Question:
The Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary does not acknowledge anime. It
only defines cartoons. My Japanese E-dictionary's also do not define anime.
Like many of the articles and post noted above, I believe anime to be
distinctive and different from cartoons. What is the current feeling from
this group?
Answer:
I might be partly responsible for this...
Without looking at any of the articles, I'd say the best
definition of anime is: "Cartoons made by the Japanese for the
I emphatically (but politely) reject this. I mean, we can talk
about Russian literature, French cinema, Italian opera, even
British television, but are there any that maintain they are
different *things* from American books, movies, operas (such as
there are), and TV? Is it just that we have adopted the native
Japanese name for it? Japanese cartoons have different
references and emphasis from American cartoons (which have
differences from Canadian cartoons), that is all.
Anime *are* cartoons. The differences in style and content between Western
cartoons and Eastern ones does not change that fact.
Anime=cartoons. Cartoons from JAPAN. Some are good. Some are bad. A lot are
bad. A HELL of a lot are bad. So it's no different from anywhere else in the
world. The only real difference is in the material presented by the medium.
And even that difference is beginning to change, as other countries begin
taking their nods from anime and giving us stuff like Code Lyoko, Avatar,
and The Boondocks. Before too many more years pass, the only difference
remaining will be a purely cultural one.
This whole thread reminds me of an on-line article that I saw several years
ago. It may even still be online somewhere, I just can't find it.
Basically, it was an article by a lady that had seen sailor moon in the
original Japanese (not even a fan-sub, this lady actually spoke Japanese),
and the DIC dub. Her point was that even though DIC made some significant
changes such as making Zoesite (or whoever) into a woman so there was no gay
couple, changing some of the names, eliminating some of the episodes, etc.,
they did not change the basic fact that Sailor Moon was a piece of fluff
about the power of friendship and love, not "art."
