FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST Volume 1: The Alchemist's Curse
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Don't Hog It

It's nice when people share.  We share each others' food, games, property and significant others depending on personal kink.  Sharing is a social lesson instilled in us as children in hopes of keeping down the murder rate as we grow older. 

It's a lesson that grows increasingly important as the Internet swiftly widens our means of communication.  Whereas previous generations saw children grow up exclusively with friends of the same age and from the same village or town, children today can make friends with someone from across the world.  They can learn what they're about, what their country is like, what kind of food they eat, and all the good stuff. 

One of the nice things about humans is the way we draw inspiration from each other (even if laws often require us to tiptoe around copyrights).  As an example of animated hybrid vigor, sometimes two countries will come together and produce a movie or cartoon or product that marries the strengths of styles.  Some of anime's best showpieces draw inspiration from American legend and media, like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Big O to name just a few.  Of course, inspiration isn't exclusive to American content.  For example, the wildly popular manga and anime series, Lupin III, finds its story roots with France's famous Gentleman Thief, Arsene Lupin. 

But sometimes the union of two cultures can be a messy, forced affair.  Whereas Japan has a pretty solid idea of what makes a successful, creative mix, other countries are still having a hard time grasping what makes anime so appealing. 

There are different levels of quality and style to be found in anime, not unlike American animation itself.  Bleach doesn't look much like Pokemon, nor does Hamtaro share much in common with Full Metal Alchemist.   But anime is almost always easily distinguished from other art forms by certain inherited physical traits.  Big eyes is a popular citation.  Wild hair.  Love of primary colours.   

These kinds of notations aren't invalid by any means, but it becomes a problem when outside audiences--and even producers of children's cartoons--recognise them as the medium's only traits and try to replicate them for their own shows. 

More and more countries outside of Japan are attempting their own take on anime.  The most popular example probably lies with WB's hit series, Teen Titans.  Teen Titans, based on the DC comic series of the same name, features the adventures of young superheroes like Raven, Beast Boy, Cyborg and the Boy Wonder, Robin, as they fight crime.  While the comics don't look very different from what's standard for printed American fare, the Teen Titans cartoon is well known for its unique aesthetics.   

"Unique" is a deceptive word in this instance.  Teen Titans imitates anime almost exactly, but the cartoon, which ended its three-year run in 2006, was produced in America.  The characters are drawn with thick outlines, bold colours and look pretty modern and cool.  WB's offence lies in the way the characters act.  Teen Titans serves up lots of the same visual gags common in lighthearted animes: sweatdrops, bulging veins to indicate anger, chibification, etc. 

There's not really any harm in adapting common visuals directly from anime, though it's awfully uninspired.  The problem with Teen Titans and other non-Japanese "pseudo-anime" is that it tries to cram it all in, and then some.  All but the silliest of anime will restrict sight gags to one or two instances within a half-hour period, but Teen Titans bangs off one visual cliché after another.  It detracts from what's otherwise an interesting (though somewhat episodic) roster of characters and episodes.  The cartoon borrows quite a bit of its story from the original comic, and it's a shame to have serious moments dealing with betrayal and friendship embarrassingly ruined by a character pulling a dumb face for no real reason. 

Some of the problem might lie in the fact WB meant for the series to be for children from the beginning.  Teen Titans found a large teen audience, but it was meant for children foremost and WB stuck with their guns even as they realised they had an increasing fanbase of older viewers.  The studio produced Teen Titans with the newfangled anime taste kids love, then injected some American-made hormones to make sure their young audience never had a reason to look away from the screen. 

Teen Titans isn't the only offender, and neither is America.  One of the first infamous attempts at pseudo-anime terrorised the country in the form of Totally Spies!, a vapid cartoon produced in Europe and Canada about three empty-headed female spies who take down bad guys, save the world, and like, totally look for hot sales on the way, ohmygawd.  As with Teen Titans, the animation quality is actually good, but tries way too hard to imitate anime, overabundance of sight gags included.