Is Japanese Anime killing the American Cartoon Industry

Factual Questions
1

Before I begin, I have to admit that I am an avid fan of Japanese Animation, Anime ranging anywhere from Dragonball-Z, to a few versions of Hentai anime. What I’d like to know is, Where are all the AMERICAN cartoons going? To me, the last two great cartoons that were american made were Heavy Metal (part 1) and
MTV’S (The Max). All the others seem to all be going downhill fast if not disappearing altogether. The Simpsons and King of the Hill seem to appeal to most people, but Japan anime to me seems to be the dominant force in the world of animation and is rapidly growing fast. Even Cartoon Network seems to be lagging behind. The majority of their cartooons all seem to be old ones from the 70’s. NickToons seems to be the only new face we have out there.

My question is: Where are all of our (AMERICAN) artist and why aren’t they cranking out new cartoons on a constant basis like the Japanese are?

2

Because we have a better live action film industry. Why make a cartoon about a story when you can use real people and cgi?

3

My personal tin-foil hat theory is that the government regulation regarding educational programming is responsible for the crummy cartoons on Saturday morning. Today’s Saturday morning cartoons don’t match up to the Saturday mornings of my youth when I could stay occupied from 8am to noon. I don’t see Bugs Bunny on Saturday morning, and for the most part, the cartoons have moved to cable networks, and don’t really seem to be carried on the big networks.

4

A factor to account for:

Large American production companies do not view traditional animation as profitable. There’s a definite exodus towards CGI caused in part by the success of Pixar movies. Home on the Range is likely to be Disney’s last traditional animation movie.

It doesn’t mean that traditional animation is, in fact, not profitable. The reason, after all, that Pixar has been succesful has probably more to do with the quality of its scripts than the computer animation. Still, more and more producers are moving towards that mode of production because they think that’s where the cash is.

Animation is very labour-intensive which is why you’re less likely to find small independent producers churning out quality features.

Japanese producers have probably been much better at finding their target audience and marketing to it. It probably helps that in Japan, animated films to not suffer from the image of being “for kids”. That means that Japanese animation houses have a much broader potential audience, which lessens the financial risk.

5

That’s capitalism, not any regulation. The networks make more money doing programming for adults than they do for cartoon. Something like Saturday Today is a big money maker.

AFAIK, there was never any actual regulation about cartoon content, though educational and nonviolent cartoons were produced due to pressure from parents. PBS still does original cartoons.

6

I place the blame on Neocon & liberal pressure groups & their mindless zealotry.

But we pretty much agree.

Anime has a big advantage: scripts. They tend to be better written.

7

IMHO, Japanese anime isn’t killing western animation, it’s moving in where there isn’t anything before. While Disney obviously is the leader in childrens animated movies, as you mention, the teenaged + market is pretty neglected. Off the top of my head, the only non-childrens animated western movie I’ve seen in the past few years was Titan AE, which (except for a bitch’n soundtrack), wasn’t spectacular.

Anime I’ve seen in the same period include Mononoke-hime/Princess Mononoke (very good), Ghost in the Shell (okay), and Wings of Honneamise (good).

Something I just noticed: using Google Sets, entering the name of the three anime titles I list, you get some pretty good recommendations for furthur viewing. Using the three western cartoons named gets you squat…

8

You forgot Cowboy Bebop: The Movie whick looks awesome on the big screen. And Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, which, while not as good as Bebop is a fun film.

9

Disney will probably always have a large audience for their animated films…in Japan, at least. Trust me, the Japanese love Disney.

I agree with jovan that the sheer cost of producing an animated series or film discourages American indies or even established studios from moving into animation. In America there aren’t that many animation studios in current operation. In Japan there are already numerous established animation houses up and running.

It’s also worth mentioning that some of them are keeping costs down by producing low-quality work. Maybe some of you have seen this stuff. It’s barely “animated” at all, since many shots consist of camera pans across a still drawing! I don’t think mainstream American audiences would put up with that.

10

One might also point out that the anime that makes it to this side of the Big Ditch is the best stuff Japan has to offer. The crap doesn’t fly, and remains in Japan.

Hell, yes, it’s superior to most of what we do. It’s superior to most of what the Japanese do, too. No wonder it’s popular.

11

And even in Japan there’s already a great deal of consolidation and outsourcing (to South Korea, mostly); as Lamia mentions, made-for-TV anime does tend to visual “de-contenting”(*) and even theatrical/OAV releases have moved into heavy CGI displacing traditional cel animation. Also, in the late 90s Anime as such took a bit of a hit in its home market, with much of the animation talent/resources focusing on games.

