Comments on: Why are characters in Japanese and American children’s cartoons so different?

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:27:39 +0000

@Blather, sorry couldn’t leave a dead post dead. To answer your question, Sponge Bob Square Pants, where Plankton is evil for no reason and the only reason the protagonist exists is to teach kids being stupid is funny and cool. This counts for 99% of Nick (excluding Rug Rats, which has a mild amount of character development) cartoons. I haven’t watched any Disney cartoons since about 1995 so I can’t speak on that. As for Cartoon Network, we have Powerpuff Girls (dead), Batman Beyond (a more mature show), toonami (dubbed anime), and then the rest are as described. Even when we approach the more mature Adult Swim, it’s nothing but mindless humor. For example, Family Guy, there is very slow character growth (trends that work, the characters change for that, for example stewie and the dog, however Peter has never changed). Or that show with the floating lunch (Meatball, Fries, Shake …).

On the other hand to the original author, your post does come off very bias. However, it’s (in the general sense, as you said there is an exception to every rule) essentially dead on.

By: Blather

Blather — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:57:17 +0000

Your failure to provide even a single example of an American cartoon that actually fits the qualifications you set forth does little for your argument. The fact that there are more counterexamples in the comments (the DCAU alone, as RP points out, consists of six mature, well-rounded series) than actual examples to back your claims pretty much sinks it.

I do happen to agree that anime generally takes a more ‘mature’ tone than most American animation, and I also agree that this is definitely to its benefit, but I take issue with your black-and-white characterization of the situation and your attempts to moralize this difference. There are good American cartoons and there are bad American cartoons. There are good anime series and there are bad anime series.

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WTF Japan Seriously!? | JapanToday.info — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:20:35 +0000

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By: Why Japanese? « Selene Rivas' Blog

Why Japanese? « Selene Rivas' Blog — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 23:30:10 +0000

[...] they say on the streets, pwns) than what we here call “cartoons”. In fact, there is a very interesting article I read yesterday exactly about this fact, which theorized that anime teaches more values to [...]

By: Passingass

Passingass — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:00:49 +0000

My pre-teen kids like the “light” anime such as Pokemon, Bakugan, Detective Conan…no surprise they also like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

OTOH, my teenage daughter LOVES shoujo and supernatural anime, as well as Disney.

An age appropriate pattern of preference? Thanks to the internet, at least they have access to both worlds.

By: Yumeka

Yumeka — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:08:23 +0000

@ RP

I used to watch the old Batman cartoon too and it was pretty serious and mature (there was some slight character development though not on par with anime). I guess I’m mostly talking about American kid cartoons nowadays. They really have deteriorated (I’ve griped about this topic in a few other posts XP)

Do even the really popular kid shows like One Piece and Naruto come on late at night? But even so, they seem to be popular with pre-teen and older kids. But maybe Doraemon and the like are more for the younger ones. I’ve seen a little Doraemon and even though it’s light and fun, it’s more intelligent and less filled with potty humor and slapsticks than American cartoons.

By: Prooof

Prooof — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:34:21 +0000

I have to agree, children’s anime characters/plot are so much deeper.
don’t know if you read/watch katekyo hitman reborn but that series is on par (IMO) with stuff like bleach/one piece. (actually better than bleach’s current state…)

By: RP

RP — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:31:32 +0000

I don’t know how American cartoons are these days, but I grew up on the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm DC Universe (Batman The Animated Series, The New Adventures of Batman/Superman, Batman Beyond) where there was an incredible amount of depth to the characters. Although the episodes were often standalone one-shot/two-shots, they often featured a very well-rounded world where villains didn’t revert to cartoony villainy and the heroes weren’t just brainless do-gooders.

Also, while there’s probably some cultural reasons at play, I think anime also targets an older age-range than most American cartoons. Anime often premieres either slightly before prime-time or really late at night. Not exactly the most little-kid friendly time slots, whereas American cartoons, besides shows like the Simpsons and South Park, almost all air early on Saturday morning… prime sleeping time for the teens+.

By: Dragonliger

Dragonliger — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:18 +0000

great post. *claps* totally true. Maybe what should be looked for is a balance beetwen the both worlds. More like not just deep anime kids shows (this sounds funny though XP) but to experience the “pink world” too.

Btw is a shame the images look so low quality. They can’t depict Nami’s sexyness at it’s fullest XD