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I disagree with you about space samurai not being anime, but that's really beside the point.

The issue of the OP was understanding why people draw the anime conclusion. That information has been presented. Whether or not you agree with the conclusion others have about the Tau having or not having an anime look/feel is immaterial to the original question. The oriental themes throughout the army are the reason people refer to them as anime, those themes have been mentioned and pointed out.

Personally I see the connection between the Tau Crisis suits and Robotech and Appleseed. Clearly you do not - but that and other such connections are why people call them anime whether or not you personally see the themes or connect them to anime.

I didnt read the 2nd page , but i can say atleast Fire Warrior = 100% Japanese in design.

Thor665 wrote:Personally I see the connection between the Tau Crisis suits and Robotech and Appleseed. Clearly you do not - but that and other such connections are why people call them anime whether or not you personally see the themes or connect them to anime.

Gunsword and evangelion have eldar looking mechs, once again the mech argument is weak. But you have a point for people drawing the conclusion from the asian influence. Fluff-wise though the Tau have no anime influence.

It is not that they have anime influence, it is that they have clear Chinese/Japanese influence.

Many young people's familiarity with Chinese/Japanese culture is mainly through the medium of anime, manga and films like Flying Sword, Smoking Dragon (or whatever its name was.)

Naturally, seeing an army which they clearly perceive to be oriental in style, people call it anime.

Isn't the resistance against Tau = anime futile?

Would it anyhow benefit Tau if we refer to them as fishheads?

anime = mostly positive
fishy = less welcome

I personally have always thought Space Marines (especially Ultramarines) look like Megaman.

I always thought Tau looked more like those guys from RIFTS (Ultimax? Triax? or something).

CountCross wrote:

Thor665 wrote:Personally I see the connection between the Tau Crisis suits and Robotech and Appleseed. Clearly you do not - but that and other such connections are why people call them anime whether or not you personally see the themes or connect them to anime.

Gunsword and evangelion have eldar looking mechs, once again the mech argument is weak. But you have a point for people drawing the conclusion from the asian influence. Fluff-wise though the Tau have no anime influence.

I would counter that the Eldar have Evangelion looking mechs, not the other way around. Eldar also have a very Japanese themed flag design. However the overall asian/anime look is not as pervasive as that present within the Tau to the average player on the street - hence why Tau are called anime and the Eldar are not. The "mech argument" cannot be weak, because it is part of the primary reason Tau are called anime. Again - the reasons people call them anime has nothing to do with whether or not you accept the reasons or even if the reasons make any sense at all. People call Tau anime primarily because of their mech and armor design - you do not need to accept that those designs are anime personally in order for this to be true. (such discussion would belong in a thread titled 'should' the Tau be called anime)

CountCross wrote:

I meant the suit that the the main character uses to fight the queen at the end.

I know what you mean, but what I'm saying is that the movie isnt' known for that. Sure people will remember it, but when you say Alien do you think of the main character in a powered exoskeleton or do you think of the Alien? The face huggers? The acid like drool? My point being is that when someone says Anime I'm more inclined to think GUNDAM (one of the more famous and long lasting series and keep in mind I'm using Gundam as an example). And what is Gundam known for? The Mecha. In fact a lot of Japanese Anime is based on Mecha...The Tau major component of the Tau fighting force is what? Oh, Mecha?

Honestly, I fail to see how it is a weak argument. A Tau army has Jumpsuit/mecha, it's how things are. You, or your opponent, see it so often and can't help, but associate it with Mecha. Eventually someone squints hard enough and beings to see a likeliness to...let's say robotech (because that seems common). Now I know you're going to bring up the Eldar titan argument, but here's something to chew on. How often do you see one on the board?

To be honest you rarely see those guys, or at least not as often as the Tau crisis suits. You the Crisis suits so often that the connection to mecha, and therefore anime, comes that much faster. I'm not saying it's the only connection that can be made, but it sure seems to be the predominent one. However, the Eldar Titan is rarely seen in my opinion and because of this barely any connection is made. It also doesn't help that the Eldar already have an existing connection to Elves, making it harder for a new one to be established, such as anime.

