What makes anime...anime?!

I had an argument once with one of my friends (who is also an anime fan) about what it is that makes anime stand out from other forms of animation and whether there is a so called “anime style”. I then decided to write a post about this issue since it is of great interest to me (and possibly to other fans as well).

Let's try and break the problem down to various subsets and deal with each one individually.

Any anime show has the following elements: story; art and animation; music; characters and voice acting. In the case of manga; the elements would be story, art and characters. Let's examine each element below:



1) Story (Narrative Style)

Any seasoned anime and manga fan knows all too well that there isn't a single topic (both real and fictional) that was not covered in anime or manga in one form or another. All story genres known to man have multiple anime or manga manifestations. The stories can range from something as light as “having fun with your friends at school” (see School Rumble) to something as serious as “raising an autistic child” (see Hikari to Tomo ni) and from something as simple as “making curry” (see Curry naru Shokutaku) to something as complex as “understanding human nature” (see Monster). Yes, anime and manga have it all.

I would like to point out something important at this stage. Many people who are not truly familiar with anime and manga (I.e. lay people) tend to associate them with “giant robots and ninjas”. This is of course a sad result of how the media tends to portray anime and manga. The trend has started to change only recently but in the past, most TV stations would only screen shows that belong to the mecha or samurai genres and video shops would only stock titles that belong to these genres as well (in addition to hentai titles) (-_-;;). This general climate has helped create the impression that anime and manga are only stories about fighting ninjas and giant robots. A lot of the blame falls on anime and manga fans themselves. Most of the time, people who become anime and manga fans, become so because they are exposed to these two genres during their childhood and, as a result, tend to focus entirely on titles that belong to these two genres until they leave high school. It's only when they grow older that they start to discover the huge variety of genres and storylines that anime and manga has to offer. Naruto, for example, is not popular because it has a better story than say Monster but because there are a lot of teenagers out there who think that it is the coolest thing in the world and, as such, are willing to follow and buy the manga religiously. It will take quite some time to change public opinion about the nature of anime and manga and it will also take a lot of effort from seasoned anime and manga fans around the world.

Returning to our original topic and on the basis of the wide variety of storylines that anime and manga titles offer; I can't really say that there is a definite narrative style that distinguishes anime and manga from other cultural media. If I had to say anything, I would say that narrative style of anime and manga is “to have no fixed narrative style”. In other words; everything is fair game in anime and manga stories and no stone is left unturned.

2) Art and Animation (Visual Style)

Does anime and manga have a distinctive visual style?

There are many aspects that need to be considered here. The first aspect are the character designs. Many people think that there is one unique character design style used throughout anime and manga which is what I would like to call the cute style. While this style is evident in many anime and manga titles; my previous post has proven that it is not the only style used and that some of the finest titles in anime and manga prefer to use more realistic designs. It also doesn't really help when the character designs used in Shounen titles differ significantly from the designs used in Shoujo titles and both in turn differ significantly from the ones you see in Seinen and Josei titles.

The second aspect concerns the visual conventions in anime and manga. These are conventions that were originally developed and used by manga artists to convey the emotions of the various characters in a story or to portray the atmosphere in a particular scene. All these conventions are visual in nature and are quite simple but very effective in conveying the intentions of the author through to the reader. Examples include the sweatdrop, the zooming panels, the twinkling eyes and the keyhole sigh cloud and the falling crown. Naturally, all these conventions found their way into anime later on. All these conventions are unique to anime and manga and, if they are present, can be used to tell a certain anime or manga title apart from other animation or comic titles. The only problem is that most of these conventions feature heavily in comedy titles but are rarely found in serious titles.

The third aspect involves the animation style. While there are many anime titles with poor animation quality, there are also many others with highly fluid animation. I don't think I'm being unfair by saying that the best animation titles outside Japan have yet to rival many of today's anime titles in terms of animation.

So, in conclusion, relying on a single visual aspect to identify anime and manga titles will prove useless since that aspect may or may not be present in the title in question but using a combination of visual aspects will prove more successful.

3) Music (Audio Style)

The music element is an interesting one. Unlike music used in other forms of animation, the music used in anime covers the full spectrum of music genres from Hip Hop to Classical and from Jazz to Traditional. I suppose that is to be expected since this huge variety of music reflects the huge variety of storylines one sees in anime (remember that the producers of any animated work often choose music that best complements the story).

