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lierdumoaI seem to have become nocturnal as of last night. I'm blaming Naruto because instead of sleeping all I can do is think up meta. Now you see where my real problem lies. How annoying is it trying to write meta for a fandom that no one you know is in? Really fucking annoying, that's how.
Good Ambition vs. Bad Ambition in Anime
My favorite anime of all time is One Piece. My current anime obsession is Naruto. These shows have one overarching theme in common. Good Ambition vs. Bad Ambition (bad lack of ambition comes up as well, and I'll be discussing that too). This is a theme very rarely seen in western media.
I was discussing earlier with my roommate how the American Dream has transformed over the years from working your way up into society to winning the lottery, or possibly making something of yourself after screwing up a lot. Rather than being applauded for ambition, people are applauded for redemption.
If you want to talk red blooded American geekdom, I can't name a single superhero who I'd call ambitious. Plenty of supervillains. [ETA:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
boniblithe was so good as to point out in the comments that ambition is apparent in a few superheroes, Batman for example -- a very successful businessman. He is one of the darker, more conflicted superheroes. Those who have ambition in western media then either have gone to the dark side with it or are have it as a source of much internal conflict. There aren't very many examples of hereoes that are ambitious and at peace with themselves.]
The villification of ambition is especially prevalent in the Harry Potter fandom. Evil Slytherins are ambitious. Ambition is a quality of the wealthy and bigoted. I find this oddly contradictory because really, wealthy folk aren't generally ambitious at all. Old money looks down on new money. Wealth is supposed to be inherited, not earned.
Oh right. I was talking about anime.
Good Ambiton vs. Bad Ambition. Most of the protagonists in One Piece are extremely ambitions. Monkey D. Luffy, the star of the show, wants to be The Pirate King. Roronoa Zoro wants to be the strongest swordsman in the world. Sanji wants to be the world's greatest cook. I don't know if Nami wants to be the world's best navigator -- she kind of already is. Ussop...hmmm. He's good at lying, and coming through in a pinch. For the purposes of my argument, let's ignore Nami and Ussop for now.
Then we go to Naruto. This is a sports anime. I'd have to say that Naruto has a better overall story arc and it gets a lot deeper and more introspective than One Piece, whereas I think One Piece is much better on an episode by episode and mini-arc by mini-arc basis. I've gone off topic again. Which is to say -- I watch a One Piece episode and I'm burning to see what happens next; I keep watching Naruto episodes because I'm burning to see how the show will be resolved and I know the resolution won't make any sense if I don't watch all the episodes inbetween.
Right. Naruto. Sports anime. We have our main protagonist, who is extremely ambitious. He wants to be the best ninja so he can redeem himself in the eyes of the other members of his town (though what he needs to be redeemed for isn't something that's actually his fault). Naruto, like Luffy, seems extremely overexciteable and obnoxious at first, however as time goes on we see that he (again like Luffy) inspires most everyone around him to be ambitious as well and do their best in whatever their endeavors may be.
We have the case of an antihero in Naruto. Sasuke. His brother went evil and killed off an entire town, including his parents. Sasuke also wants to be the best ninja, but it's mostly because of the inferiority complex he has in dealing with his brother. Sasuke is determined to surpass his brother in ninja ability so he can kill him and avenge his town. Sasuke is one twisted little boy. The reason he's an antihero and not a villain? He loves Naruto (slashers or non-slashers -- interpret that sentence however you like). Sasuke is cruel with his words and his actions to Naruto and to his other teammate Sakura, but it is to distance himself from them so he doesn't hurt them in a more serious and damaging way. Poor, poor misguided boy. Sasuke's goals might be suspect, but at least he understands that revenge is not worth the lives of his closest friends.
