How come many places that sell/rent Anime lump the entire "medium" as a genre?

[crusador90]

This bother me a lot. I do not view anime as a separate medium on its own, because fundamentally, it is animation; involving moving images of stylized characters and using them to tell a story.
I do concur though that the country of origin does carry with it many tropes that anime is often associated with (for better or for worse), many of which have some validity in the values carried in them thanks to where they were made and who they were made by.

What DOES bother me, is that even though anime is quite capable of telling essentially the same range of stories and film, comics, and TV, it gets lumped into its own category, even though this "medium" is broad enough that there's pretty much an anime for everyone, even those who dislike Japanese animation for whatever reason.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

well HMV lumps anime with all their animation anyways, so good luck finding anything regarding genre.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Anime is one of these things that I just don't understand. I would watch a good anime-adaptation of Persona games or just a good anime, but I never seek out anime just because it is anime. But what really bothers me is when anime fans get all angry when someone asks whether The Last Airbender is anime. Why the hell does that even matter?!

 

[Keoul]

Why does it bother you that much?
Just consider it as "foreign animation" and that's that, why get your knickers all up in a twist over such a simple language error if it can even be called that.

We know anime is short for animation, but when people say anime, Japanese animation is the first thing that comes to mind. It only makes sense to categorize them as such so people can easily find them. Don't get all high and mighty about definitions, stores are just keeping things simple so they're easy to find.

 

[Eleuthera]

Why does it bother you that much?
Just consider it as "foreign animation" and that's that, why get your knickers all up in a twist over such a simple language error if it can even be called that.

We know anime is short for animation, but when people say anime, Japanese animation is the first thing that comes to mind. It only makes sense to categorize them as such so people can easily find them. Don't get all high and mighty about definitions, stores are just keeping things simple so they're easy to find.

I think the problem the OP has is that it's not a 'genre' in the sense that comedy, action and romance are genres.

Similar so saying 'guitar' is a genre of music.

Both ought to just be part of genre of the type of story/music they portay.

 

[Eddie the head]

The same reason foreign films are often lumped together. At best they fill a niche.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

well HMV lumps anime with all their animation anyways, so good luck finding anything regarding genre.

I've seen HMV lump Anime with live-action Japanese films, so I wouldn't know what to make of that.

 

[SckizoBoy]

The same reason foreign films are often lumped together. At best they fill a niche.

And /thread right there...

Shock horror... mainstream western chain-stores not catering to non-western media.

Just how much of a western country's consumer base is going to go out of their way to look for and buy particular genres within anime compared to pretty much anything else with English-dialogue content? Not much, I'd hazard to guess...

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Because the fact of the matter is that anime is still a niche medium, so why bother sorting them all out into individual categories when, chances are, there aren't going to be that many anime that that many people will buy? (Not to mention that the majority of popular anime shipped over to the West is Shounen anyway.)

As someone else said, it's the same reason that foreign films are often lumped together. It's only a big deal for hardcore fans that don't seem to realize that not everyone are invested into foreign animation as they are.

 

[Talaris]

As already said it's still a niche medium here in the west. I admit I've labelled it as a genre in the past, as it is pretty distinguishable from all other animation in regards to animation style and the tropes that are frequently used.

And lets face it, someone who would be interested in one anime will most likely be interested in others, and given that they can be hard to come by (here in the UK anyway) I see no problem in grouping them together at a media store. Unlike others who have commented here, I would take locating anime efficiently over the correctness of their definition any day.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Because there are people who look for it as a genre.

People who watch anime generally like anime because it's anime.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The same reason foreign films are often lumped together. At best they fill a niche.

And /thread right there...

Shock horror... mainstream western chain-stores not catering to non-western media.

Just how much of a western country's consumer base is going to go out of their way to look for and buy particular genres within anime compared to pretty much anything else with English-dialogue content? Not much, I'd hazard to guess...

This is pretty much it. It's the same reason stores that primarily sell CDs, DVDs, and bluray discs just throw all the videogames in a corner, only sorting them by system if they bother to sort it at all.

Of course, what I find bizarre is that FYE (the last big record store chain in my area) carries fully blown hentai, marked out with a special "Anime 18+" divider separate from the playboy bunny one they use to hide the covers of the live action porn, both of which just sit out on the main floor of the store, instead of being segregated in a back room like in the video stores of old. I can only imagine how awkward it must be to carry one of those things up to the counter.

 

[Terramax]

Well, seeing as you refer to it as Anime, therefore segregating it from other forms of films (even from other kinds of animations), you are ultimately pigeonholing it as being in a class of its own too.

 

[Happiness Assassin]

Because it is an art style that is unique to Japanese animation and anime isn't widely known in the States outside of a niche consumer base. Why overcomplicate a genre that most random consumers in the west don't really give a crap about? Most times genres are based on incredibly broad strokes, one of them being the style of animation.

