Netflix has included another animated series in its catalog and this time, and this time it’s the rebirth of an extremely nostalgic franchise, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. Lara Croft has been an insanely popular character and she deserves all kinds of adaptations.
However, the recent animated series teased by Netflix has received some criticism due to its Japanese-inspired art style. While it looks good and has good action scenes, you can’t help but shake off the feeling that it is trying to imitate anime.
Is Netflix’s Tomb Raider an Anime?
No, Netflix’s Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is not an anime series. It is created by Powerhouse Animation Studios which is based in Austin, Texas. Thus, the upcoming project is an animated series and not an anime.
Since the animation style resembled anime, it can be mistaken as one by many. But it is not created by a Japanese studio. The overall style of the series looks good, and its recently released trailer does a fantastic job of showing its dynamic nature. But the genre and origin should not be confused.
Doesn’t really look anime, just a decent looking cartoon.
— Hot Mental Month, Shannon😵💫 (@SuperShanko) June 1, 2024
Powerhouse Animation studio signed a deal with Netflix in 2021 which states that the company would produce animated shows for the streaming giant. It is also the animation company behind the famed Castlevania series, which recently received a sequel in 2023.
We need a new word for western animation.
— DeNovarts 🔞 (@DeNovarts) June 2, 2024
>Tomb Raider “anime”
>look inside
>western animation style from Austin Texas— Michael (@cwb_in_tn_81) June 2, 2024
Despite its American origin, fans could mistake Tomb Raider for an anime due to its inspiration from Japanese art style. Especially since Netflix has been creating plenty of original anime series.
Why Western Influence on Anime is Taking Away its Essence
Many hardcore anime fans are of the opinion that anime is getting more and more Westernized. While it is a natural outcome due to the intermixing of cultures and the spreading popularity of anime in the West, it might not be a good idea to create series that are solely intended to cater to the Western audience.
Anime like Trigun, Black Lagoon, or Great Pretender have heavy Western influence, with some of them having a Western backdrop. While some anime can use this to their advantage like Cowboy Bebop, others lie flat with just a wannabe Western feeling attached to it.
In the same way, many classic American titles are inspired by Japanese anime, and are mistaken by fans. A great example would be Avatar: The Last Airbender, a complete American production that is often mistaken for an anime due to its character designs as well as the incorporation of Eastern history and legends.
American animations have been inspired by anime for decades and one of the first series that bears a testament to this fact is The King Kong Show which was broadcast in the late 1960s to early 1970s. It was created due to a collaboration between Japan’s Toei Animation and America’s Videocraft.
Toei has done several such collaborations, like Transformers. Many animations have also been outsourced to Japan over the years. Some examples are X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, and Spider-Man.
At the end of the day, Western and Eastern media are bound to influence each other, but doing it just for the sake of attracting a specific audience ends up butchering the show.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will be available on Netflix on October 10, 2024.
