Western Anime

When I was younger I watched a couple of animated movies made in the 1980s produced by two Americans but the art was done by a company called TopCraft. Many of the memebers of TopCraft became the foundation for Studio Ghibli. The producers Rankin and Bass are actually more well known for those claymation Christmas movies that will be on TV soon. Both The Last Unicorn and The Flight of Dragons were based on fantasy books that also have some story elements in common with Japanese animation. I recommend watching both. I also recommend reading The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. Has anyone else seen something they would consider "western" anime (other than Avatar: the last airbender)?

It's a close call. It was a manga first and the anime was a joint venture but it seems the people who headed up the project were Japanese.

Wow the Last Unicorn... Shmendrek was the man... "Magic do as you will!"...lol been a while since I ever thought about those. I remember there was one studio called American Manga i think it was but as the name suggests was manga iirc... hell its been 25ish years since i've watched/seen it so who knows what happened to them.

Since anime truly is a regional animation, not an art style, since anime doesnt have to be Moé or manga styled. I'd say anything not produced in Japan is not anime. No, I'm not being an ass here, because Avatar and stuff like Afro Samurai are good, but they're anime-inspired, not anime. Since they weren't produced originally in Japan they can't be called anime. To be fair, heavily censored stuff like Voltron isn't anime either.

I would thoroughly disagree with your opinion. By that logic, in order to make anime or manga the people have to be Japanese. Or would I have to just move there in order to produce anime? What about someone of a different ethnicity born in Japan and producing anime? And what if a group of Japanese producers move to Brazil and do their work there? This turns it into a discussion about ethnocentrism and culture rather than animation. It all depends on how you define Anime, but if you define Anime as "having to be produced in Japan," then I'd say there is a significant flaw in your definition.

No, you misunderstand: Anime is produced in Japan, and has voice acting in Japanese originally. It can be produced by a foreigner in Japan, its by definition animation imported from Japan If I were to produce a TV series that has anime styling then its anime inspired. Claiming its anime is wrong. I respect your opinion of it as an art style but by WHAT characteristics is something anime then? There is just as many flaws in that definition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Modernanime.jpg Very good example of the various differences in modern anime, so anime isnt a particular style, but a cultural and regional type of animation. Stuff like Code Lyoko and Avatar doesn't quite meet that definition.

I never defined it specifically as an art style, anime is an open-defined form of animation. The anime medium can no more be restricted to a region than anything else. For example, classical music is not a style of music. There are so many different genres of it and different things you can do with it. However, it isn't restricted to Europe where what we know as "classical music" originated. Simply because the anime was popularized in Japan doesn't mean it is something that only Japan can claim. A closer example might be the rise of Bollywood movies from India. One of reasons that make western "anime" so differentiated from Japanese "anime" is that frankly things like avatar really are simply inspired by the Japanese style. Some of these things are just a stolen art style and mostly not done too well either. However, if you look at the art of Flight of Dragons, while it was done by a Japanese group, you'll notice I've called it Western anime although the art is very different than what you'll find in Japan. anime is not a genre of art or animation. It is a mindset, an idea. Trying to define anime in a particular way is not something that can be done.