What is Anime?

What makes an anime an anime?  How do we define and describe an anime?

To begin, let’s imagine we have two shows of a similar drawn animation style to that which we are familiar with and often define as Anime.  One of these shows is from a studio in the United States, and one is from Japan, but we don’t know which is which.  How would we describe the differences between them?

(Note: this image has no relevance to the post except DBZ is from Japan and Avatar is not)

The first thing which I would notice between these two hypothetical shows is something that is very small and hard to describe, but which I feel is the defining attribute which separates them.  People from Japan have a subtly different way of looking at the world and describing it than people from other countries.  You can see this difference in perspective in the elements of stories from Japan and how they are presented.  It’s very hard to nail this subtle difference down with a definition, as it’s more so something that we “feel” when watching said show.  This feeling is what makes the show “Japanense” in our minds and what makes it “Anime”.  Other shows, while they may have an extremely similar animation style (like Avatar) have a different style of presentation and often have entirely different themes.

I wish I could provide more specific examples of things that you might find in an Anime from Japan that you wouldn’t find in an American show with a Japanese style of drawing, but I’d have to sit down through several episodes of several shows to find anything meaningful, and even then I might make incorrect assertions.

The point is, it’s not about where the show is from, it’s about the thematic nature of the show and the style used when presenting the story.  We can trace the stories in anime back a short ways through history to Japanese Theatre, or just to the general history and lifestyle of people in Japan.

E.g. A huge event in Japanese history was the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the resulting fallout and devastation.  A fantastic play called “The Elephant” tells the story of a man with a giant Keloid on his back and addresses the place of Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) in Japanese society.  The implications of the atomic bomb and its effect on Japanese lifestyle and perspectives are large and complicated, but I feel they can be directly tied to the underpinnings of certain technological/science fiction animes.  The atomic bomb is the most clear and obvious example of man fearing his own capacity to create powerful world-changing technologies.  Many animes, like Ghost in the Shell, seem to be reflections of this newly developing perspective.

Now, I’m not saying that Japanese anime is the only source for technological wariness as a theme.  Indeed, this theme has become quite common in a number of science fiction stories.  However, I feel the way in which it is addressed and dealt with in Ghost in the Shell could be considered indicative of Japan’s first hand experience with technology as a double-edged sword.

So perhaps this entire blog post is a roundabout way of saying “it’s complicated, but I know what it is, do you?”  Maybe someone can help pick up this idea from where I left off.

-Mator