Anime on Animation

[wlt4@mindspring.com]

>while it was made in France (TV1) for the French >and English-language--and
ultimately Japanese-->markets, it clearly showed the influence of >Japanese
animation in character design, bodily >and facial movement, and even in some
of the >conventional "signs" of anime. Yet it 
>was not quite like anime.


There has been a trend (strain?) of "manga-style" art in American comics over
the past few years, Joe Madureira being the best-known.  Most of this actually
looks more anime-influenced and not much like actual manga or at least only a
small portion of manga:  it tends to focus on big eyes, round figures, that
whole cute look.  I doubt any of this is really intended for the Japanese
market but the interesting thing (to me anyway) is what it shows about
American perceptions of Japanese art, in a way not unlike Hollywood attempts
at Hong Kong-style action films.  Marvel has even started a series called
Mangaverse of manga-style versions of their key characters (but this shouldn't
be confused with the actual translations of, say, Manga Spider-Man which
appeared a few years back).  I believe there's an important comic writer
lurking on this list who could fill in far more detail than I can.