Anime needs a new name

[Neverhoodian]

How about "animation where everyone has freaky-huge eyes?"

Hmmm, doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Ah well, I tried.

Seriously though, take a photo of yourself and enlarge your eyes to anime-style proportions. You'll have nightmares for weeks.

 

[A random person]

snip

I'd actually cite anime as part of my pro-globalization views; even though it definitely came from the west (though since America invented animation beyond those wheels with slits, that's kinda inevitable), it still came into its own as distinctively Japanese (why yes, I am trying to pretend that I learned something from my AP Human Geography class).

As for the creativity of anime studios, there are a good bit of series/films that started as anime (Gundam, Code Geass, Evangelion, anything by Miyazaki, anything mentioned here [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AnimeFirst]), though I won't deny that much of it comes from manga and light novels.

 

[Del-Toro]

I honestly just refer to them as cartoons (not trolling), or japanese cartoons(not trolling) when I feel I need to be more specific. Anime works, among other fans of the format(it IS a format, not a genre, "live action" isn't a genre, and neither is anime), so I don't really think we need some form of massive overhaul.

 

[A random person]

How about "animation where everyone has freaky-huge eyes?"

Hmmm, doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Ah well, I tried.

Seriously though, take a photo of yourself and enlarge your eyes to anime-style proportions. You'll have nightmares for weeks.

Okay.
*enlarges them to Monster-proportions*
Huh, they're not changed.

Now if you really want nightmares, imagine a Fairly Odd Parents character untooned (I recall looking through an archive of untooned characters; the Naruto and Sasuke ones were the least horrifying).

 

[Busdriver580]

They're cartoons. To say they aren't is just pretentious. Frankly, I think giving them their own classification as anime in the first place is probably undeserved.
You shouldn't attempt to change a word just because of its connotations, that's pretty weak.

 

[Dog Wednesday]

Most of us who watch it on a regular basis hardly ever call it anything to be honest. We simply use the shows title. For example, we wouldnt say "Im watching the anime Azumanga Daioh" we would simply say "Hey Im watching Azumanga"

 

[xdom125x]

We already have a name for it: Cartoons.
Just because it's from Japan doesn't make it not a cartoon.

To play devil's advocate, the term "cartoon" has connotative meanings that, even if the proper definition works, would render it a problematic name for anime.

To elaborate, whenever you think the word "cartoon," you most likely think of Bugs Bunny, Micky Mouse, Felix the Cat, and other mascots of old-school animated shorts. You may also think of things like Spongebob. Basically, the term implies animated shorts of zany characters doing zany things (kid-friendly or no; several Adult Swim series would fit the connotative meaning). Even though "cartoon" may simply mean animated (though I'll address that in a bit), by calling anime cartoons, you're lumping things like Gundam, Darker than Black, Baccano, and other things like that with things like Loony Toons, whether you mean to or not (not that I have anything against Loony Toons, but you can see the problem, no?). Basically, even if cartoons and anime are the same by proper definition, steps must be taken to avoid connotative issues (extrapolating, of course, you'd need to do the same thing with a good bit of western and (former) Soviet Bloc animation).

If this logic is applied, then live action tv should have 2 names: 1 for shows intended for adults and 1 for shows intended for children. The anime and cartoons are both animated so should have an umbrella term describing them both. It would be tragic that Gundam and the like would be lumped in with Bugs Bunny but they are linked. I don't think it should be under the banner of cartoon though because of your reasoning.

 

[ikillu87]

Here's the brief:

In the English language, the word 'anime' (ann-ihm-a), sounds feeble and is stained with the residue of tentacle porn in the mind of the general public.

Anime needs a new name, go for it, escapist.

[sub]what an unfortunate metaphor, that was not intended...[/sub]

Cartoon. Because that is what it is.

Edit:
And that doesn't make it bad. I like cartoons. I just see no point in making it known it is made in Japan.

 

[A random person]

We already have a name for it: Cartoons.
Just because it's from Japan doesn't make it not a cartoon.

To play devil's advocate, the term "cartoon" has connotative meanings that, even if the proper definition works, would render it a problematic name for anime.

To elaborate, whenever you think the word "cartoon," you most likely think of Bugs Bunny, Micky Mouse, Felix the Cat, and other mascots of old-school animated shorts. You may also think of things like Spongebob. Basically, the term implies animated shorts of zany characters doing zany things (kid-friendly or no; several Adult Swim series would fit the connotative meaning). Even though "cartoon" may simply mean animated (though I'll address that in a bit), by calling anime cartoons, you're lumping things like Gundam, Darker than Black, Baccano, and other things like that with things like Loony Toons, whether you mean to or not (not that I have anything against Loony Toons, but you can see the problem, no?). Basically, even if cartoons and anime are the same by proper definition, steps must be taken to avoid connotative issues (extrapolating, of course, you'd need to do the same thing with a good bit of western and (former) Soviet Bloc animation).

If this logic is applied, then live action tv should have 2 names: 1 for shows intended for adults and 1 for shows intended for children. The anime and cartoons are both animated so should have an umbrella term describing them both. It would be tragic that Gundam and the like would be lumped in with Bugs Bunny but they are linked. I don't think it should be under the banner of cartoon though because of your reasoning.

Live-action doesn't have the same connotative issues as cartoon does. Of course, I was simply playing devil's advocate, so it's not like I ever thought my logic was watertight.

