Hoo boy, dropped by after watching for a little while (before signing up). I'll just pick at what I see.
Ferus, look at the character icons in your signature. How different do they look, other than by hair color?
It's a formula. Big eyes, small mouth, angular hair, and always a white shiny streak over the hair.
You did not answer Ferus' question. He asked why anime isn't art, not what makes an anime just that.
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Fan art doesn't deserve DTFs because it's not your original artwork, it's copied off someone else's style.
The term "Fan Art" can be used in many different ways. If I were to draw this bottle of Mountain Dew in front of me, that could be considered fan art. If I were to do some abstract art of whatever, that could be considered fan art of whatever I just did and fan art of the abstract style, could it not? As for the "copied off someone else's style" part, that can go either. Example: I've have seen a bunch of artists do art in someone else's style of work, mostly because the said-style is oh um... popular. So it's pretty obvious that it will be seen around a lot. And on the other hand, there are plenty of artist (which should outweight the former) that do art in their own style. Sure some styles look alike in ways, but the chances of that being copied off of is slim, I say. And back to the "not your original artwork part"... I'm sorry, but I'm gonna disagree here too. While the art of whomever is done in the said-work may not belong to the artist, the art itself is.
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And finally... *points to Sasha's devComment* She pretty much hit the nail on the head on what I was also thinking. That's all for now.