Forum - View topicThe animation age ghetto. How can we break out of it?
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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The animation age ghetto refers to the people and cultures who
say and believe that; "if it is animated, it is for kids." This of course is grossly wrong and it feels rather insulting when someone tells me that "I've outgrown cartoons" when I try to show them anime. This thread is for discussing how we can try to overcome this problem and show people that animation can be mature and thought-provoking without resorting to violence and sex. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18589 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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And what are your own theories on this, anime racket? You've done a lot of these speculative threads and need to stay in the habit of answering your own questions. (Which you have usually done, which is why I haven't come down on you before.)
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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The reason I didn't attempt to answer my own question is that I am completely at a loss about how to go about changing this misconception about anime and am getting frustrated. Having said that, I suppose the best place to start would be showing the people that believe it that there are a large number of intelligent adults who enjoy anime and that they are deeply engaged with certain works. This would show people that they don't have to dumb down their intelligence to enjoy animation. |
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Jessica Hart
 Posts: 219 |
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Um.. I think you can't. There's no way to change an entire culture's mind about something short of a meteor coming down and wiping everyone out and starting over
 No way that attitude will change in the west, it's an entirely different culture than Japan.
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Gon*Gon
 Posts: 679 |
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In my opinion.........don't try. This applies to animation as a whole.
There are mature animation already. Don't try to further "mature" it beyond what's intended. Most attempts to make animation more "mature" often ended up as trainwrecks because most people's definition of "mature" happens to be "DARK GORY VIOLENCE AND DARK VIOLENT SEX!"... I like anime as it is, let it mature at it's own pace rather than forcing it to go through a dark and edgy phase. More HunterXHunter, and less Afro Samurai please. There is a lot more young'uns who likes animation than there were in the past. And these young'uns will grow up knowing not all cartoons are for kids. And when THEY have kids, they'll pass that off to their little brats. People who thinks anime is nothing but tentacle porn will come off as trying too hard to sound mature themselves. Eventually the animation age ghetto will eventually kill itself. |
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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Your probably right about that. I just want to think about what we, as anime fans, can do to refute our friends and sometimes strangers and show them that they can enjoy this medium as well. Well, at the very least I just don't want to hear that "all anime is for kids" from them any more. They don't need to watch it. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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As someone approaching retirement age, I've thought about this question from time to time. I don't think it can happen unless some mainstream television service like PBS or HBO chooses to carry a show like Monster, Nodame Cantabile, or Moribito and thus gives it an official endorsement. Since American networks rarely carry any foreign productions, animated or not, I don't think this will happen in my lifetime.
It's also very uncommon to see serials on American television; we're wedded to episodic story-telling because the audience for any given show is extremely variable from week to week. "Reality" programming runs counter to this trend, but missing an episode of Survivor or Dancing with the Stars won't leave you puzzled when you watch the next one in the same way as missing an episode of a serial drama. Funimation's channel is carried on my Verizon FiOS cable service; it's slotted in the range of channels devoted to childrens' programming. However I was pleasantly surprised to see a few other people my age in the audience for a showing of Summer Wars at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts last winter. Apparently I'm not entirely alone among my peers in having an interest in anime and animation, but there were certainly many more young adults in the audience. |
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Anymouse
 Posts: 685 |
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People need to promote serious animation, and we need more publicity for works like Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday. Grimdark magical girls doesn't really cut it. More series like Ghost in the Shell and Eden of the East could help.
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Jessica Hart
Posts: 219 |
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I don't see how Madoka doesn't prove this point. It's not like you'll see the US make anything like it. Even kids stuff in Japan like Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh is more dark and 'complex' than any cartoons the US makes  If anything, it helps, by showing even kid's show can be like that.
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Plun
Posts: 2 |
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Even Halloween in The Simpsons isn't dark. |
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Timeenforceranubis
 Posts: 171 |
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I don't think we particularly can, nor do we need to. It's a deeply ingrained belief here in the US that animation is either A: For kids, B: Comedy, or C: Both.
The only way I can think to achieve anything resembling breaking out of the "animation age ghetto" is showing more "mature" anime on TV, and that's been going on for a good while, with no change in the general public's mindset. It's extremely difficult to change cultural beliefs on such a radical scale. All the anime community can really do is promote the more "mature" titles to those on the outside looking in. The open-minded people will give it a chance. The people who just say "Cartoons are for kids," were probably never gonna give it a fair shake to begin with. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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The only way to even attempt to change the stereotype is to become an animator and frequently produce some fantastic sophisticated works that are also popular and financially successful. If you could do that you might change a lot of peoples minds. Unfortunately, there is no accurate formula for popularity and success to guarantee what you make will sell seats and discs and be well liked.
The Hollywood attitude seems to be "Yeah we could do that story concept with animation easily.....but why when can do it with real people instead and make it more 'real'?" |
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jl07045
 Posts: 1527 Location: Riga, Latvia |
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I don't think there's a resolution to this. This is not just because of stereotypes and cultural differences. It also has to do with our perception. Lots of people simply can't suspend disbelief enough to empathize with drawn characters since the voice is the only "real" thing about those characters. You can show them Grave of the Fireflies or what-not and they will just say that there is not enough reality and/or life for them to enjoy it. And that's not good or bad, it's just how it is.
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4750G
 Posts: 546 |
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It will be very hard to change a prejudice like this. When we say cartoons, we really do mean those cutesy shows aimed at kids. But to some people, anything animated is cartoons. Disney, Pixar, these companies specialize in animated movies, and somehow they've lumped these films together with an audience aged 13 and below. We who've seen just how mature an animated show can get know that animated does not equal cartoons. But for the rest of the world, that's just the way it is.
But more than being for kids, I think there's also this idea that people who watch animated shows are a bit out of it. I've seen and heard a lot of people obsessing over characters who aren't even real. Some people express a deep affection to these characters that others do not understand. I know a of fangirls who describe their ideal guy as the bishounen in a shojou anime they've seen. But these characters they idolize are simply drawings, and to others who see this kind of behavior, they develop this idea that anyone who watch anime and/or other animated shows are, for lack of a better word, 'otakus', and by that I mean the negative connotation of the word. So naturally, people who have this idea avoid these shows. |
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Anymouse
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