Avatar is an Anime. F*** You. Fight Me. transcript

00:00
Here's an idea:
00:01
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an anime.
00:05
Fuck you.
00:06
Fight me.
00:14
On October 18th, 2016,
00:16
A1 Pictures and Crunchyroll released "Shelter",
00:19
a short animated music video for Porter Robinson and Madeon's song of the same name.
00:24
Shortly thereafter, it was posted to Reddit's r/anime community
00:28
Where it would go on to become the third highest rated post in the history of the subreddit.
00:33
It would also go on to be taken down because, as an r/anime mod stated,
00:38
"The specific definition we use to determine 'Anime' is 'An animated series, produced and aired in Japan intended for a Japanese audience.'
00:52
This is a music video by an artist that contracted out a studio that happens to also produce anime.
01:02
If A1 Pictures had produced an episode of SpongeBob, we wouldn't allow that here, either."
01:11
The internet flipped its collective shit at this because... of course it did.
01:15
It's absolutely fucking ridiculous.
01:18
And within an hour of it being removed,
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the post was back up and rapidly climbing the front page.
01:23
Boy, I sure do wish that could happen for my videos once in a while.
01:27
The takedown and reinstatement of "Shelter" was, in itself, a minor footnote
01:32
in the success story of a popular and critically lauded ONA
01:36
that was going to reach people with or without Reddit's help.
01:39
But the flawed reasoning behind it
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speaks to something that is frequently a big problem for the anime community,
01:46
especially for critics like myself.
01:49
We don't really have a solid, workable definition of what "anime" is.
01:55
We have a lot of different, competing definitions,
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some of which are technical, like,
02:00
"'Anime' is a Japanese colloquialism which comes from shortening the word 'animation'",
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whereas others, like the one used by the reddit community, are unworkably broken.
02:11
That might seem like a harsh indictment of something fairly innocuous,
02:14
but consider the purpose of definitions.
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They don't really prescribe how we're supposed to use a word.
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They describe how a word that's already being used is being used.
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We knew what a "YouTuber" was long before Oxford added it to their lexicon.
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We didn't need them to tell us.
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And if your definition of a word is so narrow
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that it doesn't account for common or general uses of that word,
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or so broad that it encompasses things that the word never refers to in common usage,
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then it fails as a definition.
02:47
The definition of "anime" offered up by "Dr. Nyanpasu"
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fails to hold up to scrutiny on multiple counts,
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to the point where I feel the need to sit down and explain patiently how words work.
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Let's go through it, point by point, and see all the ways it fails.
03:04
Point 1: "An animated series".
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Okay, we're three words in and already the cracks are showing.
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"Series" precludes single shot OVAs, web shorts like "ME!ME!ME!", and movies.
03:15
By this definition, Spirited Away and Your Name aren't anime.
03:20
Obviously, that would be stupid, so the definition must be wrong.
03:25
Point 2: "produced and aired in Japan".
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Well, firstly saying "aired" again cuts out theatrical and home video markets, as well as the internet, so that doesn't work at all.
03:35
But let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they meant "distributed".
03:39
I mean, the fact that they're this strict with a definition that they worded this loosely is worrying, in itself.
03:46
But that's a different problem.
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And even making that concession, it's still awful.
03:52
"Produced in Japan" means that we can't count shows like Bloodivores or To Be Hero which originated in China,
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or any show that was outsourced to Korea, which these days is most of them.
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As for requiring that an anime be distributed in Japan,
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well, that would actually include SpongeBob since it has a Japanese dub.
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And if you say "distributed first in Japan",
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then you end up excluding Space Dandy which is super wrong.
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So, yeah, nothing about this point works.
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And then there's that "intended for a Japanese audience" bit,
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which is murky enough when you consider that more and more studios are aiming anime at a global audience
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for business purposes,
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but, also explicitly excludes Stan Lee's Heroman,
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Afro Samurai, which was a passion project for Samuel L. Jackson,
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and The Big O - season two, which was only made because of Cartoon Network.
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All of those things are very clearly "anime"
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and it would be beyond idiotic to say that the second season of an anime isn't an anime
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because it targeted a new audience and was produced by a new network.
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So, with all of those clauses stricken down, the only part of the definition that remains is "animated",
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which happens to be what the word "anime" means in Japanese.
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"'Anime' is a Japanese colloquialism—"
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Yeah, Digi, we know.
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Although, that is an interesting facet of this argument.
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In Japanese, anime refers to all animation, SpongeBob included.
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And that's an argument often used in favor of saying,
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"Avatar: The Last Airbender and shows like it should be counted as anime."
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But it's a weak argument, and not just because it's pedantic.
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What this argument is really about is whether shows like Avatar should be discussed in communities like r/anime,
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or given the spotlight at anime cons.
