There is what I dare say a balance between Japanese Anime and American cartoons and movies. When it comes to Anime, things like manga and the shows itself tend to be more appealing and more popular in general. With anime and manga the art its usually more attractive, sexier, glossier and it makes you want to rip the page right off the book. When it comes to American Cartoons and movies, the truth that all fans will agree on is that, American Cartoons have better jokes, better comedy but art will suck and the story just wont be as deep as Anime and manga.
So in this article we are going to break down the reason why Anime and Manga always win above American Cartoons.
The Art Work
Lets face it. Manga beats American cartoons by millions of miles when it comes to art work and dare I say even comic book characters like Marvel and DC.
Anime and Manga usually look beautiful and appealing to the eye. When it comes to American style, the drawings tend to be more cartoon like. It is suppose to make you laugh, which is fine. The problem is that America will commonly lean towards the cartoon style of drawing, rather than the superhero, Marvel and DC, style of drawing with actual human proportions and detailed images. Most shows on Cartoon Network are very cartoony and if it wasn’t for anime, cartoon network audience would be just children.
Take a look at Toonami. The night time block that brought you Dragon Ball Z and a whole bunch of other shows(mostly anime). Wolves Rain, Ruroni Kenshin and other shows on Toonami, they had the highest ratings. Not only is anime artwork more appealing but the story tends to be deeper and more luring.
Now don’t get me wrong, back in the 1990’s there were cool shows like Johnny Quest, PIrates of Dark Water and He-Man. Those shows were really cool. However, recently, American shows have been leaning over the cartoon style of drawing than the full size human proportion characters. We saw this with Teen Titans. The show was so popular and when it came back from Hiatus the new Teen Titans GO! I was so fucking pissed. Teen Titans GO! should have been, Teen Titans NO! They literally went from an incredible show to a mediocre cartoon for kids. Not many people know that American animation companies do this on purpose. They decrease the quality of animation to save money because making a show with real life looking characters is more expensive.
Disney movies lean more towards Anime style of drawing but with their own taste. I believe that is one reason why Disney is very successful. They are using the “Anime Formula.” If you take a look at many Disney movies, even the CG movies, the characters look much like humans, most of the time. The Incredibles, Frozen, Tangle, Wreck It Ralph. You name it. Disney kept a nice and appealing style of drawing that they knew both adults and children will enjoy. The drawing style is closer to anime than many other American cartoons.
At the end of the day, Anime and Manga style of drawing and art always win. There are many American artist who are adopting this style such as Mark Crilley on Youtube.
This is also funny because Manga was inspired by American Cartoons back in world war 2, however, manga had kept a rather mature style of drawing rather than a child like style such as Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes or Tex Avery cartoons.
The Story
Okay so I have been watching both Anime and American shows since I was 5 years old. One of the first Anime’s I remember watching when I was a kid was Knights of the Zodiac. I also watched shows like the Justice League on Cartoon Network.
I would say that Anime was always deep. American Cartoons have no changed much and still have similar themes. However, American movies have changed their style of storytelling.
American Cartoon Storytelling.
American cartoons, even the superhero ones, started out with the desire to make the viewer or reader laugh. Sure, you sit down and enjoy a good story but in the end, the point was to make you laugh. This is how it started back in the 1920’s with Felix The Cat, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Steam Boat Willy with Mickey Mouse. You can actually watch the documentary (biography) of Walt Disney called Walt Before Mickey. It was the story of how Walt Disney got started and how he came up with the idea of Mickey mouse. The company was first called, Laugh-O-Gram.
Cartoons were originally made to make us laugh. That is why we have Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and all those characters. This is how Americans viewed cartoons. Then came the Superhero comics, with deeper story telling but the problem was, it was very black and white.
With Superhero comic books and cartoon shows like the justice League, it was good versus bad, light against dark, good versus evil. The bad guy tries to destroy the world and then the good guy will come and save the day.
Black and White.
One of the reason why superhero comic books and animated shows, is because Marvel and DC saw how deep and even dark and gritty a lot of anime and manga was. Take a manga like Berserk (fuck the anime) read through it and see how dark it is. The style of drawing, the motivation behind every character, the well thought out story and how the readers can relate to the character. This is why manga and anime continue to win.
As a matter of fact this is why Spiderman is everyone’s favorite superhero, because they can relate to him more than other superheroes.
