Anime and genre

[Lewis Cook]

On Sep 28, 2006, at 9:27 AM, Brian Ruh wrote:

> --- Lewis Cook <lcoqc at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>> 1. No idea how others on the list think about this - I don't have an
>> interest in theoretical debates about genre per se - but I don't
>> consider anime to be of the same basic genre as 'movies.'
>
> I know that you say above that you're not interested in genre debates,
> but I just have to ask -- why is "anime" separated from "movies" in
> your estimation? (Of course, not all anime is experienced in a cinema
> setting, so that might be one good reason.) And do you consider anime
> to be a genre?
>
> I'm curious about such perceptions of anime and how it's thought about
> and categorized. I'm interested to hear what others might think about
> this as well.

Brian,

I tried to answer some of these questions in response to a post by  
Todd. I appreciate your asking, but I don't think it matters whether  
I or anyone else considers anime to be a genre since it's a matter of  
convention. (It does seem true that in post-classical usages, genres  
tend to be identified by the breaches in decorum, transgressions of  
form, &/or technical inventions that retroactively bring their  
boundaries into focus. Minor example: were what we call "silent  
films" called that before "talkies" were invented? I don't know but I  
doubt it. Are these two distinct genres? I guess it depends...)

BTW many thanks for the URL for the anime research site and reference  
to your Oshii book.

Lewis