Ask John: Are There Fan Created Anime?

Question:
Is there a doujinshi equivalent in anime? My guess is no, because of the astronomical amount of work involved in producing even a short clip. Would anime doujinshi be tolerated by studios/authors as the manga equivalent is today?

Answer:
I’m presuming that you’re asking if there is such a thing as fan created anime, specifically fan created anime based on or starring celebrity characters. You’re right in assuming that creating even a short piece of animation requires a tremendous amount of work, but that hasn’t stopped amateur animators from creating their own anime. Naturally, since these fan created works are made on a small scale, they’re often not very well publicized. I know of some, but I’m sure that there are others which I’m not aware of.

In a technical sense, “doujinshi” signifies merely amateur fan created. By that definition two of the most famous and influential fan created anime works ever would be the opening ceremony animation films for the 1982 and 1984 Daicon sci-fi conventions. These short films were animated by the fans who would later incorporate themselves as Gainax. Both Daicon shorts contain ample homages to famous genre icons, from Superman and Spiderman to Godzilla to Star Wars.

In 1996 a group of fans and professional animators with credits including Rayearth, Slayers, El Hazard, and Pretty Sammy, worked together under the name “S.B. Project” to create a wonderful 8 minute long anime adaptation of erotic manga artist Neriwasabi’s sci-fi comedy hentai manga Jinzo Ningen Struggle Bunny. The S.B. Project regrouped in 1998 to produce an 8 minute long parody anime titled “Mahou Shoujo Diana,” and a 7 minute long erotic anime called “Yayoi.” Also in 1996 the September issue of Dengeki G’s Magazine reported on the release of a fan created “doujin anime” erotic parody of Rayearth titled “Mahou Musume Knight the Movie.”

A collection of erotic anime shorts by “(Dou) Ra no Mon” released in the early 1990s including The Shower volumes 1 & 2 and Gekidora volume 1, volume 2, and volume 2.2 G2 featured erotic depictions of famous anime characters from series including Ranma, Maison Ikkoku, Tenchi Muyo, Plawres Sanshiro, Urusei Yatsura, Sailor Moon, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. There have also been fan created erotic anime parodies including “Sakura Mankai,” (a Sakura Taisen parody), My Sweet Honey (a Cutey Honey parody), “Heisei Bishoujo CG Anime Gekichin” (a Nadesico parody), a three volume Utena erotic parody titled “Shoujo Kakumei,” and many American fans are familiar with, at least by word of mouth, the famed Evangelion: Human Instrumentality Project erotic anime parody.

Even more recently the Japanese doujinshi circle Frapper Spirits has released a DVD collecting its erotic anime short parodies of Onegai Teacher, Final Fantasy, One Piece, Gunparade March, and Sister Princess. And producer MMG has sponsored the production of Japanese created erotic parody anime including “Anime Fiction,” and American created erotic parody such as “Star Ballz.” On an interesting side-note, in October 2001 Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit seeking to stop distribution of the animated erotic Star Wars parody “Star Ballz.” On January 8th, 2002, Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District Court of California denied the Lucasfilm suit, citing “Star Ballz” as a legally protected form of parody.

It may seem as though all fan created anime is hentai, but that’s not really the case. The M3 Animation Box group, for example, has been working on an amusing combination of Evangelion and Maria-sama ga Miteru titled “Shingakki Avemarian” (New School Term Avemarian) for a few years. And fan created anime isn’t limited to Japan, either. A group of amateur Chinese animators calling themselves “SY’STEAM” recently released an impressive St. Seiya homage animation short.

Compared to the thousands or maybe even millions of fan created doujinshi comics published in Japan in the past few decades, there are relatively few fan created anime projects. But doujin anime does exist, and you’ll find that in Japan it is literally called “doujin anime.” Many of these works seem to be erotica, perhaps because only sex provides enough motivation for amateur artists to complete the arduous task of creating fan made animation. As far as I can tell, doujin anime seems to be treated the same way doujin manga is treated in Japan. Technically unlicensed reproductions of copyrighted characters are a violation of copyright laws, but Japan’s anime community seems to be fairly receptive to fans adopting and improvising copyrighted characters and stories in a variety of media.