imagine

I don't get why some people are so obsessed with looking like anime characters. They buy the wigs and outfits and go the whole nine yards. The truth is, you can never BE those characters, nor look like them. People are generally fascinated with these anime because it's something rather mystical. I'm not an expert at anime, but I guess from my point of view, what is attractive about anime is its unrealistic quality. Like reading a novel, perhaps it is the novelties of these invented lands and fantasy characters that capture the hearts of so many people. When you try to make these fantasies become reality, in a sense, you adulterate it. These characters were never meant to be real in the first place. If you were looking for something real, you'd watch a reality show, not invest your time in anime. The closest I've been to anime is probably Sailor Moon. I remember when I was young, I was actually pretty obsessed with that show. In that 30 minutes of one episode, I knew that some bad villain would disrupt the peaceful town, the sailor scouts would come to the rescue and defeat him, and the episode would end with a happy ending. I liked watching Sailor Moon whip out her tiara and defeat those villains with the sailor scouts. Even though it happened every episode, I never got sick of it. And then there was Tuxedo Mask. I remember when all the girls wanted someone like him. Looking back, I can't say I would disagree. We probably spend half our lives invested into these fantasies. Movies, books, etc. Sometimes when I'm watching a movie, someone will make a comment like: "How can that even happen? It doesn't even make sense!" And to be honest, a lot of the times, it doesn't make sense. I respond with:"It's a movie. It's not real." I guess that's why we watch movies. We watch them because the good guy single handedly beats up the bad guys. We watch because the protagonist and antagonist always fall in love. Because the whole forbidden love thing appeals to us. Because in movies, jumping from roof to roof is clearly acceptable. We watch because these things rarely happen in real life. We watch because we are always searching for something novel to believe in when real life isn't as exciting as 007's.
When a book is made into a movie, a lot of the times you'll hear that the book was better. The amazing ability of reading is that you can interpret it however you want. The ambiguity of words and the various interpreted meanings that trail behind the seemingly innocent writing is what makes reading magical. When a book is suddenly made into a movie, the freedom of imagination is restricted. Although this is the case, I do admit that movies gives us an opportunity to enjoy the story without doing so much thinking of our own. And sometimes, we do think a little too much.