Japanimation

Sure, but the idea that "anime" must come from Japan by many people's definition insinuates that it is impossible.

The West also has produced a fair number of extremely successful works whose classification as anime is hotly debated. The common argument against these works is that they aren't Japanese. Castlevania, DMC, Avatar TLA, Scott Pilgrim, and surely more. What, if not their place of origin, makes these works not anime?

Why are Japanese studios themselves exempt from being derivative of other Japanese studios? Trigger has become one of the most prolific anime studios and the majority of their series often contain scenarios or scene compositions which are lifted directly from existing works which far predate the studios existence. A western animation studio creates a work which, by all factors except country of origin, is in-line with what an anime is, but it has to be categorized differently? What exactly makes being born in Japan so unique that we need to create a specific category which specifies "animated work created in Japan"?

If it's Anime, I'll automatically enjoy it, no matter if its bad or good.
If it's not Anime, I'll automatically hate it, no matter if its "good" or bad. All non-Anime aka Western Animation by default is bad and I'll hate it.

Western made media which visibly "resembles" Anime are easy to differentiate from Anime since one is just promoting a political agenda while the -true- Anime tells an apolitical story which most or all people want. We're trying to escape the evil real life so showing a Western show who tries to do something similar, ofc will made us to hate it.

I'm loyal to Japan and Anime.

This I agree with. I believe anime is a style of animation which originated in Japan and has proliferated across the globe in many forms. I believe there are Western anime, Japanese anime, Korean anime, Chinese anime, etc. They may also use certain local terms (donghua, cartoon, etc) to describe them, but as a westerner myself, anime as a style (design/compositional/directorial) is not exclusive to Japan at this point. Pointing to Japanese animation is an easy way to quickly exemplify the term.

while I am a bit of a japanophile, it's the characteristics of anime that make it interesting to me, not the fact it's made in japan.

which is also why I do disagree with MAL's "Japan only" definition of anime, so there is that.


I can almost guarantee you that that's a loud minority if anything.

@ToumaTachibana If you think "true anime", as you call it, is apolitical, you haven't been paying attention. There are political elements to Japanese media. You just likely aren't aware of it.

This I agree with. I believe anime is a style of animation which originated in Japan and has proliferated across the globe in many forms. I believe there are Western anime, Japanese anime, Korean anime, Chinese anime, etc. They may also use certain local terms (donghua, cartoon, etc) to describe them, but as a westerner myself, anime as a style (design/compositional/directorial) is not exclusive to Japan at this point. Pointing to Japanese animation is an easy way to quickly exemplify the term.

@Nionel No Anime is showing me political stuff like BLM or abortion rights so I have no idea of what you're talking about. That makes Anime apolitcal. Compare it to something like Turning Red a pro-abortion rights stance using words like "my panda, my choice" which its an obvious reference to "my body, my choice". No Anime is showing me politics in their face and if even if they "somehow" have politics like some ppl claim LOTGH is political but I don't see how, authoritarianism, monarchy, republic, democracy being shown make a show political. By that logic, an Anime is political if they show a gov structure like imagine saying a show for having the police on screen or how a family works is being political. The obsession of the West with everything being political is just annoying.

Ah yes, ‘Japanimation’, back when people still thought anime was just robots, ninjas, and tentacles.

I'm a fan of Japanese stories and Japanese (anime) culture. While technically the nationality of the writers/directors/artists/etc. is not what makes me enjoy something, in reality it's a very strong correlation. Japanese stories aren't necessarily better than western stories, but they generally feel different because of the cultural backgrounds of the people involved (I'll ignore other non-western countries for the sake of the argument)

There are western stories that I enjoy, but giving them an anime art style doesn't make me more interested. On the contrary, I usually prefer if they find their own style instead of trying to be anime (it's hard to put into words, but it quickly feels uninspired)

The issue is that globalized economies have effectively spliced orange tree branches onto an apple tree, so now the apple tree is growing oranges as well. Is an orange suddenly an apple if it grows on an apple tree?

I can't believe how deep and philosophical people are getting over a simple word. It's as simple as-

Apples are apples
Oranges are oranges
Even though they are both fruits, an apple can't be orange

So,

"Anime" is the english term for Japanese animation
Japanese animation comes from Japan
If it's not Japanese then it's not anime

What the hell is so hard to understand here.

You're correct that anime isn't pushing Western/American politics, but any political messages in anime would be specific to Japanese politics, which currently would likely have little to do with reproductive rights or the treatment of black people or other minorities. It'd be more to do with an economic struggles, like an aging population burdening the younger generation's economic independence. Or social issues like oppressive work culture. You just don't register these as political issues because you're not Japanese.