It doesn't only stop at that. Many anime music singles and albums have reached very high positions in the Japanese Official Music Charts (Oricon) over the years. I was also told that many famous Japanese bands started their careers by composing and singing anime songs before going mainstream. If you also add in the fact that some of the most famous Japanese singers also work as anime voice actors (Nana Mizuki for example) then you truly have an element that can be used to distinguish anime from other types of animation.

4) Characters and Voice Acting (Characterization Style)

While it's true that there are certain character stereotypes that appear in some types of anime and manga, looking at the anime and manga landscape as a whole, it's quite hard to find a common pattern. The only general thing I can say about the characters in a good anime or manga title is that they are interesting and you tend to sympathize with them or absolutely hate them as the story unfolds. It's even common to sympathize with the bad guy in an anime or manga story because he or she are far more convincing than the good guys. This viewer or reader polarization is quite a common phenomenon in anime and manga fandom and is solid proof to how interesting many of the characters in anime and manga are.

The characters also come from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds and need not be Japanese. This international aspect in anime and manga characterization has increased significantly in recent years and it's probably a response to the increase in anime and manga popularity outside Japan.

The voice acting in anime is generally well planned and well performed. By that I mean that the producers tend to pick the right voice for each character and the chosen voice actor manages to convey the true personality of his/her character in a highly professional manner (which is more than I can say for the English dubbing effort of anime).

There is another important aspect to voice acting in anime. Voice acting in Japan is a well respected job that is on par with regular acting. Many of the voice actors in Japan are well known personalities. That, however, cannot be said about voice actors in other countries.

On a side note, I generally find the voices of Japanese voice actors easy on the ears except for a couple of actors whose voice acting causes ear bleeding like Haruko Momoi, Rei Kugimiya and Kappie Yamaguchi. But even those annoying actors manage to pull off an amazing performance every once in a while.

I'd like to add another element that pertains to the identity of anime debate and that is:

5) Origin of Anime and Manga

It's no hidden fact that anime and manga originate from and are created in Japan. The references to Japanese culture in anime and manga are more than can be counted. In fact, one could say that anime and manga are a mirror that reflects the mentality of the Japanese people as it evolved over the past century or so.

The question is: are there really international anime and manga titles?

This question is motivated by the increase in graphic novel titles over the past few years that are collectively termed “International Manga”. These are titles written by non Japanese authors who claim their work was influenced by Japanese manga.

I had a look at many of these titles and I have to admit that many seem like cheap imitations but I also have to admit that a few of those titles were well written and drawn that it's actually quite hard to tell the author is non Japanese. There were even international authors who won the privilege of publishing their works in well established Japanese manga magazines (like this artist for example). Even the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs is encouraging international artist to draw so called “International Manga”.

It's still a controversial question because, as we have shown above, manga and anime have a myriad of narrative, visual and characterization styles and you can't always associate one of them with anime and manga alone. Does that mean that if you imitate one of those styles; you actually created International Manga? Or should the term Manga only apply to graphic novels created in Japan?

I don't really have a definitive answer to this question but I do have an opinion. My opinion was actually expressed very well in a famous scene in episode 8 of Code Geass R2. In that scene, Zero asks Suzaku about what makes a person Japanese and Suzaku replies saying its what's in his heart that determines that. Zero then says that he agrees.

Applying that answer to our question, we can say that International Manga is manga that stems from the cultural background of the author but uses the conventions and various styles found in Japanese Manga (i.e it has a Japanese heart). By stressing the cultural background of the author, the manga can then truly be called international instead of being just a cheap imitation.

The analysis leads us to the following definition:

Anime is a form of animation that originated in Japan which is characterized by narrative approach that does not shy from tackling any subject known to man, a visual style that is as varied as its narrative style but often adheres to certain visual conventions and stresses fluid animation, an audio style that spans all genres of music and a characterization style where characters are unique, interesting (most of the time) and instrumental in moving the story forward.

A similar definition can be applied to manga:

Manga is a form of printed graphical storytelling that originated in Japan which is characterized by narrative approach that does not shy from tackling any subject known to man, a visual style that is as varied as its narrative style but often adheres to certain visual conventions, and a characterization style where characters are unique, interesting (most of the time) and instrumental in moving the story forward.

Well, this is it. I hope you found this post useful and insightful (and hopefully not too boring).