Also...to be honest practically everyone is bringing up the so called "weak" argument of Mecha. If so many people are seeing the connection...well.

Edit: It's also a matter of whatever floats your boat. Not everyone has to see things your way, which is what it seems you'd like. You claim to be trying to understand why people see them as an "anime" race, yet you are unaccepting of people's reasons. WTH is with that hmm?

Thor665 wrote:

CountCross wrote:

Thor665 wrote:Personally I see the connection between the Tau Crisis suits and Robotech and Appleseed. Clearly you do not - but that and other such connections are why people call them anime whether or not you personally see the themes or connect them to anime.

Gunsword and evangelion have eldar looking mechs, once again the mech argument is weak. But you have a point for people drawing the conclusion from the asian influence. Fluff-wise though the Tau have no anime influence.

I would counter that the Eldar have Evangelion looking mechs, not the other way around. Eldar also have a very Japanese themed flag design. However the overall asian/anime look is not as pervasive as that present within the Tau to the average player on the street - hence why Tau are called anime and the Eldar are not. The "mech argument" cannot be weak, because it is part of the primary reason Tau are called anime. Again - the reasons people call them anime has nothing to do with whether or not you accept the reasons or even if the reasons make any sense at all. People call Tau anime primarily because of their mech and armor design - you do not need to accept that those designs are anime personally in order for this to be true. (such discussion would belong in a thread titled 'should' the Tau be called anime)

Ok I screwed up that firsst part, I meant that the eldar had the evangelion looking mechs. I also see why the mech suit isn't a weak argument after all seeing as it was made popular in anime. However, I still don'y quite see how the crisis suits look like classic anime mechs. The picture that Orkeosaur put up looks like a regular generic anime mech with bulging limbs, the crisis suit looks too shrimpy to qualify as an anime mech imho.

Sgt.Sunshine wrote:

CountCross wrote:

I meant the suit that the the main character uses to fight the queen at the end.

I know what you mean, but what I'm saying is that the movie isnt' known for that. Sure people will remember it, but when you say Alien do you think of the main character in a powered exoskeleton or do you think of the Alien? The face huggers? The acid like drool? My point being is that when someone says Anime I'm more inclined to think GUNDAM (one of the more famous and long lasting series and keep in mind I'm using Gundam as an example). And what is Gundam known for? The Mecha. In fact a lot of Japanese Anime is based on Mecha...The Tau major component of the Tau fighting force is what? Oh, Mecha?

Honestly, I fail to see how it is a weak argument. A Tau army has Jumpsuit/mecha, it's how things are. You, or your opponent, see it so often and can't help, but associate it with Mecha. Eventually someone squints hard enough and beings to see a likeliness to...let's say robotech (because that seems common). Now I know you're going to bring up the Eldar titan argument, but here's something to chew on. How often do you see one on the board?

To be honest you rarely see those guys, or at least not as often as the Tau crisis suits. You the Crisis suits so often that the connection to mecha, and therefore anime, comes that much faster. I'm not saying it's the only connection that can be made, but it sure seems to be the predominent one. However, the Eldar Titan is rarely seen in my opinion and because of this barely any connection is made. It also doesn't help that the Eldar already have an existing connection to Elves, making it harder for a new one to be established, such as anime.

Also...to be honest practically everyone is bringing up the so called "weak" argument of Mecha. If so many people are seeing the connection...well.

Edit: It's also a matter of whatever floats your boat. Not everyone has to see things your way, which is what it seems you'd like. You claim to be trying to understand why people see them as an "anime" race, yet you are unaccepting of people's reasons. WTH is with that hmm?

I accept their reasons but I don't understand them. Putting the anime label on them because of the asian influence seem a little dumb to me. The Eldar and their wraithlords have been around longer than the Tau, making the Eldar have anime mechs before the tau ever came into the picture. And the crisis suit only makes a mech army if you have farsight as your HQ.

CountCross wrote:However, I still don'y quite see how the crisis suits look like classic anime mechs. The picture that Orkeosaur put up looks like a regular generic anime mech with bulging limbs, the crisis suit looks too shrimpy to qualify as an anime mech imho.

