Why Japanese Anime Is Superior To American Animation

Does Better: Character Design

Due to the limited animation style, Japanese anime can afford to have more detailed character designs while Western animation keeps things simple, often basing their characters around shapes.

Compare popular Western series Adventure Time to an anime from a similar genre like Hunter X Hunterthe extent of detail is on a different level. Fans find anime characters particularly compelling for fan-art and cosplays.

Why Is Anime So Popular In America

Anime was unlike anything most Americans had seen at the time. It had a unique art style, it was violent, it was insane because people were flying around shooting laser beams and blowing up mountains, and it was a power fantasy. Anime opened up a world that Americans never experienced in any film or book. It inspires people to be more childish and says its okay to be, even as an adult. In America anime makes us feel like were learning something about another culture, despite it being only a small pocket of knowledge about a foreign country.

4. How Popular Is Anime In The World?

Its been watched globally since the 2000s. Not only the US, other Western countries like France and Germany are also big fans of anime. Commercially, it contributed $17.7 billion of revenue to the Japanese film industry in 2016, in which Asia market accounts for 40%, North America 12%, and Europe contributes the rest of the 26%.

Whats most striking is how animes impact is coming full circle. Some recent American cartoon productions, like Avatar: The last airbender are openly inspired by anime itself, and live-action English-language versions of anime titles are starting to come into production more frequently. Every year there are a couple of shows that pull in a large audience from the non-anime community because of all the hype, celebrities talking about it, and the memes.

Why Are Anime Girls With Food In Their Mouths So Cute Ifunny

Why is anime so popular outside of japan. Share on facebook. Anime is a term used to describe the style of japanese animation and has been around since the early 20th century.

Now anime and its comic book counterpart manga are hugely successful in japan and beyond with an industrial worth of over 15 billion us dollars. Whether youre in grocery stores on the trains or at the mall doraemon is an iconic face in japan.

Now anime and its comic book counterpart manga are hugely successful in japan and beyond with an industrial worth of over 15 billion us dollars. And i a lot of people said they were suprised.

Guardian of the sacred spirit. In my previuos video i mentioned that when i was little and throughout my early teens i didnt know that so many people outside japan watched anime.

After all arent westerners only interested in macho superheroes or short comic. Why has manga and anime found such a significant audience outside of japan including europe britain northern america andaustralasia.

Why is japanese anime so popular in other countries. While manga is ubiquitous in japan just ride the subway in any major city and youll see people from all walks of life flipping through a comic book many japanese people are surprised to hear how popular manga has become overseas.

Outside of japan you may have been lucky enough to catch this little guys face a few times. There are many cultural reasons why this genre is popular with a global audience.

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Anime’s Differences With Western Comics And Cartoons Are Often Caused By Cultural Differences Between Japan And The West

In both sides, you have the mainstream vs. the underground. Mainstream comics and cartoons are about making money. So they’re safe, coloring within society’s lines, never challenging the status quo. Underground comics, with edginess and moral complexity, seemed to come later in the history of comics than did edgy, subversive, underground manga. Perhaps this difference is due to the fact that losing the war lost the Japanese people confidence as a nation and trust in their government. But winning it for America did the opposite, it made more people believe in American exceptionalism. So it took really until we lost our own war in Vietnam, which was also a terribly unpopular war, for our confidence in the American status quo to begin to crack.

Early manga is infused with a melancholy feeling. This melancholy is the direct result of the despair felt by the entire country following the war. However, in showing child-like innocence, such as that of Astro Boy, Japan also kept alive the idea of some small hope for the future. Hope to recover from the devastation of the loss of the war and the nuclear bombings. Obviously, as conditions improved in the country, the tone and feeling of anime and manga also became more optimistic in general.

Anime is synonymous with a distinct art style. This makes it famous as a medium. But, more serious shows subvert the usual paradigm of goofy hair, big eyes, and bright colors.

What Are Some Things You Think That American Animation Does Better Than Japanese Animation

Anything about early or contemporary American animation you think is done better than anime? What about the other way around?

Unfortunately the down side to this is that they often times overstay their welcome. I lost interest in Simpsons and Family Guy a long time ago.

You don’t hear of that many animation studios in us dropping like flies vs Japanese ones, although I’d guess the industry had its bloodletting years ago.

I will never get tired of Phineas and Ferb/Spongebob.

Am 20.

American shows are probably much more direct with romance

Avatar had so many great kisses.

this is something I can agree

The animation quality is always the same.

At least I haven’t noticed noticeable drops in the quality like in DB Super.

There was a pretty big drop in quality for the second season of Legend of Korra, although the quality increased again for the third and fourth seasons. So it definitely can happen in American animation, too, although in my experience, it’s less common.

