Why do so many people dislike Japanese Animation?

[Jragon]

@Miller

“Anime” is just Japanese for “animation.”

I don’t mean to pick on you, but what Western animation are you looking at that doesn’t have really big eyes?

Likewise for over-the-top reaction shots.

Yeah, I made a post a while ago about the same thing in a My Little Pony thread

@Jragon

Okay, maybe this is the wrong thread for this, but seriously, wtf is up with the “big eyes” criticism of anime.

America is not exactly shy about big eyes. It’s no wonder – eyes are possibly the most expressive feature on people. Goofy has a (singular, I might add) GIANT FREAKING EYE BLOB fer chrissake. Even Donald’s eyes are freakishly large by any standard. In fact, the mice may be the only Disney characters that really escape it. Look at Violet from the Incredibles. It’s especially common in baby characters.

And it ain’t just Disney, Pixar, or WB. Here’s Dexter from Dexter’s Lab, or the Powerpuff Girls. And, as noted, My Little Pony. Not to mention eye size varies wildly between anime. Sure, there’s the extreme end like Azumanga Daioh, but Bleach (which is very, very popular as anime goes, even if it isn’t that great) doesn’t have huge eyes (though they’re bigger on the girls). Even some anime like Fullmetal Alchemist or the girls and boobs anime Strike Witches have eyes that, while big, really aren’t THAT big compared to, say, Ariel in The Little Mermaid.

They’re maybe a bit more prevalent in anime, but I don’t see it. Especially since there’s so many OTHER good arguments you can make against anime such as: overuse of walk cycles or stock footage – especially in lower budget weekly anime, the inability of many animators to draw more than one face and stack different hair and eye colors on it, hell the inability of some animators to draw more than three distinct bodies, period; poor characterization in the heavily syndicated, long running garbage (with exceptions); doing dubbing separately from animation (no dope sheets?). Some of these complaints can be valid stylistic choices and up for argument as well, but they’re certainly a much better argument than “anime has big eyes, big eyes are dumb,” since that alienates a large amount of the very paragons of American animation people frequently compare it against.

I don’t care if you dislike anime, whatever, no big deal. Yeah, a lot of anime fans are annoying too, I get that. And unlike a few others I certainly think there are overarching trends in anime that may lead someone to dislike most of it. (And for people who mentioned the lack of satisfying resolutions to the stories, preferring to leave it more open ended or incomprehensible, I understand that that’s an East Asian storytelling thing that goes back for a long, long time). I just think the “big eyes” criticism is somewhat bizarre.

ETA: I mentioned Strike Witches in that post. That show is the epitome of sexualizing 14 year olds. It’s disturbing. The story was interesting enough that my ex forced me to watch all 13 episodes, but I was considering calling the FBI and admitting to possession of child pornography afterwards. Christ.