Now, you could take what I said and conclude that cartoons are a genre of animation focused on zany antics; considering that the term "cartoonish" is used to describe such antics, that might work.

And of course, dealing with the animation age ghetto behind the term "cartoon" would take far more than simply renaming things.

 

[Ritter315]

Here's the thing though, most Asian countries can muster some form of anime, hell Avatar was made in Canada and it had more Asian-ness? in the show than some animes AND having it actually FIT in their universe. For ex. Why is it that in most Space animes, everyone still speaks Japanese? I'm sure this would make sense to Japanese people but to others it just looks like Japan won the space race and now Japanese has become the dominant language by means of stopping out all the other cultures. So, many anime DOES need a re-branding, something more universal than what is essentially Japanese cartoons with LOOOOOONG series of fillers.

 

[Atmos Duality]

To be fair, when you think about it, that was gonna happen with animation in general when you realize that most vintage animation (i.e Loony Toons, Disney cartoons) was theatrical and in the form of shorts, meaning there was a bigger budget that had to be spread out less.

A good history lesson; Japan was indeed bankrupt for roughly 30 years following WW2.

But these aren't the 1940s anymore. They aren't the 1980s. It's a new millennium and Japan is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Seeing how anime only really took off in the last 20 years (especially the last 12), I would argue that anime has no excuse to do better.

That's doubly so now that anime has made ludicrous amounts of money (both in Japan and America to say nothing of the world). Would it kill the creators to try to spring for a better production rather than the same half-assed bullshit?

Then again, these anime creators know that they don't even have to try at this point.
Why sink money into making a product better when your current work succeeds? That's economical logic at work after all.

 

[olicon]

The true meaning of the word doesn't have anything to do with it. Like the OP suggested (even if he might've misunderstood), the word now contains a very different connotation than the original language.
For example, Americans actually consider Otaku to be a neutral, or even positive word. This is definitely not true in Japan, where the word contains very negative connotation.

Ultimately, I think that the community at large feels that the term anime is tied to childish cartoons, rather than just animations in general.

 

[suicide samurai]

How about getting simple again.

Cartoons? Or animation?

Just say you like "foreign animation." We don't call the animation projects out of Europe by any other name, so why is Japan the owner of it's own exclusive name?

It's almost elistist, which is why I refuse to use the proper pronounciation for the incorrectly spelled manga. To those who insist, I refer to it simply as "Japanamation."

I simply don't get it. In American culture, there are a ton of different animation and comic styles, yet we simply say what they are--unless sorting them by digital or hand-drawn.

As it is, Japan is not the only Asian country producing animation and comic art in that style--the western world is already doing it, and people have started using Anime for these other products.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

It's already got a new name as far as I'm concerned. I usually just call it 'crap'.

Okay, okay, that's mean and prejudiced, and I'm sorry. I do also tend to call it 'bollocks' when I'm in a vaguely British mood, or 'skitprat' when I'm feeling northern-European.

But I am sorry for responding, just ignore this post--it's late, I'm tired, I really shouldn't have said anything, but my 'shut up and ignore it' reflexes aren't engaged this evening, and thus I've been unable to prevent myself from snarkily commenting in this here thread. Groovy.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

I prefer Japanimation.

Dunno why, it just sounds a bit better.

..You stoled my word!

Mackheath stole my word

FargoDog stole my thought....

 

[A random person]

To be fair, when you think about it, that was gonna happen with animation in general when you realize that most vintage animation (i.e Loony Toons, Disney cartoons) was theatrical and in the form of shorts, meaning there was a bigger budget that had to be spread out less.

A good history lesson; Japan was indeed bankrupt for roughly 30 years following WW2.

But these aren't the 1940s anymore. They aren't the 1980s. It's a new millennium and Japan is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Seeing how anime only really took off in the last 20 years (especially the last 12), I would argue that anime has no excuse to do better.

That's doubly so now that anime has made ludicrous amounts of money (both in Japan and America to say nothing of the world). Would it kill the creators to try to spring for a better production rather than the same half-assed bullshit?

Then again, these anime creators know that they don't even have to try at this point.
Why sink money into making a product better when your current work succeeds? That's economical logic at work after all.

I'll admit some of it probably goes by the late-night Adult Swim model; make a low-budget niche show that won't make you rich, but won't ruin you either. Supposedly this is a more recent phenomenon, though.

Otherwise, I think someone else mentioned that anime tended to focus on attention to detail while western animation got more fluid at its cost. There's a fundamental trade-off between image and animation quality (hell, a Spongebob episode shows that off; the detail is usually simplistic, but there'll be highly detailed stills), and on the whole, anime focuses more on the former, the results for the latter being obvious.

What I was overall trying to say with the history lesson was that animation was generally moving in that direction, and that there were logical reasons for expending less effort (aka money) on smaller details. If people like your art quality, story, and overall concepts and aesthetic, what's a little looping and panning? The kind of cheaping out that occurs in long-running series can be annoying, sure, but that's why I watch series with pre-defined lengths (that, and they don't go stale with ever-ballooning casts, filler, dragging out the plot, and any number of other problems with milking a series).

 

[theSovietConnection]

*SNIP*.

If you don't mind, I'm borrowing this quote (you will be credited, don't worry about that). I have a friend who is die-hard firm of the belief anime is behind all of the West's "good" cartoons.

Anyway, I maintain we should just call it animation. It's nothing more, and nothing less, as far as I am concerned.

 

[Kuroneko97]

Cartoons That Are Not From America.