How do you DECREASE animation quality in a DB show? /s

Some cartoons in the 90s had different studios working for it at once with noticeable changes in quality. For example, Ren and Stimpy under Rough Draft Studios/Ren and Stimpy under Carbunkle Cartoons

Classic cartoons actually had this taken farther, where the animator or director completely determined how good it was going to look see Rod Scribner, which Ren and Stimpy and anime studios have quite a bit of, most notably Gainax .

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Western Comics And Cartoons: The Early Years

Disney got its start in the 1930s with the debut hit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This enchanting take on a classic fairy tale skyrocketed Disney to the top of the U.S. animation industry in subsequent decades. Disney distinguishes its products as promoting family values and traditional American culture, but they have also changed their content to reflect social changes over time.

In the 1930s, printing presses evolved rapidly that could print newspapers and their associated photos faster, and in better quality. Translating a colored ink drawing into a printable format wasn’t easy back then.

Traditional norms for comic books in America developed to handle issues associated with ink and printing. Comics were first penciled by one artist, then the pencil marks were inked by another, and then when that was dry, a colorist would fill in the color. The colors available were limited, so early comics were often either black and white, or colored with mostly bold primaries. Comic books soon became a worldwide sensation. Early manga in Japan were heavily influenced by American comics and animation, especially by Disney. This is due to the post-war occupation of Japan by the United States, which caused American pop culture to disseminate among the Japanese public.

In more recent Western games and animation, since the primary enemy of the U.S. is Middle-Eastern terrorism, the U.S. media has changed to reflect our country’s new fears.

Camera Shots And Viewpoints

American animation tends to use straight-on camera shots, less concerned with cinematic angles and dramatics than with clearly depicting the events, though there are exceptions to that rule. Japanese animation often makes use of exaggerated angles, perspectives, and zooms to intensify the mood of a scene and show actions to extreme effect.

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Would Anime By Any Other Name Look As Sweet

To some, anime’s popularity and marketing synergy pale in the face of “low quality” animation. Full-animation purists, like the old Toei Studios and Miyazaki, resisted the new wave of Japanese animation. Their features feature the full movement of characters. These studios took honor and pride in smooth, fluid animation. They sought to “produce the ‘illusion of life.”

Astro Boy‘s popularity shocked them all. Astro Boy and its successors flaunted their lack of realism. Animation critic Joji Hayashi contends, “limited-animation does not try to hide from the spectator the fact that it is an unreal image.” Although anime’s techniques create an illusion of motion, it does not try to emulate reality as full-animation does.

The debate continues today. Miyazaki and other full-animation purists connect animation to reality. In a recent interview Miyazaki bemoaned the current state of anime. Otaku are ruining the industry, he said, by creating stylized and therefore unrealistic character driven works.

But animation expert Roger Noake counters,

There is a danger in confusing full-animation with good animation. At its best it can be excellent. But if full-animation is used as the norm by which all other animation is judged, this can promote a cruel and narrow attitude .

Manga Influences And Sales

Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly estimated that the “Total U.S. manga sales in 2007 rose about 10%, to more than $220 million, and about 1,468 titles are estimated to have been released last year.” With the popularity of manga on the rise graphic novel artists are beginning to adapt their style to that of manga. Manga provides diversity in the graphic novel department not seen in the American comic book industry. In a different trend celebrities are getting their hands into the manga market, rock star Courtney Love has published her own manga called Princess Ai. The production of original English language manga has started. CBR columnists Joe Casey and Matt Fraction describe the increase of manga sales in the United States, “Manga is the 900-pound bear in the comics shop. Inescapable, unavoidable, and impossible to ignore, the manga explosion is either going to go awayâwhich is bad, as so many mass-market bookstores seem to be bulking up their comics supply based on manga’s leadâor manga will continue to growâalso bad, as the direct market scrambles to keep up. The entire industry is being forced, month by month, little by little, into a paradigm shift not seen since the advent of the direct market in the early ’80s, all thanks to these strange little books from far away.”

Rozen Maiden

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Where To Watch Anime Online

After all this information youre probably chomping at the bit to actually watch some. Thankfully you live in the streaming renaissance, which means its easier than ever to get your fix. Thanks to questionable enforcement of copyright laws there are plenty of sites to stream anime for free. Mainstream streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have extensive anime collections, even producing their series and financing the import of new titles. You probably already have those options, but if youre looking for a more in-depth catalog of classic titles and new releases distributors like Crunchyroll and Funimationeach offer dirt stream digital services.

Editors note: This article is updated for relevance.

