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Oct 24, 2017 1:15 PM
#1

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Aug 2013
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This thread probably comes up all the time, but the the admins have made a line in the sand to exclude any cartoons not produced by people who are not ethnically Japanese made for an audience that is ethnically Japanese. Under this definition, Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers and Ping in the City are included in the database, while cartoons like RWBY, and Avatar get excluded. This definition seems pretty concrete, but they don't even follow their own definition: there are many cartoons made by ethnically Chinese and made for ethically Chinese people, like Cupid's Chocolates and Nuwa Chengchang Riji. Change ethically Japanese to ethically East Asian, that fixes everything right? Wrong. Avatar the Last Air Bender was produced in South Korea.

So why the inconsistencies? My guess is bias against American culture. Since this website is primarily for Americans, the demographics don't want the American idea that cartoons are are aimed for children audiences to engulf them with shame. Anime fans look down on all cartoons as child's play, and therefore want to mentally separate the two as far as possible to justify to themselves for watching cartoons that American society assumes are for children. This is rooted in self-hatred and shame.
Oct 24, 2017 1:18 PM
#2
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Jul 2018
559028
What? They are all cartoons at the end of the day so who cares.
Oct 24, 2017 1:27 PM
#3

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Aug 2013
358
Victinimad said:
What? They are all cartoons at the end of the day so who cares.
It's not so much that I care about the definition as much as I care about American Otaku culture. We love cartoons, but don't like Americans' idea that cartoons are for kids. We hate our passions and it shouldn't be that way. I wear my anime shirts in public proudly, without fear of people thinking something about me. But not everyone is like me. Some are a closet anime fan and hiding it from everyone lowers their self esteem. We want to keep our passion as separate as possible from American cartoons, even if it's nonsense.
KalleyOct 24, 2017 1:31 PM
Oct 24, 2017 1:31 PM
#4
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Jan 2013
10764
I remember seeing somewhere that MAL allows chinese and korean animation cause they accept Manhuas and Manwhas
Someone confirm that for me
gone bai bai
Oct 24, 2017 1:35 PM
#5
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Jul 2018
559028
uhh idk how it goes for chinese and korean but various studios made halo legends with american money for american audience and its here on this site.

DreamingBeats said:
Pingu is an anime because it was produced in Japan towards a Japanese audience.
Avatar is not anime because it's target audience is the west

uhh read my post
removed-userOct 24, 2017 1:55 PM
Oct 24, 2017 1:39 PM
#6

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Feb 2013
17588
for starters, you should know MAL allows chinese and korean animation if you read the guidelines: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=141101

here is admin post detailing the reasoning just as mkim described (chinese/korean animation is allowed because chinese/korean manga is too): https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=635001&show=80#msg24064451

also in that post it is mentioned that anime-influenced animation (american or not) is not allowed because style is subjective while origin is objective

you can look into kitsu.io which is a database website which allows anime influenced works from outside japan
Oct 24, 2017 1:41 PM
#7
Data Livestock

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Sep 2015
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Pingu in the City was done by the studio Polygon Pictures and produced by NHK. It is, by all means, an anime. If you're going to use this to piss and moan about some things you like not being in the site's database because, unlike Pingu in the City, they actually don't fall under the database's definition, and would rather just decry it as "anti-American bias" rather than just actually being consistent with things, then by all means, continue to delude yourself into thinking that.

The reality is that it's not really an art style, but a place of origin. Pingu in the City was created in Japan and is animation. The original Pingu series isn't in the database, however. Can't just bend the rules because Avatar and RWBY look like anime to you and Pingu doesn't, it'd fuck up the database's consistency.

I'm not even memeing and I'm talking about Pingu in the City. I had no idea this was so difficult to do at this point
ManabanOct 24, 2017 1:45 PM

Oct 24, 2017 1:46 PM
#8
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Jul 2017
110
Not always true
I watch plenty cartoons like rick n morty, southpark etc...
However I do agree that pingu and marvel shouldn't be classified as anime
They're good cartoon but not anime
The definition of anime mustn't be region based but style of art based if anything
Most anime follow Japanese norms and culture and hence are ethinically japanese but many notable anime such as Quanzhi Gaoshou don't. Few are not even based in the East
I believe what separates anime is the art style of faces, eyes and vivid expressions.
It would help to have better segregation as anime is generally of a different quality compared to cartoons and hence seems wrong to mix the two
Oct 24, 2017 1:52 PM
#9

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Nov 2011
6674
Pingu is an anime because it was produced in Japan towards a Japanese audience.
Avatar is not anime because it's target audience is the west

cartoons made in China and S Korea fall in the gray zone. technically, they aren't anime, but MAL decided to include some of them as exceptions.
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The songs are all DRM-free and you can re-download your purchased albums as you wish.
Show your support to your favorite artist if you can!
ps. if you are looking for Japanese albums, you have to search it in Japanese (not romaji). Just copy and paste the name.

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Oct 24, 2017 2:01 PM

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To add to what romagia said, it's also a case where they were including Chinese and Korean manga/animation before the database guidelines were set in place. So a major reason they squeezed by on a technicality was because they were present before the line was drawn.
Oct 24, 2017 2:16 PM

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romagia said:
because style is subjective while origin is objective


Is it? Toei is headquartered in Japan, but it's studio in the Philippines animates all of Dragon Ball Super, One Piece, and many other series. Filipino people speak English because they were once a territory of the United States of America, and have a very western culture. I mean, an argument can be made that One Piece is not an anime.



