Ask John: Is Anime a Genre?

Question:
Can you really call anime a genre? You do not call English literature and American literature separate genres just because of their origin. Since anime covers a wide range of subjects like hentai, horror, fantasy and soap operas, would it not be considered too broad to be a genre? Aren’t genres a specific category?

Answer:
I’ve had this conversation before, and agree that the definition “genre” is very subjective. I prefer to use it to define anime, but by no means suggest that it should be universal or objective. As you’ve pointed out, classic “genres” such as horror, sci-fi, fantasy and romance are sub-divisions within anime, which would imply that anime itself is not a genre but rather a medium or media. But then, if we consider animation in general to be a medium, its subdivision genres would include anime, “cartoons,” stop-motion, computer graphics & puppetry. In my writing, I sometimes refer to anime as a genre for the sake of convenience. In conversation, though, anime is simply anime. I believe that the simplest way to avoid any confusion is to simply recognize that anime has very specific characteristics (2D animation created in Japan for Japanese audiences) and nothing else is anime, no matter how much other similar artistic productions try to imitate anime. Thus, anime is not a genre nor a medium nor anything else besides “anime.”

What do you think? If you’d like to share you impressions or opinion on this topic, discuss it in the Ask John section of the AnimeNation Forum.