I haven’t been visiting sites as much as I used to, but I’ve begun to notice one thing in particular: a drift between the so-called “animanga web design community” and the rest of the “web design community”.
I’ve come across countless sites who list as affiliation requirements that the site applying not be a site that caters to the animanga crowd. I’ve also heard people criticize those who do like animanga to be “fanatics”, “crazy”, and “immature”. But what defines an “anime website”? Personally, I feel that if you have at least one article related to animanga in your website, you are somehow - in one way or other - affiliated with said community. But, then what about those who cater to other categories, but happen to have made one or two animanga-related articles? One of my favorite sites: Harienju, for example. Would that website count as an “anime website” simply because she has maybe one or two animanga designs? What about Invisus Designs, then, which caters more to the animanga crowd than the former, yet still providing many beautiful, non-animanga related works. Where does the making of an “anime site” begin, and where does it end?
As a member of the so-called “animanga web design community”, however, I’ve come across a multitude of incredibly bright, talented, mature individuals in said community. I see nothing wrong with owning a website that caters to those who enjoy animanga, and I’m unsure as to why so many others seem to look down upon animanga graphic/resource sites. It almost seems to me that there are times when people think just because your site caters to the animanga crowd, you don’t have the aptitude or talent to design something “worthy”. Why else would owning an animanga website give you less of a chance at affiliating someone than owning any other type of website?
I’m not sure where the misconception comes from - perhaps there are those of us in the community who act a bit more idiotic than the rest, but aren’t there crazy “fanatics” in every community? - but I don’t quite agree with them. I don’t think making animanga graphics makes someone less desirable than anyone else. I’d like to believe that there’s no barrier between the so-called “animanga web design community” and the others in the “web design community”.
July 24th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
it’s interesting to see it from the other side, because as a non-anime resource, i feel the pain sometimes too.
for me, and maybe a lot of other non-anime site webmasters, it’s sort of hard to find anyone to relate to. sometimes i feel like i’m surrounded by anime, when that’s not true at all.
a lot of the time, i get rejected for NOT being an anime resource.
honestly, i feel that if a majority of the designs is anime, then it is an anime resource. (or, most sites will claim that they are one themselves) one or two doesn’t necessarily make it a resource, that’s like saying my site is a musician graphics site, when i only have one or two of those out of forty. but also, (again, honestly and humanly), seeing a japanese named site may lead one to believe it is anime. i know that that’s very judgmental, but it comes off as a red flag to people who are searching.
there are immature people in every walk of life, and they’re all different. i guess people just say that anime-sites are prone to do that because again, they’re being judgmental. sometimes you really will run across one of those sites where the owner puts more smiley faces than words in their updates, but you see that everywhere. you’ll see people in other communities toggle typing, or missspelling everything. at least they have personality, sites i come across in non anime communities, even myself, come off to be very BORING people.
as for me, i don’t accept anime resources because it cuts down the number of people who apply. i don’t take a lot of interest in anime designs, and there are so many out there, that if i opened it to everyone, HUGE numbers of not-so-talented-sites will apply as well. it happened before and it wasn’t a great experience.
also, in the past, when i did affiliate with anime sites, people also assumed that MY site was anime as well, and they would be heavily disappointed when they visited. it’s a sad truth but you’re right, it really is a barrier.
the critics of anime fan sites are probably just tired of the material they are seeing online. i myself will admit that if i surf design sites all day, and run across anime just about everywhere i go. it cheapens anime and it makes it almost boring and unoriginal. sometimes, you really will find someone who brings something new to the table, but when you’re a needle surrounded by hay, it’s hard to stick out.
but trust me, animanga sites are not the only ones feeling the pain. i myself took YEARS to even squeeze myself into any community, let alone a good one.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Personally, I feel that every site should be judged on its own merit, not WHAT it is categorized as.
SF (my oldest site) has been around for 4.5 years so I’ve seen the webdesigning community grow and develop for a while. Back when I started, 99.9% of design sites were anime. About a year or so ago, some people got tired of the unspoken anime rule: if your site was anime, you got more visitors and your site was considered to have more merit. To this day, my anime sketches (that took 30 minutes) get more views than my portraits (which took hours). That is how it is with anime sites.
Lately, things have been slowly changing. It is more accepted to have a non-anime site. A few years ago the “you have to have an anime webdesign site” rule for affiliation was commonplace. When people started rebelling against the anime necessity, sites started adding the “non-anime” rules to things. The barrier was created: Anime is stable vs. Anime is unorginal, Anime is accepted vs. Non-Anime is to be different. That is what, I feel, created the barrier.
