This is great, but why all the stupid "not anime" reviews?

Written by mikeocheskey on April 21, 2012 at 1:26 PM

I loved the original Avatar: The Last Airbender series, so I had high hopes for this anime. So far, it doesn't disappoint. The original series was directed more toward children and it looks like the animators were trying to gear this anime toward fans of the original, who would now be teens. The main character is a teenage girl and the story has more teenage issues in it than the previous series. The dialogue so far is really good. There are some parts that sound cheesy, but that happens in any show, animated or live action. The animation is more streamlined than in the previous series, which I love. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series.

I usually wait until a series is complete before reviewing it so that I can make an informed review of the whole instead of just a part, but I had to review this because I'm so sick and tired of the reviews I've seen for this and other american anime posted on this website bashing the series and giving it poor reviews simply because they say "This isn't anime! It's American cartoons!" This is one of the stupidest arguments any person can make because it's all a matter of semantics. The word "anime" is the Japanese word for "cartoon" and is short for "animation" (or as it would be pronounced in Japanese ah-ni-meh-shon). Japanese animation was derived from Disney animation and European animation when it was first introduced in Japan and there is no difference between American animation, Japanese animation, or animation from any other country. Animation is still animation no matter where you go and can be for children, teens, or adults. In Japan, the term anime does not specify an animation's nation of origin or style; instead, it serves as a blanket term to refer to all forms of animation from around the world, so why do we pointlessly fight over the term so much?