Japanese vs. American Animation

[BlackDahlia]

I'm kind of 50-50 on this one.

As far as animation type, I mostly prefer Japanese animation. It's well drawn and has a lot of detail. American animation isn't as well drawn, but it is by no means bad.

As far as storyline and such, I mainly prefer American animation. While my favorite cartoon, South Park, may not have any real storyline, it is one of the best animations I have ever seen. I can watch any episode and still get the plot. I don't have to get annoyed with plot dragging and it is always a good watch. Anime on the other hand, isn't done like this and when it is, it usually sucks. Another thing about anime that has always bothered me is that the Japanese seem to be fascinated with little 10-11 year old kid protagonists with the wisdom of an 80 year old person. This alone makes me lose interest in most animes. This may seem silly to say, as South Park is based on little kids, but the show isn't meant to be taken too seriously whereas anime is. But when an anime has more realistic aged characters who act their age, it really is a great watch.

Anyway, that's my opinion. I'm sure most people here will disagree with it, but that's okay lol

[Zed]

americain "cartoons" do have there gold moments, nut i love the japamation more, arrrgh real monsters, rocko's modern life and avatar where good and nick toons has put out some better shows but nothing compared to all the anime ive watched and love

[Valeran]

Anime tends to suit a slightly older demographic, specially older teens, which tends to make it seem a bit more mature.

Western animations has it's own gems, the old Batman The Animated Series probably tops out nearly any anime I've ever watched. It had a dark and mature theme, but still fit into the morning cartoons. Something you can definitely appreciate at every age.

The "good" anime tends to be rather inappropriate for kids, and usually something you'll grow out of.

[Nogdev]

I'm definetely going with anime, not because that it's an anime forum and thus, only anime is to be favoured, but because of the fact that animes have more depth in their story.

When I watch animated media (at least now), I do not look for senseless fights and action, but to the story and the background of the plot. Since animes have them, I prioritize them more than cartoons. Also, the animation of anime rules, and the characters ACTUALLY get hit:beauty:.

Shameful, but I haven't observed this fact until now, while watching Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, where the main villain(Agregor) was taken down in a single 'shock treatment session' by Kevin, and the treatment wasn't even of high degree. I guess even I would have survived that one:amazed:.

In my opinion, American cartoons go down because they mostly emphasise on family matters, like conflict between father and son, wife and husband, girlfriend and boyfriend etc. and the ways by which these problems are mended. This makes them, a trifle monotonic.

It doesn't mean that all American cartoons are lame. For instance, Batman (the old one) was awesome. Then, Justice League Unlimited (which I saw only recently) was mindblowing as well. Also, let's not forget the good ol' Scooby Doo. It's new season, Mystery Incorporated is quite good as well.

[rob4nj3]

american cartoons are meant for kids because they are usually funny and easy to comprehend,while japanese cartoons are for older people. me and my 7 year old cousin like Japanese cartoons better,so i don't think it depends on age,but rather your preference

[animechik]

japan all the way. cartoons back in the 90's and early 2000 could have hold my attention but the crap they making these days- i cant stand them. i can watch an anime from any time and laugh.

[yue0312]

It used to be all japanese anime was the better choice.

As of late however cartoon have been good also. while they are far and few, it is better then what it is used to.

Thunder Cat 2011 and Avatar being prime example.

[† Emotional Outlet]

my god your really are a genius.I understand everything about the iggnorance of the western world and how they must catergorize anime.

Japanese [...] lots more pride in what they are creating by the developers the Americans lack the pride to make it worth watching in my opinion.

japanese anime is downright bad to the writing to the animation so much stills and its always the same story with 90% with there shows. america has better animation then japan. Those adult storys from japan can't even be taking seriously cause of there character designs they all look the same all they do is change there the color of there hair and eyes. Listen i watch alot of both I am a fan of them but you have to be honest with what your watching. i don't mean to mean to any one on the board but I am just giving my point of few

If only the west learned how to draw as intricately and beautifully as the east/Japanese do it

The Japanese animation style has been refined over many years, while American animation has stagnated.

japanese is the best... [...]

american shows are forced to "censor" their shows because the american populace is so obssesed with sheltering our children

then we wonder why our kids are having sex...it's because they think "mommy and daddy say not to do it, so it must be the coolest thing EVER"

I'm not saying we should let kids strait-up watch porn, but they need to learn about it safley

the way the japanese do it almost desensitizes them to the point to where they look at it as just another part of life, that it's nothing special that they should get obsessed with

although, I'm sure they have their own problems with underage pregnancies, but what country doesn't

What the what the what. I feel like some people are just hitting the keyboard randomly and sentences that kind of make sense happened to spill forth. Also, I think there's just one person with multiple accounts posting "japan anime all the way", "japan ftw", and variations thereof. Throwing such outlandish statements and allegations out there without any support or proof is kind of ridiculous.

I understand this is an anime forum, that the vast majority will generally pick anime over almost anything else regardless of what country it's from. However, I'm (perhaps more than I should be) surprised that so many people, in this entire twenty page thread, have just left comments as simple as "ANIME ALL THE WAY" and left it at that. This does not engender conversation at all, but I guess I can't blame people for not reading twenty pages of "I <3 JAPAN".