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And, yes, by that definition, the discussion of Avatar should be allowed in anime communities,
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but that would also allow for discussion of SpongeBob and Mickey Mouse,
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which most people would agree are totally off-topic.
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And some would use that as a justification
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for disqualifying any American cartoon from ever being anime,
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which is equally pedantic and facetious.
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"Anime is Japanese animation, and that's that," they'll say,
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even though their acceptance of Chinese-made anime totally invalidates that position.
06:29
But even if you are in the camp that says, "Western cartoons can never be anime",
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you can't pretend that there's no distinction.
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Because when I say the phrase "American anime", it describes a specific group of shows
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and you know exactly what shows I'm talking about.
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American anime is meaningfully distinct from what you'd call "cartoons".
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Now, you might say that the line is a little blurry,
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and you could make a good case with shorter series that use more American art styles and senses of humor
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like Steven Universe and Adventure Time,
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which, fun fact: had an episode directed by anime director, Masaaki Yuasa,
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but when you look at Japanese shows like Panty and Stocking or Kaiba,
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you realize that it's just as blurry over there.
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In fact, I would argue that there are animated series made in Japan for a Japanese audience that are not "anime",
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at least, not in the loose American sense of that word,
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which is largely shaped by what satisfies use when we sit down thinking, "I want to watch anime"
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and what we deem worthy of discussion in anime communities.
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And when was the last time you heard an American anime fan gushing over Hello Kitty, Hana Kappa, or Anpanman?
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If these kids' shows are discussed at all,
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it's never in the context of "Have you seen the latest episode of Sazae-san?"
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Those shows are only ever discussed academically
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in things like this video
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because while you may find it interesting that Sazae-san is the longest running cartoon in the world,
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I doubt that any of you are actually interested in watching it.
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Few anime fans are because it's not anime, it's a cartoon for children.
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And if the Japanese are capable of producing non-anime cartoons,
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and we're already allowing for shows out of Korea and China to be considered anime,
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then there is no good reason that anime can't be produced in North America
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or Europe, in the case of Wakfu and The Red Turtle.
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For a lot of people, when they get an urge to watch anime
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and they sit down and watch Avatar: The Last Airbender or Voltron,
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they end up satisfied with that decision.
08:47
But if we can't define anime by region, how do we define it?
08:52
It's tempting to say "by art style", but again, shows like Panty and Stocking and Kaiba render that invalid.
08:59
And anime definitely isn't a genre.
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I mean, there are action anime and romance anime and comedy anime, and has genres within it,
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and there is very little that connects those genres.
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We could point to storytelling techniques; anime tends to have an ongoing narrative.
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But gag series like Osomatsu-san defy that constraint as well.
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No matter what aesthetic trappings or genre conventions you try to ascribe to anime,
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there is going to be a point of hard contradiction.
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I think that's because we've failed to recognize what anime really is.
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Some see it as a genre, others as a cultural artefact,
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and others as, almost a medium unto itself,
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but it's none of those things.
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It's something else entirely.
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Something that is only really possible to identify with a lot of hindsight.
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Which is why I find it hard to fault other anime critics and fans for using those terms instead.
09:57
What anime is, is a movement:
10:00
an artistic movement within the medium of animation,
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not unlike post-modernism or The French New Wave in film.
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Everything that makes "anime" anime,
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the big-eyed aesthetic, the over-the-top action, the mature themes, the overt sexuality,
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is a part of that movement,
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agreed upon, collectively, by animators across Japan.
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Well, it would probably be more accurate to say anime is a series of movements.
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Post-millennial anime is very different from 90s anime, which is, in turn, very different from 80s anime,
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and especially Shōwa Era anime.
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But, there are commonalities between all of them:
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the anime art style, the serialized storytelling techniques,
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the way that anime series and movies tend to approach action and romance,
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the way that anime has turned cost-cutting measures into stylistic flourishes.
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All of these things are elements of the broader movement, not necessarily parts of the definition.
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And that definition is murky because, well, all movements have murky definitions.
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You know a French New Wave film when you see it,
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but you can argue endlessly about what makes "French New Wave" French New Wave
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and where the movement began and ended.
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And you can argue that films influenced by that movement,
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like the work of Tarantino and the Movie Brats,
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should perhaps be considered part of it.
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And looking at it in that light,
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you can very easily make the argument that American anime deserves consideration within the broader anime movement.
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Specifically, the post-millennial anime movement, that presently dominates Crunchyroll
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and that so famously made Miyazaki declare that "anime was a mistake".
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Each movement within the greater movement of anime has its own defining factors.
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The animators and artists who birthed early anime were inspired by the possibilities of a new medium
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and the creations of Western contemporaries.
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But they were also shaken by the impact of the atomic bomb.
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The animators of the 70s and 80s grew up on a diet of that early anime
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along with imported Western film and television.
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Their work had a certain bravado to it,
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no doubt, energized by the unprecedented growth of the post-war economic miracle.
