American Cartoons in Anime Style

[Anubis_]

I realy don't see what the big deal is..

I dont think just because an American Cartoon copies Anime style is a very good reason to hate it.

Japanese cartoons have been copying American style for years.


For instnace.. You ever seen a black person on dbz?

Compare them to those racits arse bugs bunny cartoons from the 50's..

I think thats the time there from.. but.. you know what i mean..

[CupOfCoffee]

Well... Mr. Popo was a black person on DBZ.

As for the rest, I think style is a perfectly legitimate reason not to like a cartoon. There are other types of art people dislike due to the style, so why not TV shows? Just because anime drawings and cartoons face a certain degree of percecution in American society doesn't mean that everyone who dislikes it dislikes it for illegitimate reasons. Frankly, as a student of art, I find most of it to be uncommonly generic and uninspired. If there were only one or two things that had ever been done in anime style, I'm sure I could appreciate its unique take on the human figure and the mechanics of motion... but as it stands, there's too much of it that's too similar and too uninspired for my tastes. It doesn't mean I would automatically write off a show or picture drawn in anime, but it certainly influences my final take on the work in question.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: CupOfCoffee on 2006-10-03 18:30 ]</font>

[Anubis_]

It's understandable if you just don't like Anime and think the art style is dry and unchanging..

Rofl.. Cause it is.. Some times I think..

Hmm I really want to watch a cartoon today, but I think.. If i see another cartoon with pointy eyes I'll just shoot myself..

But its like crack.. everyones doing it. The number of American cartoons with anime drawn influence is increasing at an alarming rate and for good reason.

Its the only thing kids are watching. I mean can you blame them? No ones wants to see American style cartoons. They wouldnt do it if they didnt sell..

[Xaos127]

Examples.

[Shiro_Ryuu]

I don't really mind, if you like it or not, whatever floats your boat. if you like anime-style, then like it, if you don't, I'm not gonna force you to like it.

[Raikku]

America has probally the most popular animation ever... anyone hear of Disney?

[Sinue_v2]

To make no mention of Tom & Jerry - which is one of the most popular cartoons in Japan from what I hear.

[navci]

I have refused to watch some Japanese anime because I think their art style is ugly. Watch whatever, if you like it you like it. If you don't, well, no need to force yourself.

[RoninJoku]

On 2006-10-03 18:54, Anubis_ wrote:

Its the only thing kids are watching. I mean can you blame them? No ones wants to see American style cartoons. They wouldnt do it if they didnt sell..



No one is a rather sweeping generalization. And give me Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy over most anime any day. And also, I will take just about any Disney movie 3 times over before MOST animes.

I have... problems with American anime "inspired" cartoons. But usually it's more a matter of the specific show having things that I strongly dislike regardless of it's animation influences. And then there are the cases where a show is so obviously just made for the purpose of "being an anime". Meh, I don't feel like getting into this at the moment. I will just say that I don't mind the borrowing of styles and conventions, but there is a line which shouldn't be crossed, and like-wise lines that MUST be crossed in order for it to be a good animation.

[Foxix]

It really depends on the show for me. I have recently gotten into Avatar which I thought I would loathe but I didn't.

as for movies, Ghost In The Shell is definitely ranking in my top 5 favorite movies of all time.

[Shiro_Ryuu]

although I am a huge anime lover, there are some cool American cartoons like Transformers, Thundercats, and such.

[Kevino]

On 2006-10-03 19:41, Raikku wrote:
America has probally the most popular animation ever... anyone hear of Disney?



yes and it makes me want to kill my self every day.

[Tallus]

On 2006-10-04 04:36, Shiroryuu wrote:
although I am a huge anime lover, there are some cool American cartoons like Transformers, Thundercats, and such.



agreed. i just think the american immitations aren't as good. america really has a rich animation history with lots of successful cartoons. when your work is just an immitation of somone elses, it just isn't as good. it lacks that basic originality that lots of non imitation cartoons have.

[Shiro_Ryuu]

^
yeah, and also, I think people should try to follow their own styles of artwork, and if it happens to be in an anime style, then its all cool, but one shouldn't try to imitate for the sole reason of its popularity, they should draw that way because they feel comfortable with it and they want to draw that way. like me, I'm American but I personally like to draw characters in the Japanese style because its what I feel most comfortable with, not because its what everyone likes.

[Sharkyland]

Art and story is what interests me... I'm not really into comedy though. I have seen good series on both the United States and Japan, and I have seen worse.

[Anubis_]

I also like to draw alot shiroryuu, my drawing style started in anime dbz style cause it was my favorite show.. But as I got older my style leaned more twoard marvel comic book style as I got into X-Men. Then from there It went into just a generalized artsy imitation of real life i guess.

And I guess.. No One .. is a pretty broad generalization.. Lets just say.. every action cartoon on television. Grim adventures of billy and mandy is great. As are many comedy cartoons.. But thats just the thing. You can't really port verbal Comedy from one country to another. Some times Anime is funny.. But most of the time I just dont get it. Sometimes you have to be Japanese to get the joke.


But I must admit.. I realy did hate one cartoon cause it was in anime style..

X-Men Evolution...

I got into it later on.. and actualy watched it regulary... But they clearly mocked anime style in there charecter design. Which was really stupid to me... Because.. well.. its frikin Marvel.. they have a style. You made your 1990s cartoon in it and it looked good.

