Sunday, July 8, 2007

Oh GOD
I apologize for the following rant, but I REALLY need to get this off my chest. It is a matter of anime and of language, so of course I'm worked up.

So yeah, I'm on Facebook...*cough* I was looking for some groups to join and was browsing fairly neutrally through the section filled with anime things, ignoring the dumbass ones and so forth. And I came across a group centered around referring to anime not as anime, but as "animated films" or something obnoxiously snobby like that. There was a list of reasons, none of which struck me as sensible. Here are a few, and my responses.

Point: Anime is too broad an umbrella and covers everything from Pokemon to Cowboy Bebop. Because mostly the poor quality anime is popularized in the US, many people develop a stigma against anime of any type.
Response: Are you saying that we, the anime fans, are the ones that have to make a sacrifice to deal with this problem? Because people are assholes, we have to let go of a word that is rooted inexorably in our subculture? We're going to change our identity because some folks are too narrow-minded or dense to bother realizing there's more to anime than poorly dubbed Naruto? I see something wrong here. It's not our problem people suck. If you want humanity to completely comprehend the extent of anime, evangelize to the ones who aren't already converted. Doesn't that make, you know, more sense?

Point: Anime means "animation". It is the only genre of animation classified by its nationality and named as such. French animation is immediately recognizable as French, but it's not called "L'Animacion" or anything of the like.
Response: Well why the hell not? I think that's a fine idea. Animation of a certain nationality is usually recognizable, and I don't see a problem with naming all of them this way. This is not an argument, simply a fact. Try again.

Point: And I quote: "Japanese term. In English. With French spelling. WTF."
Response: You're awfully hung up on the French thing, aren't you? Perhaps you think everything of worth was crapped out by French people? Here's some news, which should be useful for someone looking to mess with etymology.
"Anime" is a romanization of アニメ. When words of a language using a different writing system are written using the Roman alphabet, it's called romanization, or in the case of Japanese, romaji. Unlike with Chinese, romaji has a fairly well established system. In pretty much any J-E dictionary you pick up, there will be a chart of hiragana and katakana and their corresponding sounds or syllables, as they're referred to. They will all match. Spelling it "anime" is not something innovative or creative. It's the way it's done.
So how does French even come into this? You think the French invented the Roman alphabet? Oh dear. No, I'm afraid this is not "French spelling". It's Japanese spelling, and it's pronounced the same, albeit with different accents, wherever you go. You do not need to use French pronunciation rules to pronounce it. So I think you know some French and pulled that French thing out of your ass. Please don't do that ever again, or I will be forced to write another rant. And if I write enough, one day I might crack. And send you a letter or something. But I'd be sure to douse it in horrible smelling perfume (bacon perfume?) before sending it. Just for your snotty little nose.
And Cowboy Bebop is not the epitome of anime wonders. Try watching something other than AS, and you'll see what I mean. Oh, and if I ever heard anyone call Cowboy Bebop an "animated work" I would puke all over their shoes. Twice.
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