That's fine. But a large number of people disagree and that is where a big part of the Tau = Anime army comes from. You're allowed to disagree with it and I see no reason to try to convince you it's there.

really, to me the Tau resemble anime because of the normal cliche of using the power of friendship to defeat the evil at hand. AKA the bonding knife to become BFF. The mechsuits always will look a resemblence to me in anime but it's that damn unison quality tau have that makes me consider them as anime

Osyr wrote:The Tau are made to have an anime look, yet do not match the average anime character idealogy. The average anime (don't mind my overgeneralizations) tends to promote individualism, with single characters fighting against overpowering faceless antagonists, but the Tau are collectivists.

This is not so much an "anime" thing but is a common theme of fiction for teen/pre-teen boys in Japan (i.e. GW's core market).

In fact, none of the 40K factions fits very well into that individualist hero mould. Is this a major factor in GW's lack of penetration into the Japanese market?

Well by having mechs in your army I meant that most of the commanders seem to be in crisis suits, or what they're called, and most people play broadsides. I guess at this point it's just a matter of opinion :u

i am surprised no people bring up the "Gundam" thing.
the XV8 and XV88 is really like Gundam. one man sit in a gaint robot with highly mobilized and weaponized system. only difference is crisis suit does not have a power weapon (laser sword).

yes, eldar's wraith lord is kind of like Evangelion. when my friend have 3 wraith lord or so, i normally name them Evangelion00, Evangelion01, Evangelion03..... but that is the only link between eldar, and you can not see wraith lord all the time. on the other hand you can see those crisis suit all the time in Tau's army.

be frankly, i think whoever against Tau is not anime, it is because they do not really know japan anime that much. for a people really familiar with gundam cartoons, they will recognise the crisis suit as the gundam.

I lived in Japan for nearly a year. The Tau have distinctive asian influences. But then again look at Japanese art, very clean and astetic lines. The Tau emphasise those clean simplistic lines over the over guady and baroque elements of lets say the Imperium which itself draws from a more Victorian era. Im not a big fan of anime, but the reason I collect the Tau is because of their asian themes. Whether it shows an enlightened ideal in communism, to their codes of conduct.

Its ironic though for as much as the Samurai caste frowned up such ranged combat and excelled in the close quarters fighting with their now iconic weapons. The most asian and japanese themed army frowns up close combat as being barbaric.

Its the mech suits that have a faint whiff of gundam about them. Also the AI robots, Hi tech guns and armor also contribute greatly. Not that I'm complaining though as I have a tau army and love their look.

Eldar are elves in space, there's no two ways about it. Elves are Tolkeinian. Thus the Eldar are not animesque.

Now to address that Evangelion Unit 00 picture that appeared earlier. The Eva series is a different type of mecha. The common style replicated is the square Gundam style, and it is this style which has become iconic of the mecha genre.



Eldar titans look similar to the Evas, but the Tau are quite clearly based upon the Gundam style.

That's just the mecha point.

Yes, yes. This is all very interesting (Eldar = Tolkenien/WHFB Elves BTW, ).

In other news...

Orkestra wrote:Clearly Orks are the most anime race.

Let's take a look at the similarities.
- Huge, out of proportion mouths.
- Chibi versions of themselves (grots)
- Tend to do lots of yelling for no good reason
- React with overly dramatized violence to unusual situations
- Have a thing for having the 'biggest gun'(/highest Power Level/Best rock band/most giant lazer/scantily clad woman with the biggest breasts)
- Fight at the least excuse (ZZWAAAAAA! YOU STEPPED ON MY TOOOOEEEEEEE!)
- Collect small monsters and use them in battle (squigs)
- Get up unfazed after taking a beating that would have killed several normal men (even the girly little orks can take a giant hammer to the face and get back up)
- Tend to have fairly extreme hairstyles (Bald is still a hairstyle)
- All act like an ethnicity they're not (Green orks acting British / a bunch of white people who are inexplicably japanese)
- Have an innate ability with complex technology (*GASP* I've never seen an amateur [pilot/drive/wield/fix] a [insert made up word] like that before!)

