YEAR IN REVIEW 2001: SIDEBAR

Anim Over the past two decades, anim has become the worldwide term for Japanese-style animation, be it for television, feature-length film, or direct-to-video release. Anim differs from Western animation in form, themes, structure, and, most important, philosophical concepts and codes. Because anim primarily is meant for domestic Japanese consumption, it pays little heed to the fact that many narrative and pictorial conventions or cultural and philosophical references are peculiar to Japan and, therefore, risk misinterpretation. For example, the omnipresent "Bambi-like" eyes of anim characters are seen in the West as merely cute, rather than as multifaceted "windows to the soul," as they would be in Japan. Western animation is aimed mainly at children and juveniles and has a very limited thematic scope, notably fairy tales, funny animals, and humour. This is the focus for much of anim as well-after all, that is where the money is. Anim goes farther, however, running the gamut from cute children's cartoons to adult fantasy, crime, action, romance, science fiction, and even pornography. Anim, in other words, realizes much more of the potential of animation, even though the West had a head start by at least 25 years. Modern anim began in 1956 with the Toei Animation Co. and got its biggest push in 1961, when Osamu Tezuka, the undisputed giant of modern manga (Japanese comics), founded Mushi Productions to develop animation for the new TV industry. His successful children's series Tetsuwan Atom (Astroboy) and Jangaru taitei (Kimba the White Lion) found their way to the U.S. and France. After a slow start in the late 1970s with "rewritten" and censored imports of juvenile science-fiction TV series such as Uchu senkan Yamato (Star Blazers, or Space Cruiser Yamato) and Chojiku yosai Macross (Robotech), anim became quite common in the Western youth market. Recent success stories such as Sailor Moon, Pokmon, and Dragonball Z are but the highly visible tip of the iceberg. In addition, many Western TV cartoons, even those from the Disney Studios, once Tezuka's inspiration, have been outsourced to Japan, with noticeable effects on style. These forms of anim, in fact, have become so common that they hardly are perceived as anim any longer. The first adult anim to reach a wider Western audience was Akira (1988), an apocalyptic science-fiction feature-length film based on director Katsuhiro Otomo's manga series of the same name. Western imports of anim still are dominated by science fiction, fantasy, and violent action aimed mainly at young male adults. The "female" genres of anim, however, such as romance, soap operas, and humour-most of which also have had a high action quotient-commanded a larger market share in Japan. Up to the late 1990s, Western reception of anim had been restricted to a dedicated cult audience. In 1996, however, the Disney Studios struck a deal with Studio Ghibli to distribute all of Hayao Miyazaki's films, such as the much-anticipated Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke, 1997), and this should, finally, open the Western mainstream market to adult forms of anim. Horst Schrder