The Mike Toole Show

Anime... Or Not?!

What is anime?

Okay, now that I've got approximately fifty percent of you whispering "Anime is: straight from Japan! Totally unexpected! Not kids' stuff." with Pavlovian fervor and cursing my name, let me explain why I'm posing this seemingly obvious question.

Earlier this week, I was looking into anime adaptations of European comics and BDs; after all, we've got our currently running Marvel anime, that hoary old Tomb of Dracula telefilm, and there was even a Satelight. But when I mentioned this series, a pal of mine on twitter waved it off, saying that it was just a co-production and therefore not really anime.

Now, wait a minute. Time Jam was directed by a guy named MASK... chances are, if it was created in the 80s, it was probably at least partially animated in Japan. But that alone doesn't make it Japanese animation, as we commonly use the term.

The thing is, the levels of involvement from the Japanese staff can vary tremendously from series to series. The Sunbow cartoons (Transformers and G.I. Joe) were still created with American scripts and storyboards, and there wasn't a single Japanese name on the Inspector Gadget." (Aren't we nerds?) Things weren't any clearer - I thought (and think) of Orbots as anime, and Gerald does not.

Enter Ulysses 31. Created one year prior to Cities of Gold in 1981, it featured the same weird mix of French and Japanese names, but while it was rolled out in much of the west by 1983 or '84 (the US would get it in 1986, as part of a Saturday-morning syndication package called Kideo TV - anyone it?), Ulysses 31 didn't reach Japan until 1988. So it's definitely not anime, right? After all, this neat and engaging futuristic retelling of the Odyssey was created principally for western audiences. Sure, but... I mean, for Christ's sake, look at it:

The show was scripted by Tadao Nagahama. Therefore, I say Ulysses 31 is anime. What do you say?

It's a fun question to think about. These co-productions aren't anything new, either. If you think of them as affairs that just involve Western financing, they go all the way back to Vicky the Viking is a product of its German origin as much as its Japanese one.

Well, alright, Vicky the Viking is actually based on a children's book by a Swede named One Piece, so check it out if you can find it.

A few more titles come to mind as we cruise through the 1980s. Spanish studio Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. I'm also fond of this one, because again, it covers every single major event of the book, which no other TV or film version manages to do. The Japanese-ness of Willy Fog is a bit more evident - it was storyboarded entirely in Japan this time - but to me, it's still tough to call it anime. It debuted in Spain in 1985, but didn't reach Japanese airwaves until '87. I tend not to think of this pair as anime, but they're still great cartoons!

back at the beginning of this column, several thousand words ago, about how I talked about wanting to find anime based on bande dessinée comics? Well, I did find one - 1988's Arnold Stang! Anyway, Cubitus was clearly made for a global audience, but created almost wholly in Japan - so is it anime? What do you think?

There are even more recent examples to ponder, too. The beloved-for-dubious-reasons Thomas Romain are the big names, but the staff is dotted with Japanese names, and the show debuted in and Japan at the same time. So... is it anime?

How about MADHOUSE? These were all made for western audiences (yes, even Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was dubbed in English and shown here long before it reached Japan) but couldn't have been made with such quality and luster without the involvement of Japanese artists. And hey, what about that Valerian and Laureline? Are these shows anime, western animation, or some sort of crazy new category, like Animation of Mixed Origin (AMO)? Sound off in the comments, and tell us all about your favorite anime of dubious origin!