By RedWordSmith

Recently, I’ve heard about a show that’s supposedly an anime made in the United States. True anime fans will instantly see through the extraordinarily shallow marketing of “Kappa Mikey” and judge it on its own merits, I’m sure, save to say that Reuters (review), hardly a bastion of Otaku style, gives the show a dismal review. Still, the turn of events does raise an interesting question – does anime have to come from Japan?
If you use the simple definition of anime given here on FanCruft and on other sites,
“‘Anime’ is Japanese animation”, Then the answer must always be yes – since anime is by definition animation from Japan all animation which is not from Japan must not be anime. This, however, seems to me to be quite narrow-minded, even if it does appear to consensus, at least on ANN’s board (thread). If the styles and storylines of Japanese animation and the animation of any other country are basically the same, so that the only way to tell if an “anime” is Japanese or not is to look at the fine print on the back of the box, there’s no point in drawing a mental line between the two. Ironically, it is the very popularity of anime that ensures that this WILL eventually be the case. As I’ve said before, anime and manga inspired style is already highly visible in some webcomics. A Martian would probably not be able to tell the difference between a printout of some webcomics and real manga. In fact, I would bet that a lot of Americans might have trouble telling the difference between the two if it weren’t for left/right flow differences and language, both of which can be changed trivially.
So then, if it’s not just the country of origin that makes anime what it is, what is special about anime? Although Japanese cultural elements are usually present in anime, they’re not so overwhelming that they HAVE to be present for an anime to be an anime. I think it’s what’s said after the short definition in my “about anime” page that’s really important – it’s the plot, the heart, and the very soul that goes into anime that makes it what it is. Characters are dynamic. Plots are complex. Variations on themes are unpredictable and original. An anime has an anima.

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