On it’s surface the plot is a basic anime revenge story but it’s told in really mature way. The characters are some of the deepest most will developed characters I’ve ever seen in ( the first season) an anime. It’s also probably the most feminist (action) anime I’ve watched. It deals heavily with the place of women in feudal Japan and the women navigating it are great complex characters. The other main character is a disabled guy who while funny isn’t played for jokes and is incredibly resourceful.
My only complaint with the show is sometimes the art is a little weird and there’s a couple of scenes where the plot armor is a little heavy. Seriously give it a watch.
This got me thinking about what makes this an “anime” in the English sense. I know in Japan this would be an “anime” but so would Rick and Morty or SpongeBob.
Is Anime as we know it like champagne in that it must be produced in a specific place? Is this show, produced in the West with a mostly Westoid crew simply “Sparkling Animation”? I can’t think of any reason to call this an anime other than the subject matter and… Vibes?
A persons answer to this is a strong test as for what type of anime viewer they are tbh
My college anime club was filled with the “champagne” style purists and almost all of them walking stereotypes (anime club at a tech school is a horrifying combo).
Stuff like “grave of the fireflies” that ties deeply into a cultures experience of an event is uniquely Japanese, but that doesn’t mean anime has to be.
ISR was made and censored when it broadcast in Japan, so the otaku sorts all pirated the Thai airing because it wasn’t censored.
:hentai-free:
netflix calls it an anime, like they do with all their other animated ‘mature’ action shows
Can we cancel Netflix for cultural appropriation yet? Plz, I want it so bad.
Kinda interesting to compare it to Avatar, which people tend to insist is not anime due to its place of origin.
idk if they labeled scott pilgrim as one or not. they should have, just like mal should, it’s literally an anime in every way one can imagine something being an anime. but that’s an interesting counterpart to this sort of thing
I think there’s an unresolved question about whether anime is an art style or a genre. Like you said, Scott Pilgrim feels like an anime but if you compare it to Graveyard of the Fireflies or something the two couldn’t be more different. You can’t say that they’re the same genre, but you also can’t say Graveyard isn’t anime so… Idk. Seems to go back to vibes either way.
rick and morty and spongebob are both animes imo
I have not seen this program, but the definition used to include a Japanese influence. (At one point there was also an art style as well, but modern anime is rather diverse.)
As with everything, I think things have shifted.
I’d love an umbrella term that included “Sparkling Animation”. Couldn’t give a fuck where a show is from but there isn’t a reliable way to find stuff made outside Japan that isn’t “Cartoons” or “Adult Animation”. I know some people try to expand the definition of anime but try going on an anime discussion hub and talking about Primal.
Netflix has a Japanese animation studio so I think a lot of their stuff counts as anime even in a strict sense.