I'm also disappointed (again, more than I should be) that so there were several instances of people complaining that others are too quick to judge anime harshly and dislike it before even watching it, yet they themselves have turned their back to almost all other animation without giving it a fair chance. If someone turned their back on anime because the one they saw had lolicon and guro in it, you would immediately say, "But it's not all like that! Watch these good ones that are nothing like that crap you watched." Pot, meet kettle.

Other animation is not strictly episodic--there are plenty of shows that continue to expand on the overall plot, have character development, and, yes, even have shocking plot twists! The art quality varies from series to series. Yes, many try to be friendly to as wide an audience as possible. Others, not so much. Blaming American animation for teen pregnancy is like blaming video games for murder. It is seriously making my head hurt that I even have to say this.

As mentioned so many times in this thread, you simply cannot compare the two on such a broad scale (anime versus American animation). Watermelons are not comparable to avocados--not objectively, in any case. A more balanced comparison would be series to series (Naruto to Ben 10, Ranma 1/2 to Generator Rex, whatever). Even comparing general aspects like art, voices, and music is still too broad. This would be akin to comparing RPGs to FPSs. You can't do it without referencing specific games and pretending other games don't exist.

That said, they have their merits. Neither is inherently better than the other. Holy cow.

[lmnop]

i definitely like japanese anime better. you really do see the character development. also really like that during battles and such, its not the same repetition over and over in each episode (except for sailormoon). i still love both kinds of anime though, but i do enjoy the japanese ones better

[Strick9]

I would have to say that after watching 3 generations of American cartoons, I found anime refreshing. Finally, some intelligent stories, well developed characters, and always an underlying theme of duty and honor.

[Renteka-bond]

It depends. There are just as many idiotic and shameless anime as there are cartoons, as well as the reverse. On the whole, I prefer artstyles that can find a good blend between being stylistic and having relateable characters.

[iop890v]

They're just two different type.

[Alice]

I much prefer Japanese animation over American animation any day of the week for these key reasons:  Art, Content, Story, and Music.

 

Japanese animations tops American in all four of those categories.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Dreamcastor

[† LimitLess]

Japanese, they have better plots and character development, it's more mature. American cartoons mostly aim towards children.

[jimjones1098765]

American animation for comedy, Japanese for aciton

[dr_marvel2040]

i like both...........

[Rookie-Rollins]

The problem with western cartoons is funding.

Alot of japanese anime is a manga before hand and already has a fan base, which means the guys with all the money who pay for the animation are more inclined to part with some cash for it.

This means that alot more adult orientated cartoons are made in japan.

unfortunatly for western cartoons there has always been a stigma of cartoons are for kids and comics are for kids.

That is slowly starting to be stripped away with most of the marvel and DC cartoons but it is still there.

With most of the investors that will pay for animation to happen, they want to invest in a safe product that they will see a return on.

So this is were we get the HE-MAN formula. A "GREAT" cartoon in the eyes of the investors is a cartoon that will

1.Be brought by a TV channel or even better a cartoon channel (who market to children) &.

2.Have a toy line.

The toyline is where you make your money. Do you remember "SYMBIONIC TITAIN"? Great Freaking show

took influence from Voltron and other old school cartoons and updated it for a new generation.

Why was it cancelled? No toyline.

So in conclusion where japan is money driven too (Pokemon is a great example of it) make anime that have a large Manga fan base that will buy and watch anime of their favorite manga/Video game/Toy and so on.

Remember they have childish cartoons like us as well but they don't normally export them to western counrties because the "ANIME" fan base is usually teenagers and above.

It doesn't matter if you have a "MIND EXPANDING" idea. if its not going to make enough money for investors to make a boat payment with they don't want to know about it.

Western cartoons are completly profit driven and aimed at children who are more likely not to say "Cartoons are for kids. i'm not watching that" and bug their parents to buy them toys and tshirts and so on. Ben10 is a perfect example.

Why do you think christmas is what it is. It's not a religious holiday anymore it hasn't been for many years. It's a day driven by buisness men to selll their crappy shit at inflated prices.

A really good example of what I'm talking about is the SAW movies. They couldn't get funded by the australian film organization because the idea was

far too non profit for australian audiences. All they were asking for was like a shitty 10 grand to make it as well. They took the idea to America who have a large return on movies and got like millions to make it. It then made billions. The investors could see that it would make them money back.

I did animation for a little while about 10 or 11 years ago.Even had a interview with disney before they moved their Australian studio to indonesia (i think). There were guys I worked with that had amazing ideas for cartoons but they couldn't get funded to make them. But someone comes along with an Idea like f'n DOGSTAR that's cheap to make and a shitty story line and that gets funded.

I don't really play video games but It seems in the western world if you want a good mature story you need to play it yourself.

[Cyrus]

Do you remember "SYMBIONIC TITAIN"? Why was it cancelled? No toyline.

It was canceled because executives tried to make it more like Ben 10, and Genndy didn't want to go with it, so instead it got canned. For the better, I think - it's better to die than become yet another bland action show

[Rookie-Rollins]

Im not trying to start an argument but  The guy who created Genndy said in an interview that it was cancelled because it had no merch. But i agree, cancelling it only made it more powerful like Invader Zim.

[edrazeba]

American transformers cartoons are way more story oriented than japanese ones which want to shove a toy down your throat and will happily have a nonsense story line and inconsistent characters just to make things big and showy.