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Anime, Ain’t It?

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Complete Book 1
© Paramount

Besides the debate on the legality of fansubs and scanslations, the other question that will crop up in any anime Internet forum is the definition of anime and manga, and whether these terms include animation and comics originating from other countries with an anime/manga style to the artwork. 

Everyone seems to agree what manga and anime is, when it comes to straight-from-Japan entertainment. Branching out from there, the common ground gets shaky. I find that all of the arguments reduce down to syntax and slang. Let’s say that someone says that Avatar the Airbender is anime. By this, they don’t mean, hey, it’s animation from Japan (unless they don’t know that this is a US-made cartoon, which can be understood if Saturday morning cartoons aren’t your usual TV viewing). They’re referring to what it looks like, which is, anime. So instead of saying “Avatar is in that crazy Japanese anime style,” they simplify the sentence down to “Avatar is anime.” 

Manga is a little more fluid with terminology, and the otaku debaters are less likely to jump you for using the wrong terms, such as labeling a manwha (Korean manga-style comics) as manga. Just think of someone calling Planetary a superhero comic. Close, but... so far away. The proliferation of webcomics in the manga style (webmanga?) has eroded the line between the creator’s country of origin and the validity of their creative work as a manga, making the otaku community more open to non-Japanese manga, both online and on the shelves and at conventions. However, both anime and manga are still looking for the right terminology, ones that don’t imply that Japanese media is “better” than non-Japanese products. 

I abide by “anime” being Japanese animation, and “manga” being Japanese comics. (Non-Japanese anime is simply animation inspired by anime, or in an anime style from my perspective.) That isn’t to say that I’m on the radical side of the fence, where any foreign-made comic drawn in a manga style isn’t manga; it’s just a comic, and heaven forbid that they use Japanese culture in their work without being Japanese! (Insert my shock and horror.) Instead, I’m for labeling the English version as original English language (OEL) manga, and other language manga as... well, something along the lines of OEL. The term “world manga” has been tossed around, but nothing has really stuck among the otaku community besides OEL (I have seen the nebulous “original manga” in advertisements before, but that really doesn’t define the comic at all, besides it being an original work, or perhaps untranslated manga reprinted domestically, which frankly, doesn’t make any sense at all). Maybe “Non-Japanese Manga” would be a good term, as that groups everything into two camps: manga, as in Japanese comics; and non-Japanese manga, as in manga-style comics from other counties. 

However, this brings us back to the whole Japanophile problem, where Japanese goods are inherently “better” than non-Japanese ones. In a perfect world, a non-Japanese manga would be seen and taken at face value as the same as a translated Japanese manga. However, OEL manga creators still face stigma of not creating “real” manga, and their books simply not being Japanese. It’s sad to think how many titles go unread on bookshelves simply because they don’t come from the Mysterious Far East of Western fascination. This stigma even applies to non-English language titles, as oftentimes magazines and websites only want reviews of manga, not of manwha (which has been growing over the last few years), and browsing potential customers often see the unfamiliar sound FXs and put the book back on the shelves. 

Anime suffers more from being used as a label for funky animation and artwork by mainstream media, a double-edged sword for otaku. Yes, it’s not right to use the word as an all-encompassing word for TV shows and artwork with big eyes, and a small mouth, but at the same time, this is bringing greater awareness to our hobby, and hey, at least they’re trying to understand. Isn’t that a good start? Mainstream media is getting better at using “anime” for things which actually are anime, as more and more TV channels develop anime and foreign film programming blocks.     

As time goes on, language evolves, taking in new words and developing new meanings for old words. Perhaps we’ll get those new words for anime and manga outside of Japan in 2007. The year is still young. When you venture out into the perilous domain of anime and manga forums, don’t let the purists get you down; remember that everyone has opinions, especially the pompous otaku, and yours are just as right.