Is Pokemon considered Anime?

[marvelvscapcom2]

It looks like it is Anime but I never heard anyone refer to it as anime before. Same way the GB games are turn based RPGs but nobody ever puts them in the RPG top tens and stuff. It is almost like Pokémon is its own thing lol. But I want to start getting into Anime. So I wanted to see if it was offensive to call Pokémon Anime.     

[rayne315]

It is anime but I think its not talked about as such because it came out in the 90's when it was called cartoons in the states as we didn't really have to much "anime" influence

[indenton]

Anime is Japanese Animation by definition, pure and simple.  I think it's because a lot of people were watching that at a young age and were not aware of what Anime was exactly.  It gets caught in a weird limbo of 'what is this, why does it look different compared to other cartoons I've watched'. 

Why would you be offended by something which isn't offensive, it doesn't matter if it's a great show or a terrible show, the term anime doesn't carry this 'seal of quality' with it, it's a definition. 

Pokemon is very much mainstream
Nichijou is extremely niche

They are both Anime

[kamikazekeeg]

It looks like it is Anime but I never heard anyone refer to it as anime before. Same way the GB games are turn based RPGs but nobody ever puts them in the RPG top tens and stuff. It is almost like Pokémon is its own thing lol. But I want to start getting into Anime. So I wanted to see if it was offensive to call Pokémon Anime. 

You don't call Pokemon "anime", it has an "anime" with the tv series and movies.  Usually when people talk about Pokemon, it's just a game, unless you are specifically referencing something else like the card game or shows.

Get into anime all you want.  It's great and there are amazing shows and movies.  I would recommend as a start, most of the Studio Ghibli films.  There's nearly a dozen good ones.

[rayne315]

It looks like it is Anime but I never heard anyone refer to it as anime before. Same way the GB games are turn based RPGs but nobody ever puts them in the RPG top tens and stuff. It is almost like Pokémon is its own thing lol. But I want to start getting into Anime. So I wanted to see if it was offensive to call Pokémon Anime. 

You don't call Pokemon "anime", it has an "anime" with the tv series and movies.  Usually when people talk about Pokemon, it's just a game, unless you are specifically referencing something else like the card game or shows.

Get into anime all you want.  It's great and there are amazing shows and movies.  I would recommend as a start, most of the Studio Ghibli films.  There's nearly a dozen good ones.

Hayao Miyazaki (director, screen writer, producer, ect.) is the Walt Disney of the east. I have thoroughly enjoyed every film I have seen from that man.

[kamikazekeeg]

It looks like it is Anime but I never heard anyone refer to it as anime before. Same way the GB games are turn based RPGs but nobody ever puts them in the RPG top tens and stuff. It is almost like Pokémon is its own thing lol. But I want to start getting into Anime. So I wanted to see if it was offensive to call Pokémon Anime. 

You don't call Pokemon "anime", it has an "anime" with the tv series and movies.  Usually when people talk about Pokemon, it's just a game, unless you are specifically referencing something else like the card game or shows.

Get into anime all you want.  It's great and there are amazing shows and movies.  I would recommend as a start, most of the Studio Ghibli films.  There's nearly a dozen good ones.

Hayao Miyazaki (director, screen writer, producer, ect.) is the Walt Disney of the east. I have thoroughly enjoyed every film I have seen from that man.

100% this.  I've seen most all the Ghibli films aside from a couple more recently released ones and some of the shorts, but I've watched all the major ones and love them.  Even my sister and mom like them and they don't watch anime.  They are just really good films.

[burningdoom]

What's this about people in the U.S. not knowing anime? We had popular anime in the 90s, that's when I was into it. Yu-Yu Hakashu, Ronin Warriors, Gundam Wing, Robotech, The Guyver, Voltron, Ninja Scroll, Akira...and a little anime called Dragon Ball Z. A number of those actually airing on U.S. TV networks.

[stealthrush]

The word anime has also been criticised, e.g. in 1987, when Hayao Miyazaki stated that he despised the truncated word anime because to him it represented the desolation of the Japanese animation industry. He equated the desolation with animators lacking motivation and mass-produced, overly expressive products which rely on fixed iconography for facial expressions and protracted and exaggerated action scenes but lack depth and sophistication because they do not attempt to convey emotion or thought. [source]

What's this about people in the U.S. not knowing anime? We had popular anime in the 90s, that's when I was into it. Yu-Yu Hakashu, Ronin Warriors, Gundam Wing, Robotech, The Guyver, Voltron, Ninja Scroll, Akira...and a little anime called Dragon Ball Z. A number of those actually airing on U.S. TV networks.

late eighties too..Bubblegum Crisis, Trigun, Lain, Sailor Moon..
Back then known as 'Japanimation'.

[indenton]

The word anime has also been criticised, e.g. in 1987, when Hayao Miyazaki stated that he despised the truncated word anime because to him it represented the desolation of the Japanese animation industry. He equated the desolation with animators lacking motivation and mass-produced, overly expressive products which rely on fixed iconography for facial expressions and protracted and exaggerated action scenes but lack depth and sophistication because they do not attempt to convey emotion or thought.

Why did you bring this up?  If you want to jump leaps and bounds over the medium of language & definition to find this offensive, please stay indoors.  You're clearly set in your ways of seeing the worst in people. 

That's like a German Sheppard being offended because linking nouns to products of differing characteristics and origin is offensive, it would much prefer to be referred to as 'animal' or 'living thing'. 

I watched television last night, what did I watch?  I watched a program

[rayne315]

What's this about people in the U.S. not knowing anime? We had popular anime in the 90s, that's when I was into it. Yu-Yu Hakashu, Ronin Warriors, Gundam Wing, Robotech, The Guyver, Voltron, Ninja Scroll, Akira...and a little anime called Dragon Ball Z. A number of those actually airing on U.S. TV networks.

Yeah but to my recollection they were aired under the "cartoon" name and weren't referred to as "anime" by the networks that aired them till the early to mid 2000's. the exception being the midnight airings of tunami (however it is spelled) that referred to them as "anime" but I believe that only started in like 1998?

[burningdoom]

What's this about people in the U.S. not knowing anime? We had popular anime in the 90s, that's when I was into it. Yu-Yu Hakashu, Ronin Warriors, Gundam Wing, Robotech, The Guyver, Voltron, Ninja Scroll, Akira...and a little anime called Dragon Ball Z. A number of those actually airing on U.S. TV networks.

Yeah but to my recollection they were aired under the "cartoon" name and weren't referred to as "anime" by the networks that aired them till the early to mid 2000's. the exception being the midnight airings of tunami (however it is spelled) that referred to them as "anime" but I believe that only started in like 1998?

I suppose that's true. But it's not like we didn't know the word anime or what it meant. And the VHSes/DVDs you bought or rented of them said anime right on them. We also knew that a lot of it was based on Manga.

Anime has definitely gotten more popular, thanks to DBZ, Pokemon, and Naruto among others. But it wasn't some niche thing that nobody knew about in the 90s, either.