The Japanese Animation has been developed in a different direction from other countries’ animation and had a unique style.
The animated films which are Japanesque or made in Japan are called “Anime”, and distinguished from other “animation” works.
In the U.S., “Anime” is deemed a Jananese word as well as “Manga”.
It is one of the few things that were reimported, as transforming itself from “animation” (English) to “anime” (Japanese). And because it is also a cultural term, some academes deal with as a subject matter in a lecture.
“Japanimation” is another appellation. It is often used in 70’s – 80’s mainly in the North America, but is less frequently-used term now.
In fact, the Japanese media uses the term to distinguish it from the broad sense of “animation”.
Among the foreign anime fan, it would seem to be the dominant view that “Japanimation” is a derogatory term or bias against Japanese culture and race.
It is supposed to be inconceivable for the younger generation that “Japanimation” is abbreviation of “Japan-animation”, and they would tend to read “Jap-animation”.
Some say that faithful fans (OTAKU) call Japanese animations “anime”, and critical thinkers call them “Japanimation”.
Another interpretations of “Japanimation” are as follows;
* Animations in which some sexual and violent scenes were cut out.
* Works such as “Robotech series” which was edited and restructured to be one feature-length animated movie for export (“Super Dimension Fortress Macross”, “Super Dimensional Cavalry – Southern Cross” and “Genesis Climber Mospeada” were originally independent productions.)
Kodansha, which sponsored for making works such as Katsuhiro Otomo’s “AKIRA” or Masamune Shirow’s “Ghost in the Shell” (which is well known as the model of “The Matrix” by Wachowski brothers) into anime, used the term “Japanimation” in the strategic way.
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