Therein lies the essential difference between good ambition and bad ambition. People with good ambition always have their priorities straight. In one of the earlier Naruto episodes, a ninja instructor holds up two bells to three teammates, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, and tells them that whoever gets a bell passes. The exercise is designed to set the teammembers against each other, however the only way for anyone to get any bells is by working together. The point of the exercise -- whatever your goal is, it is never more important than your team/friends/family. Naruto continually throughout the series takes risks that could result in him losing his goal of becoming a great ninja because he always puts his loyalty to those he loves above his ambition.
Sasuke's brother is an example of classic bad ambition. He wants power for power's sake. The boy decided that he would become strongest if he cut off all his human attachments. So he killed his entire town. Including his parents.
Now in addition to having villains with bad ambition, both series have villains who are evil due to their lack of ambition. This, I think, is perhaps even more interesting than the concept of good ambition vs. bad ambition because it turns the western concept of ambition=bad completely on it's head.
Take One Piece. The third villian in the series is an evil pirate by the name of Captain Kuro. All he wants in life is piece and quiet (yes, it's ridiculous -- it's anime we're talking, here). He decides he can't have piece and quiet unless he 1) steals a shitload of money from a wealthy young heiress and 2) erases all traces of his history as a pirate (this means killing his entire crew) and 3) erases all traces of how he got his money (this means killing the young heiress). He is unambitious. His goal in life is to maintain his status quo, which isn't really a goal at all.
Luffy is often seen by people who don't know him as incredibly naive. He wants to be the pirate king and has an incredibly idealized view of pirates. The last pirate king, before he died, left behind all his wealth and announced that whoever acquired his wealth would inherit his title. Most pirates in the series have no interest in being the pirate king. They just want to get their own. Why go to hell on earth after some mythical treasure and some useless title when you can just rob and pillage and still end up pretty well off?
Similarly, in Naruto, we have a principal unambitious villain -- Orochimaru. This is an evil ninja who discovered the secret to immortality. In order to retain his immortality he must constantly find a new host body, wear it out, then find another. His goal in life is to keep being alive. All he wants in life is what he already has. What could be more unambitious?
[insert conclusion here]
Tune it tommorrow night for the next Naruto pimp post. I also have some vidding meta on the back burner that I have no idea when I'll be posting, mostly revolving around vidding aesthetics and styles that differ greatly from my own.
Cut tags are for pussies.
Good Ambition vs. Bad Ambition in Anime
My favorite anime of all time is One Piece. My current anime obsession is Naruto. These shows have one overarching theme in common. Good Ambition vs. Bad Ambition (bad lack of ambition comes up as well, and I'll be discussing that too). This is a theme very rarely seen in western media.
I was discussing earlier with my roommate how the American Dream has transformed over the years from working your way up into society to winning the lottery, or possibly making something of yourself after screwing up a lot. Rather than being applauded for ambition, people are applauded for redemption.
If you want to talk red blooded American geekdom, I can't name a single superhero who I'd call ambitious. Plenty of supervillains. [ETA:
boniblithe was so good as to point out in the comments that ambition is apparent in a few superheroes, Batman for example -- a very successful businessman. He is one of the darker, more conflicted superheroes. Those who have ambition in western media then either have gone to the dark side with it or are have it as a source of much internal conflict. There aren't very many examples of hereoes that are ambitious and at peace with themselves.]The villification of ambition is especially prevalent in the Harry Potter fandom. Evil Slytherins are ambitious. Ambition is a quality of the wealthy and bigoted. I find this oddly contradictory because really, wealthy folk aren't generally ambitious at all. Old money looks down on new money. Wealth is supposed to be inherited, not earned.
Oh right. I was talking about anime.
Good Ambiton vs. Bad Ambition. Most of the protagonists in One Piece are extremely ambitions. Monkey D. Luffy, the star of the show, wants to be The Pirate King. Roronoa Zoro wants to be the strongest swordsman in the world. Sanji wants to be the world's greatest cook. I don't know if Nami wants to be the world's best navigator -- she kind of already is. Ussop...hmmm. He's good at lying, and coming through in a pinch. For the purposes of my argument, let's ignore Nami and Ussop for now.
