Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Is Animation Only For Kids In The US?
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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Anime fans wanted an animated version of Nodame, and the manga company did too, as it would make money for the license. Mainstream adults who read the manga wanted a version of Nodame's story, but watching a live drama meant they could admit to being fans of the story without also being accused of being "horny Internet-addicted NEETs" for watching the anime. Sort of like the salarymen in "Shall We Dance?" who were afraid for their jobs. You'll notice we tend to get more live-drama adaptations of the well-known mainstream real-world romance titles, that breakout audiences can "admit" to watching, than we do of the otaku fanservice titles. We might get Boys Over Flowers, but NHK isn't about to do a live Monster Musume Girls any time soon.
Again, that depends--Are you talking about "art" anime films, or about existing franchise cash-in/fan-pilgrimages like Detective Conan and Psycho-Pass, and/or "This year's episode" like One Piece and Doraemon? That's like asking why Pokemon: the Movie did better business over here than TitanAE, or why the Care Bears made more money than Disney's Black Cauldron. |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1792 Location: South America |
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I like the hardcore otaku stuff like Genocyber, Girls und Panzer, Is the Order a Rabbit, Nanoha and Strike Witches. I notice that my tastes in manga/anime are like my tastes in western popular music: I only listen to underground folk metal like Ensiferum and nordic black metal like Bathory.
By the way, the closest thing in western culture to manga/anime is not comics or cartoons. It is modern popular music, like rock, jazz, metal, hip hop and country: both manga and pop music began as a rather niche medium aimed at young people and gradually gained mainstream traction, complexity and many sub niches, becoming the dominant form of culture, defining the youth culture of the eastern and western hemispheres respectively. |
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crazyidiot78
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I wholeheartedly agree with you on some points and disagree on others. I think you are spot on with the 35 and under crowd (FYI- I'm 35). I also think we will continue to see this over time as millennial and Gen Xers continue to age and animation will continue to slowly shift as the people who grew up with it get older. The east vs west thing is also a bit old since they make different shows for different markets. I find the western comedies easier to watch and for the most part funnier than alt of the Japanese comedies. Not that their aren't some great ones out there. I just find the more recent ones harder to watch. Now that being said I don't like most of the modern post 2000 western animation and that by enlarge comes down to art style and content. I just don't like the art style in shows like Steven's universe, adventure time, etc. Also the content of those shows just doesn't appeal to me especially the LGBTQ pandering in stevens universe (I'll freely admit to hype backlash on this one as I have only seen a tiny bit). I happen to like SAO and Family guy, but that's just different strokes for different folks. So I also see some of this coming down to people having different tastes. Lastly I don't think a show needs to be mature or edgy to be taken seriously. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6199 |
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I can just hear the butthurt already not that such a series we'll happen, but still. |
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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I also cannot stand the art style Steven Universe. The character design is just plain ugly and everyone looks fat and midget like, but that kind of art style is popular these days because it's easy to draw. I'm not sure how much of the LGBT things are in the show or just obsessive fan interpretation. It definitely seems to have one of the more obsessive communities to the point that wiki page for all the characters have a section marked gender pronoun preference despite never actually being brought up in the show, same thing with how none of the characters actually say that they are gay but fans insist fusions are lesbian sex. Hype backlash is understandable. I think fans can take it a bit too far with seeing progressivness that might not be there. There was a weird case in the My Little Pony fandom where people insisted Twilight Sparkle was of Indian descent and anyone who drew fan art of her as white would get death threats for whitewashing. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6895 Location: Kazune City |
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writerpatrick
Posts: 679 Location: Canada |
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It's the "Saturday Morning" effect. Cartoons such as Bugs Bunny were aired in theaters before the main feature and aimed at a general audience. Then Saturday Morning TV started appealing to children back in the 1950s, but mainly with live-action shows. In the 60s cartoons started to become more predominant, but they were simple stories replicating the violence and mature behavior of the theatrical cartoons. In the 70s, Saturday Morning became known for it's cartoons even though some live-action children's shows also appeared. It had become popular among advertisers for marketing to kids. But there was also a push against violence leading to less mature cartoons. While cartoons in the past were aimed at a generally adult audience, they now were thought of as kids stuff. Disney also propagated this concept because it allowed them to re-release their animated movies every five or ten years to a new audience. So decades grew up thinking of animation being only for kids and even the industry today is built upon that concept because it's the most profitable and allows for toy marketing. |
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Kikaioh
Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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[quote="Jose Cruz"]
From my vantage point this is correct. Back in the 80's and into the 90's, Japan was heavily inspired by blockbuster Hollywood films and even Hong Kong cinema, but as the years have gone by, the medium has become much more insular as subsequent generations of Japanese animators seem to be more fans of anime the medium and its tropes, and less fans of foreign pop culture.