Watch osamu tezuka‘s young black jack episodes 7 & 8






The godfather of anime & manga was political.

Thing is, "anime" is not a signifier of quality. Even if something is anime inspired, you can tell when it's actually made by Westerners and aimed at other Westerners. It doesn't feel like anime, and so it shouldn't be called anime. There's plenty of garbage that truly are anime, so idiots who think that any animation above a certain quality has warranted the title of "anime" would also end up excluding a lot of true anime from their own definition.

All the subjective definitions, whether it be about art style, quality, or vibes, are hard to define and don't belong anywhere near a database. You can't determine if something is an anime or not just by how it feels. It's also a bit of an uncanny valley for me, because the shows that try to imitate anime while being obviously divorced from the culture that created anime just feel weird. I get why people like them, but you can't call that anime.

@Zarutaku
What about adaptations of foreign works, like Anne of Green Gables, Diary of Anne Frank, or Radiant? There's also some anime like Flying Luna Clipper, Deliver Police, and Afro Samurai that are stylistically released with an English dub in Japan for a Japanese audience (similar to how you have The Passion of Christ and all those Sanskrit films written in dead languages for the vibe). Imo those are still anime.

@HokutoMumyoZan There are successful Western animations, though. They don't have to hide behind a foreign brand to seem "more legit", they can own what they actually are. You also say that manga showed comics could be used to tell stories about things other than superheroes, but Archie was super popular back in the day and that's a romantic comedy. Tintin also wasn't about superheroes and that's a Belgian comic.

Various cinemas around the world comparing themselves to Hollywood gives a similar vibe. Ironically some of them have even taken on their own identities, and you end up with films from Ghana being lumped in as Nollywood (Nigeria+Hollywood) because people think Ghanaian movies are similar to Nigerian ones.

People don't have to settle for an imitation, and I don't think people should brand their works as imitations. It's fine to take inspiration from something, but don't make a knockoff of it, and definitely don't claim that you are that thing. There's nothing prestigious about anime, most anime is garbage. It only makes your product seem worse if you're telling people it's a cheap imitation of another product rather than being proud of what culture it actually came from.

I'm curious about what makes a show obviously made for Westerners. What does that entail?


A bit of a mouthful, but anime-adjacent is definitely suitable for my needs, though I still don't see the point of limiting the term "anime" to Japanese animation, when "Japanese animation" is perfectly suitable and much more clear to begin with.


I think the Champagne comparison is a good one. Sparkling wine is readily available and often referred to as champagne, even when it's not produced out of Champagne. It's a bit like a generic trademark, where a brand name becomes so directly associated with a product that it becomes a de-facto name, like Kleenex, Dumpster, or Aspirin. I see anime as essentially the same thing.

I'm not particularly attached to "anime" being the term of use, but people already associate the word with animation which adhere to an easily identifiable pattern of production techniques and visual styles which were popularized by Japanese anime and are now being implemented in Western cartoons. So it would be sensible to be able to say something is Japanese anime or Western anime. But it could easily be anything else as well, so long as people actually used the word and knew what it meant. I just think it's valuable to have a term to describe these types of animations regardless of where they come from, and "anime" already means this to most people, even if a lot of them are "normies" or "tourists" to some people online.

Also anime as a term for Japanese animation was particularly useful in the past because it indicated a notable departure from Western cartoons people were accustomed to. Japanese animation needed its own term because it was so different from what animated works in the West were known to be at that point. But that isn't the case anymore. The West is producing and will continue to produce works which align with the syles and techniques Japan popularized across the globe, so it makes sense to keep the word we used to mean these things.

The point of everything I had to say was that it does take quality to be something, and everything usually does..... but at the world's darkest hour, will you do what it takes? Will you do the right thing, or will you just sit back and pretend everything is okay?

Also, I'm not one for putting anime everything on a pedestal, but leave me out of the Sturgeon's Law garbage, thanks.

@HokutoMumyoZan If it takes quality to be anime, does that mean all the isekais and generic harems aren't anime because they're bad? What about the arthouse shorts or MMD music videos? It feels like a distilling of culture to look after only a small subset of anime and market yourself based on that. It also doesn't reflect what the most popular anime in Japan are, like Doraemon, Sazae-san, Detective Conan, etc. when it's only things like battle shounen, magical girl, and mecha that are stereotypically "anime". Someone from Japan might not even recognize a Western "anime" as being an attempt at recreating something from their culture. I've heard a lot of Japanese people consider Avatar to be offensive or cultural appropriation. Sure, Western animation has gotten a lot of flack over the years, but the response shouldn't be to pretend it's from somewhere else.