Ask John: What Exactly Constitutes Anime?

Question:
My answer today comes in response to a pair of similar questions:

1. I was wondering what exactly classifies an animation as “anime?” If there is no one element, perhaps you could give me your thoughts. Before I could say anime is anything made in Japan; however a lot of cartoons are made there. I once said it was the style, yet now you see series such as “Teen Titans” and “Jackie Chan Adventures” using that art form. My final idea on what makes anime, anime, is which audience it’s first aimed at. If it’s American, it’s a Cartoon. If it’s aimed originally at Japanese viewers, then it’s anime. This seemed logical. However, wouldn’t that mean the recent Yu-Gi-Oh movie is in theory classified a cartoon motion picture since it was created for the US to start?

2. This is a response to your answer to the question of How much of Anime is Actually Japanese. I just don’t know why you say that anime style animation cannot be called anime. Personally, I believe Wonderful Days is an anime. Just because it isn’t Japanese doesn’t mean anyone can’t call it anime. Cultural differences should never be used to differentiate anime from non-anime. My goal in life is to create anime and have it called anime. I truly believe I can do it if I try. Just because I am not Japanese does not mean I cannot create anime.

Answer:
In my opinion, anime is Japanese animation. That sounds simple, but it’s actually quite complex if you take the statement literally. Anime is animation created by Japanese artists that is imbued by those artists’ native cultural identity. An American produced series like Teen Titans or Jackie Chan Adventures, or a Korean animated film like Wonderful Days may look like Japanese animation, but do such titles contain the philosophy and cultural values and influences of thousands of years of Japanese history and society? No. They don’t. American critics seem to be too eager to define anime by its superficial appearance alone. Just because a piece of costume jewelry may look like a diamond doesn’t mean that it is a diamond. The fact that Powerpuff Girls may have bright colors and wide eyes like anime doesn’t mean that it is anime. Even AD Vision producer Andy Orjuela said in a September interview with Play Magazine, that he does not refer to the Korean animated Lady Death movie as “anime.”

I may be accused of being too pretentious about the values of anime, but I don’t think that I’m incorrect. The native Japanese characteristics of anime include subtle elements such as which particular themes in a story are emphasized, the dramatic pacing of a scene, the type of music selected for a particular scene or series, the body language that anime characters convey, the genres and variety of anime stories and plots, the particular colors used in an anime, and countless other virtually subliminal elements. There’s absolutely no certainty that a non-Japanese artist would draw something, or write a story, or choose one color over another, or select one piece of music instead of another, in the exact same way that a Japanese artist would. Americans think like Americans. Germans think like Germans. Canadians think like Canadians. Japanese think like Japanese. It’s impossible for a non-Japanese artist to identically replicate the mindset and artistic style of a Japanese artist. Likewise, a Japanese artist cannot create genuine, authentic American animation. That’s why Japanese animation is uniquely Japanese. An American anime-style cartoon may feature characters that look like anime characters, may include Tokyo Tower and chopsticks and even Japanese language and music. But it’s physically impossible for an American animation to perfectly recreate the same sense of timing and atmosphere and theme that it would have if it were created by Japanese artists. This theoretical American animated production may be even cinematically and technically superior to Japanese animation in every way, but it’s still not Japanese animation, not anime. Anime is Japanese animation, and only Japanese people can create Japanese animation.

Many non-Japanese people seem to take offense over the idea that their artwork isn’t anime. They seem unaware that the term “anime” is just a signifier of Japanese animation. The fact that something isn’t anime isn’t an insult. It’s merely a semantic distinction. The classification “anime” doesn’t mean that the animation is better or worse than anything else. The word “anime” doesn’t mean that the animation has to look a certain way. The word “anime” only means that the animation so identified is an authentic example of contemporary Japanese artistic culture, as composed by native Japanese themselves, free of overt, manipulative foreign influence. There’s no reason whatsoever why an American artist can’t create the best animated feature the world has ever seen- better than any existing anime ever made. It’s will not be anime, but so what? The fact that it isn’t technically categorized as “anime” doesn’t refute the fact that it’s still the best animated film ever made.

For as long a literature itself has existed, critics have analyzed and discussed literature inclusive of its cultural and historical background. There’s no reason why the same principles should not also apply to Japanese animation. We use the term “Greek tragedy” because it refers to plays composed by Greek writers. We use the term “Shakespearean drama” because it refers to plays written by Shakespeare. We use the term “anime” because it refers to Japanese animation. Renaissance and Neoclassical and Romantic literature were European responses to earlier artistic forms. Asian and Middle Eastern art of the same period are excluded from these categories. American “Beat” poetry is distinctly American and excludes literature composed at the same time by Asian and European writers. The French New Wave excludes films made in Germany and Spain and England and America. These same critical principles that apply to the definition and study of Japanese animation have existed for centuries. The word “anime” itself is just a word. Sadly, I think that too many potential artists are obsessed over labels and recognition and having their art classified as “anime” instead of focusing on just creating and sharing their art and allowing it to be what it is, and what it isn’t.