First, take an anime. It can be anything.

Now, here’s the stipulation: Remove all the characters.

Too far?

Okay, try this. Remove all visual evidence of the characters. Have them off-screen at all times. Get rid of all photographs or visual indicators as to their actual appearance.

Oh, and just to be safe, have the language dubbed into let’s say…Latin.

Can you still call it “anime?”

What I’m trying to promote here with this little exercise is getting you to think about to what extent we define the “anime” style based on the characters, most likely human or humanoid characters. I know that the concept of “anime-style” visuals is in itself a shaky topic, and that there is a ton of variety already. However, at this point I don’t want to address the notion of putting anime characters in a western story, or putting western animation characters into an anime and seeing what happens. I’m saving that for another day, perhaps.

Anime and manga fans, myself included, frequently talk about how there’s more to the stuff than just big eyes, small mouths, the stereotypical fare. Tokyopop, in its efforts to distinguish its Rising Stars of Manga books, lists a number of literary devices and visual cues such as certain types of panel layouts. Scott McCloud in his “Comics” series of informational comic books says something similar.

It’s easy to say all this, but when I actually try my above exercise, removing all visual character evidence from an anime, I’m not sure what to think. Sure we can say that even if you don’t see them, there are certain aspects of anime that stand out, such as slow-paced slice-of-life shows, but that doesn’t apply to every work we see.

Here’s another one: A number of light novels written, Suzumiya Haruhi probably being the most famous at this point, are displayed with anime-style characters on their covers and in the illustrations in between. They are clearly meant to give the reader the impression that the characters are to be thought of as existing in that style.

Now remove those illustrations. Pretend they never existed.

Do you still see them as anime characters?

I believe, in the case of something like Haruhi, that it remains, based particularly on the character types. The tsundere character type that is Haruhi is tied to anime as a whole. I have to admit though, that I’m not sure how effectively I can pretend those visual never existed. It’s not easy, I know that.

There’s also the fact that I am an anime fan. I wonder how this work with someone who wasn’t as involved and interested in anime as I am. Maybe I’ll try it out with someone normal.

This brings up another question, though. If indeed there are certain factors, beyond visuals, which distinguish anime and manga, is this a limitation on their storytelling abilities?