# Can American media ever be called anime? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2016, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281 "2016-06-25T00:45:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/21 "2016-06-27T09:47:35Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Thank you! I watched the pilot (does anime have “pilots?”) years ago, and a few extra episodes, then promptly forgot the damn title. I’ll check out more of it! I don’t remember anything like a pilot, though the first episode has a lot of setup for the rest of the series. The series ran a lot of seasons, wiki says there were 195 episodes. Also four movies, which are like Star Trek movies in that the second and fourth ('Beautiful Dreamer" and “Lum the Forever”)are the ones I’d most recommend. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/22 "2016-06-27T16:57:04Z")
IS RWBY pronounced R-W-B-Y or Red White Blue Yellow? I think anime’s meaning has expanded to style as well as country of origin. Here’s how I’d define it: From Japan: Always anime From outside Japan but anime style: Anime Cartoons outside Japan but not anime style: Cartoons ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/23 "2016-06-27T18:35:54Z")
_Kill Bill_ I & II had a lot of anime elements in it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/24 "2016-06-27T18:47:00Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > I don’t remember anything like a pilot, though the first episode has a lot of setup for the rest of the series. The series ran a lot of seasons, wiki says there were 195 episodes. Also four movies, which are like Star Trek movies in that the second and fourth ('Beautiful Dreamer" and “Lum the Forever”)are the ones I’d most recommend. I have to try the movies. I watched the first four regular episodes (subtitled) on GoGoAnime and was less than impressed. YouTube has some grainy episodes dubbed into English by English people with English accents, which are extremely funny. Shinobu gets to curse, calling Ataru a “lecherous BASTARD,” a “shit,” and a “girl-chasing PUD.” In general, the dialogue is much more amusing than in the American subtitles on GoGoAnime. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/25 "2016-06-27T18:50:05Z")
Also dirtier. In the first episode when Shinobu offers to marry Ataru he says “You’ll marry me? We can FUCK EVERY NIGHT?” Somehow that doesn’t show up in the USA subtitles, either. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/26 "2016-06-27T19:35:49Z")
> [@YogSothoth](#): > > IS RWBY pronounced R-W-B-Y or Red White Blue Yellow? > > I think anime’s meaning has expanded to style as well as country of origin. Here’s how I’d define it: > > From Japan: Always anime > From outside Japan but anime style: Anime > Cartoons outside Japan but not anime style: Cartoons It is pronounced Ruby, like the gem. I would call RWBY, or any anime-like show produced outside Japan to be in the anime style. Real anime comes from Japan. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/27 "2016-06-27T20:29:57Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > I don’t remember anything like a pilot, though the first episode has a lot of setup for the rest of the series. The series ran a lot of seasons, wiki says there were 195 episodes. Also four movies, which are like Star Trek movies in that the second and fourth ('Beautiful Dreamer" and “Lum the Forever”)are the ones I’d most recommend. Urusei Yatsura actually had six movies, although only the first four were produced during the run of the TV show. Even though the TV show had a five season run, the manga ran a few years after the show finished. There were also a bunch of direct-to-video episodes and specials. I agree that UY 2: Beautiful Dreamer is the anime’s high-point. It was written and directed by Mamoru Oshii, best-known for creating Ghost in the Shell. The problem with getting all but the most hardcore Takahashi fans into UY are multiple. -Sheer volume of the series, plus a lot of it is out of print. -Stories depend a lot on punny humor (always hard to translate) and references to Japanese folklore, culture, and history. -People tend to want to start at the beginning of a series, and the beginning of UY, both the manga and the anime, isn’t nearly as coherent and polished as what came later. Rumiko Takahashi was 21 when she when she began UY, and it was considered unpromising enough that she was simultaneously working on another manga series. She really didn’t have a clear concept of what she wanted to do with UY. Ataru and Shinobu were supposed to be the show’s “official couple” and Lum was a villain and not supposed to be a recurring character after the first story arc. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/28 "2016-06-27T21:38:55Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’ll put that forward, then, as a possible proposed answer to the OP’s question. Avatar, the Last Airbender, was “American Anime.” Nah, that’s not _nearly_ confusing enough. Let’s go with _Voltron: Legendary Defender_ instead. If you were a kid in the '80s, odds are good that you watched [Voltron](http://static8.comicvine.com/uploads/original/1/18154/4794312-9146597069-Voltr.jpg), the story of five friends who each piloted a robot lion that could turn into a different, humanoid lion. “Voltron” isn’t really a thing in Japan, though. The cartoon was originally called _Beast King GoLion_, before it was rebranded for American audience. The show had some success for a while there, but eventually dropped off the radar. This year, Netflix released a new version of Voltron. This one didn’t use recycled animation from a Japanese cartoon. It was all original animation, by an American company, for an American audience. It is, absolutely, an American cartoon. But it’s based off a Japanese cartoon, and still features characters who look like [this](http://blogs-images.forbes.com/olliebarder/files/2016/05/voltron_new-1200x675.jpg), react to things like [this](http://cdn2us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/2016/05/voltron-legendary-defender-cast.jpg?itok=5reQYD2q), and spend most of their time fighting things that look like [this](http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/voltron-legendary-defender-image-villain.jpg). It’s largely faithful, at least in look, to the Japanese original. But it’s entirely made by and for Americans. Anime, or not anime? ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281/29 "2016-07-04T08:02:32Z")
Talking to JpnGal’s parents before about animated shorts/films in general. They referred to all types as simply “anime”. When discussing old Mickey Mouse cartoons or features like “Frozen”, they said “amerika no anime” (American anime). And when talking about “Doraemon” or Miyazaki films, they said “anime” or “nihon no anime” (Japanese anime). In Japanese dictionaries I checked around here, “アニメ” (anime) refers to any animated film/video. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-american-media-ever-be-called-anime/758281.md?page=1)