Personally, as someone without a design site at all, I don’t see the difference. As I’ve told you before, I’ve only heard of the WC rather than the AWC. People shouldn’t have this barrier. If I see a rockin anime layout, I’ll give it as much credit as a rockin non-anime layout. Going back to Angel’s post, people should make their sites what makes them happy. Those are the sites that live and those are the webmasters that have the most enjoyment come out of the experience.
And, speaking of barriers, I’ve always hated the “graphics sites only” thing. Many say that and then have made exceptions for SF. I now have a graphics section but I haven’t always. And that section is much smaller than the rest of the site. 19 designs out of 718 submissions. Kind of like your question on what makes a site anime. Do a few anime layouts make you anime? Do a few layouts make me graphics? The clear answer would be no. The common answer would be it depends on what I want you to be.
July 27th, 2007 at 6:00 am
While I’d like to view the web designing community as a whole, there’s no point in denying it exists subdivided. My browsing tendencies unravel more anime/manga resource providers than not on a daily basis, making it seem as if they outweigh other sites although it’s not entirely uncommon to come across a site that isn’t of that kind.
If I take my own site into consideration, around half of the graphics I provide are anime related. To some, that might qualify as an anime resource site and they won’t be completely wrong to assume so. But if I had to categorize it, I’d rather it be called a graphic resource site – one that hopefully appeals to a large group of visitors, not all of whom are animanga fanatic.
At the same time, I don’t think a website should be looked down upon simply because it caters to what appears to be a large audience of anime lovers, like you said. To look beyond that would be ideal. But how many really do? And while I don’t have a graphics-sites-only or anime-related-sites-only prerequisite when it comes to affiliation or link exchanging, I do see the logic in wanting to affiliate with sites similar to your own. It doesn’t always mean that they are excluding other kinds of graphic resource providers or non-graphic sites, but perhaps they want to maintain and extend the consistency in what they provide to possible alternatives for visitors to go to in the form of their external links?
I also see where Skye comes from saying that classifying a site depends on what the visitor wants it to be. It’s the visitors impression of the site that either shelves you amongst the anime web designing community or not.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Very interesting post because I’ve been realizing this as well.. a lot of animanga sites have begun to make less animanga designs, and I’ve noticed sites that would rather affiliate with non-anime sites.
I really don’t know what my site classifies as and I think it’s an example of what you described - I have quite a few animanga designs though I like to classify my site as non-anime. The reason why is that I use images not because I’ve read the manga or watched the show. I use images because the artwork appeals to me and gives me inspiration to make a design. I don’t specifically try to appeal to anyone in general. I’m not really an anime or manga fan anymore, but I don’t look down on people who are and incorporate that into their site.
I feel that a lot of animanga sites try a lot harder to appeal to the animanga crowd and maybe that’s what sets me off. Many anime sites, although run by talented designers, sometimes seem big and not personal and well, since my site is very personal, I’d rather affiliate with someone who also runs a personal site. But then there are plenty of new designers with more anime type sites and I have nothing against them and I’d gladly affiliate with someone who had good designing skills and who I admire. =)
So in all, I’m not an anime or manga fan, it’s not a big theme in my site, but there are many anime sites out there that I admire.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Personally, I don’t like my site being referred to (used to be) as part of the whole anime/manga webgraphics community thing just because I have created a few bits and pieces of work using anime/manga images.
It’s just that… Well, there are people who do make beautiful designs out of anime/manga material but you know… It’s more commonly designed as soft and “pretty” pink, slapped on with brushes. It’s a common conception I guess. I don’t look down on anime/manga works but it’s a thing that gets stuck to my head. For example, Veve creates a lot of her designs based on anime works and they are truly beautiful. Though if you look especially at a lot of graphic sites containing the word “anime”, they tend to clutter their design section with lots and lots of mediocre works. That’s how I naturally stereotype anime/manga graphic sites so I don’t like to be considered as part of it.
September 24th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Mm..this is a topic I’ve come across before. My answer is still the same: I think it’s because “anime” is a direct reference to “Japanese Animation,” which then points to “cartoon.” And Cartoon, in most cases, is understood to be immature 2D storyboards geared towards children’s entertainment. Thus, the name “anime” fails to leave a high-class impression.