slr2moons | 10 years and the hate is still going strong.

When I was in art school back in '98-2000, anime and manga were just beginning to break out of geekdom into mainstream. Toonami launched back then with Tenchi and Gundam Wing, and Pokemon was starting to hit. The thing was, even then, the anime and manga style was considered with derision by at least two of my professors and about 10 different classmates. I gave the subject of one of my first marker-rendered portraits green hair and my prof went ballistic. (It wasn't a final assignment, just a practice sketch for a completion grade.)

Now, 10 years later, even with Miyazaki's Oscar win and a generation of people who grew up with anime on the TV, it seems "real" artists still feel the same way.

Going back to my own art school days, one of my classmates drew in a style that was extremely similar to Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren and Stimpy. One or two drew Disney or Warner Brothers. The rest drew like superhero comics. I drew in anime style. Of the lot of us, I was the only one given a hard time by professors and fellow classmates and accused of being an unoriginal ripoff.

Why? So why are anime and manga so hated by "real" artists? It's an art style, that's all. Why is something drawn with this influence automatically considered worthless by so many, when if the same pic were drawn with a Disney or comic influence, it would be more acceptable?

Does anyone understand this automatic derision? Can anyone explain it to me? Is it a racial thing? I mean, if I were Asian instead of a vanilla white girl, would the anti-manga crowd be more accepting?? When people ask me why I chose to draw in that style, I answer truthfully: "Because I like it and think it's beautiful."

Apparently that isn't good enough. Help me figure this out, guys.

TL;DR: Anime or manga-style artwork is often considered automatic crap by "real" artists. Discuss.