Then we go to Naruto. This is a sports anime. I'd have to say that Naruto has a better overall story arc and it gets a lot deeper and more introspective than One Piece, whereas I think One Piece is much better on an episode by episode and mini-arc by mini-arc basis. I've gone off topic again. Which is to say -- I watch a One Piece episode and I'm burning to see what happens next; I keep watching Naruto episodes because I'm burning to see how the show will be resolved and I know the resolution won't make any sense if I don't watch all the episodes inbetween.
Right. Naruto. Sports anime. We have our main protagonist, who is extremely ambitious. He wants to be the best ninja so he can redeem himself in the eyes of the other members of his town (though what he needs to be redeemed for isn't something that's actually his fault). Naruto, like Luffy, seems extremely overexciteable and obnoxious at first, however as time goes on we see that he (again like Luffy) inspires most everyone around him to be ambitious as well and do their best in whatever their endeavors may be.
We have the case of an antihero in Naruto. Sasuke. His brother went evil and killed off an entire town, including his parents. Sasuke also wants to be the best ninja, but it's mostly because of the inferiority complex he has in dealing with his brother. Sasuke is determined to surpass his brother in ninja ability so he can kill him and avenge his town. Sasuke is one twisted little boy. The reason he's an antihero and not a villain? He loves Naruto (slashers or non-slashers -- interpret that sentence however you like). Sasuke is cruel with his words and his actions to Naruto and to his other teammate Sakura, but it is to distance himself from them so he doesn't hurt them in a more serious and damaging way. Poor, poor misguided boy. Sasuke's goals might be suspect, but at least he understands that revenge is not worth the lives of his closest friends.
Therein lies the essential difference between good ambition and bad ambition. People with good ambition always have their priorities straight. In one of the earlier Naruto episodes, a ninja instructor holds up two bells to three teammates, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, and tells them that whoever gets a bell passes. The exercise is designed to set the teammembers against each other, however the only way for anyone to get any bells is by working together. The point of the exercise -- whatever your goal is, it is never more important than your team/friends/family. Naruto continually throughout the series takes risks that could result in him losing his goal of becoming a great ninja because he always puts his loyalty to those he loves above his ambition.
Sasuke's brother is an example of classic bad ambition. He wants power for power's sake. The boy decided that he would become strongest if he cut off all his human attachments. So he killed his entire town. Including his parents.
Now in addition to having villains with bad ambition, both series have villains who are evil due to their lack of ambition. This, I think, is perhaps even more interesting than the concept of good ambition vs. bad ambition because it turns the western concept of ambition=bad completely on it's head.
Take One Piece. The third villian in the series is an evil pirate by the name of Captain Kuro. All he wants in life is piece and quiet (yes, it's ridiculous -- it's anime we're talking, here). He decides he can't have piece and quiet unless he 1) steals a shitload of money from a wealthy young heiress and 2) erases all traces of his history as a pirate (this means killing his entire crew) and 3) erases all traces of how he got his money (this means killing the young heiress). He is unambitious. His goal in life is to maintain his status quo, which isn't really a goal at all.
Luffy is often seen by people who don't know him as incredibly naive. He wants to be the pirate king and has an incredibly idealized view of pirates. The last pirate king, before he died, left behind all his wealth and announced that whoever acquired his wealth would inherit his title. Most pirates in the series have no interest in being the pirate king. They just want to get their own. Why go to hell on earth after some mythical treasure and some useless title when you can just rob and pillage and still end up pretty well off?
Similarly, in Naruto, we have a principal unambitious villain -- Orochimaru. This is an evil ninja who discovered the secret to immortality. In order to retain his immortality he must constantly find a new host body, wear it out, then find another. His goal in life is to keep being alive. All he wants in life is what he already has. What could be more unambitious?
[insert conclusion here]
Tune it tommorrow night for the next Naruto pimp post. I also have some vidding meta on the back burner that I have no idea when I'll be posting, mostly revolving around vidding aesthetics and styles that differ greatly from my own.
Cut tags are for pussies.
