From the Gallery

Getting the Terms Straight

Let me tell you a story. About the summer of 1999, I worked in a cell phone store in West-end Toronto. Just as the summer began that year, a fast food sushi kiosk popped up in front of my store. It didn't take me too long to figure out that the kiosk cashiers were exchange students from Japan (the
owner and chefs were another story). By a similar token, it didn't take long for the kiosk to become a welcome business of our part of the mall as well.

One night after closing I visited the kiosk to see if I could get some freebies. I also wanted to show the cashier there a flyer from the '99 CNAnime. That year, CNAnime had Mari Iijima as its headline guest. So her picture and pictures of Minmay were prominent on the flyer.

I really wanted to see what the cashier would think of this and how recognizable Iijima's name would be to her. I wasn't surprised to know she recognized her. But what she said still caught my attention to this day. She said, "She was in that Japanese cartoon".

Looking back on that I am still somewhat astonished by how protective we are with our terms. You know, "anime" as opposed to Japanese Cartoons, or "manga" for Japanese Comics. I have met more than my share of fans who get all worked up over the use of these words. I had always felt that one term simply defined the other and that you would have to do that in order to explain things to the uninitiated.

Really I am wondering why we ever got so passionate about the terms in the first place. Is it because we feel strong about the term "cartoon" denoting child subject matter? Do we really want to make clear about where its from and that our love of it must make it stand apart from other foreign forms (I know Tempest has said something on that before)? Or does it come down to the fact that anime and manga are just too simple to say and can come off our tongues so effortlessly (at least to seasoned fans)? To me, the third one seems the closest, well at least from my own experience. I came into the anime world knowing these terms and that is the only way I could ever know them. But I don't really get steamed from anyone else using terms Japanese Cartoons or Comics. And after that conversation with that kiosk cashier, I should never have been at any point.

Oh yeah one last little bit. The cashier asked me how old I thought Ms. Iijima was. I made a guess, she smiled and said "More than that.".