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[Reelya]

I don't think I've seen a discussion on RWBY on here, so I'll just put "RWBY" here.

RWBY isn't anime.

Yup, check the western animation thread. It might sound pedantic, but strictly labeling Japanese productions as anime avoids a whole lot of complications. Basically, all animation is called 'anime' in Japan, regardless of style. So to a Japanese person Simpsons and South Park are called 'anime' as are Pixar movies or Japanese CGI films. So, if we're going to have a word anime at all in the West, limiting it to Japanese produced animation of all types is the most straightforward system.

The counter argument is "but anime is a style regardless of where it's made!". But what about Japanese animation that doesn't fit that style? Are "japanese non-anime cartoons" even a thing? If "cartoons" are one style and "anime" are another style, then many Japanese cartoons must not actually be anime, to the great surprise of the ... Japanese. Any list of required anime traits, you'll find numerous examples from Japan that don't fit any of thost traits.

Or, we could go for the "style" thing, and tack on all other Japanese stuff that doesn't fit as a caveat: "anime is stuff that looks like it could have been made in Japan, or stuff that's made in Japan regardless of what it looks like". Which, is one hell of a confusing "category".

[GreatJustice]

Cool stuff.

One thing that annoys me about the Fate series is that they are really focused on non-japanese mythology. Which is cool because you get all the Alexanders and Arthurs and whatnot, but you'll never see an assassin Hattori Hanzo, or a Rider Takeda Shingen, or a Saber Miyamoto Musashi.
Call it a mild irking.

Nasu is a bit of a Westaboo to my understanding. In basically any series he's produced, characters are disproportionately non-Japanese, weapons are non-Japanese, magic is performed as a Westerner would imagine and mythological characters are basically all Western (eg. Vampires). He just likes it that way. Hell, his character in Red Dragon was basically a knight. I think he generally makes it work well, though, so it keeps things interesting.

[Neyvn]

Just thought I would share this OneShot...
Its called "Then I'll go First"

http://mangafox.me/manga/then_i_ll_go_first/c000/1.html

[Furtuka]

WOUNDWORT AND XI!!!

Sunrise kept their promise and went even further beyond. I am pleased. This finale was surprisingly good, only problem was the Meijin's worded his reasoning behind why Minato lost. The sentiment behind it was understandable and Minato building that was super creepy of him, but the presentation of the reason came out as biased since he knows the team personally? Like the way he phrased it made it sound like Minato would have won if he had used a random girl's likeness. If that makes sense. But other than that it was really fun.

Edit: Surprisingly there was not a season 3 announcement, and instead there will be an OVA for BFT and an OVA for Try. The announcement says no S3 is planned at the moment.

[Leafsnail]

One thing that annoys me about the Fate series is that they are really focused on non-japanese mythology. Which is cool because you get all the Alexanders and Arthurs and whatnot, but you'll never see an assassin Hattori Hanzo, or a Rider Takeda Shingen, or a Saber Miyamoto Musashi.
Call it a mild irking.

The original F/SN avoided unambiguous historical figures anyway.

Spoiler: Rough Nationality breakdown (click to show/hide)

FSN: 3 Greek, 2 Japanese, 1 English, 1 Irish, 1 Babylonian, 1 Persian
F/Z: 2 English, 1 Babylonian, 1 Persian, 1 Greek, 1 French, 1 Irish

[BFEL]

I don't think I've seen a discussion on RWBY on here, so I'll just put "RWBY" here.

BFEL is sad that his computer doesn't let him watch this anymore

[Boatsniper]

Basically, all animation is called 'anime' in Japan, regardless of style.

That's like saying Japan can only make Japanese RPG's, and everywhere else can only make Western RPG's, when it turns out that they are two completely different genres with their own defining characteristics. Any country can make a J-RPG, and Japan can make a W-RPG. The same can be said for anime.

RWBY is an odd case, though. The way color is utilized in the animation definitely points to some kind of anime style, but the total 3-dimensional rendering stops it from being a "true" anime. Where it was made is completely irrelevant.

Just my view on that subject. I don't really watch anime to begin with. Just wanted to add something that seemed to be absent from discussion. Don't Jreengus me.

[JoshuaFH]

Basically, all animation is called 'anime' in Japan, regardless of style.

That's like saying Japan can only make Japanese RPG's, and everywhere else can only make Western RPG's, when it turns out that they are two completely different genres with their own defining characteristics. Any country can make a J-RPG, and Japan can make a W-RPG. The same can be said for anime.

RWBY is an odd case, though. The way color is utilized in the animation definitely points to some kind of anime style, but the total 3-dimensional rendering stops it from being a "true" anime. Where it was made is completely irrelevant.

Just my view on that subject. I don't really watch anime to begin with. Just wanted to add something that seemed to be absent from discussion. Don't Jreengus me.

Eh, the way I see it is that they started out as two different genres just because they typified the cultural differences in origin at the time, but as the world i s a melting pot those differences become blurrier and blurrier until saying something is 'eastern' or 'western' is just arbitrary.