 

[shrekfan246]

Of course, what I find bizarre is that FYE (the last big record store chain in my area) carries fully blown hentai, marked out with a special "Anime 18+" divider separate from the playboy bunny one they use to hide the covers of the live action porn, both of which just sit out on the main floor of the store, instead of being segregated in a back room like in the video stores of old. I can only imagine how awkward it must be to carry one of those things up to the counter.

Hah, I saw that the last time I went to FYE (because it's one of two stores I can actually think of around here that actually sells anime and I was looking for Steins;Gate). I couldn't even. It was just right there. XD

OT: How come video game stores don't organize games by genre? (Maybe they do and I just have no frame of reference because Vermont is freaking tiny and has tiny stores to go along with it...) Is this really worth getting worked up over? Do you really expect most of us stupid Americans to know the difference between Shonen, Shojo, Seinen, Josei, and whatever else? Or do you want them to label them with the clunky genres like mecha, slice-of-life, etc.?

EDIT: I suppose somebody who actually cares about anime enough would know the difference, but I imagine at that point they know enough to tell what demographic/genre an anime would likely be before buying it blind. Alphabetical organizing is pretty convenient when all things are considered. But I suppose anime might just not be 'big' enough here in my state for me to have run into these problems, because as mentioned above there's only two stores I can actually think of around here that even sell it in the first place.

Anime is one of these things that I just don't understand. I would watch a good anime-adaptation of Persona games or just a good anime, but I never seek out anime just because it is anime. But what really bothers me is when anime fans get all angry when someone asks whether The Last Airbender is anime. Why the hell does that even matter?!

Persona 4 has an anime adaptation that's pretty neat. ... I don't know if you brought that up specifically because you've already watched it. >.>

 

[Scarim Coral]

Despite how popular anime it is to some people, at the end of the day it is still a niche.
Don't forget that retail store or a store in general, their target audience is pretty much everyone like old people, adult and anybody who ain't into animes. Imagine if they did seperate anime into other genres, most of the general public public will ignore or glance at the dvds at best.
Granted that doesn't apply to specific stores but none the less there are more general stores then there is to niche related stores.

 

[thelastgogeta]

OT: How come video game stores don't organize games by genre? (Maybe they do and I just have no frame of reference because Vermont is freaking tiny and has tiny stores to go along with it...) Is this really worth getting worked up over? Do you really expect most of us stupid Americans to know the difference between Shonen, Shojo, Seinen, Josei, and whatever else? Or do you want them to label them with the clunky genres like mecha, slice-of-life, etc.?

As far as video games go, stores do organise games to a degree. It makes sense for staff and customers, so we can insure that the new stock is visible (not everyone asks whether it's out) and sells quickly. The platform specifics mean that people can look within the platform area necessary, there would be many of them (PS3 - PS4 - Wii - Wii U - DS - 3DS - Xbox 360 - PC) with probably the related ones kept close. The pre-owned and less high demand titles are lined up in smaller profile alphabetically so they can be gone through quickly. Genres just complicate this further especially with how broad experiences can become.

tl;dr: Games are organised into half a dozen platforms aside from top sellers, alphabetical preowned titles in those platforms. Filtering by genre is just more work, you can't conclude what kind of experience in a single term of a game is even outside digital and indie works.

On the original topic, I would agree that anime is a medium, it just happens to be animation done in Japan (not necessarily given outsourcing but shuddup) which can be original, inspired by a novel, inspired by a film, inspired by a manga, well inspired by anything really... In the same sense, a novel, video game, cartoon or movie can be. However, it is unnecessary work for a store to do given that they aren't doing it exclusively.

On top of which, the concepts of Shonen, Shojo and such don't even represent genres but demographics for a magazine. Aside from works which have ran in the over 40 years of Weekly Shonen Jump (only one magazine of many from a single publisher, many of them get animated with different target audiences). We have had Death Note and Kochikame run in the same magazine at the same time and I's at the same time as Hunter x Hunter.

Given that they are lucky the same fanbase (including myself >_>) are attached to the word "anime" that much, there isn't a point in filtering it out, wasting placards on definitions which may be rendered false by a later season having an action twist or being a comedy. Or spinoffs working to appeal to another audience completely.

 

[4RM3D]

The same reason foreign films are often lumped together. At best they fill a niche.

Which is the practical reason behind this. I still believe anime is not a genre.

However, I do see an upside to anime being grouped together in one section, namely: it's easy to find. XD I mean, otherwise I would have to browse through the whole shop to look for anime in different sections (action, comedy, etc) just to find what I am looking for. To make matter worse, a lot of anime have special genres or combinations that can not be easily classified.

EDIT: which obviously doesn't apply to web shops. But in that case you got specialized anime shops who do classify their anime... somewhat.

 

[Lucane]

Think of it as them doing you a favor their most unifying feature is the general style and country of origin if you've heard of an Anime but for some reason forgot it's name or the genre hops around during the series or you can't recall what it is you don't have to comb the whole store to find it just look in the 1 anime section (especially since it's not necessarily a kids show if the cover has nothing but little girls in uniforms with plane parts for stockings. "Strike Witches") Though I wouldn't be opposed to anime >> then sub-genre listings.