Everything is art. Anything can be art. It's just up to the taste of your personal preference. Anime/Manga art takes a LOT of work and the colors can be beautiful like anything else. It's sad to see this world is still full of closed-minded people who are going to try and tell others what is, and what is not art just because they are tired of seeing it, or just don't like the style. I respect art in all it's forms.

And on the subject of people wanting to be Japanese: I feel everyone wants to be something, if you are striving for nothing then you strive to be nothing. There is nothing wrong with a dream to be something you are not because a lot of the time we all want to be something we are not. I want to be a good artist, I practice a lot of different styles, but I am not as good as I'm striving to be. Live and let live. We were all given a life of our own and it's wrong for anyone to tell others how to live it. In my opinion.

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Also I get tired of hearing what type of art something is, I like seeing art as just art. It doesn't have to be anime/realism/abstract. To me it's just art. And I love all kinds of art :)