Ask John: Has Anime Influenced American Film?

Question:
How do you think anime has influenced Western film and animation?

Answer:
There’s no question that Japanese animation has had a significant influence on American animation. Disney’s 1989 film The Little Mermaid appeared at the beginning of the American anime boom, and just happened to be Disney’s first animated film to employ the big, round eyes typical of Japanese animation. Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King is frequently cited as a blatant copy of Osamu Tezuka’s Jungle Emperor. There’s probably little doubt that the influence of anime in America contributed to the American development and broadcast of programs like Aeon Flux, Liquid Television (which aired Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s short “Running Man”) and Spawn the Animation. And more recently the Teen Titans cartoon series has intentionally adopted characteristic visual elements of anime.

Although Japanese animation may be said to have influenced the style and design of American animation over the past decade, I don’t believe that Japanese animation has had any significant impact on America’s live action film industry outside isolated exceptions. Rather, I believe that many American anime fans think that Japanese animation is more recognized and influential in America than it really is. The Matrix has acknowledged its partial roots in Japanese animation. Quentin Tarintino’s Kill Bill volume 1 featured an animation sequence that was produced in Japan, but was not representative of typical Japanese animation. Guillermo del Toro’s Blade 2 exhibited distinct anime-esque characteristics in its climactic fight scene. Yet these examples are singular, and limited to works by directors with a known interest in underground, cult and foreign cinema. I don’t see any evidence of homage to or influence by Japanese animation in the mainstream, non-genre American film industry. And even within the realm of American sci-fi, fantasy and horror films, I can’t think of other examples that display a clear influence from Japanese animation and not, instead, other American films or Chinese live action. Considering that we haven’t seen a marked increase in the number of science fiction or fantasy films released in America, we can’t say that anime has expanded the market for fantasy films. And the slow motion and bullet time effects seen in numerous live action American productions these days, I think, are directly attributable to the American developed concepts in The Matrix and the influence of Chinese filmmakers including John Woo, Ronny Yu and Tsui Hark. So I think that excluding isolated instances, Japanese animation has had no noticeable effect or influence on America’s live action film industry or market. Anime is very popular among American anime fans, but anime fans still seem to be a minority within the American mainstream. The fact that Shrek 2, an American animated film free of Japanese influence, can set new records for success in America while Ghost in the Shell 2 can’t even break a million dollars in American theatrical release proves that mainstream America is not really interested in nor supportive of Japanese animation.