I do believe my case is airtight. Orkz iz Anime.

Orkestra won this thread. Page 1.

Emperors Faithful wrote:

Orkestra wrote:Clearly Orks are the most anime race.

Let's take a look at the similarities.
- Huge, out of proportion mouths.
- Chibi versions of themselves (grots)
- Tend to do lots of yelling for no good reason
- React with overly dramatized violence to unusual situations
- Have a thing for having the 'biggest gun'(/highest Power Level/Best rock band/most giant lazer/scantily clad woman with the biggest breasts)
- Fight at the least excuse (ZZWAAAAAA! YOU STEPPED ON MY TOOOOEEEEEEE!)
- Collect small monsters and use them in battle (squigs)
- Get up unfazed after taking a beating that would have killed several normal men (even the girly little orks can take a giant hammer to the face and get back up)
- Tend to have fairly extreme hairstyles (Bald is still a hairstyle)
- All act like an ethnicity they're not (Green orks acting British / a bunch of white people who are inexplicably japanese)
- Have an innate ability with complex technology (*GASP* I've never seen an amateur [pilot/drive/wield/fix] a [insert made up word] like that before!)

I do believe my case is airtight. Orkz iz Anime.

Orkestra won this thread. Page 1.

Exactly. Hands over thread....

I love both army looks like and back ground.
Especially Tau,I want to start that army someday.
I'm japanese and here is my view.

TAU:
-Having Anime Suits. Battlesuit remind me VF-1
-WWII era japanese thinking. "For Greater Good" remind me "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere"
-Self Destract.
-Fast growing. It remind me After-WWII
-Hightech race.

But I think Tau is not Anime Race. Because there is no beautiful face man or young girl.
And I see combination of asian taste. China,India,Vietnam,Thai...and many others.
So not Entire "Anime" Race.

Eldar:
-It have Shuriken!
-Ashurian's mark is exactly what is Shinto Symbol.　http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%B3%A5%E5%B1%85
-Ianden's leader,Yuriel looks like samurai warriors. He having square banner on back. And his hair style is.
-Avatar's face. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%9A%88%E5%8F%96

I see so many japanese-like thing on eldar's looks like and back ground.
But not anime tho.

I think all 40K race are not anime army.(Thats why I play!)
But "if" japanese anime maker start to create 40K anime,They will start "Battle Sisters" series. With bigger eyes of course.(and I will not watch)

TauAdmiral wrote:Its ironic though for as much as the Samurai caste frowned up such ranged combat and excelled in the close quarters fighting with their now iconic weapons. The most asian and japanese themed army frowns up close combat as being barbaric.

I've never actually even been to Japan, but I'm pretty sure that archery was a fairly critical samurai skill in the olden days, and there certainly wasn't any frowning on it then. This was in the early centuries of japanese fighting history, they swapped to melee exclusivity later on.

glory wrote:

TauAdmiral wrote:Its ironic though for as much as the Samurai caste frowned up such ranged combat and excelled in the close quarters fighting with their now iconic weapons. The most asian and japanese themed army frowns up close combat as being barbaric.

I've never actually even been to Japan, but I'm pretty sure that archery was a fairly critical samurai skill in the olden days, and there certainly wasn't any frowning on it then. This was in the early centuries of japanese fighting history, they swapped to melee exclusivity later on.

Yeah it was pretty heavily taught until the Meiji era, the advent of firearms, when they could just field lightly trained peasants with muskets and do more damage.

@glory: actually the greatest honor was to best an opponent in close combat.. thus all the various forms of martial arts. At least in Japanese society, archery and missile weapons were used later and sword combat was the most treasured of the martial skills.

For me the back story and the caste system and stuff just generally suggest eastern culture. That combined with the battle suits for me just adds up to anime.

spamandchips wrote:For me the back story and the caste system and stuff just generally suggest eastern culture. That combined with the battle suits for me just adds up to anime.

