Why is MAL so picky with what they consider anime?

@chronofantasy

Why does this make you glad? I don't see any positives to not allowing me to put Castlevania on my list.

@this_shit_again How is saying what is Anime and what is not Anime is not a "racial purity testing"? I didn't see you when AL refused to add a show fully made by and for Japanese people solely due the Anime used AI as a support tool. Yet you said me "U.S. cultural politics" (I'm not even American) permanently "broke" my brain when you are implying MAL database team are racists. It's seem you're obssesed with race. Is racism only when it fit your narrative?

@HokutoMumyoZan If I am being entirely honest, I don't really understand where this argument of "what can be considered anime" is ultimately coming from, is it an honest inquiry when a work is made that does not fit neatly into any category, or is it fueled by some self-righteous push to remove the "barrier" between anime and western animation, I really don't know. At the end of the day a genre should describe the work, this whole discussion is a bit of an exercise in pencil pushing bureaucracy, if the king of the universe decrees that JoJo is a Cartoon and spongebob is an anime nothing will change about those shows. I understand the push-back from people who feel like their hobby is conflated with something foreign, I don't understand the reason for the push so much (because like I said, nothing of substance would change).


Easiest? Yes. But it removes nuance, its like saying, starting tomorrow, Prog rock, K-Pop and death metal are all "Music". People see a distinction between western and Japanese animation, and so they want to classify things based on that identity, I don't see any issues with that. The west should do its own thing and try to stand alongside anime, maybe in the future we will have further stupid terms like "wanime" (patent pending) which is just as good as anime with its own strengths and weaknesses. There can be nuance, there can be distinctions.

I feel like the framing in your last sentence is telling of what the issue might be, that if western animation was "good enough" and "was able to reconcile its baggage" then it could be anime. It sort of reveals an implicit idea that to be worth anything you have to be anime and therefore you have to play the language game to reclassify western animation as anime. But like I previously alluded to, I don't subscribe to this idea. Every country has their own culture and identity, anime is Japan's. The goal should not be to "be like anime" but to make works that are compelling and authentic to that culture, that stand on their own and have their own identity regardless of what anime is or is not. Western animation already has an identity if we just look back to find it, there are amazing works of western animation like the Thief and the Cobbler that are nothing like anime, we just need to realize that.

But yeah, obviously it is a muddy subject that can be viewed in many different ways.

Who is to say someone is looking down on animation simply because it's not Japanese Anime? also if one takes culture as the main factor, then anything that Japan accepts as part of their culture in this context is basically Japanese Anime regardless of any criteria. Simply put if the Japanese people view something as part of their culture than it's hard to deny that to them. With Edgerunners, From my perspective the animated series was already broadly viewed in a positive light by the people in Japan, so regardless, if the people there accept it as part of their culture then basically Edgerunners is Japanese Anime then. Which could be viewed as an outlier if one took a closer look at it's over all reception globally as well. As far as Avatar and Castlevania, specifically Avatar, when I was last over in Japan many people I have had conversations with about Japanese Anime over there don't consider that apart of their culture in the slightest. I would assume the same thing goes with the Castlevania production too. Either way others in this thread have already pointed out neither is Japanese Anime anyways because they are both Western productions. At most they could be seen as Anime inspired works but that doesn't make them Japanese Anime.

A rare example of Japan not accepting something as part of it's culture is the original Transformers animation from the early 80s. It's originally a Japanese IP based off a toy line and even the animation was produced in Japanese animation studios but the entire franchise was highjacked by a western production company and people in Japan to this day do not view something that could be Japanese Anime based on arbitrary criteria as part of their culture. Historically the original Transformers animation hasn't been viewed as part of their broader domestic medium in the slightest because of this. Even when ironically there were episodes produced that only aired in Japan specifically for just the Japanese audience that never aired in the West.

For one it would increase the amount of work needed to be done on here, secondly, picky? There's Korean and Chinese animation all over the site and it's gaining popularity, MAL includes a bunch of stuff that shouldn't be considered anime, that's hardly picky if you ask me. I'm not fully versed on the details of the LOTR animated series, but most of the things people complain about not being here, isn't anime in the slightest, like the ones you mentioned in your first post.

I think this is a good albeit subjective definition for anime. Not appropriate for an online database, obviously.

Since there isn't a whole lot of franchises that would fall out of some arbitrary criteria that are questionable enough where Japan would think as part of their culture or not, it would be a whole lot better than MALs current arbitrary criteria that they "try" to follow (because they don't always strictly follow even their own arbitrary criteria).

Even if one was to go by some arbitrary criteria just for a database, things change over time and should be addressed that way where they really need to periodically update their own standards so they could at least on the surface stay consistent to the rules they have made up themselves.

As an example MAL really shouldn't be adding shit into their database that has been produced with no known producer or an unknown studio (Where it's just left blank) where both should be a requirement at the least (specifically looking at all the Donghua garbage in the database). Where without listing the production studio at the least where something was produced at, who is to say it was even produced in an animation studio in Northeast Asia at all?

MAL could easily clean up their database and purge out almost over 90% of all the Donghua garbage with unknown studios and producers and make the site look more like a site dedicated to Japanese Anime again.

The current database is literally flooded with Donghua garbage entries to a bunch of titles that are not even platformed for either the Japanese Domestic audience or platforms for Western Audiences. Where the only way to even consume such shit is by piracy or trying to sign up on some shady Chinese site.

And why can’t I find devil may cry ? I mean …..

True! Like bro... Why is Castlevania not in the list? T-T

@Yonahim_Zz there is only one devil may cry anime.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1726/Devil_May_Cry?q=Devil%20may%20cry&cat=anime

@Old_School_Akira no not this , I meat the new project

@Cherie_758 because it was made by powerhouse studios in Houston, Texas

@Old_School_Akira Yet they have Donghua in lists which are not animated in Japan. Castlevania is still an animation based on Japanese video game called "Akumajo Dracula" they can at least consider it since it IS popular among anime fans.

Because the MAL definition of anime has no hard rules so it can be stretched how ever they want. There are rules that it needs to be Japanese and for the Japanese market primarily but there are a bunch of Korean and Chinese projects here. There are also shows that were made in Japan but not mainly for the Japanese market. Like, Cybersix is on here when it's based on an Argentine comic book and was primarily distributed in Canada.

Might as well adopt the Japanese definition of anime and put everything here.