What are Anime and Manga?

by Karen Mystic

What are anime and manga? The answer to the questions seems obvious to anyone acquainted with the terms ・"Japanese animation," for anime, and "Japanese comics" for manga ・until some people speakabout cultural diffusion. Because most anime usually starts out asa manga, the two words are congruent and sometimes interchangeablein the anime/manga fandom depending upon how different or similarthe manga and anime are for a certain story. Anime and its comicbook counterpart, manga, have obtained huge audiences worldwide.Reaching out to millions of people, the two artforms have inspiredfans to draw in "anime-style" and "manga-style" which leads to thebasic questions, "What is anime" and "what is manga?" Are they simply Japanese art, made solely in Japan, or are they a genre, aparticular style of drawing? Anime's birthplace is Japan. What had been called "Japanimation" in the `60s and `70s is nowcalled "anime." "Japanimation" simply stood for animation featured in Japan. The new word is a Japanese cognate of "animation," but it took hold as a replacement for the original word with the definitions remaining the same when fans in other countries duringthe `80s and `90s considered the old word as racist. Both anime and manga originated in Japan and were aimed directly at Japanese audiences; this makes them Japanese in nature. Although they are now dubbed and translated, their point of origin remains in Japan.

In the entertainment industry, they are apart of Japan's cultural identity. To call them a genre is to take away what has been cherished as Japanese for the past forty years because non-Japanese without any major connection to Japan would beable to participate in the fandoms. The artforms then lose their special nature since they would no longer be foreign items. Some fans, however, consider anime and manga genres separate from cartoons and comics due to the different drawing styles. As anime and manga spread and gain popularity throughout the world, aspiring artists who are inspired by this Japanese art are drawing in similar fashions by using the same shapes and patterns that developed over the past forty years. These artists lead some fans to wonder if anime and manga are a genre rather than a purely Japanese art.

According to the MSN Encarta, what classifies an artform as a genre is dependent upon: "the basis of form, style, or subject matter," of which anime and manga contain an extremely vast array, making them too diverse and gigantic to be considered genres.

If the categorization of artworks is paralleled to the categorization of life ・a genre would be equal to a genus ・then anime and manga would both fit under the equivalent of an order or another group higher than a genre. According to those fans and artists, if the art looks like anime, then it must be anime; they neglect and ignore the history of anime and its foundation, which would, when applied to their argument, contradict everything they said over the issue.

Anime and manga began in Japan, but they have their deeper ancestral roots in the Disney Company of America. Tezuka Osamu, who has been regarded as the founder of anime, fell in love with Disney cartoons and modeled his artwork after Disney. However, despite this historic fact, those genre-fans feel insulted at the notion that anime from any age in its history should be called "Disney"or "cartoons." In light of this information, those fans seem hypocritical to consider anime a separate genre. According to their view, the early anime must be considered "Disney" since Tezuka Osamu drew in "Disney-style."

Calling anime and manga a genre also puts too specific a label on this diverse art. Many different truegenres, such as Mecha and Shojo, exist within anime and only havetheir point of origin ・Japan ・in common. A young child's mindwould be ruined if the child thought Outlaw Star, an anime about thepromiscuous bounty hunter Gene Starwind, was the same as Hamtaro, an anime about hamsters who go on silly adventures; some people say they are in the same "genre" even though Outlaw Star is gearedtowards adults while Hamtaro is suited to little kids.

Since Disney had inspired foreign artists, anime ultimately inspiring other foreign artists is unavoidable. However, those foreign artists, bysimply being foreign, are incapable of making anime or manga unless they go to Japan and become involved in the industry over there. Their art may be drawn in "anime-style" or "manga-style" just like how Tezuka Osamu drew the first manga and anime in "Disney-style."In the end, the name for a broad type of artwork depends upon the country it came from. Animation native to America must be called "cartoons" while animation native to Japan must becalled "anime." Americans who want to make anime and manga must travel to Japan and either become Japanese citizens or work as an employee in a Japanese production studio.

Although some fans consider anime and manga a separate genre from cartoons and comics due to styles, they forget their point of origin is in Japan and that their origin makes them different. Genre is not just based upon style but also upon subject matter, of which anime and manga contain a wide variety, placing them in a currently unnamed category above genre.