tsurara

Then I pose this question:

What is Chinese animation? French Animation? Korean animation?

If it not "anime" because it's not Japanese, does that mean they're not "cartoons" because they're not American?

75% of Japanese animation is now animated primarily in Korea? Is that not anime? Is "Tenjou Tenge" anime in spite of being funded and written almost entirely by GENEON's USA branch with intent to export? Is the 2nd Vampire Hunter D film anime in spite of having been written for a US release and recorded in English? "The Last Unicorn" had a Japanese co-producer, animation studio, background artist and production designer... more than half the people in the credits have Japanese names (the movie even got a spread in Animage magazine), but it was never released in Japan ~ is it anime?

Is C.J. Michalski NOT a manga artist because she is not of 100% Japanese anscestry, in spite of having lived and worked in Japan all of her life and being one of the most popular mangaka working in her field?

We've created a distinction that didn't have to be made in order to market a genre that didn't really exist more aggressively under a more "exotic" name... but in effect, have created a situation where we've brought ethnicity and nationality into a place where it has no business.

The REASONS to exclude anime from "animation" or hold it up as this exaulted seperate entity degrade daily as globalization, international cooperation and outsourcing make animation projects more international affairs in general.

I think it's a retarded argument, either way. And I'm still convinced that the only people eager to make a distinction between what is and is not anime are the same people harboring the belief that "Japanese" somehow equals "superior" and that the word "cartoon" is an insult.

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