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Does anime/manga have to be COMPLETELY Japanese to qualify as manga/anime?

Yes, definitely!
5
22%
I have mixed feelings on this...
8
35%
No way!
10
43%
 
Total votes : 23

Anime/Manga - Only Japanese or Not?

Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:16 am

So - what do you think? Do manga and anime have to be made by Japanese people, in Japan, primarily for Japanese people (at first) and in the Japanese language? (Most times the word Japanese was ever used in a run-on sentence...)

I completely disagree - I draw anime, and I am not the least bit Japanese.
So I may suck at drawing anime, but I still draw it.

Also: I mean absolutely NO offense to anybody in posting this, and I also don't mean at all to be racist. If this offends you, I'm really sorry - I just find - and disagree with the fact that - lots of people believe that for anime to be, well, anime, it has to be completely Japanese.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:18 am

I say No, beacause there is this really cool manga coming out based on Warcraft, and Warcraft isn't Japanese.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:33 am

No, but I can't stand shows like Cartoon Network's "Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi" (I had to stare at the poster for it on the train to NY for 1 hour x_x), which they classify as anime.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:37 am

I agree on that - anime is a style of art, and you can't pass off what isn't in that style as anime...

Fri Feb 25, 2005 5:25 am

I've watched the Korean Wonderful days (about a year ago) and its not anime. I've watched chinese aniamtion and damn that aint anime.

I'm not sure where I am on this, anime and manga is fine being drawn by 'westerners' but not fine when it ends up as something like she-spies (I think thats what it was called).

Its also not allowed to be dubbed :P

Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:33 am

Well, take Petshop of Horrors. I think it's made mainly in English, for Western readers. The Anime videos they did of it are I think exactly the same as the manga, only more gory (O.O) and in colour and, well, they move and make sound.
Petshop of horrors DEFINITELY counts as anime/manga.

Sailor Moon... there's a different story. It is anime and manga - but once it got dubbed and Americanized, it lost most of its charm in translation, name-changing, attitude-adjusting, and dumbing-down for little kids. I once watched Sailor Moon R: The Movie in Japanese with subtitles. It was AWESOME. AWESOME. Then I got the same movie, dubbed into English. God, it was crap, I swear...

So it depends.

No matter how big their eyes are, Powerpuff Girls are not and never will be anime. :x

Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:31 pm

I think that true manga is done by someone who has a concept of what manga and anime is. North Americans trying to make animes fail horribly, and it's very sad, and not anime. However, I know some very talented people who draw manga, and I'm in North America.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 1:51 pm

I too have mixed feelings. Technically, manga and anime are just names for the style used. However, as American producers are rapidly finding out, pointy hair, tiny waists, and huge eyes don't make something an anime. For me, if something's truly an anime or manga, it has to have been in Japanese at one point.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 2:31 pm

I have different feelings on this. On one hand anime/manga seems to be animation that came from Japan or was developed in Japan, etc. However I also feel that Anime/Manga to more of a certain style of drawing and animation.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 6:22 pm

Depends on what it is. MegaTokyo, an online comic I've been reading for years, I consider to be a manga of sorts. It's not Japanese, it was done originally in English. (Even though it takes place in Japan...that doesn't count though. Heh.) But there are TV shows out now that just make me want to cry. Totally Spies, The Winks Club (I think that's what it is. I only saw commercials and I wanted to bury myself in a hole.) and so many others I can think of are just trying to be anime. And it's not working, pal. :roll:

So yeah, half and half. It has to pass the stamp of approval. XP

Fri Feb 25, 2005 9:24 pm

I have mixed feelings on this...


Alot of Japanese storylines from anime and manga get befuddled when they are translated into English. I much prefer things in subtitles because they don't lose what they are about.

Sure, I enjoy American cartoons but not Americanized anime. I just feel that the Japanese know what its about when they create an anime or a manga. Sure an American can draw anime/manga characters but its the depth of the actual anime/manga that make it good.

Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:10 pm

Anime = Japanese cartoons
Manga = Japanese comics

But the lines get fuzzy. When it's a Western production with Japanese artists on staff, is it still anime? etc.

I don't think anime, itself, is a style of cartoon, however there are popular styles of anime.
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