anime-influenced animation

Characters from Teen Titans

Anime-influenced animation refers to non-Japanese works of animation that emulate the visual style of anime.^[1] Due to Western culture, the term anime has been coined to explicitly refer to Japanese animation.^[2] These works are created in North America, Europe, and non-Japanese Asia. With the rise of anime's popularity in Western civilization, it has become an integrated part of western animation produced.

Background

In the West, particularly in the United States, the term anime has been generally accepted to describe animation produced explicitly in Japan.^[3] As anime became increasingly popular, Western animation studios began implementing some visual stylizations typical in anime. In particular, works like Teen Titans and Batman Beyond displayed some characteristics of anime.^[4] Particularly for Batman Beyond, some of its production processes were outsourced in Japan.

The advent of anime stylizations appearing in Western animation questioned the established meaning of "anime".^[1]

Resemblance to Anime

Due to anime influence, Western animation adopted some techniques and features from anime. The resemblances to anime were strong enough to question whether these works can be deemed as anime or not.^[1]

Some traits and techniques can be found in anime-influenced series:

• Less fluid motion than in traditional western animation
• Features in character design resembling those of typical anime characters, such as large eyes and unnaturally colored hair.
• Anime face faults used to show characters' instant emotions, for example, the sweat drop.
• Use of super deformed styles.
• Use of genres typically found in anime, like mecha.
• Increased use of Japanese references, from names to cultural elements.

Western Influence on Japan

In the 1950's, Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation precepts to reduce the budget costs and number of frames in the production. This was intended to be a temporary measure to allow him to produce one episode every week with an inexperienced animation staff. Some animators in Japan overcome production budgets by utilizing different techniques than the Disney or the old Tezuka/Otsuka methods of animating anime. Due to reduced frame rate, several still shots and scrolling backgrounds, more time can be spent on detail in each drawing.

American shows and media have also influenced Japan's animation industry greatly, popular series such as Astro Boy, Mobile Suit Gundam^[5], and One Piece^[6], along with the genres of magical girl, and tokusatsu are heavily influenced by American cartoons, comics, and movies. The influence continues in Japan as some American animation is reproduced as anime, such as Powerpuff Girls Z, , and Witchblade.

Criticism

The style is sometimes lambasted by critics and fans of anime and limited animation alike, for a number of reasons, such as the idea that the "Americanization" of anime is untrue to original Japanese works.^[7] Critics say works whose style tries to emulate anime are insulting to "true" anime (which is made in Japan) and the many concepts imitated are not easily explainable in English animation. It is often called "fauxnime" by critics and fans alike. Other common terms include imitation anime. ^[8] A simpler more generic term, "fusion," has also arisen, while the new term "Amerime" more specifically describes the style. There has also been criticism about fans who accept animation from Japan but turn down "anime-influenced" animation from America or Western countries just because it was not made in Japan or other Eastern countries. Likewise, some fans of western animation have criticised this newer fad as being used to create animation quickly and cheaply rather than using the perceived fluid and detailed animation seen in regular western styles prevalent in most feature films (most notably Disney), animated shorts produced during the The Golden Age of Hollywood animation, as well as many televised late 80s-mid 90s cartoon series.

Conversely, there is criticism for works of anime done by Japanese studios that are based on American content, such as the 2006 Witchblade anime, and Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z.

Visually, there are still some differences between true anime and anime-influenced animation. In some cases, enough so that it can be spotted by most fans of the genre.

Some Examples of Anime-influenced Animation

• Avatar: The Last Airbender. Production staff were explicitly instructed to view anime.^[9][10]
• The Boondocks. Season 2 is under production by Japanese animation studio Madhouse. Production cites Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo as source of inspiration.^[11]
• Code Lyoko. Popular French cartoon. Referred as a "fake anime", along with Totally Spies.^[12]
• Di-Gata Defenders . Canadian cartoon with slightly anime-style animation. ^{[citation needed]}
• Exosquad, created in response to Japanese animation^[13] and explicitly marketed as "original American anime" by its creators^[14]
• Kappa Mikey. Creator Larry Schwarz explicitly intended mixing American style animation with anime.^[15]
• Megas XLR. Creators Jody Schaeffer and George Krstic cite influence from giant robot series, Macross or Robotech. ^[16]
• Ōban Star-Racers. A French-Japanese co-production with graphical visuals comparable to most anime series. This features music by Ayumi Hamasaki.^[17][18]
• Teen Titans. Creator Glen Murakami explicitly cites manga/anime influence into its creation. ^[19]
• Team Galaxy. It blends "anime-inspired 2D animation with computer-generated elements".^[20]
• Totally Spies. Anime influenced including anime face faults and gags. This is often referenced as "trying" to be anime.^[21]

References

• Kime, Chad (1997). "American Anime: Blend or Bastardization?". EX 3.3. EX.org. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.
• Khan, Ridwan (July 2003). "American Anime - Is it Possible?". Animefringe.com. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.

See also

• Original English-language manga
• La nouvelle manga
• Limited animation

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