And I guess I wonder why make the distinction?
Usually the question of distinction comes up in reaction to a need to protect the identity of something, ie> the need to define something increases as external forces / influences increase.
For fans of anime, I'm guessing it's largely the feeling that we need to protect our hobby from non-Japanese projects that are looking to cash in on anime's (perceived?) popularity. Occasionally you'll also have people gerrymandering the dividing line in order to exclude what they think is crap while including quality titles, but I'm not sure how common this is nowadays.
edit: Oh, and fans love to argue about everything and anything related to the hobby. 
I hear you on the gerrymandering and the arguing. I was just afraid there was something new I was missing. I don't hear that siren call so much. I usually just go by each individual series, so "anime" as a collection isn't that important to me. And the identification isn't either.
I know I'm a weirdo (and a grognard and an otaku and a rivet-counter and about four other things). I'll just take my oar out of this argument.
No worries there. On the one hand, I don't see any need to argue about it, but on the other hand I think the bigger issues make for interesting discussion. The latter being often confused for the former at many places around the inter-tubes; outside of Goodjerstan of course.
If you can define modern-day Japanese society, culture and world-view Momgamer, you're a better sociologist then I 
I haven't watched anything in months. Nothing pops out at me anymore.
I love Satoshi's work. Tokyo Godfathers is amazing.
I've got the first disk of Broken Saints at my house. Anyone seen it and care to give a girl a comment or two?
Broken Saints was originally a flash animation/web graphic novel.
I loved it. Picture a graphic novel set to Godspeed You Black Emperor and other deeply fringe groups.
Have no idea about the DVD, but if it is anything like the Graphic Novel, then it is worth a look.
If you can define modern-day society in general, culture and world-view Momgamer, you're a better sociologist then I :)
Fixed that for you!
I'm not anything of the sort, though. The closest I've ever been to Japan was working on a Japanese-owned fish processor for several summers in the Bering Sea when I was growing up. I make temari as a hobby. I have done some internationally localized work that had me collaborating with people in Japan and Korea. I speak enough of the language to recognize the word "deadline", sing along with the closing credits, or to renounce an evildoer. A friend of mine once suggested that all I needed was a project that involved fighting demons and I'd be all set. I go with my friends and colleagues who live and work there and use their recommendations mostly.
But your comment highlights the problem nicely. There were several posts on the last page that were suggesting we use exactly that to define whether or not a given property is worthy to be called an anime.
Well I guess I made the point I did simply to put a solid cap on the difference if one wanted to exist. Personally I will watch anything that stimulates me and is interesting. Obviously if the story is a rehash and there is nothing at all new about it I won't watch it. So be it Japanese born or American born or German born or whatever, as long as I can appreciate the talent and message then I am willing to watch it. I've watched so much anime of various sorts that I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick out a good series for myself after 3 to 4 episodes usually. I always give a series until episode 3 to show promise even the really really crappy ones.
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise comes out this week on both HD-DVD and Bluray.
Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise comes out this week on both HD-DVD and Bluray.
I saw Wings of Honneamise and was all 'Sweet!' then saw that it was HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and was all 
Well I guess I made the point I did simply to put a solid cap on the difference if one wanted to exist. Personally I will watch anything that stimulates me and is interesting. Obviously if the story is a rehash and there is nothing at all new about it I won't watch it. So be it Japanese born or American born or German born or whatever, as long as I can appreciate the talent and message then I am willing to watch it. I've watched so much anime of various sorts that I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick out a good series for myself after 3 to 4 episodes usually. I always give a series until episode 3 to show promise even the really really crappy ones.
Ultimately, I'm in the same boat; I'm not going to refuse to watch a good show just because it's animated and not Japanese. However, since the term 'Anime' is Japanese in origin, I feel that a certain amount of respect to the culture needs to be retained. It's for this that I prefer subs over dubs exclusively, and that goes for any foreign media, save books(because they're really thousand page long subtitles). Give me your original actors, and pay someone else to inform me as to what they're saying!
That's cause the DVD Release Date was November 28, 2000.
That's cause the DVD Release Date was November 28, 2000.
Yea, I managed to miss that somehow, and was banking on a re-release. I suppose I could find it out there on the internets somewhere though.
Five Star Stories - it'd be best to try and find the manga graphic novels as the movie is a fraction of the story
Sukeban Deka - because you've gotta love a pink haired heroine with a yo-yo for a weapon!
Oh and Char's Counter Attack = the last fight between Char Aznable and Amuro Rey = best gundam designs throughout!
Five Star Stories - it'd be best to try and find the manga graphic novels as the movie is a fraction of the story
Sukeban Deka - because you've gotta love a pink haired heroine with a yo-yo for a weapon!
Oh and Char's Counter Attack = the last fight between Char Aznable and Amuro Rey = best gundam designs throughout!
FSS - Total concur on that; The OAV is awesome, but do yourself a favor and read the manga.
Sukeban Deka - You have captured my interest, I will have to dig this up.
Char's Counterattack - I've had this sitting around waiting to be watched for so long it's silly.
Oh, and I just finished up Nodame Cantabile recently, outstanding series. Watch it if you haven't or aren't.
FSS - Total concur on that; The OAV is awesome, but do yourself a favor and read the manga.
I have a ~4" tattoo on my back of the red cross/dagger of the Mirage Knights =)
This is completely random and I just wanted to show off an old anime sig I made for myself for posting on anime forums and the such.
Took me forever to get Sophia out of the picture so I could just have Alex and The Silvana in the picture. Last Exile for the record is currently number one on my list of favorite Anime. It is my prized DVD box set. Second is still Cowboy Bebop and I own that DVD Box set also.
Quite a few animes have been released on BluRay and they look awesome. This is Patlabor 2.
Oh man! I was already drooling after seeing Ghost in the Shell: Innocence in HD. This is not helping my budget, gang.
Wait till you see Patlabor 1, Iblard Jikan, Paprika, Brave Story, Beyond the clouds, etc.
I just watched Paprika. Huge fan of Perfect Blue and Paranoia Agent. Tokyo Godfathers is also pretty cool.
As for Paprika... The music was brilliant. Characters were amazing. But the plot seemed pretty lackluster. I enjoyed all of the little things separately, but the whole was not that great for me.
Freedom OVA on Bluray. 1280x720, 23.976 fps, x264, 3300 kbps with Japanese DTS 5.1 at 768 kbps.
I loved patlabor... but number 2 had me scratching my head. Unfortunately i only have them on VHS so i can't watch them atm but the plot seemed overly convoluted in number 2...
Lucky Star is highly enjoyed by members of my anime club. Although, currently we're watching School Rumble: Second Term, and .Hack//Sign. But that's just current stuff. I have a lot older anime on my external HDD. Well, okay, it's not old, old. More like, within the last five years old.
Hey, I didn't know you had .hack//sign. Do you have it on disk?
I could get it for you if you wanted. ^.^
That has the ring of a bad-example waiting to happen. Let me see if I can work up a thin, pale justification. Just don't tell the girls.
I won't. Promise. ^.^
This is a bit late as far as news goes, but it looks like Geneon USA is no more. It's a real bummer to see them go. Their parent company will still be operating in Japan, and will hopefully work out a way to still bring things to the American market.
This is a bit late as far as news goes, but it looks like Geneon USA is no more. It's a real bummer to see them go. Their parent company will still be operating in Japan, and will hopefully work out a way to still bring things to the American market.
Wow, that's crazy. IIRC, they still have a handful of shows waiting to be released, too.
I'm a pretty big Ghost In the Shell fan. I just watched SAC: Solid State Society and it sucked. I am disappointed.
Pages