Ask John: Do Japanese Fans Think Anime is Superior to Other Animation?

Question:
Do the Japanese feel that anime is a superior animation, much like most American and international anime/manga fans do?

Answer:
To the best of my knowledge, Japanese anime fans do have a different impression of anime than American fans do, probably because anime is a familiar convention for Japanese fans while the same is not the case for Americans. Although there are exceptional examples of brilliant American animation and terrible Japanese animation, American anime fans frequently develop a general impression that anime is “better” than American animation. American viewers recognize that anime features “normal” human characters; often has detailed and realistic background art; deals with “mature” concepts including violence, death and sexuality; and often avoids pandering to a child’s intelligence level. However, in fact, these characteristics don’t intrinsically make anime “superior” to American animation. These characteristics only make anime different from conventional American animation.

Typical American anime fans think that anime is “better” than American animation because they compare the content and style of Japanese animation to the commonplace American animation that they’re most familiar with. Japanese fans, though, don’t instinctively and unconsciously compare anime to their stereotypical mental image of animation because anime is their stereotypical mental image of animation. For Japanese viewers, anime isn’t an unusual, foreign film that contradicts their ingrained notions of what animation is and should be. As a result, many Japanese citizens view anime with the same attitude that Americans accept Disney animation and conventional children’s animation. For average Japanese citizens, anime isn’t a “superior” form of animation; it’s just cartoons for children and obsessive fanatics. And occasional films like Ghibli works cross over into mainstream appeal in the same way that an American animated film like The Incredibles or Beowulf appeals to both animation fans and mainstream viewers.

I think that average Japanese citizens don’t give much thought to anime, and many of those who do think of anime as a cultish, juvenile medium (slightly different from mainstream Americans that think of animation not as “juvenile” but instead as “childish”). Japan’s hardcore anime fan community, I think, doesn’t frequently compare the quality and characteristics of American and Japanese animation. Rather, I suspect that most Japanese otaku think of anime as just anime; they don’t instinctively compare anime to any other country’s animation because anime isn’t an unusual, foreign import for them. For Japanese viewers, anime isn’t especially better or worse than any other type of animation. Anime is simply normal and imported American animation isn’t especially better or worse than anime; it’s just “American anime.”

International anime fans often think of anime as superior to their own, domestic animation. Japan produces more animation than any other country in the world, and Japan is the only country in which anime is not an imported, foreign art. So international viewers exist in circumstances different from Japanese viewers. International viewers have a natural, instinctive reason to compare anime to other types of animation, but Japanese viewers don’t have an unconscious, instinctive motivation to compare anime to other types of animation. So while I’m sure that anime fans in Japan are very proud of anime, as far as I’m aware, Japanese anime fans don’t make a habit of convincing themselves that anime is typically better than animation from other countries.