So, having seen so much anime in recent days, I’ve begun to wonder. Could anime be made outside of Japan? As in, could anime be made in America? Or Internationally? That seemed probably, but the question then becomes slightly different. How would I make my own anime? These are the simple answers I found.
Anime can be made outside of Japan. Although there is a current debate going on about what is and what is not anime, there have been anime made outside of japan. These are shows created using Japanese style, and sometimes with Japanese animators themselves. Further, there have been individuals who have been able to reproduce anime themselves. So yes, you could make your own anime.
But, you may want a more detailed answer. Can anime be made outside of Japan? Let’s find out:
- Can Anime Be Made Outside of Japan?
- Examples of Anime.
- Can independent Artist Create their Own Anime
- How Could You Create Your Own Anime
Can Anime Be Made Outside of Japan?
Yes anime can be made outside of Japan.
There is still a massive debate going on around this topic. In Japan, anime is considered to be all animation, and in the International world, anime is seen as Japanese style specific animation, with the art style of Japan, and preferably Japanese voices.
People argue that anime is not merely the style, and it needs to be made by Japanese, with Japanese cultural practices for it to be anime. But others argue that this is merely a new form of orientalism. The debate goes on, and on.
For me though, I am a 100 percent sure you can make your own anime outside of Japan. After all, we have already seen attempts of anime being produced overseas.
Examples of Anime Outside of Japan
France: The first anime we can look at that was made outside of Japan would be Code Lyoko. This is a France based anime.
Dubai: The Journey is the first Japanese-Saudi Arabian inspired anime.
Chile: Nahuel and the Magic book was the first Latin American story to win Tokyo Anime Award.
America: RWBY, Avatar the Last Airbender, and Teen Titans are an example of shows that use anime based style.
Now, already I can sense the arguments. These stories may have anime style writing, some going as far as being made by Japanese artists, and studios, but they do not have the feel of Japanese anime. You want to make a story with the Japanese cartoons feel. The Jokes, the world, the characters, the story, the tropes. None of these anime mentioned have this feel. They only had anime eyes.
I’ve done an article on what makes traits make anime… well, anime. It is the loss of all these specific traits that we see in these non-Japanese anime which make them feel like they lack that Japanese spirit. If you really want to make your anime feel like real anime, you should add all these elements that make anime so popular.
However, there is a reason why these anime did not add these elements. It is because they need to adhere to the rules of their studios, and their producers. They need to make the safest material. You want to make your own anime outside of Japan? Then you need to create your anime working as your own boss. This way you do not have to adhere to American standards of animation. And you need to distribute it in your own platform.
But is that possible… well, yeah.
Can Independent Artists Create Their Own Anime?
Saturday AM is English-written international shonen manga magazine founded by Frederick L. Jones. Currently, they have a number of manga works on their catalogue, and only seem to be growing. What’s of interest with Saturday AM is that it was company that was founded at 2013.
Yet, by today, one of their star employees, WhytManga, is already giving instruction on how to animate your work. How to create anime, basically. As far as I can tell, this is extremely impressive, and informative. It shows that anyone can learn how to make their own anime at home. You do not need to backing of all these massive companies. You can put in the work yourself, and establish your own anime studio.
So let’s say you decide to make your own anime. What exactly would that entire process look like? Let’s get to it.
How Could You Create Your Own Anime?
In order to create your own anime, you would need to do 5 key steps; write your story, animate it, get people to voice act for it, get music for the anime, and finally, you’d need to distribute it.
1. Write your story
The first and easiest part will be writing your story. There are many other resources you can use to learn story writing here, like deep dives of mangakas in this case, and other How to articles, but for now, we are going to go through a bare minimum lesson.
Producing a story comes in 4 phases; inspiration, the planning and influences, the writing, and finally, the editing.
With the inspiration, it is rather simple enough. If you want to make an anime or manga, you probably already have a single idea what you want to do. Take that simple inspiration, and try to brainstorm around it. What world would it embody, what problems would this world have, what solutions, and what character is best equipped to deal with these problems?
