ANIME ATLAS

- ROAD to A Numorous Imagination & Manipulating Estimation

Chenyu Wu

EDSH 201, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

 

Abstract

In this atlas I will show you how anime has influenced my entire education, or more accurately, companied me once I was born. I have never been anything except a student, so the anime is not only a friend but somtimes a guider for my research or future career. Along the road you can find many animes and my education & reseach ideas inspirated by the previous. Note: left lane = anime; right lane = research. Be sure you are in the right lane and drive safely!

 

Have a good trip

   

Before kindergarten: doodle...

Fairy and peacock are my favorite subjects to draw. The motivation of my drawing is not to record the life or event, nor express the feelings, but to create something MORE BEAUTIFUL.

Kindergarten: Czech - The mole

I began to think about some philosophical problems. For example: where do I come from? what is the difference between others and myself? if yes, what is the emotional difference? does my spirit choose my body or my body generates my spirit? what if my spirit doesn't choose my mom as my mom? where could I go and what would I become? Is my family going to stay on the earth forever? If not, where are we going finally?

Been frightened by the questions led me read some science fiction comics about moving to the moon, creating aritificial organs, freezing sick people until new drug/therapy is invented etc, even though I cannot read the texts at that time. I started my interests in biology especially evolution and astronomy.

Fortunately, fairy tales have soothed my nerve and lightened the world for me. I tried to read each book I could find and stored them in my brain and marked "read only". I don't think I have a good memory but that marker really works even now. No matter how childish they are, I can always gain the power from them. I wish I could be in the Neverland - never grow up!

Elementary school: Chinese, Japanese, American, Germany, French, English, Denmark etc.

Animes and comics have blossomed in my childhood. I loved those simple sketch, cute animations and fantastic stories. I started to learn drawing and water-color painting, but I lost the interest in copying real scenes onto the paper very soon. I felt more excited to draw something new, unreal and more beautiful.

I tried to figure out how people in the comics/animes differ from the real people. Is it possible for us to become unreal one day?

Due to the love of all beautiful things, drawing, singing and dancing were my favourite subjects at that time.

Math, which has no any relationship with comics and animes, is also my favourite subject all the time simply because it's beautifully abstract.

 

People living in different places have different cultures - but why so different? And Why could we, human being, easilty recognize the generic and specific features? How does our brain work?

I became a fan of geography, what I mean is, a world map. I am also a fan of jigsaw puzzle. I don't care how many puzzles I could deal with, I care how they connect to each other. But sometimes the interest into details makes the global design ignored. If I already know what the whole thing looks like, I will be fine. Otherwise, I have to keep in mind the global connection when dealing with the local. I learn it when I draw.

 

It's always exciting to know the world that you don't know. I started to study more western cultures from animes, even at that time I had no idea what to do after I finish the elementray school but most of my friends did.