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July 20, 2004
The Cultural Dislocaton of Anime
I was in my local chain bookstore this afternoon and came across the July 2004 issue of Computer Arts magazine. The image pictured at left is part of a cover story called “Animé Magic” in its July 2004 issue. The cover was an example of what they called an “animé illustration” by French artists 123Klan. The majority of the article was dedicated to instructing the reader how to reproduce the image using Adobe Illustrator.
The text in the article references anime’s simple design and colors and mentions its similarities to graffiti art. The most interesting thing about the article, though, is a complete lack of reference to Japan or Japanese artists. So what does this mean for anime's status in the world market? What makes the illustration particularly "anime"? (To be honest, I wouldn't have thought of it as being being done in an anime or manga style if the cover text hadn't pointed out to me.) Is anime now just an artistic buzzword, or is there something else to it? Yes, these are the things I think about on a regular basis.
Posted by brianruh at July 20, 2004 12:22 AM