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What’s up with American Animation?

Here’s one of my biggest pet peeves – American animation. It sucks, for the most part.
I mean really, the Japanese get Final Fantasy with its plethora of hot guys and cool motorcycles and long, thick…swords…
And we in America get what? Shrek 🙁
Don’t get me wrong, I do like Shrek. I have all three movies on DVD. I thought it was quite funny.
But I mean, come on people – these are characters you can draw, characters you make up, characters that can be as hot or not as you like, so why not make them hot? Why not give us some eye candy for crying out loud?
Why be happy with this:
When you can have this?:
 And what about the art? Most American animation has only one level of color (for lack of a technical way to describe it) while the Japanese use three. I’m talking about a main color, a shadow and a highlight. The details in the backgrounds on Japanese animation is incredible as well.
Think Family Guy or The Simpson’s versus, well, anything Japanese, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note and holy cow, Ergo Proxy or Howl’s Moving Castle or Gankutsuou (yep, I’m an AlbertxFranz fan).

Is it just that most American animation is meant to be comical and therefore we just accept crappy cartoons? Many anime are funny as well – how about Fruit’s Basket and what about how many hot guys were in that show?

Bottom line here is, although I do adore The Simpson’s, Family Guy, and all those lovely Pixar movies for their comedic value, I really really really wish the forces that be in America would wake up and give us what the Japanese have gotten all along – truely artistic animation, intriguing storylines (hey, I didn’t even touch on that subject…) and lot and lots of eye candy.

Regards,

Christie

6 Comments

  1. Katrina Strauss

    "Amerime" like Air Gear is the closest offering we have with its ongoing story arc that shows the characters age physically and evolve emotionally. (Another big difference between anime and Western toons!)

    Gankutsuou is trippy! Although I ship the Count with Albert, twisted perv that I am. LOL

  2. Aerliss

    O.O South Park… children… wrong.

    I don't think America should bother trying to copy Japanese animation and art styles; they both occupy different niches and they fill those niches well (I'd like to see more 3D CG stuff a la Action Man and Max Steel… though it may be out there and I've not noticed). There's no point in America (or any Western country) trying to produce animation on the same level of… shall we say 'pretty'… as Japan (Korea, China etc)… the East has the market flooded.

    I have to admit that I'm not a fan of many of America's recent additions to animated series. That's mostly because I don't find them funny. Think Venture Brothers, Metalocolypse and Drawn Together (all that stuff that Adult Swim airs). I'll stick to American computer games and live action for now… unless FOX completely kill it off *cough*

  3. Christie Gordon

    You know it's sad that my foray into anime started with Adult Swim and now I can hardly find decent anime on there at all anymore (unless it's 2am):( I don't like that stuff so much either. I do agree that the East has the market on pretty men, but I do think they tend to get repetitive on style. Adding some westerners into the mix could be interesting:)

    Christie

  4. Aerliss

    Disney used to do pretty… sorta. How many of us had our first crush on Aladdin or Robin Hood (when you're six it's not creepy!).

    Adult Swim is lame… it has no anime on the UK channel 😛 (not that I have cable anyway).

    One of the things I like about anime is its repetitiveness, the cliches. It's sort of like… comforting. New shows feel familiar, yet different… especially if they're shounen-ai XD But then it can be utterly crazy different, or go off on one completely… like Le Portrait de Petitte Cosset, Kino no Tabi, Paranoia Agent or Grave for the Fireflies (not that you could really find anyone to slash in those).

  5. Eiri Saiyuki

    We have a very big discussion about that here in my school (posting from my school xD). I'm in Graphic Design in Gestalt Design School in Veracruz, Mexico. The Dean had this idea of making a congress about Japanimation. The problem is when you ask the teachers for help to organize, they think anime is crap ._.
    Had they never realize about the kind of always-the-same animation in America?

    I have to say I had exposed about Anime & Manga to a few people and I had always found something, some anime that they could like it. Even my parents. So I understand you: Shrek just not good enough.

  6. Rachel

    I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Now a day I don’t even bother watching American cartoons because a) every episode I have watch is basically the same shit and it gets boring after awhile, b) they are not even funny and their jokes are lame that either have to do with sex, violence, drugs, farting, or poop jokes and it just lame, and c) the plots are pointless and always the same in every episode. So long ago I said, “ENOUGH” and switch to watching only live action tv or anime. I think that is what attracted me to anime more because there are so many different types of genres to pick from so that I could find something that fit my taste more and I have more options to choose from then American cartoons which is just basically lame comedy.

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