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NEWS: Crunchyroll Originals Animated Shows High Guardian Spice, FreakAngels Reveal New Trailers

Top Gun wrote:

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that there's a massive crossover between anime fans and fans of Steven Universe at least, given that it wears its anime influences on its sleeve (Utena anyone?) and is chock-full of direct anime references, both blatant and subtle. I can't speak for the other two series since I have no personal experience with them, but the reason I originally got into anime was because I loved the idea of animation telling serious stories with sustained character development, so I'm sure I would have eaten up any American animated series doing the same thing.

?? Doesn't that only prove the opposite? People who make American cartoons love anime (specifically Sailor Moon and Utena since that's all that they ever reference) but that doesn't mean anime fans love American cartoons. A lot of comic writers praise manga and try to latch onto its success but we know manga is destroying American comic in sales and comics aren't doing well. Most anime fans I see always talk bad about Steven Universe, HGS, and American cartoons in general especially ones that try to pretend to be anime.. The only people I really see like these cartoons are the ones who care about diversity and representation which most anime fans don't seem to be a fan of and actively say they watch anime because it doesn't focus on things like that. Anyway if there really is this huge crossover between fandoms than it wouldn't have gotten so much backlash.

The show completed production in autumn 2019, several months before The Owl House aired its first episode.

Wyvern wrote:

The show completed production in autumn 2019, several months before The Owl House aired its first episode.

I stand corrected. But I guess that just shows how original American animation is these days.

And I think it's pretty depressing for anyone if they're drawn to anime because they like homogeneity, rather than fun stories, or animation as an artform, or a million of the other things anime has to offer. The Owl House is fun, weird cartoon, anime can be fun and weird too. Strange that people would dismiss it without even watching it based of a diverse cast, but then think not having one somehow determines the quality of a story. Sounds like the kind of thing they accuse 'the enemy' of doing.

Nev999 wrote:

And I think it's pretty depressing for anyone if they're drawn to anime because they like homogeneity, rather than fun stories, or animation as an artform, or a million of the other things anime has to offer. The Owl House is fun, weird cartoon, anime can be fun and weird too. Strange that people would dismiss it without even watching it based of a diverse cast, but then think not having one somehow determines the quality of a story. Sounds like the kind of thing they accuse 'the enemy' of doing.

I've never watched The Owl House but it does not seem like anything I'd like. The art looks like the same very soft juvenile style everything has these days, and it seems like one of those shows that only has a fanbase because of queer representation. The only thing I've ever heard about it is Luz and Amity. All I ever hear mentioned from any American show these days is talk about a character's sexuality or race or gender identity. I grew up with shows from the 90s and 00s which focused on telling stories, had cool fights, and could also be serious. Things like Justice League, Code Lyoko, Avatar, Gargoyles, W.I.T.C.H., Spider-Man, Ben 10, X-Men Evolution, and stuff like that where none of that was the forefront of a show. It's why the initial trailer for HGS rubbed me the wrong way, along with many other people it would seem. It just seemed like another one of those shows that wanted you to know the characters were women and LGBT and that was all you needed to know because that's all people care about now. But I don't really care about any of that stuff so none of these shows really appeal to me.

American animation can continue to do it's own thing if that's what they want to do. More power to them if that's what the modern audience actually wants. I just have zero interest in it and will stick to anime because it actually has the stuff I want out of animation these days, like a really cool hand-drawn mecha anime from Sunrise this season. If people value representation and things like that then I can see why they love the current age of American animation and other media. But for those of us who just want a good story, cool fight scenes, or other things that doesn't get made any more we have to look elsewhere these days.

Most anime fans especially younger fans are progressive diverse communities who are LGBTQIA+ and from racially and gender diverse backgrounds. Anime fandom hasn't been dudebro prominent in like three decades. If you think having a crossover medium would inherently inoculate HGS from backlash you haven't been paying attention to YouTube and Internet conspiracy circles for the past several years.

I think this says a lot more about the fans you hang out with and talk to more than anything about the entire fandom. Steven Universe was undeniably very popular and, as someone who was very quietly a part of and observed that fandom, a lot of those fans were anime fans. Thus, there's a number of anime fans that liked Steven Universe- (with refenced NGE, Captain Harlock and so one as mentioned before, by the way, but wow, it seems to rankle ya that fans and writers of these shows might enjoy famous shoujo, huh? Sailor Moon and Utena were influential to many a young queer weeb back when nobody else was allowed to talk about queer stuff in animation, so now people reference it when they have a gay good time making their own stuff. So whoops, looks like that's just proof anime can have and attract 'diversity' even twenty years ago, its been there for so long, oh no~.) They're just not the fans you talk to.

