ANIME Manifesto! :D

My Manifesto for English 344!

Cartoon is a sequence of drawings that tell a short story, published in a newspaper or magazine. That was what they were first known as when cartoons began, but later the definition changed to a film made by photographing a series of cartoon drawings to give the illusion of movement when projected in rapid sequence.

Anime is a Japanese style of animated cartoon, often with violent or sexually explicit content. The word Anime was taken from the French by the Japanese to describe all animated films. “Then, the Americans took it from the Japanese to describe the unique type of animation that comes from Japan” (Levi, 1). “In April 1977, the American television producer Sandy Frank attended the MIP-TV conference in Canne, France, an annual event that began in 1963 as an adjunct to the famous Cannes film festival” (Kelts, 11). Frank a year earlier was a former NBC staffer who had become the first television distributor to have three prime-time TV shows on the air. Some of them are, The Lone Ranger, Lassie, and The Bill Cosby Show. That year in April the Tatsunoko Production Co., Ltd., run by the three Yoshida brothers from Kyoto, had come for their first international showcase. They knew that the American audience was a tough market for Japanese animation, but with their minor overseas success with Mach Go Go Go, also known as Speed Racer, they finally had a title that they thought they could sell to this new generation. The Yoshida brothers decided to show them all their newest creation called Gatchaman, drawn by Takashi Murakami.

“But when Sandy Frank, a New Yorker, encountered the sharp lines, elaborate and intricate plot twists, and evocative yet recognizable settings, he saw mythic potential” (Kelts, 11). Frank, who was a producer in the late 1970s early 80’s said, “’It was unlike anything else on American TV at the time –which of course was its problem. It was not only unproven; it was also not produced in America.’ Not to mention that Gatchaman also featured violence, blood, death, sexual innuendos, and morally questionable and sometimes visibly mortal heroes—which could all found in the more daring and sophisticated American cinema of the 1970’s, of course, but not in what mainstream Americans called cartoons (Kelts, 12). Later that year in May Frank saw the movie Star Wars and he instantly thought of Gatchaman (image 1) as its animated version of it. Frank, who was motivated by the unexpected success of Star Wars, sought Japan’s imagination by importing the anime Gatchaman to the United States. When they got it though they immediately rebranded the Japanese animation and named it Battle of the Planets.

“For Frank, a lot more than editing would be necessary to sell Americans on his foreign find. ‘I totally revisioned the whole thing,’ he says now. ‘We had the cartoons themselves and the Japanese scripts and we totally redid the whole series. We did new music, new scenes—we even invented a new character that looked like R2-D2’” (Kelts, 14). They even took out most of the violence in the film, which means all the death and blood was gone from the scene. Even though the Americans took the Japanese films and made it their own anime still thrived as the first animated TV superstar came to America, Astro Boy (image 3). Anime slowly grew greater and greater with films like Speed Racer, Dragon Ball and Inyuasha, but what really hit America hard was the hit show, Poke’mon (image 4). Poke’mon was actually directed more for kids by the Japanese animators, but another that was not meant for kids but is a massive hit in America is has Naruto. This anime was directed towards teens, but was also taken and re-mastered by the American studios and made for seven and up.
Another thing that came along with the multiple Anime Genre’s like Action, Comedy, History, and Horor was Hentai in other words Porn (image 2). Just like American porn Anime has their drawn form of it. They have all kinds and are made for adults. These are not the only mature rating Anime’s. There are also very gory Anime’s like Beserk (image 5). These movies would be compared to the rated R movies that come out today, like Saw 1-4 (image 6). So not only is anime not for children but it is a Genre with Genre’s within itself.

Manga is the Japanese term for comic book. In Japan, manga are targeted at all age groups and cover a wide range of genres. This is in contrast to Western comics which are typically based around superhero themes. Manga was also brought to America and it showed the original scripts of most Anime’s. A Comic Book is an art form that features a series of static images in fixed sequence, usually to tell a story. “Some of the earliest comic books were simply collections of comic strips that had originally been printed in newspapers, and the commercial success of these collections led to work being created specifically for the comic book form, which fostered specific conventions such as splash pages” (MediaPedia, 4). There are also Comic books like, Superman and Batman that are usually thought of as Graphic Novels. They were known as the “Long-form comic books, generally with hardcover or trade-paper binding” (Media Pedia, 4). Manga’s are like the Superman Graphic Novels, but instead they are read right to left and back to front and are drawn with a different structure style.
By looking at the definition itself it is shows that anime was originally for adults. It was taken by the animation designers in America and changed it so that children. There are exceptions, though, like Poke’mon which is an anime made for children and like South Park which is an adult cartoon made by Americans, but over all Anime was and still is created for older and mature audiences.

Thank You All,
Angela Hart <3