The inspiration of Anime

The thing about anime is that many of us who love it often like to hide it from those who don't know it/hate it. Many artists shun it and believe it not to be an art style or something to really inspire one. The argument mainly revolves around the fact that if you "aren't Japanese" that you shouldn't be drawing anime/manga. People associate the style with a specific race therefore it must only be for said race. The thing is, many of us are so inspired by anime and manga. Hell, most of us probably drew it not too long ago.

The above image is from Bee and Puppycat, a cartoon about a girl and a mysterious cat who can transform her into "magical girl" to fight or help creatures of other dimensions. Natasha Allegri was actually a storyboard artist for Adventure Time and you can even see in the art on her blog the love for bows is clearly shown. What is it about bows? It's commonly seen both in magical girl transformations and their "costumes". We also get a glimpse of Puppycat's past in lullaby about a Space Outlaw who loved Princess and planned to run away with her. When he went to meet her, it was a trap and he was cursed by the Space King's army of warlocks and was turned into a monster instead of just being trapped. 

There is even a French anime called "LoliRock" that has the theme of magical girls. It's definitely a theme that many of us gravitate towards, specifically females. We grew up watching Sailor Moon, wishing that one day we would be chosen to save the world from other worldly creatures while transforming into a cute outfit. It was every girls dream. LoliRock follows a similar style of shows like Sailor Moon and Mermaid Melody. The main character is a normal girl who happens to be a princess of another world. She loves to sing and goes to an audition to be the new member of the band LoliRock. Little does she know, the 2 members are also princesses and she's thrown into a confrontation right after meeting them. 

I think using Anime to inspire artists isn't bad. It's not something to be taught in schools, though. I think if people want to like and be inspired by these works, they would do so on their own. We grow up taking in things we watch constantly, things that we don't always learn about in school.