Fast forward to 2018 Avengers Infinity War’s Thanos. You know that when you watched that movie you felt for Thanos. You even sympathize for Thanos. American cartoons and even comic books are just starting to do this. To go deeper and to make the characters more relatable.
Anime and manga storytelling
One of my favorite anime and manga of all time is Naruto. WHY? well because I can relate to him.
Naruto is about a boy with a curse seal on his stomach that contains a monster, the very monster that destroyed the village where he lives. Everyone knows the demon that is trapped in his stomach with the cursed seal. Naruto’s youth was very challenging. Having everyone look at you like a monster, not having any friends, having to proof yourself, Oh yeah and being raised without mother or father. That was me. I could relate to Naruto so much I fell in love with the show. Naruto made me cry. That is right I said it.
So think about this. When was the last time a comic book made you cry and shed a tear. When did that happen?
Think about it for a moment.
Anime is very emotional. Now some of you might think, “well all these anime fans are just a bunch of sissies.” Well no, I don’t think so. Even Dragon Ball Z made me cry at some point.
The purpose of art is to make you feel things. It is to make you question life and question your self. Also, if you cannot relate to the characters that you read about in books, manga, comic books or movies, then why would you continue watching. If you don’t feel for the characters, if you don’t care about the characters then why would you continue to watch.
As a matter of fact, this is why Harry Potter is so popular. The boy who lived. The boy who lived in a tiny room under the stairs of his aunt and uncles house. By the way that was also me. I used to live in a similar situation.
I bet you that so many people feel for Harry Potter and wanted to see so badly how Harry turns the situation around.
This is what Anime and Manga get right. This is why people are emotionally invested into anime. Superhero comic books might be cool but people read manga and watch anime because they are emotionally invested in the characters. In other words, superheroes is something that you want to be but anime characters is who you are.
Take a look at Death Note. The way light Yagami sees the world. Is more than just, “I have a notebook that kills people now I am going to take over the world.” Light Yagami in Death Note actually believes that he is saving the world similar to Thanos. Light Yagami is a school kid that began to see himself as a god. The story goes much deeper of course but the mind games that he plays on people is absolutely crazy. When people watch this anime, they are so invested in how Light Yagami changes as a person and lets not forget, living a double life. The philosophy in Death Note runs deep and it makes you think about life. Death Note makes you do some soul searching after watching.
Take a look at Spirited Away. It is not just an animated film for kids. It is so much deeper and spiritual, that is why even adults like it. It is a story about a little girl who learns what it means to be responsible. Her journey really matured her and you see how she changes from the beginning of the movie to the very end.
Anime and Manga always wins.
American cartoons have to be more creative with their story telling and how they connect with their viewers.
Philosophy And Anime
Anime will always be better than American cartoons for the simple fact that you actually learn more from anime than you ever will from American cartoons.
A movie like Despicable Me with the little yellow minions is very entertaining and it makes you laugh. However, if you have children and they are constantly in front of the TV, would you want them to actually learn something everyday. If your children watch an anime like Mirai, a story about a child who meets his baby sister in the future. He learns to appreciate his new born baby sister by meeting her in the future (in a stranger time travel magical way).
There is a reason why many anime live action adaptations don’t do well even with an American budget. Hollywood does not understand anime. Is not just cultural differences but also how Americans view animated TV shows and movies. America entertainers like to remake a lot of shows as to in Japan, shows just continue on (They don’t usually remake shows and movies).
American cartoons focus on making you laugh. As said earlier, this is the reason why the Looney Tunes were created. Not just laughter but also they hold the idea of being cool. Japanese anime on the other hand does not focus on being cool. It focuses on telling a good story that is why even kids shows can bee deep. That is why Anime like Naruto stay close to people’s hearts (especially the Chunin exam saga).
If American cartoons had a more serious tone and weren’t all about telling jokes and getting a laugh out of people (which is fine) then it would be more popular. If they would take their viewers more seriously as well as their stories then there would be other bigger genres in American other than superheroes. There would be more philosophy and wonder and…more comic book sales.
Anime does not shy away from philosophy and exploring ideas and educating their readers and viewers. Western cartoons on the other hand are usually created from a religious point of view being that America is dominantly a Christian country as well as other western countries. With Anime we get mind bottling stories like Death Note, tear jerking stories like Your Name, power breaking anime like Dragon Ball Z and deep related stories like Naruto trying to become Hokage.
American movies like the Matrix are amazing however, there is still somewhat of a stigma that cartoons are for children that is why there isn’t much effort put into the story like Shonen anime and manga.
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