Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #151

Originally Posted on 05/08/2007 by Jeff Harris

I might have touched a nerve or two with last week's Watch This Space, especially about my dislike for the term "anime" to describe Japanese animation and why I see that as racist.

Truth be told, anime isn't a racist term, just a segregated one. Like I mentioned on the forums, I don't like the term anime because it segregates itself from animation from the rest of the world. That's how I feel about those who cling onto Japanese animation too much and continue to use that word. Yes, I know that the Japanese use the Francophone term to describe all animation in Japan, and that's the thing. Anime is the umbrella term for all animation in Japan. Even Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse are called anime in the land of the Rising Sun. However, fans of Japanese animation use the term to differentiate it from other animation around the planet.

They're purposely segregating and separating Japanese animation from other internationally-made fare with that term. Other countries have their own phrases and words for animation, but we don't use country-specific terms to segregate them. Triplets of Belleville, Wallace and Grommit, Jane and the Dragon, Babar, Class of the Titans, or any similar title are not placed in country-specific areas in a video store. They're all in the cartoons, comedy, or family section. Meanwhile, everything that comes out of Japan goes straight to the anime section. Unless that particular section is still called the "Japanimation" section.

Yes, "Japanimation," probably the ugliest term for anything I've ever heard. Some people would say it's just a portemanteau of Japan and animation, but the way others say it sounds like a racial slur. I remember when I was younger and the term was still widespread at video stores, a pair of rednecks kept on asking for a particular title. I forget what the title they were looking for, but the whole time, I kept on hearing them refer to what they're looking for as "one of those JAPanimation cartoons," accentuating the J-a-p more than they should have. That's how it was written, so maybe how it looked to them. Either that or their father's, grandfather's, or uncle's tour during World War II or Korea and the culture of the time might have influenced them to use that slur to describe people from Japan or of Japanese descent.

It's an ugly, regrettable side in the history of Japanese animation and one that led to the widespread use of the term anime that continues to this day. Still, the term "anime" is too inclusive and segregationist. When foreign parties co-develop or finance productions in Japan, the otaku element openly criticizes the "animeness" of the project. They ask if a show like IGPX is really an anime even if they were created and financed by an American company or if a show is animated in Japan, is it really an anime.

The Mighty Orbots, Galaxy High, Ulysses 31, Bionic Six, Orguss, and Cybersix were created and developed by TMS for the North American market. By the definition otakus have for "anime," meaning any animated project created and produced in Japan, these shows should be classified as such, but they don't recognize those projects as anime.

Animation is a universal artform. You could learn a lot about the kinds of cultures we have based on the shows and movies we produce. Even the premanufactured dreck created for toyetic purposes shows what kind of culture we have. However, to place Japanese titles above any other country is kind of strange. They're just cartoons. They're well-drawn cartoons, but cartoons just the same. To see them as this end all and be all to entertainment is kind of absurd. To segregate Japanese animation from the rest of the animation world is also insulting to the creators, showing that they don't belong with other animators from around the world. I know that the term "anime" isn't going anywhere, but there should be an end to the barrier the otaku has placed on Japanese animation because it truly doesn't exist. Japanese animation is not better nor worse than anything else out there. Anime is Japanese animation. Nothing more, nothing less.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
The X Bridge Creator/Webmaster
May 8, 2007