Talk:Anime

Ironically, the word is an English transliteration of a Japanese term, which in turn is a Japanese transliteration of the English word "animation". (Some sources state that the Japanese word comes from the French "Animé", meaning "animated".)

Here's three dictionaries that claim アニメ (anime) is an abbreviation of アニメーション ("animeeshon", a transcription of the English pronunciation of "animation"):

• (E-E) http://www.bartleby.com/61/12/A0311250
• (E-J) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/wwwjdic/ (search manually)
• (J-J) http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/cgi-bin/dict_search.cgi?MT=%A5%A2%A5%CB%A5%E1&sw=2

While I've occasionally heard mention of the French claim, I've yet to find it in a reputable source. --Brion

Go ahead and change it to "fans" or "afficionados of the genre," then. :) User:Modemac

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I removed the entire paragraph on the different production values of anime, as it is not relevant. American production values on animation vary just as much. full cell animation wasn't invented in America because the first animation wasn't, and limited-cell animation WAS invented in America, by Hanna Barberra for television animation, a novelty at the time. Disney uses full animation for their full length movies just as Miyazaki does, and Disney uses limited cell animation for TV and video-only, as Japanese companies do.--alan D

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I'd like to propose that the list of anime be shortened to those which already have pages in the encyclopedia and those which are otherwise well-known. The current list is apparently attempting to list all of the television shows in Japan which happen to be animated. User:Ashibaka

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"Anime became fairly popular in the Western World in the mid 1990s (many people think it is the cult-anime Akira which triggered this) but interest quickly faded again. However, recently anime is gaining in popularity again, probably due to the recent improvements on the field of broadband internet, making anime more easily accessible to the masses. This, however, also triggered a huge increase in the illegal distribution of anime."

I removed this paragraph because the current resurgence in anime predates broadband. I've no qualms with the Akira part (it's removed with the rest until it can be easily reinserted) save for an exclusion of a de-facto popularity in anime in the early 1980s due to a number of dubbed anime series in the USA (robotech, starblazers, voltron, and I even saw at least one ep. of galaxy express 999) that was passed off unknowingly to a lot of kids.

As a matter of fact, I can trace the popularity of anime for several years, having been involved in the scene for quite a while (by the way, the scene has simultaneously never been better, or worse.) Anime in every video store is both a symptom and a cause of a widespread anime popularity in its current surge. I'll write more on this later.

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About the title, I know the word Anime is widely recognized among its fun. Besides, it is a proper Japanese word too. But shouldn't wikipedia stick to a general common usage? I mean I would like to rename this to Japanese animation because techincally speaking, Anime is not an English word. We can state Japanese animation is commonly called "Anime" in the article. -- Taku 18:50 22 May 2003 (UTC)

I think, Wikipedia should use words in the meaning that everyone thinks of in first place. If the "official" title has a link to the "used" word, ok. But for example I would expect an article about Anime, and the article should explain, that Anime is Japanese animation. That's my feeling, I don't know yet what the "official" Wikipedia standard for this is. Fantasy 07:38 23 May 2003 (UTC)

Anime is fine for a title. People recognize it--cartoon fans, film buffs, etc., and it's already in some dictionaries. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=anime Besides, English doesn't have an academy so there's no official body to say "this is or is not English"--the language reflects common usage. If anime is not English, then neither is escargot--also commonly used to refer to snails as food rather than snails as animals. Koyaanis Qatsi

Fantasy has a good point. We have to think of people who expect wikipedia has an article named "anime". I agree. -- Taku 15:36 31 May 2003 (UTC)