You asked if any "anime fans" had a response for your efforts to clarify the words "anime" and "manga". I'm not a huge fan of either but I am familiar with them, having grown up in the age of Star Blazers (oh how I wanted a Wave-Motion Gun of my very own). Japanese-style comics and animation had a positive role on my growth as a young artist. They continue to influence me as a professional artist. Thank you for attempting to provide another viewpoint on the use of Japanese terms. While I understand the desire to correct people when they're working under false assumptions, I think I can provide some context for why Westerners use those terms the way they do.You said that, if you ever were to attend an "anime convention", you'd refer to the subject matter of the convention as "cartoons", regardless of how anyone felt, and you assumed you'd be recieved in a negative way. Fact is, people would probably ignore you. The Japanese may consider the terms "anime" and "manga" as generic lables. I don't think we're any different here, in the States, when we assume our definition of "freedom" is somehow universal. For the rest of the world "anime" and "manga" have become specific designations. Japanese animation and comics share similarities with their Western counterparts but have distinct differences in the style of art and of storytelling that sets them apart. Characters are handled differently, depicted according to cultural norms the rest of the world doesn't share. The Japanese may feel that Popeye the Sailor Man is an example of Anime. A quick comparison of a Fliescher cartoon and Kimba the White Lion is enough to dispell that notion. Your use of Superman as "manga" makes my point. The Japanese may consider him and his DC brethren "manga", but for the rest of the world he's emblematic of American-style comics, as different from Japanese comics as he is from European or Russian-style comic books.We all want to be heard clearly and represented accurately, at least in the sense of what we believe to be true (our views of ourselves not always jibing with reality). Once you put your work out into the world, however, it gets changed. That's part of the reality of being a professional artist but it's also a function of cultural interaction. That's why you'd probably be ignored at an anime convention. To you, you're correcting people's misunderstanding of a word. It's too late for that. "Anime", like "Manga", as been appropriated by the world and their meanings changed to suit. I'd just as soon not be treated like an escaped inmate from a zoo when I walk the streets of Tokyo (though it's probably closer to the bone than I'd like to admit). When I go tromping about in one of the most homogenous societies in the world, a 6'5" redheaded white boy, well, that's probably the way I'll be viewed, no matter how I feel about it. 

Hey, nothing else than that you wrote some very interresting stuff, and also thanks for the various links. Take care.Rolf 

Very well argued post.  I wanted to point out a few character sets that you glaringly omitted from English: cursive.  Both in capital and lower case variants.  And with cursive no longer mandatory in many school programs the "literacy" of many to read and write cursive has dwindled among young people.

Yet, if you compare the Japanese mentality to the Western European one, there is a very obvious difference in the judgement and value of individualism.

Possibly a perfectly sane statement, if followed up with specifics that make sense and are demonstrable. 

However:

Europeans see individualism as an absolute positive with no bad connotations.

Setting aside the laughable absolutism of that claim, I'll address its conflict with real-life situations and actions (which are what interest me). 

Would I do well in European business by joining a conservative company and then openly flouting its internal culture? Could I join the priesthood and announce my own "individualistic" interpretations of dogma, to the nodding approval of the Vatican? Would a European military enlist me as a soldier and then give me an "oh, you rascal" hair-tousle and a smile when I show up for duty in waist-length dreadlocks, purple Birkenstocks, and my hand-made, tie-dyed Nehru "uniform"?

No to all. Actions by individuals that differ from the actions of the surrounding group or majority are encouraged, accepted, and/or allowed up to some point, in any human society – including in Europe.

Being a rebel in Japan is not cool when the rebellion reaches deeper than clothing and poses.

Nonsense. Whether "being a rebel" in Japan – or anywhere – is cool or not depends on what exactly that entails. Generally speaking, if "rebel" means acting like an ass and bothering people, it won't be cool. If it means pushing for change that people actually want, it may be cool (or even revered). And then there's plenty of gray area in between those.

In the mid 19th century, Ryoma Sakamoto was a young rebel. "Clothing and poses"? Well, yes, he did idiosyncratically combine samurai wear with "Western" garb (an oddity at the time) – but also decided to overthrow Japan's feudal Shogunate and create a modern nation, inspired in part by US democracy. (Rebel enough for you?)

Sakamoto left his clan (a huge social no-no), adopted foreign business practices to establish Japan's first modern company (and get the Imperial Navy started while he was at it), formed impossible-seeming alliances between warring clans, and created the plan that led to resignation of the Shogun and soon afterward the Meiji Restoration, arguably the most important event in Japan's history.

Visionary, leader, outspoken individual, and capital-R Rebel, this guy is one of Japan's most admired, quoted ("A hero should go his own way!"), "cool" historical figures (the focus of dozens of movies, novels, biographies, TV series, comic series, museums, and more).

Being a deep-down rebel in Japan can be uncool, or can be awesomely ultra-cool. That's how it works with humans!