IN the 1980s there was some truth that the American productions’ exceeding caution about creating something child-safe was hampering the potential of American animation. But that could be worked around. In the 90s Animaniacs showed that you could create something that was fun AND good. But that was backed by industry heavy-hitters; in the end the economic equation just was not sustainable – specially with the loss of audience caused by entrance into the playing field of cable channels and home-DVD. BTW if you notice for instance the current ABC cartoon line-up, it’s heavy on material originated in the Disney Channel; ditto for the WB relative to Cartoon-Network.

Meanwhile, on the not-strictly-kiddie front, we did get The Simpsons, Family Guy and King of the Hill – but only the first really got “legs”, making it an exceptional case. On cable we had Ren+Stimpy and Beavis+Butthead getting a following on the outrageousness factor, but OTOH, the non-grossout-based teen-oriented toon, Daria, was mostly unsupported by MTV. Again, no money in quality.
(*)Though to be honest, they can get away with it due to different audience expectations. The Japanese aesthetic allows for contemplation-of-the-scene scenarios, so an artist/director can excuse using that trick to save money this way rather than try to fill every shot or panel with action(**). But then American TV cartoons were for decades notorious for screwing up this culture’s expectation of continuous action with “limited animation”.

(**However that sometimes gets ridiculous, e.g. later episodes of Evangelion )

12

Oh no they don’t. You think American animation is bad, then try holding your eyes open through the stuff that stays in Japan. Yeeuch!

13

Speaking Of CGI, This movie a couple of years old but I found it interesting none the less. Here are my thoughts.

Jim Mac Millan

As much as I love cgi it has its shortcomings. Watching the human form take on motion seems stiff and not as fluid as watching a live action shot. Of course if everything was live action our eyes would be short changed the eye candy that cgi has to offer. Tonight, a merger of the two technologies in a way that I have never before seen is what I have bared witness to.

Have you heard of or seen the movie "The Returner"? It was made in Japan, and dubbed in English for us to enjoy. Imagine every live action shot fed into a computer then digitally manipulated to look as if a computer generated it. The actors inflections are not lost and their movements look natural. Now add in an some aliens a spaceship a time machine and some structures or any other item in a place where they could not possibly exist in real life and you have "The Returner". Think of it as Anime on steroids.

This has to be one of the coolest technology hybrid movies I have ever seen. The site is http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/returner/. Click on Enter Site to get some background. This is one movie I am going to add to my collection.

I'll give you a summary of the plot but keep in mind that the visuals alone are worth the cost of seeing the movie. In the future mankind is at war with an alien race. They have some really cool weapons for killing people. Mans last hiding place is in Tibet where they are working on a way to send someone back in time to kill the first alien that comes to Earth. Our time traveler soon finds that history records events differently than what really happened. How is our hero to save the Earth when history has recorded our first contact incorrectly? You will have to watch "The Returner" for yourself to find out.
14

Your premise is wrong - western animation isn’t dying. I’m sorry, I love Heavy Metal and the Maxx, but they’re not the best animation to come out of North America in the last 20-30 years. Heavy Metal, in fact is incredibly uneven - ranging from the positivelty dire Den, through the bad So Dangerous and So Beautiful, and the good Taarna and B-52, to the great Captain Sterrn

Unless you restrict yourself to serious animation aimed at adults (and even then we’re stuck with 'what I can think of offhand - and HM is a bad example of ‘serious’, anyhow.), but using ‘serious and for adults’ as a requirement for being good is non-useful.

Clone High and Undergrads - both on MTV, like The Maxx was - are both great humourous series aimed at adults, as is CN’s Time Squad.

Shows aimed at young teens/children I’ve actually got a less consistent idea of what’s on the air in the States, so some of my favourite examples might only be on in Canada, but for stuff I know is in the US, I’d certainly put the various cartoons based on DC’s comics (Batman, Justice League, and Teen Titans, particularly) higher on my list than either HM or The Maxx.

15

I totally agree with this. Anime is filling a void. We’re craving interesting storylines and animation in the US and there’s not really any being made. Even the kids anime shows have interesting evolving storylines that actually deal with complex moral issues (I’m thinking of Gundam Wing, Inuyasha, and Rurouni Kenshin) unlike western animated shows that oversimplfy things and keep characters static. Even the more interesting shows such as CN’s Justice League tend to make things too “easy” for the viewer.

