Cartoons vs. Anime

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matt0044

matt0044

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While I don't have any solid opinions on this debate (and I don't look down on one in favor of the other), I'm wondering what people here think about Japanese Animation compared to Western Animation. Please don't be rude and be constructive in your opinions be it about animation, art, storytelling, tendencies, things one has over the other, pros and cons, etc. You can debate with each other so long as it don't boil down to insults.

Have fun.

P.S. If this is the wrong place for this thread, let me know.
 
cartoons because they revolve around things i love marvel,dc comics, godzills ect. anime largly fails when they try and do anything like this.

i find some anime characters over the top with huge air and cut scenes where there head suddey grows to look more angry, i find it harder to take anime seriously for this reason.
 
Personally, I prefer anime over cartoons because anime isn't afraid to show human emotion. One anime can show the whole spectrum of emotion.
I can always find characters to relate to aswell as characters who I can look up to, like Edward Elric from FMA.

But a big thing that keeps me into anime is the art style. Mainly because I'm an artist.
Also the music, cus I can't name too many shows that have a more perfect soundtrack then Cowboy Bebop.

To me cartoons just lack all of that. They don't tend to show emotion, nor can I relate to any of the characters. The art (from my eyes) looks rather cheap, and the music score isn't their.

To be honest, I'm alittle biased over anime being better then cartoons because Fullmetal Alchemist helped me over come my post-traumatic stress years ago.
 
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Cartoons for sure. pretty much the Big names in cartoons from the 30s and 40s and later (Loony tunes, Woody woodpecker, Tom and jerry, ect) were some of the best works of art even i have seen. all of the violence and hidden jokes made the shows very entertaining. the sound effects also made the show enjoyable. Fast forward to the 1990s and we had Animated Grade AAA platinum. SHows like Ren and Stimpy, Rockos Modern life, Animaniacs and Two stupid dogs really gave the young audience and older audience both humor and ejoyability. Most of these whows were Over the top with content which only adults would get and it wuld go over young viewrs heads. Hence the TVTROPE "getting crap past the radar" and the saying from animaniacs "GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY". Also the random content would also be entertaining because with Ed from ed edd n eddy, from his gargantuan strenght to words of wisdom " Eddy if carrots are good for your eyes can they dial a phone?" SHows that had all of that combinded such as Angry Beavers, Cow and Chicken/ I AM Weasel were all part of my childhood that i wathced at friends houses very often

With anime most of it i dont like due to the over clilched plots and content and it majorly lacks the funny goofyness that most western shows i watched growing up had. Back in the Day, Pokemon and Yugioh were part of the Daily after school cartoons and waking up on saturdays. But for me i dont like when goes all serious and no comedy to the grade of the west (useually due to the dubbers) but most steriotypacle anime characters just dont do it for me. i never though Pink, blue and purple haired girls and boys going on a long adventure to become the greatest Ninja in shows were interest grabbing. but hey there are a few animes i do enjoy such as Blue exorcist and Samurai champloo
 
Anime often have very serious plots and detailed story bases - such as Death Note. I don't think I've seen any cartoons that are heavily plot based.

However, I do have to say that in terms of hero themes, I prefer cartoons because they do a better job in showcasing justice so that people can understand better. Besides, some cartoons like the PowerPuff Girls are very brightly colored, and shows very cute littel girls as heroes that save the day, which can enable children to relate to them better. In the case of anime, it is rather hard to do so.
 
Eh, I'm not sure. For plot, anime wins by far. Most western cartoons don't even have a real plot. For having a laugh, cartoons are usually way more hilarious than anime for sneaking in adult jokes, although maybe anime does that too (I think Doraemon does), but I wouldn't know. Still, it's a hilarious aspect from western cartoons, I sure didn't get the FUN song from Spongebob when I was 6! ("F is for friends who do stuff together, U is for you and me, N is for anywhere and anytime at all....!").

I do agree with InuNaruPokeAlchemist that anime can show more emotion, and that's something I really like. Even the stupid ones like Pokémon show more emotion than the average western cartoon. Oh, yeah, and I think in general Japanese voice actors are much better at showing emotion than the average voice actor in my country. That and they keep changing them. A lot.

So really, I like different aspects of both, although I barely ever watch western cartoons anymore because I don't have time. In fact, I only watch one episode of Pokémon a week. That's all the animation of any type I watch in a week... Growing up sucks...
 
I think a lot of the criticisms of cartoons plot-wise is not really taking into account that most mainstream cartoons are aimed at children, and those cartoons aimed at adults are usually sitcoms like Family Guy, The Simpsons, etc. that are more about creating gags than serious plot or character development - unlike most seinen and josei anime (or stuff aimed at the older part of the shonen/shojo demographic, like FMA or Bleach). So it's not really fair to say that "anime is more serious" in that sense. When you look at the anime that's aimed at the same demographic as most Western cartoons, there's not much of a difference thematically.

Take, for example - and I know some people will flame me for this, but whatever - the Pokémon anime. Or the first two seasons of Digimon (Tamers is a totally different beast, and I don't know much about the later ones). I think the latter is kind of interesting for involving the kids' inner lives and families in a way that most "kid heroes" shows don't, but otherwise, I wouldn't say either has much more depth or complexity to it than most Western cartoons aimed at kids that are serial adventure stories.
 
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