Monday, January 21, 2008

Answerman Saves the Day

I don't regularly read Anime News Network (I'm mainly a comics fan; anime is just a secondary obsession for me :P), but I was just looking up cast information on a series I'm currently following and happened to read this column while I was there.

While I understand the importance of being precise with your speech, honestly, "anime" just means "Japanese cartoons". People these days know what you mean when you say anime, but getting angry about people saying "Japanese cartoons" smacks of mindless elitism to me. The word "anime" does not imbue these things with some kind of foreign coolness, it's just an easy catch-all. It's the same with manga - there's really nothing wrong with calling them comics, or "Japanese comics" or whatever. Yeah, I guess it's "more correct" to say anime and manga but I often get the feeling when people "correct" you on this sort of thing, it's less about being precise or actually believing that the person saying "Japanese comics" doesn't know that they're "supposed" to say manga, it's more about being a bit pedantic and elitist.

Thank you, Answerman. Thank you. I loves me some anime and manga, but anyone who thinks that Sailor Moon is superior to Watchmen just by basis of its national origin is fooling themselves.

Also, Ron Paul is apparently the pro-anime candidate.

HAHAHAHAHA

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