This 1993 anime based on an Indian epic has gone viral in India recently. What caused it to pick up so much steam?
Highlights
- The anime industry is experiencing significant growth, captivating a global audience with its intriguing storytelling and expanding into various industries like merchandise and video games.
- India’s consumption of anime has seen remarkable growth in recent years, with its introduction to anime dating back to the early 1990s through movies like Ramayana: The Legend of the Prince Rama.
- The latest live-action cinematic adaptation of the Ramayana, Adipurush, has faced criticism from the Indian audience for its poor execution and failure to capture the essence of the revered text, leading to the revival of interest in the 1993 anime movie as a superior adaptation.
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The anime industry is evolving and continuously growing, becoming bigger than ever. The good old art of Japanese animation storytelling is creating waves internationally and garnering a global audience. All thanks to great and intriguing stories being woven up by old and new manga authors. The Japanese anime industry is under a boom period where it is witnessing growth by leaps and bounds with its stronghold not just in the international animation market but in industries like merchandise, figurines, video games, etc., based on anime. A lot of factors are involved in the international success of anime and manga.
What is even more fascinating about the Japanese anime industry is that after Japan, many other countries are some of the biggest consumers of anime, and some are on the path to joining the list. India is one such country whose anime consumption has had a significant amount of growth in recent years. Even though the audience of anime is increasing in India, most Indians have already been consuming anime in one way or another. Their introduction to anime goes back to the early 1990s. This was possible because of the release of an anime movie based on one of two Indian epics called, Ramayana: The Legend of the Prince Rama, directed by Yugo Sako.
The Ramayana
The Ramayana is one of the two great Indian epics, stories that are sacred to the Hindu community that enjoys a majority in India in terms of population and religious following. It is one of the most revered texts among the Hindus not just in India but in countries like Nepal as well and among the Hindus living overseas. It follows the story of Prince Rama of Ayodhya (a region in India) and his journey of attaining divinity while defeating a Rakshasa (demon) king of the Island of Lanka (present-day Sri-Lanka) and rescuing his wife Seeta whom the latter had abducted and kept as a hostage. What makes the story and overall text of the Ramayana so important for the Hindus is its richness as it is filled with great virtues and real-life lessons that the readers can uphold even in their own lives and live meaningful and fulfilling lives.
While the story of the Ramayana is quite simple and lucid, it remains very engaging and interesting throughout its duration with immensely unique characters with all sorts of traits. Some of these characters are also worshiped as deities of great significance and prestige and are part of Hinduism (originally Sanatan religion or Dharma) like Lord Rama himself, Mother Seeta, and Lord Hanuman. Hindus are also very protective and sentimental when it comes to their religion and deities. Movies based on epics like the Ramayana are pretty common in India and there have been made numerous movies on it at different points in time. However, the latest live-action cinematic adaptation of the Ramayana called, Adipurush (First/Supreme Man), has led to a big controversy which also became a reason for the 1993 anime movie going viral in India after all these years.
The Controversy
Now the main reason behind the controversy that emerged from the latest live-action cinematic adaptation of the Ramayana is that it is so bad that the overall Indian audience and not just the Hindus have been calling out the makers of the movie. Adipurush has so many flaws that it is just a pitiful adaptation of a great epic which the makers have distorted so much in their adaptation that it could not manage to gather even a bit of the essence of the holy text.
From crappy dialogues, overacting, pathetic visual effects, and CGI to incorrect costume designs and just a very upsetting adaptation of the Ramayana, Adipurush has not just failed to deliver a decent cinematic adaptation of the revered text of the Hindus but has also made them upset and furious at the same time. Therefore, most of the audience has either watched the movie and encouraged others to not go to watch the movie or has altogether boycotted it. The movie had a budget of around 700 crores INR (equal to 7 billion USD) which was wasted for most of the part and could have been utilized in a much better way by the makers of Adipurush.
A 1993 Anime Movie Going Viral
Directed by the father of Indian animation Ram Mohan and popular Japanese director Yugo Sako, Ramayana: The Legend of the Prince Rama, is an anime movie based on the epic Ramayana and was released in 1993 in India and Japan. It was co-produced by both India and Japan and was made under then newly set up production studio called, Nippon Ramayana Film Co., Ltd. Yugo Sako was introduced to the story of the Ramayana while working on a documentary called The Ramayana Relics based on the excavations carried out by Dr. B. B. Lal in 1983, this led to Sako reading 10 different versions of the Ramayana and deciding to craft an animation work on it.
Although Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama enjoyed its fair share of popularity at the time of its release, it has gone viral in India at the moment as after the disappointment that Adipurush was the Indian audience is trying to find solace in the now anime classic directed by Yugo Sako. The Indian audience is impressed by the sheer fact that a person of Japanese ethnicity and nationality like Yugo Sako was able to produce such a rich and fine adaption of the Indian epic Ramayana that the Indian and self-proclaimed nationalist and patriotic director and writer of Adipurush could not. The Indian audience appreciated the beautiful visuals of Sako’s Ramayana and its crisp and engaging storytelling style which is accompanied by narration.
All in all, amidst this whole ruckus emerging after the release of Adipurush, Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama finally got the recognition and appreciation that it deserved from the Indian audience, and it is gained the status of a cult classic in India. Apart from it being a very good adaptation of Ramayana, the other reason behind Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama went viral because of the growing culture of anime and manga in India which is going to continue growing. It is available to stream on its official channel on YouTube.
Fuente: successacademy.edu.vn
Categorías: Anime