[Shattered_weasel]

On 2006-10-04 16:06, Anubis_ wrote:

its frikin Marvel.. they have a style. You made your 1990s cartoon in it and it looked good.



Marvel cartoons were horrible. Plagued by ugly and unsmooth animation. Two of the cartoons that aged horribly from my childhood would definitly be X-men and Spider-man.

[AzureBlaze]

The ones I don't like are the usa 'anime style' shows that rip it off hoping you'll watch it because of how it looks.

They see that their own shows (usa style) are doing bad, but anime seems to be doing better. They don't get really WHY though. They think it's the art, so they copy-cat that, then wonder why it can't stay on the air. People are entertained by anime because it brings something actually new to the table character and plotwise. You don't KNOW where these things are gonna go every ep. Even 'kiddy' pokemon, you can't say outloud their every move 3 min in from the title card. So you come back for more...

I mean, look at what we have to choose from this fall on WB:
Tom Injury. The mouse is a jerk. How many ways can we hurt the cat. The dog will beat him. It's hilarious. It's also over 40 years old.

Shaggy Scooby: The chars got uglier, the mysterys got less unique, and now scooby transforms into stuff and there's no 'gang'. It's also over 20 years old.

Johnny Test: a rebellious and stupid child assisted by his practical dog transforms into stuff, and annoys oblivious people.

Batman and his children: yes he has kids now (batgirl and robin in every show??). Batman has been doing the same thing since whenever. More then 20 years.

Loonatics Unleashed: Bugs bunny and other warners are revamped for XTREEEME and act pretty much the way they did 25 years ago, but with more wise cracks and hot colors.

And then they wonder why kids clamor for anime. If you watch any of these shows more then 2 times, you ALREADY KNOW exactly what will happen in each episode. That leads to boredom. Yes you weren't born 20 years ago so you didn't see it the first go 'round, ("it's NEW to you!" slogan) but that doesn't matter when it's so predictable a 6yr old can reach the conclusion within 5 minutes of turning it on.

Yea avatar is USA anime (Transformers is not, it is a JP show thru and thru) but people get into it because they've actually bothered to plot the thing properly and it's not knocked off of something ancient, or comprised of re-hashing fairy tales or "goody morals" in each episode.
Avatar is an example of stuff gone right with quality art (even if you hate the style, it's not 'junky' with abstract characters/skippy frames/stills/comp-u-copouts or other garbage).

If you have an engaging cast, hilarious or intregueing plots, and you can keep it up, it nearly doesn't matter what the art is like, (barring utter garbage)people will flock to it, especially in this wasteland of tv.

[roygbiv]

Transformers is an American show which was later exported to Japan. Though obviously it is inspired by Mecha...

[Tystys]

Azure, anime is suffereing the same exact thing. Alot of the animes being pumped out now are cursed with the fact that most of the really good storylines have already been done. So every time they try something new, it doesn't work out too well.

So, no, if you ask me, it's not just the storyline but it IS the art style. Anime is known for being somewhat more fluid than American animation in general. Whilst American animation(believe it or not) has a bit more detail that Anime, Anime pretty much builds itself up on how speedy things look, and how many weird faces they can make their characters do, lol.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tystys on 2006-10-05 03:32 ]</font>

[Sayara]

I use to always tend to beleive American cartoons were more "un-molded". Like in cartoons like Billy and Mandy or say any other cartoon there are very little they can't get away with, and not so nice and neat and fitform. If they want abstraction bg go for it!

Wanna puke some fish outta your mouth you got it! Insult that kid who says yo; do it without being racist!

While most of the time, anime is pretty straight forward. Neat little bgs, Solid character design, less random-ness (bar Excel-Saga), oh and that random chibi/SD stuff, isn't as special as say what american cartoons do for double-takes/and the like.


In short:
American cartoons are more wild/extreme with how they go about doing their shows.

PS there was a black guy once in Dragon Ball

[Kevino]

i dont mind some of the shows

[2Deuce]

It also has to be kept in mind the ages that the cartoons are meant to appeal to.

Outside of South Park and the stuff on Adult Swim, US culture is pretty much "cartoon = children's show". The only real mainstream cartoons that we have that's meant to appeal to adults, and is marketed as such would be Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park (Yes, there's others, but none of which have near as much popularity as the aforementioned three.

That's a big part of the reason that a lot of the US animation may seem "lazy" or "lacking", in Shows like Billy & Mandy, or Ed, Edd, Eddy, or Fairly Oddparents, animators know that all they have to do is have a character throw up, drop their pants, or get beaten up, and the show is a hit.

Then, on the contrary, there are shows that actually commit to a storyline, and favor decent animation over cheap quick sight-gags. Stuff like Avatar, Justice League, Static Shock, etc... Shows like that get killed because 90% of the time, those marketing executives automatically think "It's a cartoon, we'll market it to little kids".

In-turn, the little kids don't have the attention-span to stay interested in the storyline, and appreciate the serious moments. and a large chunk of the audience that might stay interested, is turned off because:

- The show airs between Dora the Explorer and Bob the Builder
- The commercial features a 7-year old playing with the toys
- The DVD is listed in the same section as Tom and Jerry

I wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard "Kingdom Hearts, no I've never played that kiddie crap, disney is for 5-year olds."

So yeah... that's my rant...

[Merumeru]

XD very nicely put there

but seriously, i dont give those anime-styled american cartoons a chance, but not because of the animation, its just the plots are always so ridiculous, outdated and boring XD im a drama queen so i love me some realistic themes and interesting stories in my television watching