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Should anime still only be a term applied to movies and shows created in Japan? Powerhouse Animation’s own Sam Deats addressed that question in a Kotaku interview about “Castlevania” in 2017. “There’s always the debate about whether a studio in the US that’s anime-influenced is, in itself, anime,” Deats said “And I’ll let other people decide. But the artists and animators here, obviously being heavily influenced by anime, it was easy for us to inject that look and feel into the show.” Deats explained that for certain projects, Powerhouse will also work closely with international studios like South Korea’s MOI Animation to help get the details right. But then the question rears its head again: Does Korean animation even count as anime?
While these debates will surely linger for years, they seem to be less and less important. That’s partially due to the explosion in Western animation that’s taken place over the past decade or so. Historically, animation in the United States was reserved for cartoons, children’s films, and the occasional adult comedy like “The Simpsons” or “South Park.” But in the modern streaming age, shows like “Castlevania” and “Skull Island” have dramatically expanded what “Western” animation looks like.
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Things get even more complicated with a show like “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” which was produced in Japan by Studio Trigger but made in conjunction with Polish video game developer CD Projekt and released as a brief, eight-episode Netflix original series. Drawing the line, so to speak, has never been more complicated.