And I think it's pretty depressing for anyone if they're drawn to anime because they like homogeneity, rather than fun stories, or animation as an artform, or a million of the other things anime has to offer. The Owl House is fun, weird cartoon, anime can be fun and weird too. Strange that people would dismiss it without even watching it based of a diverse cast, but then think not having one somehow determines the quality of a story. Sounds like the kind of thing they accuse 'the enemy' of doing.

People who have the loudest voices and pitch the loudest fits don't represent every anime fan. Conservative bros can definitely be big into anime for their own agenda, but plenty of people are into anime because they like it as an artform, including artists that are creating their own stuff now. And I sure as hell respect people who are inspired by and create stuff because of anime and throw in fun references to it in their work than people who lose their shit and spend energy attacking those people and seeing some imaginary enemy.

RE: Overlap of anime and modern day cartoon fandoms

I think taking a step into any random anime convention artist alley would be enough to squash the idea that there is no overlap. I've seen countless artists display and sell merch of stuff like Persona, Fire Emblem, Demon Slayer, etc. side by side with merch for shows like Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and heck, even Rick and Morty.

And specifically for HGS, magical girl fans are extremely receptive of shows that fit into the genre regardless of what country it's coming from. Seriously, alongside Precure and Sailor Moon, the magical girl shows I usually see the most discussions for amongst diehard fans of the genre are Winx Club, Miraculous Ladybug, and She-Ra which come from Italy, France, and the US respectively. Saying there's no audience for this show might as well be saying CR shouldn't have bothered putting in all that effort to license Precure and Pripara too.

Thank you for proving my point, you did spectacularly. I grew up on those cartoons too, and most of them are good (also diversity WAS often cited as a draw in the ATLA and WITCH fandoms even back then- and I hate to break this to you about Gargoyles- https://watermarkonline.com/2020/05/19/disneys-gargoyles-protagonist-was-gay-creator-confirms/-they wanted to do it, they just weren't allowed) but not automatically special or better than anything that comes after them. Modern American cartoons have good stories and fight scenes, but you'll never know because you've seen some LGBT fans being excited and that's a turnoff to you, and that's nobody's loss but yours. It just makes your opinion on them irrelevant because you don't have any knowledge.

I meant diversity in the show not the people watching it. Anime is enjoyed worldwide so of course a lot of different people watch it, but that doesn't make those people progressive. If most of the fandom was progressive I doubt the most popular anime every season would be shows like Jobless Reincarnation. Logically the answer for "why do they keep making slave isekai, big booby fanservice harems, and rape-y BL anime?" has to be "because that's what we like". And the people who like that stuff probably aren't the kinds of people you're describing.

I don't know why people keep trying to argue anime fans wouldn't complain about High Guardian Spice if it was just on Netflix instead or whatever when I see anime fans complaining about Netflix shows all the time, especially when Netflix calls them anime or if they're CGI animated.

?? Doesn't that only prove the opposite? People who make American cartoons love anime (specifically Sailor Moon and Utena since that's all that they ever reference) but that doesn't mean anime fans love American cartoons. A lot of comic writers praise manga and try to latch onto its success but we know manga is destroying American comic in sales and comics aren't doing well. Most anime fans I see always talk bad about Steven Universe, HGS, and American cartoons in general especially ones that try to pretend to be anime.. The only people I really see like these cartoons are the ones who care about diversity and representation which most anime fans don't seem to be a fan of and actively say they watch anime because it doesn't focus on things like that. Anyway if there really is this huge crossover between fandoms than it wouldn't have gotten so much backlash.

Nev999 wrote:

Thank you for proving my point, you did spectacularly. I grew up on those cartoons too, and most of them are good (also diversity WAS often cited as a draw in the ATLA and WITCH fandoms even back then- and I hate to break this to you about Gargoyles- https://watermarkonline.com/2020/05/19/disneys-gargoyles-protagonist-was-gay-creator-confirms/-they wanted to do it, they just weren't allowed) but not automatically special or better than anything that comes after them. Modern American cartoons have good stories and fight scenes, but you'll never know because you've seen some LGBT fans being excited and that's a turnoff to you, and that's nobody's loss but yours. It just makes your opinion on them irrelevant because you don't have any knowledge.

I am not sure what answer you are looking for here. A lot of people do not seem to like this stuff so they do not watch it. That is all there is to say isn't there? You can tell people it is their loss and they are missing out on the best shows ever but they don't think so. It is really not that important if you accept it or not. It is what's people are doing regardless anyway. There must be some reason why X show appeals to someone while Y show does not, isn't that so?