Ask John: Should Japanese Animated 80’s Cartoons Be Called Anime?

Question:
So many American cartoons in the 80’s were produced in Japan (ex: DiC shows, Mask, Thundercats, Hasbro licensed shows, etc.) but yet these shows are never considered “true” anime because the ideas and character designs came from the West. But yet, to the trained eye, the production values of these cartoons clearly look and “feel” like anime. Which leads me to ask: Have we grown up watching anime all this time- but under the guise of western character designs? And shouldn’t these shows really be classified as “anime”?

Answer:
Although I’m not an artist myself, I have a strong suspicion that a subtle but appreciable difference exists between art that an artist creates on commission, fulfilling a paying patron’s particular requests, and the original art that the artist may create to satisfy his own creative impulses. Anime artists including Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii, Takeshi Koike, Masaaki Yuasa, Hideaki Anno, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Mamoru Nagano, to name a few, are now well know for creating anime that satisfies their own, personal aesthetic sensibilities. But certainly not all anime is made to illustrate a single artist’s unique sensibilities. Most commercial anime is created at the request of a patron. The majority of those patrons are Japanese production committees that include publishers, record labels, and toy companies. Yet even those sponsors, external to the artists’ studios, are still Japanese executives requesting the production of animation that adheres to Japanese expectations, familiarity, and sensibilities.

The traditional distinction between “anime” and animation that’s not “anime” has really been cultural orientation. Certainly, observers can argue that productions including M.A.S.K. (Ashi Production), Thundercats & SilverHawks (Pacific Animation Corporation), Transformers & Inhumanoids (Toei), Superbook (Tatsunoko), Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (Sunrise), Rainbow Brite (TMS), and The Last Unicorn (Topcraft) were animated in Japan and are therefore anime, but one can only wonder what these shows would be like, or if they’d exist at all, if they were originated and produced in Japan without American influence and stipulations. Certainly, many children of the 80s grew up while watching animated programming that exhibited the animation quality and art design characteristic of anime, but the character behaviors, background nuances, settings, and themes ranging from sex and violence to personal integrity and responsibility all reflected American social behaviors. Japanese produced animation for American broadcast from the 1980s exhibited none of the casual sexuality of Japanese exclusive shows like Maichinguu Machiko-sensei (1981), Urusei Yatsura (1981), Space Cobra (1982), or Ranpou (1984); none of the abstract slapstick Japanese humor of Dr. Slump (1981), Boku Patalliro (1982), Sasuga no Sarutobi (1982), or Stop!! Hibari-kun! (1983); none of the realistic drama of The Kabocha Wine (1982), Captain (1983), or Miyuki (1983). In fact, exposure to only the Japanese commissioned exported animation from the early 1980s does little to educate a viewer about the scope or the tone of concurrent anime produced for Japanese broadcast. Arguably, shows such as M.A.S.K., Thundercats, and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors owe as much, if not more inspiration to original American cartoons of the era such as Blackstar, Thundarr the Barbarian, Galtar and the Golden Lance, and Johnny Quest than to their Japanese influences. Certainly, some of the Japanese commissioned programs of the era, particularly Might Orbots and SilverHawks, exhibit an eclectic oddity that’s much more influenced by Japanese inspiration than American influence, but even today no one call someone that’s a devotee of American 80’s cartoons an “anime fan.”

Japanese commissioned and animated 80’s animation is a significant footnote in anime history and absolutely functioned as a catalyst for many of today’s ardent American otaku. But referring to these shows in the exact same way that we refer to uniquely Japanese anime, and categorizing these American originated cartoons as indistinguishable from Japanese exclusive productions of the same era doesn’t seem analytically appropriate. Inevitably, due to being drawn and directed by Japanese artists, these 80s programs have some prominent influence from and similarity to native Japanese animation. But at the same time, these shows don’t exhibit all of the characteristics that typify contemporary Japanese anime. So continuing to recognize these American created programs as “Japanese animated” or “animated in Japan” still seems more valid to me than calling them “anime” and classifying them indistinguishably from programs exclusively created with Japanese aesthetics for Japanese audiences.