So the new anime season has started. What are you watching?

[The Ghost of RubangB]

Khuutra said:

The Ghost of RubangB said:

Khuutra said:

donkeykong88 said:
AVATAR the last airbender.

This is an excellent show but it's not anime.

Err... why not?  I guess it depends on whether you think anime is a subgenre of animation or a strictly Japanese cultural phenomenon that nobody else can play with.  There are tons of American mangas that are recognized as "mangas" instead of "comics," and that's based on the style not the country of origin.

 

@OT, I'm 2 episodes deep into Paranoia Agent, and just watched FLCL for the first time and then all of Evangelion for the millionth time.  I'm mostly watching anime movies right now, but when I have time I got some Naruto to catch up on.

Sounds like a great idea for this new Dragon Ball though.  I watched the Frieza saga in high school, and I could have easily cut out 70% of it.  Now after film school ruined my brain I could probably cut out 90% of it.

I ain't arguing with no film major!

I mostly refrain from calling Avatar: The Last Airbender "anime" because doing so tends to start up a lot of arguments, particularly from people who hold that Western animation is inherently inferior.

Hm, I just Googled it and apparently it's a huuuuge controversy I've never heard of.  Weird.  I think it should be called anime or maybe "American anime" in the way we call Japanese rock "J-Rock" to show that it's their take on a foreign genre.  But it's not like we make other countries come up with new words for rock and hip hop, which came from America and are now global genres.  When German Expressionism came to America we didn't call it American German Expressionism, we just called it... German Expressionism, and then... horror... and then noir.  It was all stolen from Germany though.  Why can't we steal anime back from Japan?  They stole it from Betty Boop anyway.  I think these labels will get really dumb when we have a new word for a Japanese take on an American take on a Japanese take on American animation.

I think when somebody who doesn't know Avatar was made by Americans sees it for the first time, they'd assume it's anime.  And I think that's what the labels are for.  If it looks like anime and smells like anime and tastes like anime, ya know?

I'm in an anime class right now.  It's soooooooo awesome.  I should bring this topic up to all the anime nerds and my professors and see if they agree or get really mad at me.  But then again we watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which is computer animation, by Japanese, with American voices, for America.  But since it's FF-related it's still somehow considered "part of anime culture" or something.  Ugggh...