The Journal News has an interesting article up about teachers’ reaction to anime and manga and the effect they’ve had on their students. It’s an interesting read that really made me think about some of the changes that we’re seeing among America’s young aspiring artists.

One of the areas that the article focused on was how many kids have taken up to drawing Anime in art classes.

“We kind of try to steer them away from it because we work more from life,” said Deb Partridge, art department chairwoman for Ramapo Central Schools. “I know I had one girl really obsessed with it. It was hard to get her to do anything else.”

That quote reminded me of my own 15 year old niece. She’s also an aspiring artist, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her draw anything other than anime. It started out with Sailor Moon then Inuyasha then Naruto, and from what I’ve seen that reflects the general trend amongst fangirls that hope to be artists one day.

But is that harming them? With so many young people learning to draw anime, are they beginning to think that it’s their only ticket to artistic success? The Journal article mentions that “if there is a danger, it isn’t in the artwork but in its attraction as a shortcut, she said. Only the very best artists can get away with drawing manga professionally, she said. Art schools and colleges tell art educators that it shouldn’t be in a portfolio, or only in extremely limited form, because it’s not original work.”

I’ve heard similar things from professional artists and art teachers. They’re either tired of seeing it or they just never really considered it a practical professional art form in the first place. Some even argue that tradtional “American” comic art is a better place to start. It’s hard to dispute that point when you see the level of detail that goes into comics like X-Men and Spiderman these days. I remember when a lot comics started using computer-aided inking and effects (ahh, the lens flare). The quality of Marvel and DC’s top titles is really actually pretty high, one can easily argue that they surpass their Japanese counterparts from a pure artistic perspective.

I just wonder what will happen ten years from now. Will the job market for artists be flooded with mangaka wannabes that never truly learned the craft of art, or will the market demand for anime and manga increase so much that it’s really all a professional artist can make money doing?

Read the Journal News article here

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