I’ve occasionally been asked (as well as asking myself) why I call myself an anime fan, when being a fan of only one form of animation is so limiting. I’ve talked a little about this before, but I feel like elaborating.

A lot of people may only watch what is best from every category of animation, to skim the cream of the crop until you get a wide variety of good animation from around the world. However, while my love of animation and comics is not confined to only that which comes out of Japan, the reason why I label myself as an anime fan is that I like the bad as well as the good. I’m not here just to see the envelope being pushed, seeing the medium progress beyond its current limits. I mean, I still certainly hope anime does that, but if you’re only seeing the best of the best, you’re not actually seeing everything anime has to offer. It’s the difference between ignoring your friend’s flaws and accepting them.

That said, I don’t really bother with bad cartoons from other cultures, and for that it may just be a matter of not having enough time to watch every cartoon and read every comic ever. This is also why I don’t necessarily fault people for being very selective with their anime, let alone with cartoons in general. Only if they’re being jerks about it.

I guess I’ll end on asking people if they have any favorite non-anime/manga animations, cartoons, comics, etc. that they’re willing to share. As for me, I quite enjoy the works of Norm McLaren, such as Synchromy.