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Japanese Anime or American Cartoons?

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 4:08 am
by Trilandian
Hi, I know this is a rather weird poll/thread to be posting in an anime related forum, but I hope I can get objective replies here.

The question is simple: "Which do you like better - Japanese Anime or American Cartoons?"
The answer, however, is not so simple. When comparing these two, many factors must be brought into account, and the standalone significance of each factor must also be debated. What factors am I talking about? That's up to each individual to decide. After all, we each look at different aspects of cinematography to define what a good movie/series/show is.

As for now, I think I'll kick things off by sharing my opinion.
Now, as we all know, American movie studios (namely Walt Disney and Warner Brothers) have produced a significant collection of high-performance, extremely professional and very well made cartoons, many of which are considered by people around the world as true classics. There is no argument in the fact that the Americans were very successful in this field and have proven themselves to be real craftsmen of animated cinematographic productions.
However, and despite all of that, in my eyes - Japanese animated productions (anime) are superior. It is not a matter of quality, nor of quantity, but rather of demographic influence fields. What I'm trying to say is that unlike the majority of the American animation industry, a large portion of the Japanese animated industry does not aim their products directly at children. As you all know, American cartoons tend to be, oh, how shall I put it, slightly immature. It is well known that they are mostly works of plush, light home entertainment and are kept on a strict family rating. Japanese anime on the other hand, is aimed a lot of the time at the "teens and up" viewer crowd, meaning that they are more mature and less restrained. For, as you all know, Japanese anime tends to include violence, death, gore and displays of an even more mature nature (the word Hentai sums up that statement pretty well). Because of content of this nature, I'm fairly certain that at least half of the Japanese anime that I enjoy now, at the age of 17, I can still enjoy years later, somewhere in my late 20s.
In short, the reason because of which American animation to me is inferior to Japanese animation, is because the producers of American cartoons tend to be narrow sighted when it comes to widening the demographic distribution of their works. And I don't really blame them directly, after all, all the aforementioned high points of Japanese animation have been dominated by the movie and television industries in America, leaving only a small target audience available for the cartoonists to appeal to without too much competition (after all, they do have to make money off of this). This, of course, gives Japanese anime a slight handicap in this competition.
... or maybe it doesn't? Maybe it's something else? Maybe I've approached it from the wrong angles? Maybe I haven't paid attention to the most significant factors? What do you think? If you have an opinion about what I have said, or, preferably, about the main topic, I would very much like to hear (read) it.

Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:11 am
by jedinat
Like anyone would be on this forum who like american cartoons better.

And the points you made in that long post are just common sense...

Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 5:38 pm
by gogogoh
I think that all the anime coming from japan is the best. It started there, I think. Anyways Japanese anime is the boom.

Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 10:21 pm
by conan_xp
obviously Jap anime. I think Animes are way better than american cartoons (especially with wut they air this days..it makes me sick). If the Jap anime is subbed in English then im happy.

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 2:18 am
by jedinat
gogogoh wrote:I think that all the anime coming from japan is the best. It started there, I think. Anyways Japanese anime is the boom.
lol, I hope you're being sarcastic.

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:51 am
by Trilandian
I wouldn't get my hopes up. :wink:

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:59 pm
by Trilandian
Well, just as expected, the voting here was completely one sided. I hoped to at least get an intelligent discussion out of this, but... I guess I was hoping for too much. :(

Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 2:05 pm
by Locky
I also like Jap anime better then american cartooons.
Mostly because "US cartoons" are common to me/us.

For example, if you watch an US scifi, it's about going to space and being stuck there or about monsters shredding peolple appart. Mostly concentrated on the future

Japanese scifi is titaly different (due to cultural differences most likely). They have another conception on what is scifi. As far as I know japanese scifi movies are concentrated on their history and future, combined. When that happens a total different genre within scifi. Especially less common to Americans en Yurpeans :P.

Locky

Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 8:32 pm
by Klibbnisse
Well... Anime dominates... 100%, 22 votes. Well, this is an animeforum so it isn't that suprising.