Oct 24, 2017 2:29 PM

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Jan 2013
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Are you okay? You seem to have a really big issue as to perceptions placed on you from your liking of anime. "Self-hatred and shame"
What the hell does this have to do with the origins of anime? I feel like you've twisted your own experiences into an applicability against MAL's guidelines (or at least trying too). You good? There's no shame in seeing a therapist.
Oct 24, 2017 2:39 PM

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Feb 2013
17588
@Kalley When concerning international productions, a big part of deciding what gets into the database is the director, writer, storyboarding, and maybe creator, aka "significant staff positions", as this is the main reason why Neo Yokio was recently declined: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1668815&show=50#msg52578762

Toei's shounens i guess can be considered at most co-productions between the Japanese Toei and Philipinese Toei which are allowed per the guidelines. If the situation was reversed and some guys from Toei Philippines decide to do their own production with philipino director, storyboard, script etc and outsource the animation to Toei Japan then it would most likely not be allowed in the database unless the japanese get to direct/write some episodes too (as is the case with Ahiru no Kwak i believe). There are also various european productions like Miraculous Ladybug and Marcelino Pan y Vino which i think are just animated in Japan/Korea and were not allowed in database.
Oct 24, 2017 2:44 PM

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Feb 2015
13873
>2017

Still killing each other what and what is anime according to MAL DB.

People; OP and those who wants to get shit straight-up:

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?subboard=2
https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=141101
https://myanimelist.net/about.php?go=team ----> Anime Mods

Now, good luck and I hope everything will be straight up.


Kalley said:
This thread probably comes up all the time, but the the admins have made a line in the sand to exclude any cartoons not produced by people who are not ethnically Japanese made for an audience that is ethnically Japanese.



Ohh will you look at that. I hope you become a good Anime DB Mod OP... You seem knowledgeable than those whose a Anime Mod. God! When will you become a mod? I'll create a banner for you!
Oct 24, 2017 6:52 PM

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Nov 2014
4054
Meh, it doesn't matter.

I don't think of the term "anime" as a status. I don't care. I never have to clarify what is and isn't anime in any conversation. There's no reason to refer to a specific show and use the term "anime" in the same sentence.
If your favourite character is Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko, you are my soul mate.

Been a long time since I've been here, I'll continue expressing myself freely and believe everyone should too.
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Oct 25, 2017 3:45 AM

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Sep 2017
2999
Why do people still care about the definition of anime? Do you need it for your academic works or thesis? or do you need it as a material for shit posting.
"When you made this thread, I cried and screamed"


-Swagernator 2017
Oct 25, 2017 10:44 PM
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559028
Simple definition...anime = Japanese animation
Oct 25, 2017 11:49 PM

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Dec 2014
877
Really? This fucking thread again.... REALLY?
It's all animation. Fuck the MAL rules, they really don't matter in the slightest. This site will continue to jack off any and all animated projects made primarily in Asia right up until god himself comes down to tell us otherwise. Even then they'll probably still try and fabricate a difference. So don't worry about it. Watch what you want to watch, the labels are irrelevant.
Oct 26, 2017 12:23 AM

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Apr 2016
18880
Another salty person who cant stand the fact that Pingu is here but Avatar not. HAHA.
Oct 26, 2017 12:25 AM

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Jul 2015
1828
Many people tend to complain about anime that should or should not be in MAL, and i'm here sitting down and praying for Tower of God.
PS. Yeah yeah, i know, relax
Oct 26, 2017 2:33 PM

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Jun 2014
1979
I consider RWBY to be anime, though even if it isn't, if you want to watch anime, I think you can get a similar satisfaction from RWBY. I've heard its popular in Japan, and there is a manga being produced by an actual Japanese mangaka, so I wonder if the "it's not anime unless it's Japanese" is an attitude held by the Japanese, or is solely the attitude of non-Japanese anime fans?
Oct 26, 2017 4:04 PM

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Oct 2014
15929
Avatar isn't produced in South Korean, it's merely outsourced. The Simpsons would be an anime if that made things count. MAL does have a long list of rules for what counts and what doesn't which they do follow, but the problem is that even the rules that are publicly available to read, and it seems like you haven't bothered to, are not the full complete rules about what is allowed and what isn't. Neo Yokio isn't allowed because the job of storyboarding, which was the only work done in Japan since where the animation is done is ignored, wasn't deemed important enough to add it. If there isn't a Japanese director or producer in the staff then it automatically isn't anime.
Oct 26, 2017 4:07 PM
lagom
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Kalley said:
romagia said:
because style is subjective while origin is objective


Is it? Toei is headquartered in Japan, but it's studio in the Philippines animates all of Dragon Ball Super, One Piece, and many other series. Filipino people speak English because they were once a territory of the United States of America, and have a very western culture. I mean, an argument can be made that One Piece is not an anime.





*pinoy pride intensifies* lol

but nah Toei is still a japanese company so that maybe why they consider One Piece and Dragon Ball Super as japanese made
Oct 26, 2017 4:14 PM
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559028
Michael Arias (born 1968) is an American-born filmmaker active primarily in Japan.

Though Arias has worked variously as visual effects artist, animation software developer, and producer, he is best known for his directorial debut, the anime feature Tekkonkinkreet, which established him as the first non-Japanese director of a major anime film.
Oct 26, 2017 4:24 PM

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Kalley said:
romagia said:
because style is subjective while origin is objective


Is it? Toei is headquartered in Japan, but it's studio in the Philippines animates all of Dragon Ball Super, One Piece, and many other series.


This is simply not true. Yes, some episodes of One Piece and DBS get outsourced to the Philippines, but most of it is still made in-house at Toei. One look at the staff list of an average episode and you would know this lol.

The recent DBS special was animated beautifully by some of the best animators at Toei: Naotoshi Shida, Naoki Tate, Yuya Takahashi and many more.

Oct 26, 2017 4:57 PM
Voltekka!

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Sep 2017
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Its 2017 and people are still discussing the definition of anime.

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