AniDB Definition:Anime: Difference between revisions

 

This page is meant to help define what is considered an "anime" in the context of AniDB. Our definition is just as arbitrary as anyone else's, and has evolved over time.  Questionable shows may, and should, be discussed in the {{ForumLink|21|Change Requests forum}}.  Final decision will fall on the mods to decide if it is appropriate to have in the database.

"Anime" in Japan technically means any animated film, regardless of origin. Also, "manga" is any printed comic. However, this definition is too broad.  This would mean anything that is animated (Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, ...) would be considered anime.

What does "from Japan" really mean? What if a show is produced by a Japanese company and was released in Japan, but was drawn in India because of cheap labour, is it an anime? What about that animated commercial for a bar of soap, is that anime? Also, many people consider many shows from China and Korea to also be anime because their style is similar to other anime.

Anime styles are frequently distinctive and fairly easy to recognize. The stereotype is of characters with huge hair and large eyes. Although this is true of many anime (to varying degrees), there are also many anime that do not fit this description. Also not everything with big eyes is necessarily an anime either.

 

:* An anime needs to be '''animated'''. Live action, or something with just a few animated scenes is not an anime.

:* It has to '''have a plot'''. For instance an animated soap commercial is not an anime.

:* The anime needs to be '''created primarily for the Japanese, Chinese, or Korean ("East-Asian") market'''. For instance, Disney may collaborate with a Japanese company on the making of a film for the United States, but it is not an anime even though a Japanese company is involved.

===Isn't that arbitrary and exclusive of good Western animation?===

Yes it is.  Thanks for asking. But we just don't consider it "anime."  We suggest entering it into [http://www.bcdb.com/ The Big Cartoon Database].

 

These rules can be changed if the AniDB mods feel it is appropriate for AniDB. At this time however, we feel these rules are the closest to meeting the spirit of what we want to catalog. 

Yes, every rule has exceptions. There are a lot of borderline cases, but these cases should be discussed before adding them to the database. If there is something in the database or you think should be added to the database that does not match the definition above it needs to be discussed in the {{AniDBLink|forum}}. First, you should search to see if there has already been a discussion about the anime in question. If you cannot find one, then you need to make a post in the {{ForumLink|21|Change Requests forum}}, put [ADD][ANIME] or [DEL][ANIME] in the subject of your topic.

Are animated, professionally produced, TV shows, feature films, and OVAs/OADs created by a Korean/Chinese company for the Korean/Chinese market allowed?<br>

Generally, yes most East-Asian productions for a Chinese or Korean audience are accepted; East-Asian includes Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and North Korea. Check the forum before adding them though. This definition has been discussed [https://anidb.net/post450996 here].

====Music videos?====

Fanmade AMVs are not allowed if they are montages of scenes from anime with a song playing on the background, for original animation created by fans, see "Fan-Made Shows" section. If they are professionally produced mainly by a Japanese company or individuals, then yes. Even if the song the music video is for is not by a Japanese artist/band, it is still acceptable if the previous rules apply, since the video will be marketed globally on the internet. Partially animated music video can be acceptable as well (Passion from the examples), but it depends on the amount and length. In some cases an official AMV related to a series should be added as a special episode, in other cases it's a separate project from the source material and should have its own entry.

:''Examples: {{a|2324|Macross: Flashback 2012}}, {{a|6082|Gurren Lagann Parallel Works}}, {{a|10881|It Girl}}, {{a|8437|Passion}}''

====Game CGs/promos?====

Cutscenes in games are part of the game and shouldn't be considered as stand-alone anime, therefore they are not accepted. Animated promotional videos for games are generally accepted granted they are long enough and have a narrative other than simply showing scenes from the game itself. In some occasions, a game can be released bundled with a bonus animated video, which can be added as an anime entry.

 

====Fan-Made Shows/Amateur productions (doujin anime)?====

Doujin anime are not professionally produced, so generally they are not allowed. However some of them can be of very high quality and even have professional voice actors, in which case we have accepted them.

 

 

Animated standard TV commercials are not allowed. Short promotional videos, that generally are not shown during commercial breaks on TV, but rather are created for events, web, or special segments of a TV program, are accepted. These shorts need to have a narrative, can contain the product or company the anime is promoting, and are generally 5+ minutes in length, sometimes a bit shorter.

