Thankfully, even mainstream TV series are starting to air artsy anime with more unique styles. In 2006 we had Gankutsuou and Kemonozume. In 2007 we had the awesome Mononoke and Dennou Coil. In 2008 we had Kaiba. And recently we are seeing increasing number of shows with more daring visuals, such as Casshern Sins, Kurozuka and Mouryou no Haku. It is an exciting time to be an anime fan.

*btw, have you watched the director’s works on Diary of Tortov Roddle? I highly recommend you to check it out!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I generally define anime as the following:

Animation created (primarily) in Japan by Japanese creators for (primarily) Japanese audiences.

I use that definition because it’s useful to me as both a fan and scholar, allowing me to delineate the aspects of ‘anime’ (re: context, production, and reception) which I am most interested in. In the end, the word ‘anime’ is just a container for whatever concepts we want it to hold.

That said, I certainly enjoy (and find important) many things that fall outside of ‘anime’ as strictly defined above.

In another sense, my definition might be considered less strict than most since it places less emphasis on specific anime styles and genres, allowing us to recognize as anime historically important but stylistically distinct titles (such as Tezuka works, as you mentioned), along with modern Japanese works such as La Maison en Petit Cubes.