Ok, after watching enought American and Japanese animation, I notice one major difference (ok, maybe there are many, but I want to focus on one).
In American cartoons, nobody dies or gets majorly hurt. Oh sure, sometimes they get knocked around, but if a building is going to blow up, either everybody runs out first, or it’s empty. If somebody’s plane explodes, the pilot is falling with a working parachute. The best (or worst) example of this, of course, is the old G.I. Joe cartoons. But even today, with cartoons like, oh say, Cartoon Network’s Justice League, it’s pretty much the same thing. I mean, I know that most cartoons are aimed at kids, but I’m sure that families in the 50’s gathered around and watched the Lone Ranger, which, while not being a cartoon, was still concidered family entertainment, and people died.
I’m not obsesed about people dying, but I’d like a little realism. I mean, if Anime, which shows death, can be shown in the States, why are American cartoon makers so reluctant to show that not everybody escapes, and sometimes, people do get hurt?
For the kiddies, of course. You don’t want to freak them out at an early age.
Although I’m recalling certain American cartoons that have shown death, albeit off-panel or “put two-and-two together, kids!” A few examples come to mind:
G.I.Joe: There was an episode where the Joes went to an alternate universe where Cobra conquered the world. The Joes found their own skeletal remains.
Batman: The Animated Series: Bruce Wayne’s parents killed in flashback. It was very dream-sequency…we see the parents, a gun fire; nothing direct.
Superman: The Animated Series: Krypton blew up. And I distinctly remember an episode where a criminal was killed in the gas chamber (although the episode ends with the gas being released, we see nothing).
Spider-Man: Uncle Ben. Again, off-panel.
Batman Beyond: See Spider-Man, replace Uncle Ben with Terry’s dad.
Smurfs:Smurfette had a pet mouse who died.
I can’t remember anything more direct than those.
For more info on American cartoons that have killed characters, you might try this thread.
They killed people in Johnny Quest.
Marc
Batman: The Animated Series may show (or hint at) Bruce’s parents dying, but that hardly makes up for the Nerf world in which everyone else seems to live. I remember episodes with enormous explosions, airship crashes, people falling hundreds of feet, etc., and in every case, the next scene is Commissioner Gordon saying “thank god nobody was hurt.”
Or is the commish just some uber-Nazi with a very narrow definition of “somebody”?
He may not have been killed, but I think Wile E. Coyote sustained a LOT of injuries compliments of Road Runner and the ACME company. 
Poor lil’ bastard.
In Batman: The Animated Series, it was agreed that no deaths would be seen on screen. There were numerous cases where criminals fell out police blimps (which were really cool, BTW) and landed safely in a convenient tree or body of water.
Yeah, I never watch Batman or Batman Beyond because nobody’s in any real danger. I kind of like Justice Leauge, even though nobody’s in any real danger there either. I used to have a freind who loved to watch Gargoils. When I’d go over to her house, if it was on, she’d watch it. Anyway, the first episode has some of the Gargoil’s being destroyed when they were in their statue form. I guess that would count as death.
And there’s an episode of the new Superman cartoon where Lois Lane goes to another dimension, where Superman and Lex Luthor have teamed up, and when Superman learns the error of his ways and goes after Luthor, he flys away in some sort of flying rocket car. Anyway, he crashes into a statue, the car or whatever it is explodes, and it seems pretty obvious that Lex didn’t get out. That’s probably two.
Actualy, when I think about it, there’s death in the Powerpuff Girls. Sure it’s the monsters that die, but at least they’re alive, unlike other cartoons where only robots get destroyed.
Regarding Gargoyles, wasn’t there an episode where Eliza was shot (maybe even died for a bit)?
I coulda sworn they killed other people in that show too…
Yeah, ok, we have examples where deaths are implied, or there’s one time where there’s a death sceen, and then the remainder of the series is death free. Again, I don’t want to sound like a death monger. I don’t crave death sceens, I just think that it makes what are supposed to be serious cartoons kind of silly and makes them seem…well…a little flat…
In PPG, Bunny dies.
Also, there was an episode of Superman with Apokolyps where Apokolyps vaporizes this one guy before he leaves, then they have a funeral for him. Not really off-panel there IMO.
Oops I meant Darkseid not Apokolyps thats the planet he rules. But anyway, This should be in that other post :rolleyes:
True, you see a lot of american animation which kind of skirts death, but you see a lot of anime that abuses it. Look how many times the Z fighters died and got brought back.
And on “The Simpsons” they’ve had people die:
Bleeding Gums Murphey (didn’t show the actual death, but we were informed), Grandpa’s girlfriend Bea (same), Dr. Marvin Monroe (implied by the hospital dedicated to him), Frank Grimes (electrocuted, and basically shown on scene, but not with too much gore), and Snowball I (but even before the show began). Also Uter’s probably a goner. And of course, dear Maude.
And if you’ve seen the Halloween episodes, you’ll know they don’t shy away from blood and guts. Groundskeeper Willie has died at least four times, including being impaled by a dolphin.
Also the guy on “Futurama” who died of bonitis.
Not a huge number, but “The Simpsons” is pretty real. (Okay not real but you know!) They have had people die, including “major” ones like Maude, Ned’s wife. There’s not as much violence as in anime, but I think death is a crucial element to “The Simpsons.” I mean, they lampoon EVERYTHING, so why not death, too? 
And don’t forget South Park, Kenny dies almost every episode! 
Yeah, that was the no-longer-shown eighth episode, where Broadway was playing around with Eliza’s sidearm and it went off. If I remember right, she did flatline for a bit, so clinically dead (So did a few other characters. Angela, at least, probably some more). I think it was a kinda stupid decision, it was probably one of the better episodes touching the subject I’ve seen yet. But of course, Disney doesn’t want to show someone getting graphicly shot. Not like they didn’t kill enough other people.
Let’s see… (Possible spoilers, if you care?) Huge battle scenes (With people getting shot with arrows and the like, IIRC), some characters falling to their death, gargoyles getting smashed while stone, bunch of humans being smashed while turned to stone, some gargoyles killed by a virus, more people being thrown off buildings and falling to their death, a police station being blown up. Heck, they even killed a good chunk of the planet’s population in one episode (They got better… ). So it definatly had it’s share.
I think it had the largest number of deaths I can think of in an american TV cartoon.
Including movies, you can get a little bit more. Like Mulan, where they show the aftermath of a battle (Which doesn’t really show anything, but sure implies it pretty strongly, as well as specific mention of a certain person being dead), and the almost complete on-screen destruction of an army. Unless you want to include some of the “further out there” american animated movies. I only vaguely remember it, but I recall Heavy Metal having a LOT of rather graphic deaths.
Anime that gets shown in the US, at least on normal television, is usually edited, sometimes rather heavily. On some specialty channels or durring explicit “adult only” times, you might see shows with more violence, but they’re relatively rare.
You want blood? Rent Fritz the Cat, or any of a number of “adult” cartoons. As mentioned above, Heavy Metal (and Heavy Metal 2000) get pretty bloody.
When people constantly die, and get resurrected, I like to call that the Marvel syndrome.
Well yeah, but I’m talking action/military/super hero cartoons where death is much more likely to occur.
Well yeah, but I am talking kid/young adult/family cartoons.