 

Where is the key requirement, "animation", hiding in this phrase? Are you mad? If there are some live action scenes that are incorporated into an anime that otherwise meets the requirements and when looked at as a whole they can still be considered animated, they may be anime (although this may be extremely unwise, common sense not ruling around here, as it's the first step on the sort of slippery slope we're already experiencing in country of origin), and certain official "live action" extras such as interviews are permitted. For stop motion animation, see the next paragraph.

====Stop motion animation (clay/puppet-mation)====

 

 

 

====Parody Subs/Dubs?====

Not as anime entries. These are sometimes allowed as "Parody" episodes (P eps) to an existing anime.

For an ongoing list of items that have been requested for deletion, or have been deleted, see [http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 List of duplicate and "not anime" entries in AniDB]

{{eyecatch|Note|Some links in this guide are pointing to Internal Docs section and are not available to everyone.<br>Those are meant to be references for people who work on AniDB documentation.}}

{{h4|The Animatrix}}

'''{{a|517|Yes}}'''

{{Quote|Ultima|The Animatrix should be allowed because it was animated by many well known Japanese artists.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=11570#p11570 link]}}

{{h4|Anime Fiction}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

{{h4|Apprentice}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Amateur English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://www.drowtales.com/~whiteradish/ about us]|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

{{Quote|Rar|Given the long and active tradition of [[Wikipedia:Doujinshi|同人誌]], declaring everything not made by the copyright holders might become overly restrictive. However, due to the time and expense it takes to produce animation compared to literature, I suspect a simple 'no doujinshi' rule will probably do for a good few years yet.  Unless of course, someone who's seen the work in question wants to contradict me and say it is worth keeping.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=14492#p14492 link]}}

{{Quote|Rar|2=I completely revoke my comments about doujinshi in animation having added {{a|2780|this}} a while ago... fan made, in the 80s, and great.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=15171#p15171 link]}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Japanese fanproduction|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

----

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Amateur English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://www.drowtales.com/~whiteradish/ about us]|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|rar|Ran across this, and as far as a bit of googling tells me, this is a US animation only, not even a co-production like some are (The Mysterious Cities of Gold for instance).|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=2134 thread deleted]}}

{{Quote|nwa|I was renaming the "The" titles and stumbled upon this... according to IMDB this isn't really an anime at all...|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=2551 thread deleted]}}

{{Quote|Der Idiot|English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

{{Quote|Der Idiot|English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

 

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Japanese fanproduction|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

 

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Japanese fanproduction|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

 

{{Quote|Ultima|Robotech for example has Japanese origins because they were licensed from Tatsunoko Studios for international distribution by Harmony Gold USA.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=11570#p11570 link]}}

 

{{Quote|nwa|Robotech was neither dubbed nor created by the Japanese.. there wasn't even any Japanese studios involved with it? in that case... it's not anime and should be deleted :P|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=11757#p11757 link]}}

 

{{Quote|nwa|I wouldn't allow Transformers US Movie or the US Robotech... aah... whatever... they might as well be there...|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=14350#p14350 link]}}

 

{{Quote|PetriW|I don't see why it wouldn't.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=9572#p9572 thread deleted]}}

 

{{Quote|nwa|they are crappy, but still hentai I guess|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=9588#p9588 thread deleted]}}

 

{{Quote|Ultima|Well, personally, removing Sailor Moon and the 7 Ballz wouldn't be a "huge" loss. I guess we should just allow official hentai productions into AniDB. We do the same for official anime music videos released on anime DVDs. I think we should do the same for hentai.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=14494#p14494 thread deleted]}}

 

{{Quote|Wahaha|With a runtime of ~50 minutes, ~70 people who have the files in their lists and ~40 votes, this entry should be kept IMO.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?p=14521#p14521 link]}}

 

{{Quote|Der Idiot|English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

{{h4|Shadowskin}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Amateur English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://www.studioartfx.com/about.html about us]|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

{{h4|Star Ballz}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

{{h4|Understanding Chaos}}

'''No'''

{{Quote|Der Idiot|Amateur English company producing for the English market.|3=[http://www.studioartfx.com/about.html about us]|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

 

{{Quote|Der Idiot|American production for the American market.|3=[http://forum.anidb.net/viewtopic.php?t=3639 link]}}

==Anime <x> is (not) listed as anime on anime site <y>!==

[[Category:Definitions]]

[[Category:Guidelines]]