Then, plan out the story. Write the setting. The plot. The characters. Themes. And decide on the villains. Again, the resources for that are all over if you want that. Also, try to take some of the things that influence you. Things you find cool, or interesting. Add those into this story.
Finally, get a word document out, or a book out, and start writing out the story. Write the plot, and manuscript, and when you are done, edit it. But you do not have to worry about line editing, as this will all be seen through drawing/animation.
Which leads us to the next point.
2. Animate your story
You are going to want to get yourself a desk. You will be sitting of long stretches of time, and you need something that will be considerate of your back so you do not lean to much. That is far as my professional advise can go on animation. A far better article on this topic is here, done by an actual anime animator.
But if you still want to see how a Neanderthal would teach you animation, I can give you an expert’s rendition. Basically, you want to first sketch out your frames, so you can get a feel of how the plot is going to flow. Use your writing as direction. Then, you will move on to working on the layout. Basically, you are now drawing the backgrounds of each scene. Then, you can begin key animation, the heart of animation. This is where you make your characters move by drawing each piece of the character in motion. After that you will revise, and brush out the rough edges. Finally, you can clean up any mistakes you made, and add color to the painting. Argg tired now. Argg go explain what next do.
3. Get people to voice act for it
I am assuming your story is going to have a number of characters, so it would not kill you to go out and try to get people to come and act for your story. You may asking some friends, or neighbors. Just buy yourself a microphone from Amazon, or Takealot, and audacity would be fine too. Then, you can record the anime, and have people come perform for you. You can tie your mic to your bedroom table, and you will be done.
If you find yourself having left over change, you could hire someone to come act for you from Fiverr.
4. Get music for the anime
You can use something like uppbeat, artlist or any copyright free music downloader. But try to get yourself on some music for the anime, preferably copyright free. If you want to be entirely free of copyright, all you have to do is make music yourself. You can use Fruity loops for that, and you could check out Servida Music for instructions on how to make Cinematic music.
5. You’d need to distribute it
Whether through Youtube, or some social media, you will need to redistribute your anime when you are done. That is, if you intend on looking like a bad-ass or making back your mother’s cancer therapy money that you lent yourself without her conscious permission. Equally important motivations.
If you can’t get the exact anime feel, you may need to buy professional equipment. And if this is all taking far longer than you expect, well, that’s why it takes anime studios 2 million dollars to make a single season of anime. They need to pay the writers, the animators, and all parties involved, even the TV stations. They pay them for slot time, and only make their money back through merchandise, and blue rays, not through views from TV. So if you really want that authentic anime feel.
Write the story. Then get voice actors around your neighborhood. Then get animators. If you can’t get the exact anime feel, you may need to spend actually money on good equipment for recording and drawing. Then some money on professional voice actors. And professional animators with families to feed. Now you understand why anime consists 2 million dollars to make a single season. That’s why you should tie yourself to an anime studio if you want to really make it far in production quality
Or alternatively, you can go to a Western brand new studio that follows Japanese animation style, and gives you royalties on your work, and merchandise and stuff. Something like that does not exists.
For now…
What Writers Can Learn From Can Anime be Made In America?
There are no books around.
As writers, we need only focus on one thing. Writing books, and mastering the craft of writing. But authors have mastered a lot more than just that. Imagine if we had to start writing, and we looked around to find not a single pen, or paper tow rite on? And there were no computers? Then someone would have to get up, and start creating pens and papers.
The point I’m getting at is, this is the life of those who wish to make anime.
There are no studios, materials, or resources that can help them create their passions. Thus they must first build studios of their own. What can make you an even better writer is not only writing many books, but trying to make pens, and papers that you yourself will never use. So that other writers you appear will get to use these, thanks to your efforts. You are not really a single piece floating in an uncaring universe. You are one of the billions of pieces floating in an uncaring universe. The minute you start to understand this is the minute you step a lot closer to mastering mastery.