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They made a lot of cheerful anime and a lot of aggressive, angry work
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like Akira and Grave of the Fireflies.
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90s anime were, in turn, inspired by those works and Japan's increasingly thriving otaku culture.
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They leaned even more heavily into Western and Japanese influences.
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Their work tended to be a bit more somber and philosophical, too.
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Probably a reaction to the economic stagnation of the so-called "Lost Decade" of the 90s.
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If you look at any of these movements,
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you will see that they are inextricably tied to Japan's culture, its economical healthy, and its place in the world.
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The same is not necessarily true of post-millennial anime
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because post-millennial anime is also post-internet anime.
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It's post-globalization anime and that changes the ball game.
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Whether certain segments of the populous like it or not,
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we are now living in a world with a growing global culture and economy.
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National borders still mean something, but not nearly as much as they used to.
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We can communicate easily on a daily basis with people around the world
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through borders and language barriers.
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I'm doing that right now, and you can help by subtitling this video for your country.
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As Miyazaki lamented in his famous quote,
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Japan's millennial animators are primarily influenced by having grown up watching older anime
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as well as popular Western fare.
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They are unabashed otaku making anime for other otaku.
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They communicate via message boards. They collect merchandise.
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They are, to be sure, influenced by Japanese phenomena like
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the falling birthrate, the chronic lack of social interaction that has created NEETs and hikikomori,
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and of course, the boom of light novels, but they have many influences outside of that.
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Because, like many people around the world, as much as they live in their nation,
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They also live on the Net and so do the Western animators making American anime
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like Avatar and Steven Universe.
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Animators who also grew up watching anime alongside Western media.
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Animators who collect anime merchandise.
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Animators who can't help being influenced by Japanese culture, and the history of the anime movement.
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They're influenced to the same extent that the likes of Hiroyuki Imaishi and KonoSuba's Kikuta Koichi
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are very clearly influenced by the likes of Ralph Bakshi and the American cartoon boom of the 90s.
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These animators are contemporaries.
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They are part of the same group, the same movement.
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And to talk about modern anime in an accurate and all-encompassing manner,
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it is necessary to acknowledge that all of them are part of it
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and that they have been for a long time now.
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To an extent, I can understand the impulse to reject these works.
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It can at times seem like Western animation studios are trying to manipulate anime fans.
15:31
A decade ago, for every really great series like Titans or Megas XLR,
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we got two like Kappa Mikey or My Life Me.
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And even the really good ones didn't quite feel like anime.
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But American anime like Avatar, Voltron, and Steven Universe are different.
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They're made with the exact same intention as most great, modern Japanese anime:
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to tell a great story that the anime fans making them would want to watch.
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They may get greenlit by pointing to market trends that say, "Anime is hot right now",
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but they are clearly passion projects.
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They are the exact same kind of passion projects that we see being made in Japan,
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and China, and Korea, and broadcast on Crunchyroll.
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And we should be celebrating the best of them, alongside FMA, One-Punch Man, and Rakugo.
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We should be giving them pride of place at our conventions,
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analyzing them in our pretentious video essays,
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and discussing them in our communities,
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not just for the sake of our own enjoyment,
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but because the next movement of anime creators, both in Japan and abroad is watching these works,
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absorbing them, and beginning to build on them as we speak.
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Looking at today's anime, at all of today's anime,
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will give us a better idea of what tomorrow's anime will look like.
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That's why I think it's important to allow discussion of Avatar, Voltron, Steven Universe, and Wakfu
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in places like r/anime.
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Well, partially, I think it's equally important to facilitate debates
17:09
about whether The Crystal Gems could beat up the Sailor Scouts
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or what rank Ang would achieve in The Hero Association
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because stuff like that is fun.
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And since those discussions are so fun, and since most anime communities don't really allow them,
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I'd like to see those arguments happen in the comments section of this video.
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I mean, they probably would, anyway. But I'm allowing it.
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Just, please, use my trust wisely, kids.
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No biting or hair pulling.
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Promise me that.
17:33
Thanks for watching, commenting, subscribing, giving me cash on Patreon.
17:37
And all of the other ways you guys help the channel.
17:40
It means a lot. And special thanks to my editor and DJ, I guess, FlipAnime, for throwing this video together for me.
17:47
Any compliments you guys have for the music should be directed his way.
17:50
Also, I want to thank Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits for letting me record this on his microphone while I was busy moving.
17:57
It really helped a lot.
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If you enjoyed this video and you want to see more like it
18:00
then, I recommend watching my top 10 anime openings of all time.
18:04
Or you could check out this mystery video that YouTube has recommended for you using kooky computer magic.
18:09
The next time you see me, I'm going to be filming in a new apartment
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so, for the very last time,
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I'm Geoff Thew, professional shit bag, signing out from my mother's basement.
English