What would you say to someone who didn concider anime and manga as art?
I would say that I’m not that thrilled with it either. But art is a subjective thing. I have been impressed with some anime but most of what I have seen just doesn’t do it for me. People have felt the same way towards comic books since their inception. For that matter, some novels are pure crap and not art at all. Our hypothetical person probably has only seen a small sampling of anime/manga and concluded further watching/reading is not worth his effort. . A not unreasonable conclusion considering there is a learning curve involved. Many of the conventions – chibi, reality-jarring tears, weird backgrounds and flying motions for fight sequences, inexplicable cute animal-like things – are alien to people who didn’t grow up with them or embrace them with enthusiasm. . After dismissing anime and manga as non-art the philistine can go home and be happy, secure in the knowledge that his Hummel collection is the epitome of modern figurative sculpture.
