Anime-influenced animation

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Characters from Teen Titans

Anime-influenced animation refers to non-Japanese works of animation that emulate the visual style of anime.^[1] Due to Western culture, the term anime has been coined to explicitly refer to Japanese animation.^[2] These works are created in North America, Europe, and non-Japanese Asia. With the rise of anime's popularity in Western civilization, it has become an integrated part of western animation produced.

1 Background
- 1.1 Resemblance to anime
2 Western influence on Japan
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Background

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In the West, particularly in the United States, the term anime has been generally accepted to describe animation produced explicitly in Japan.^[3] As anime became increasingly popular, Western animation studios began implementing some visual stylizations typical in anime-- such as exaggerated facial expressions and "super deformed" versions of characters. In particular, works like Teen Titans and Batman Beyond displayed some characteristics of anime.^[4] Particularly for Batman Beyond, some of its production processes were outsourced in Japan.

The advent of anime stylizations appearing in Western animation questioned the established meaning of "anime".^[1]

[edit] Resemblance to anime

Due to anime influence, Western animation adopted some techniques and features from anime. The resemblances to anime were strong enough to question whether these works can be deemed as anime or not.^[1]

There are several Western animators who collaborated with anime creators while producing Western animations. For example, production on The Animatrix began when the Wachowski brothers visited some of the creators of the anime films that had been a strong influence on their work, and decided to collaborate with them.^[5]

Avatar: The Last Airbender is another example of a Western animation influenced by anime. Though not considered an anime because of its American origin, one review has commented that "Avatar blurs the line between anime and (US) domestic cartoons until it becomes irrelevant."^[6] In addition, Avatar has many features of anime such as having a different color palette from other animated shows.^[7] Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino confirmed a particular anime influence in a magazine interview; that of "Hayao Miyazaki, especially Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke"^[8] as well as My Neighbor Totoro.^[9] Avatar also draws inspiration from the anime works of Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, as well as FLCL (Fooly Cooly) of Gainax. Other various studios from which inspiration was drawn include Studio 4 °C, Production I.G, and Studio Ghibli.^[10]

[edit] Western influence on Japan

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In the 1950's, Osamu Tezuka adapted and simplified many Disney animation precepts to reduce the budget costs and number of frames in the production. This was intended to be a temporary measure to allow him to produce one episode every week with an inexperienced animation staff. Some animators in Japan overcome production budgets by utilizing different techniques than the Disney or the old Tezuka/Otsuka methods of animating anime. Due to reduced frame rate, several still shots and scrolling backgrounds, more time can be spent on detail in each drawing.