Dunno, there's just as sound an argument that Europe had just as stringent a caste system as Asia cultures.
Europe:
Homeless
Women
Peasant/Farmers
Merchant/Craftsmen
Minor Nobility
Priest
Upper Nobility
Monarch

Asia (General):
Untouchables
Women
Merchant/Craftsmen
Farmers
Peasant
Priest/Scholar/Minor Noble
Upper Nobility
Monarch

ever played fire warrior the game? asain accents, Asians love anime so it kinda just goes that way. look at the fire warriors leg Armor similar to a samurai and what cartoons have samurais except that fething cartoon network jack one, anime does. but if you read the graphic novel about the guard vs tau the tau look more bad ass in old school comic illustration imo and this is comming from a warhammer 40k player who dislikes tau alltogether

I havent seen a lot of anime but in the moment Ive seen Tau Crisis suit for the first time I thought "OMG this is not possible they are making anime out of warhammer".

Really, just watch Ghost in the Shell and then look on Tau fire warriors, drones and skimmers (or Macross for your mecha needs). Sure, not the same, but very similar in style. Eldar have anime references as well, but much more subtle IMO (eg. War Walker looks exotic, but not as vulgar as a Crisis suit).

I got to agree with dpredator666. Eldars seem to bear references of ancient asian cultures (as well as other oriental cultures though, eg. Egypt!), while Tau are inspired by the cyberpunk japanese style.

so heres my two cents on this.
there are enough people here making the connection between Tau and Japanese influences as well as other parts of Asia, I agree that the armor does indeed resemble samurai armor, the Battle suits are far from a weak argument, indeed the "Mechs" seem to be at the very core of this Argument.
For as far back as anyone alive today can remember Mechs have Existed predominantly in Manga and Anime save for the odd sci-fi film or novel in which they were the writers original design and not based off of the Anime Mechs themselves.
If I had to narrow down the Tau likeness to one individual race it would definitely be the Japanese, while we are on the page of making likenesses to Asian and Anime culture in the Tau you can liken the initial contact the Imperium had with Tau to the Edo period of japan, imperium meet savage aliens banging rocks together but before they can purge the planet a warp storm that lasts for 7000 years covers the planet and prevents any invasion? this is very similar to the isolation of japan by the Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period.
ultimately it matters not what the "Mech" looks like or how similar it looks to this Anime or that, the fact that it is a Mech creates the link between the Tau army and Anime, Being that 90% of Mech portrayal for the past few decades belongs to (insert generic Anime here) it is not a far stretch at all to say that Mech=Anime and therefore Tau=Anime Influenced.
you'll have to excuse me but i do get confused with this Topic, i understand the question was "Why do people think that the Tau are the Anime Army" and I feel I have answered that as best I can, what I don't understand is How Referring to the the Tau as an Anime Army is a Derogatory comment

I personally think it is because, simply, Tau seem oriental.

Orkestra wrote:Clearly Orks are the most anime race.

Let's take a look at the similarities.
- Huge, out of proportion mouths.
- Chibi versions of themselves (grots)
- Tend to do lots of yelling for no good reason
- React with overly dramatized violence to unusual situations
- Have a thing for having the 'biggest gun'(/highest Power Level/Best rock band/most giant lazer/scantily clad woman with the biggest breasts)
- Fight at the least excuse (ZZWAAAAAA! YOU STEPPED ON MY TOOOOEEEEEEE!)
- Collect small monsters and use them in battle (squigs)
- Get up unfazed after taking a beating that would have killed several normal men (even the girly little orks can take a giant hammer to the face and get back up)
- Tend to have fairly extreme hairstyles (Bald is still a hairstyle)
- All act like an ethnicity they're not (Green orks acting British / a bunch of white people who are inexplicably japanese)
- Have an innate ability with complex technology (*GASP* I've never seen an amateur [pilot/drive/wield/fix] a [insert made up word] like that before!)

I do believe my case is airtight. Orkz iz Anime.

What this dude said.

Now grab your Emperor damned anime talk and get the feth out of my GRIMDARK 41st Millenium.

Really.

WHO...
...CARES...
...WHERE...
...GW...
...GETS...
...THEIR...
IDEAS?

To add, GW have been getting ideas from Anime (and other sources) long before they even thought of the Tau.

Remember the Zoid in Rogue Trader?