedelic drug use. I believe MDMA is still kinda popular, but by far the most popular drug in Japan is speed. Most of the trippy stuff from anime comes from traditional Japanese folk culture and religious/cultural "memes".

Plus DBZ and such are pretty trashy anime for pre-teens/young teens. Very little mind-fuck in the meaningful sense.
Click to expand...

You know what you are talking about. I like you.

Anyway, veering from the topic at hand, anime I think people here on PD should check out are:

The Tatami Galaxy - I've recommended it before, about some college student seeking the "rose colored campus life" through involvement in some club, and each episode rewinding time back to his freshman year with him seeking it in another club when he invariably fails, until he realizes to appreciate the life he has and ask out this one girl. It also has a very surreal art style.

Serial Experiments Lain: This is horrendously pretentious, but equally intellectual, I won't even bother describing it in detail. The internet and reality sort of flow into one another and this girl has multiple personalities...I haven't seen it in years but it's worth it.

Kino's Journey - about a girl and her talking morotbike as they travel from country to country, the situations she becomes involved in challenge the viewer to think about/take a stance on moral dilemma that have no clear answer.
 
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