[Reelya]

Basically, all animation is called 'anime' in Japan, regardless of style.

You seem to have misinterpreted this statement. Which is a basic fact of the Japanese language. It refers to all animation. There's only one word for it in Japanese, "anime". Regardless of whether it came from America or Japan, regardless of art style and regardless of plot structure.

The term "anime" by itself is meaningless: it originated as a more elegant way to refer to "Japanimation", which was a blanket term for any cartoon from Japan. Things are "anime-traits" because they are popular in Japanese cartoons. There's really no other definition. Any attempt to slice things based on style ("cartoon" style vs "anime" style) breaks down: Tezuka Osamu was the father of anime, and his style was directly based on Disney. So do we accept Kimba as an "anime" or a "cartoon"? If we call it anime (as is customary), then why aren't Disney cartoons also anime? Similar with Panty & Stocking vs Powerpuff Girls. Both have a similar aesthetic, and both are completely episodic. One is classed as anime, and the other as a cartoon.

Sure, some visual styles are common in anime, but there are none that are definitive. And the style evolves all the time: look at eyes from animes from different decades. Eyes are seen as a defining trait of the style, yet the way they're drawn constantly changes and different creators have their own style. Are some Japanese cartoon eyes anime and some are not?

People still refer to all 2D animation from Japan as anime regardless of what the style is like. I think an analogy could be nationality. You can dress up in Lederhosen and wave Liverwurst around whilst drinking German beer on Oktoberfest whilst singing "Deustchland Uber Alles", but that doesn't actually make you german. A German guy is no less German for not doing any of those things. Similarly, cartoons from Japan will always be refered to as anime regardless of whether they fit any stereotypes or not: you can try and create stereotypically "Japanese" works and demand they get called anime too, but why? What's wrong with "cartoon" or "animation"?

[Furtuka]

Cool stuff.

One thing that annoys me about the Fate series is that they are really focused on non-japanese mythology. Which is cool because you get all the Alexanders and Arthurs and whatnot, but you'll never see an assassin Hattori Hanzo, or a Rider Takeda Shingen, or a Saber Miyamoto Musashi.
Call it a mild irking.

Well it is a Japanese show, so to them the Arthurs and Alexanders are just as exotic as a Hattori Hanzo would be to us.

This pretty much.

There are however these four

1 2 3 4(MAJOR Fate/Apocrypha spoilers on this page)

And on that note the design for Kiyohime got revealed during yesterday's April Fools shenanigans.

[Hawkfrost]

RWBY is an odd case, though. The way color is utilized in the animation definitely points to some kind of anime style, but the total 3-dimensional rendering stops it from being a "true" anime. Where it was made is completely irrelevant.

So I guess Knights of Sidonia isn't an anime, eh?

It's a really spotty distinction line, especially since most anime nowadays uses heavy amounts of CGI.

[Naryar]

That's like saying Japan can only make Japanese RPG's, and everywhere else can only make Western RPG's, when it turns out that they are two completely different genres with their own defining characteristics.

wait, a Western RPG made in Japan ? does that even exist ?

[Levi]

That's like saying Japan can only make Japanese RPG's, and everywhere else can only make Western RPG's, when it turns out that they are two completely different genres with their own defining characteristics.

wait, a Western RPG made in Japan ? does that even exist ?

Dark Souls?     If you count it as an RPG...

[Neonivek]

Western and Japanese RPGs are sort of more a title for patterns.

We notice certain patterns in Western RPGs (Open world games with less focus on strong narrative and more on a world narrative, Ala Tolkien)

And then we have JRPGs (Linear games with a heavy focus on a strong narrative with the world being more of a theme within that narrative, ala Shakespeare.)

If one is to define a Western RPG by this pattern then certainly Japan has made Western RPGs before.

And if one is to define JRPG by those patterns then certainly the west has made a JRPG before.

I actually like both approaches, and while there are flaws starting to show in both JRPGs and WRPGs, I don't think they are inherent to the genre.

---

Also I KNEW Gundam Build Fighters Try was still going! Knew it!

Also I stopped watching Marvel Disk Wars... It originally watched it because I thought it would be cheesy fun, but it kind of turned boring.

What is with Animes and starting some Arcs with the hero being confronted by villains who stand absolutely no chance against them?

I have to give Praise to Mermaid Melody... Because when it started its second season Lucia wasn't depowered nor was she pitted against weak villains. She could still pull the type of amazing feats she could at the end of the first season.
-Not that the second season was flawless... But I can appreciate it for not playing with the sliding scales of power too much.

[Frumple]

wait, a Western RPG made in Japan ? does that even exist ?

Any of the things like etrian odyssey would probably count -- they're very much in the mode of classic stuff like M&M. Hell, the Wizardry series still has parts that never got localized into english, iirc. There's also a good handful of your average isometric party crawlers and junk. Pretty much anything you'd consider to be an iconic western/CRPG has a rough equivalent that was japan based (and probably never translated >_>).