John-Michael Bond

John-Michael Bond is a tech reporter and culture writer for Daily Dot. A longtime cord-cutter and early adopter, he’s an expert on streaming services , devices , and anime. A former staff writer for TUAW, he’s knowledgeable on all things Apple and Android. You can also also find him regularly performing standup comedy in Los Angeles.

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Social Issues In Japan: Marriage Sex And The Hikikomori

I recently ran into a couple at a sakura flower-viewing party. Theyd met through a matchmaker, and told me they were planning to get married. I just got tired of being alone, said the guy. I made up my mind to get married, said the girl. So you decided to get married and then you met each other? They both nodded. I think we do it the other way around in the U.S. Ken Seeroi, Japanese Rule of 7.

Arranged marriages used to be incredibly common in Japan, usually organized by the parents or with the help of a matchmaker or nakodo. After World War 2 many Japanese rebelled against their parents and wanted their marriages to be based on love. As a result nowadays many parents strongly recommend a partner, allowing the man or woman to make the final decision . Its a choose or we choose for you mentality. However the miai appears to fluctuate in popularity depending on the circumstances of the country, as these types of marriages became more popular after the 2011 tsunami .

Ah, sex in Japan, always a hot topic in online forums. If youre a man, and you post: Im having lots of sex in Japan! then someone will surely reply: The women youre seeing are all hoes. Or, if youre a woman and you post the same thing, then: You yourself are a ho. Okay, so the internets never been famous for politeness. Ken Seeroi, Japanese Rule of 7.

Usagi DropWelcome to the NHK!

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Does Worse: Lip Syncing

Another side-effect of limited animation is bad lip-syncing. To save on cost and time, studios tend to loop and reuse sequences of animation, especially the mouth movement. The animation is completed before recording the dialogue, resulting in an animated mouth that doesn’t match the words coming out of it.

While fans of anime have learned to overlook this, it can become a serious distraction from the story and dialogue, potentially breaking the immersion for the audience. Dubbed anime usually has better lip-syncing than the original due to the dialogue translation being altered in order to match the movement of characters’ mouths.

Anime’s Success Ingredient : Astro Boy

As we learned in Michael Richey’s Anime Before It Was ‘Anime’, Japanese animation dates back to the early 1900’s. But pre-war productions are best described as cartoons, not anime. Richey explains, “Anime, as we all know it now, began with Osamu Tezuka‘s style and production methods and everyone in Japan following his lead.”

Prior to Osamu’s Astro Boy, or , animation occupied a marginal position in Japan’s cultural consciousness. Japanese studios faced limitations that made competition with foreign studios impossible. Meager budgets meant Japanese studios faced an uphill battle against foreign features’ financing, sound and color .

Although the need for wartime propaganda fueled the production of pro-war cartoons like Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors , the war effort, government censorship and widespread destruction stifled Japan’s manga and animation industries.

After the war, Japan’s movie studios looked to beautiful animation from abroad for inspiration. Fully-animated features from China and the US provided the blueprint. Instead of forging their own path, Toei, Toho and other Japanese studios sought to imitate their foreign rivals.

As a result, Japan’s studios produced theatrical features. Despite Japan’s intense post-war recovery, animation remained too time consuming and too cost prohibitive for television. But Astro Boy‘s 1963 debut changed everything.

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Will This Ever Change In The Future

I doubt it. But maybe it doesnt need to.

Remember what I said? Only a SMALL portion of Japanese and Asians live this way, act this way, and even think this way. Regardless of whether theyre in the anime

But I would love to see anime creators, designs and studios work on characters who feel and look more Japanese in future. Unless relevant.

Im sure all of us want that. Otherwise can we really say what were watching is Japanese, besides the subtitles?

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American Animation Or Anime

Additional Source: American CGI animated film character from Frozen – on the left – compared to Japanese hand-drawn Anime character from When Marnie was there – on the right

Animation industries around the world specialize in different artistic and technical styles. However, the American and Japanese animation industries are by far the two most influential forms of entertainment in the past century.

There has been great debate on which of the two types of animation hold more significance, and are constantly been compared to one another. I would say American and Japanese animation differ on various grounds, such as the style they implement, the way they animate, camera angles and their content and audiences.

Some famous American Animation studios that have contributed to producing many masterpieces are known for their concept and style in animating. Walt Disney, Warner Bros, MGM, Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Sony Pictures are just a handful of the top leading companies in American animation. However, their style cannot be compared to the Anime industry with companies such as Studio Ghibli, Kyoto Animation and Nippon Animation creating animations with different criteria. These criteria have propelled its viewers into dynamic interactions such as conventions, fanzines, manga production, cosplay , fan-subbing and more .

Figure 1 – The Amazing Spiez

Figure 2 – Spongebob Squarepants characters

Figure 4 – Anime settings comparison to real life locations

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