The same thing is happening in print comics. Translated manga really taking off becaus it covers a wide spectrum of topics and isn’t just superhero stuff. Manga can be science fiction, horror, fantasy, and even just the everyday life of school kids or salarymen. There’s very little like it being produced within the US…

16

I am in total agreement with tremorviolet’s total agreement with nanoda. Especially in the case of hentai, which have imagery which equates to American hardcore porn (and goes beyond it in many instances), but which also often have plotsw that match or better mainstream American movies. Nothing like it in America.

17

Too many Americans still think animation is “for kids,” and therefore don’t want to commit the money and effort required.

18

Yeah, I’d say that American animation is killing itself.

For starters, it’s never been able to fully shake off the “cartoons are for kiddies” stigma, which limits the places that it can “go,” or how well it can be accepted by a mainstream audience. Thankfully, South Park, Family Guy, and even The Simpsons buck this trend, but that’s probably something to do with the fact that they’re out-and-out comedies, and aren’t trying to be really “serious.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)

Add to that the common limitations put on the content in American animated…characters usually aren’t allowed to kill or be killed, or use strong language, or use firearms, etc. etc. etc…Mostly to “protect the children,” or some such garbage. (Which means that they can show plenty of violence and fighting, but no one can ever get hurt.) On Nickelodeon’s “Hey Arnold” a few years back, the network forbid them to even say the words “Death” or “Die” in one episode. And in the recent Justice League and X-Men series’, episodes with sequences taking place in WWII didn’t show anyone being killed. Even Nazis (Swastika-less Nazis, at that) running a concentration camp that was being liberated by the heroes.

Thankfully, there have been exceptions to these rules—even within a series that usually follows them—but still, they do tend to give American cartoons a hackneyed, “sanitized” taint.

Plus the fact that not all animated shows would even be good to begin with, just like live-action shows. For every Babylon 5 that pops up, we have to slog through about a dozen Mercy Point’s or Knight Rider: The Next Generation’s. So, for every Gargoyles, we have a dozen Super Friends or Fish Police.

And I kind of have the impression that the “different-ness” of anime’s animation style alone really helps it’s popularity over here. It might be cheaply done, or even crude at times, but it’s exotic-looking enough that a lot of people overlook the slow pans or free-frame establishing shots.

That, and the background art usually seems to blend with the animated characters a lot better than in most U.S. cartoons. I’m not sure why, exactly. I can’t quite put my finger on it…it’s probably something really subtle. Anyway, it’s a little thing, but it really makes a difference, IMO.

I also seem to remember that it’s actually cheaper for the Japanese to produce animated works, as opposed to live-action stuff. (I don’t know why that’d be…maybe they just have more of an infrastructure for animation built up over the decades, or something. I don’t know. Correct me if I’m wrong, I won’t mind.) So that a lot of stuff that, if produced in the U.S., would be live action, ends up being animated if it’s created in Japan. So we aren’t really seeing the counterparts to U.S. cartoons…we’re seeing the counterparts to U.S. live-action series’ and movies, if that makes any sense.

And, as Master Wang-Ka said, there’s a “culling” process in what gets exported and what doesn’t. We don’t see the total dreck in the U.S. I mean, if you only ever saw Cheers, Law and Order, and the original Star Trek, you might conclude that most or all American T.V. series’ were incredibly well written and well produced.
Well, I’m spent.

19

I think that the incredible art quality and detail put into each shot more than makes up for the lesser amounts of action. Heck, sometimes it’s nice to get to look at each frame longer!

Again, this is probably because the characters are drawn in much more detail. In American animation, they tend to make nicely done, shaded backgrounds . . . which don’t match the cel-shaded characters at all!

20

As others have said, don’t make the mistake of assuming that all Japanese anime is of the same quality as the stuff that makes it overseas. There’s plenty of dreck over here, too.

There’s also an important difference between Japanese television and American television in that a Japanese series isn’t normally expected to run for more than a season or two. (Although very popular shows can of course run for years.) The writers begin the project with an ending in sight, and work on telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end.

On American television, the goal is generally to keep the show going as long as it’s profitable. This usually means that everything has to return to the start point by the end of the episode; if you can’t reliably give the audience the same kind of entertainment every week you risk losing them. If American television wasn’t expected to be open-ended, we’d see different kinds of stories being told. And even with some long-running Japanese shows you can see the problem of the same basic ideas being recycled over and over again with nothing really changing. It’s not a question of Japan vs. America or the talent of the writers, it’s a matter of the series format and the expectations that go along with that.