I like J-Anime better that US Cartoons, but i don't say Cartoons sucks... I like 'em too ;)

Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:33 pm
by daiset
I agree with Trilandian about the target of anime: not only children.
And also with Locky.
Note: My first language isn't english, sorry for the bad writing.

First I must clarify something: Anime is just a way of doing animations, so I think you'll find all kind of anime shows. Ranging from crap to master pieces. I already rated 184 animes in AniDB so I already saw most of the spectrum ;-)
So I assume we are talking about the best anime v.s. the best american cartoons.

Now this point is clear: Anime is much best than american cartoons. But not only this, is best than american movies. Only a few american movies are at the same level of anime (i.e. Blade Runner).
Why?
I think the main difference is about the difference between both cultures.
One interesting example is the concept of the good guy and the bad guy.
In most US stories the villain is somebody crazy that doesn't have any reason to do "the bad thing", in fact they are quite stupid when compared to the hero. In most anime shows this difference doesn't exist, in some cases you even can understand the "bad guy" and even when you disagree with the villain you understand why s/he behaves like this.
The real world isn't black or white (good/evil) but something in between. This concept is much better replicated in anime.

Sci-Fi anime is also great. I'm not 17, but 35 and I work in the technology field. When I saw Ghost in the Shell SAC I loved it and when I recommended it to my colleagues they first said "cartoons? that's for children", but after looking the first chapter they got completly hooked. Some of them saw the 26 episodes in one day!

I also like anime because they have original and surprising ideas.

The funny situations in anime are also "funnier" than the ones in cartoons. Most probably because they contain some adult touches, but may be also because the japanese sense of humor matches better with mine.

Another plus of anime is the "message". Most US shows have no message at all or some silly/obvious message. Anime have deep concepts, I guess that's another thing that japanese culture got from chinese culture.

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 11:30 am
by Trilandian
daiset wrote:Some of them saw the 26 episodes in one day!
26 episodes in one day?! Wow! That's like 9 hours, not including time for food and bathroom brakes.

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 4:34 pm
by Nightrafe
I will definitely choose for Japanese anime
american isn't that good at all

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 1:24 pm
by Gambit
Trilandian wrote:26 episodes in one day?! Wow! That's like 9 hours, not including time for food and bathroom brakes.
That`s not so hard, really. If you marathon series like Full Metal Alchemist, Hunter x Hunter (chrono watched it + all ovas in 1 sit) or Fushigi Yuugi + ovas (1.5 days, although I took a break of 2 hours of sleep), you can easily get to watch more of them.
Too bad I don`t have any time to do so anymore ;)

What most people don`t know is that lots of older American cartoons were made in Japan ;) Mask, or Transformers for instance.

As for daiset, I take it you`re comparing the best anime with the best movies? Because anime contains quite a lot of crap as well.

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:53 am
by jaret
Even that crappy animation called "king of the hill" is made on japan.... it's a waste to have japanese people making such terrible animations.

as said before, anime is just a way of doing animation, so there are good animes and bad animes.

You cant say ALL american movies are bad, the real problem is hollywood and people who like watching movies filled with cliches.

The essential diffrence in cinematography is the story. There is a difference between literature and sub-literature. Sub-literature has cliches, good and evil, fools, etc. while literature has real character development and original stories. it's the same with any movie, series or whatever.

I'd like to recommend a rather good sci-fi american movie that wasnt a box office hit but is i found it pretty good for an american movie (no offense to americans) it's called "Dark City" it's from 1998.
A short sci fi anime which i really enjoyed and is quite good cause as said before, the "bad guy" (in this series there isnt really a villian you'd ahte bur there's a not very likeable person) has a reason for being bad. It's a romance ova called "Iriya no sora UFO no natsu".

Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:35 am
by Trilandian
I watched dark city, I didn't find it very good though since they overdid the whole conspiracy thing.

And anyway, I think this thread is getting sidetracked. The topic at hand is Japanese animation vs. American animation, not Japanese cinematography vs. American cinematography. After all, how many of us can honestly say they watch Japanese movies on a regular basis?