You were speaking more to the maturity of the content, and I was speaking more to the maturity of the individuals. And I'm not sure how pointing out this niche of adults as having immature (or in some cases disturbing) tastes could be considered "escapism", let alone for the "old guard". From my experience I think most mainstream Japanese adults feel the same way towards adult otaku, regardless of their own age (though they may be more sympathetic than I am). |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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The thing is that nowadays Disney OWNS Marvel, they are literally sitting on decades of comics with stories worthy of being animated (undiluted) or they could continue to output insipid sequels that no one wants to see. From a business perspective I think the answer should be obvious (therefore whatever business executive at Disney is in charge of selecting what direct to video franchise gets animated is brain dead! ). I mean, they are already have a budget to spend on animation projects, why not make some profit out of it? Unlike fairy tales, there is little reason to think parents and the PTA will be at their throat for doing, something similar to the fururama direct to dvd you mentioned, say "The Incredible Hulk: The Gray Years" where our cynical superhero kicks some ass while saying "I hate puny robots, they don't scream when you pull their arms out".
I agree, this was one of the reasons that attracted me to anime (and then manga) many years ago. It seems that in western animation there is some kind of competition to see how to make people look ugly (i.e. Hey Arnold!) while in anime the competition seems to be how to make them look prettier (or more handsome, I suppose). In my look the pretty ladies take the cake, In a comedy I want them to make me laugh (i.e. Konosuba), not to look funny so I laugh at their deformed bodies. I can digest shows where people look about average (i.e. MLAATR). Last edited by mangamuscle on Wed Jun 08, 2016 12:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
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MajorZero
Posts: 359 |
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Implying that entire Western animation only produced 30 interesting works in 20 years? In any case, no. Say, in a course of several years, Japan produces 30-40 animated works I deem watchable or even enjoyable, however, the vast majority of them are absolutely forgettable. It doesn't help that most anime are inferior to Live-Action shows in almost every "adult" genres. For example, I thoroughly enjoyed Psycho-Pass, but I'm not going to show it to my friends as shining example of (post)-cyberpunk, Blade Runner and Minority Report are much better representations. Same with Black Lagoon, I love the series, but if I want to watch gritty action in all its glory I rather rewatch Banshee. |
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Jonny Mendes
Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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Mainstream Japanese adults feel this way about everyone outside the norm. Been otaku anime or mainstream anime, most think a adult is immature if watching any kind of anime. They think anime is for kids, period! If you watch anime, you are a immature adult. If you become a adult you should stop watching anime and do something productive for the society. Is different with manga but anime is a no go for a adult. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6199 |
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Because logically they're (Marvel Studios) are not going to make animated adaptations out of say storylines line "Demon In A Bottle" or "Maximum Carnage" which features elements that aren't exactly kid friendly. While they already have Iron Man & Spider-Man in their own kid friendly animated shows. Live action series are fine though. |
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reanimator
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Despite what you said about Japanese industry, their output and innovations are far better than American animation industry which is pampered by guilds and unions. Personally, I do think American animation unions and guilds are about protecting mediocrity and self-interest rather than developing new talents who'll lead the way for better projects. Why do think American animation director/producers like LeSean Thomas went over to oversea animators over domestic talents? Fact is that animation guilds and unions are not helping realizing his project and they even can't offer anything substantial. Sure he could've hire couple of ex-Disney animators for TV project if he could, but those unions would've demand him to hire a dozen ex-Disney animators with feature scale pay. If LeSean Thomas asked those ex-Disney animators to come up with layout for each cut, they'll tell outright that layout is not their job and they're likely to tell him to hire some specialist because the union said so. So how could union help small scale, innovative productions when it's already detrimental from get go?
And here's the link to the quote: http://animediet.net/conventions/interview-thomas-romain |
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Stuart Smith
Posts: 1298 |
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I doubt it's going anywhere either, even if it just becomes a good political card for Marvel to keep in their deck to appease certain groups. I just don't get the people who think a comic that peaks at 30,000 is going to change anything outside its own bubble in the grand scheme of things. I wouldn't get my hopes up for any kind of adaptions though, at least ones you might want. Superhero animation is pretty much limited to just little kids these days. I could only see an animated Ms. Marvel if Marvel decides to do something similar to DC Superhero Girls. If Captain Marvel does well enough I imagine they would focus on Carol Danvers, though. You might have gotten a live-action series if it was DC, but Marvel seems more concerned with their movies than anything else these days.
I'm the opposite. I find a lot of live-action attempts tend to be pretty poor next to anime. Especially in the realm of fantasy and sci-fi. So many fantasy movies and television don't really utilize the concept and mostly stick to a low-fantasy setting; maybe you might see a dragon but that's about it. Whether it's a limit of the medium or directors not wanting to alienate audiences by being too unrealistic, I generally find little interest in live-action fantasy shows and movies. Sci-fi is the same way. I could never get into Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, or Firefly. I'd rather watch Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, and Gundam. -Stuart Smith |
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Aphasial
Exempt from Grammar Rules
Posts: 122 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Not currently, but King of the Hill got a full 13 seasons, and was absolutely aimed at adults. Middle America, normal, non-coastal-weirdo adults, at that. Archer and South Park are the only ones I'd say were clearly intended for an "adult", officially Viewer Discretion Advised, audience. The rest have been more of a broad grey area, with Family Guy arguably pushing the boundaries somewhat.
I don't think that's really the same thing. Kids and most minors generally will buy small scale items and branded goods, and maybe an item or two at hot topic. As an adult with a real job, I'm free to impulse buy things WAY above what I would have been able to afford before. 18-34 year-olds have the disposable income in the US, and I don't see that being that different in Japan. |
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