Let’s face it, good animation is expensive. The last good western cartoon I saw was Justice League Unlimited. I’m currently watching four very good anime series, one of which I think may be one of the greatest TV series ever made.. I think that should tell you something right there. Sometimes its not all about the graphics.
I think the best anime series for people who don’t like anime is probably Ghost in the Shell. (Here is a sample of the art from the TV series.) Ghost in the Shell is gritty, realistic, near-future cyberpunk kind of stuff. It is extremely, extremely complex, both theme- and story-wise. I’ve watched both the movie and the two TV series multiple times, and I still don’t think I understand everything that was going on. Really, really great, though. I can’t think of an American series except for The Wire that comes close in terms of complexity.
Also, I second (third?) the work of Satoshi Kon if you want realistic art and story, especially Millenium Actress, Perfect Blue, and Paprika.
Which one is the best series ever? Share.
Hand drawn animation is expensive and labor intensive, agreed. But the stylistic faults of anime have not one…damn…thing…to do with cost.
Insane mouth shapes? Bad character design? Stiff, inhuman motion? Crappy kinematics? Those are not cost issues, those are style issues. Those are bad animation issues.
And of course, the worst, most obnoxious, so awful that I cannot understand why I didn’t mention it earlier, is:
Post-recording the freaking dialog!
An entire nation that has not figured out how to do the stuff that Disney figured out with Steamboat Willie? They can’t use a dope sheet? They animate the lips flapping and record the voices later! Even Myazaki! I watched it happen on the behind the scenes documentary on Spirited Away!
There is no cost savings from doing it wrong.
The last good western cartoon I saw was Tangled, though I see the anime influence on the character design. The rest of the animation was beautiful, so I’m willing to overlook the over-large eyes. The Illusionist was OK, but the charm of Jaque Tati is lost on me. The Triplets of Belleville was brilliant though.
If it is animation, it is. Otherwise, you’re talking about radio with pictures.
I’m not a hand-drawn purist. I’ll take my animation anyway I can get it. CG, clay, stop motion, it doesn’t matter. But it all has to possess the all-important “illusion of life”. And you fail to produce it if your mouth movements have only the most vague relationship to what is being said, if the characters move stiffly and you have frame rates too slow to convey motion well.
Yeah, that’s been a problem for [awhile. 
(Or should I say…:eek: ?)
'Course, there’s always [URL=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAeK-UAuyUQ&feature=related”]REALLY old school anime,](http://wondersinthedark.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/red-hot-1.jpg?w=500&h=375) which was much more closely inspired by western forms. (Features cute forest animals…and what appears to be General Percival)
Kabuki is actually a lot like baroque theatre. I remember reading a Japanese theatre critic’s rapturous review of an Italian troupe that did baroque, he said, “Either they’re doing Kabuki or we’ve been doing baroque.”
Sorry for the doublepost but I found corroboration:
But apparently the theatre troupe was Canadian.
Right, you picked two classic animation examples of bad character design. Betty Boop was originally a one-off character in another Fleischer cartoon who became wildly popular and they were stuck with a piss-poor design. Mickey Mouse is pretty much the same thing, with ears that are apparently two roaming spheres. Walt’s artistic limitations have damned generations of animators to work their asses off trying to deal with his bad design.
Red is another example, they had to put a realistic women in a world where the Wolf’s eyes would bug out to five pairs of eyes. In that context, she wasn’t so extreme.
You could also have picked a Chuck Jones era Bugs Bunny, but his insistence on big eyes is not connected to my reasons for thinking Chuck Jones was the most over-praised of the Warner Brothers directors, well behind Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson. He did some classics, but I think Chuck got more than his share of attention just because he lived so long.
One Piece. I won’t lie to you, there are long sections were they tend to rely on characture rather than story. It also has a lot of over the top humor, but when it’s good, it may be one of the best TV shows ever.
Brackets mine, for context.
I highly recommend it; the story really is fantastic. The other nice thing about this show that I forgot to mention is that every character is uniquely drawn. Sometimes in anime you’ll have characters that are basically the same general “bishie” (pretty people) design, just with different hair and eye color (Bleach has a problem with this). Monster’s character designs, on the other hand, are all distinct, and their looks more closely reflect real people (even if the main character, Kenzou Tenma, doesn’t look remotely Japanese). There are pretty people, certainly, but for the most part they’re realistically pretty.
Normally I prefer shonen (boys’) anime, but I can make a couple of recommendations for shoujo (girls’ anime) or josei (anime aimed at adult women, usually focusing on relationship drama, may or may not contain sex.) Note that these are mostly in the stereotypical “big-eyed” design, so if that’s not your cup of tea, hopefully you can get past the character design and concentrate on the story. A lot of these started out as manga, so in some cases I would also recommend reading the manga if you like the story.
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Nana - about two young women, both named Nana (which means “seven” in Japanese) who become roommates, and their friendship as they try to survive jobs and relationships in Tokyo.
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Peach Girl - If you like high school “frenemies” - style drama, check this one out. Momo is a high school girl with a bad reputation because of her naturally dark skin - everyone thinks she’s a fake-tanning-addicted ganguro (a type of mid-2000s fashion victim with a dark “tan,” dyed blond hair, lots of flashy clothes and costume jewelry, and a bad attitude.) Her only “friend,” Sae, takes advantage of her and pounces on anything Momo shows the slightest interest in, whether it’s a purse or a cute guy. So what happens when Momo finds a guy she really likes, and decides to fake Sae out? Drama!
Antique Bakery - Warning - not for homophobes! A wealthy man decides to quit the rat race and start a bakery. He hires a friend whose parents once worked for his family (and who is apparently mildly developmentally disabled as far as I can tell,) a gay pastry chef who has been fired from every job he’s ever had for sleeping with his bosses or coworkers, and a young retired boxer who suffered a career-ending injury and turned to baking instead. To be honest, I’ve only read the manga, so I don’t know how closely the anime sticks to that story, but it begins with basically the same premise.
Honey and Clover - the relationship woes of a group of art students, including a young sculptor who is rather small for her age and very cute. A bit twee for some, but give it a chance.
Lovely Complex - I just started watching this one, but the first few episodes are just so charming I fell in love with it. It’s about two Osaka high school students, a girl who is unusually tall, and a boy who is short for his age. They’re friends, but spend half the time arguing and insulting each other’s height. Of course, everyone who knows them thinks they would make a great couple, and each privately agrees, but they’re too busy arguing to admit it.
Around episode 5 or so, a potential love interest appears for the boy, but “she” turns out to be a boy who claims to be a “girl trapped in a boy’s body” and who presents as female as a result. The people in my anime watching group, mostly males, laughed uproariously at the revelation, mostly out of discomfort, it seemed to me. I felt rather bad for the character, actually; even though it was played for laughs to some extent, she was portrayed somewhat sympathetically, at least in the episodes I’ve seen up to.
Kimi ni Todoke - haven’t seen it, but I plan to. A shy, quiet teenager bears a resemblance to the Sadako character in Ringu (aka The Ring) and the kids at her school avoid her because they find her creepy. One boy doesn’t care about her reputation and reaches out to her, giving her the courage to slowly come out of her shell.
I’ve noticed all the anime I’ve chosen have a theme of people who don’t quite fit in, trying to find their place in the world. For some reason this theme appeals to me,and is a recurring theme in many of the stories I like.
I’m late to the show, as usual. Nana is also a live action movie, which loosely parallels the anime, but is, in my opinion, much, much better. There’s a fantastic song in the movie called Endless Story that is played through a particularly gut-wrenching scene.
There was a sequel to the movie called Nana2, but it wasn’t as good.