What's the difference between Japanese and American animation?

[basho]

Well, the subject pretty much says it all. For me, Japanese "anime" have deeper, more complex issues and can be watched by anyone, even adults. American "cartoons" are usually comedic by nature, and are targeted at the under 12 age group (children). That's my opinion, anyway.

[jack]

i really say that japanese animation has a more serious theme....sometimes even adult na. mas dramatic, morbid, kinky, sexy :)

[basho]

yeah, that's true...
i mean, the subjects and charcters would never be shown in an american animation(except, maybe, for disney). in the states, there's a thin line between decent cartoons and porn/not for kids. it's either one or the other.

[Miviant]

Yeah I agree with you guys , anime cartoons have really good plots in their stories , and in japanese animies , most of their drawings are well defined , have you seen Macross and Robotech ,(Macross was the movie and robotech was the series) try to compare them with American robot drawings .

[don]

I like Japanese cartoons best. The drawings are vivid and uniform, i.e. no screwed-up proportions and anatomy. The animation is clear-cut and the storytelling is excellent in most cases. Even though I can't understand Japanese, I could usually follow what is going on. Especially if it's something like La Blue Girl.

[pinhead]

ewan ko pero i love anime,
i've watch some of them like dragon ball z,
ninja scroll, akira,samurai x,ghost in the shell,street fighter and tekken movies.legend of the over fiend,i've forget the others.

[nix]

What I like most about Japanese Animation is the art's overall intensity. With a minimal amount of cel art, the entire movement of the characters on screen appear as if they had several frames of animation. It's over the top!

[Diyos ng Kamatayan]

I kinda like both Japanese and American animation. The problem with American animation, however, is that most of them are aimed at audiences 17 years and younger. Exceptions of these include Spawn, and Spicy City. I belive this is due to some kinda influence of previous animations, such as Bugs Bunny and Walt Disney. But there are those with particularly adult storylines, such as Batman, Superman, Spiderman and X-Men.

But I am still an Otaku, and probably I'll always be one. Japan is where you can finda no-holds-barred animation, where the only limits are those of human imagination. But I still hate henati anime, and I notice that Japan is the only country with sex anime's. Spawn has sex, but it is not the centerpoint of the series, unlike Goldenboy and First Loves.

[Lightspeed]

I dunno, but no matter how serious the (American) Transformers, He-Man and G.I. Joe series try to be, they just do not have the emotional tug and vivid realism that the likes of Voltes V, Ghostfighter and Daimos seem to have.

[SHAIDER]

Japanese anime's have bigger eyes....hehehe.

[basho]

Wow, its been a really long time since I first put the topic up! :)

Anyway, to add light into an otherwise old topic, anime is just the animated extension of another great Japanese artform: the manga or comic book. There are exceptions, of course, like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, etc. But most of today's popular anime shows (except for Pokemon, Street Fighter and the Tekken Movies) started out as Mangas: Ranma, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, Ah! My Goddess, Tenchi, blah blah blah. There are also subdivisions of Japanese animations ie for boys, girls and adults.

As a bit of trivia, anime is NOT animation in Japanese. It is rather a French word for the art of animation.

And finally, Japanses animation is stepping into the computer age with the really-cool-looking-but-still-far-off Final Fantasy Movie. Check it out at http://www.finalfantasy.com/

[Kaede]

The word "Anime", contrary to what people may know, is actually the slang term of the Japanese for animation. In Japan foriegn words are spelled in Katakana, (its basically the equivalent of our use of italics when using Filipino phrases in an english text)"A-ni-me-shi-yo-n" are the way one would pronounce the katakana characters used in spelling anime. <;anime is French for art ---cool, I elearned something neat today.>;

As regarding the question (rather, difference) of Japanese animation to Western animation, the line can also be drawn according to genre. One could consider anime and cartoons as individual genres. This is done by first bisecting the requirements of a "genre"; first it must have a set range of medium for the artist to use, and a set expectation for viewers or readers to find.

The mediums used in anime are different from that of cartoons. While both are in the animated format, anime possess unique traits not found in cartoons. Dynamic camera angles, real-time shadows and lighting effects, no-cut three dimensional views, these are simply a few of the many differences between the way anime and cartoons are drawn. Another medium is the music, while it is exclusive to the video format (no music for Manga? hey that's printed stuff!), the music used in anime can compare to that of the musical scores used in epic movies (that's not an exaggeration, the Japanee hire their top singers and bands and orchestras to compose themes for thier weekly anime, an effort that the americans only exhibit when making cartoons as full-length movies). The storylines and character creation and deliveries are... (hmm, I might take up a lot of space). Uh, never mind, I think you guys get the point.

As for what the reader or audience would expect, anime seems to possess an ability to grasp the attention and minds of those exposed to it.

There. I'd rather not babble anymore lest I incur the hundreds of flames about to sent to me...

[gamera3]

May it be a slang, a french word for "art" or just a derivative of the word "animation". In Japan they use the term "Anime" for all forms of animation, be it Japanese or foreign cartoons!:)
Try to read Japanese TV guides (Magazines or websites) which includes non-japanese cartoons. They classfy every animation as "Anime", even claymation.
So to them the term is not exclusive to their own. By Genre or the anime's point of origin (like country) is how they classify it.
Ex. Nihon no Anime (Japanese Animation)
FuransunoAnime (French Animation)
Disuni Anime (Walt Disney Animation)

Same thing applies to manga (ex.amerika no manga)

[jack_lucas_ph]

the eyes :wow:

[Hulk]

Walang namamatay sa American cartoons. Watch GI Joe sa kababaril nila walang namamatay kahit isang sampid na Cobra soldier.

Normally lacking in emotion din ang American cartoons. Japanese Anime takes time focusing on close-ups of characters making you realize what they are feeling and thinking.

[thehitman]

Mas "buhay" ang anime characters. I just love the way the eyes change when expressing various emotions. The "tear drop" that appears when someone is mystified or surprised is hilarious. And the Japanese introduced something which I find very amusing: chibi counterparts. Nakakatuwa pag yung characters lumiliit, like yung sa Slam Dunk, Sakura Wars, etc.

:cool:

[tetsuya komuro]

The Japanese has taken animation to a new level by crossing the boundaries of cartoons for children only. American animation's target audience is that of kids.

[tetsuya komuro]

Uy may namamatay naman sa GI Joe. Naaalala niyo pa ba yung free GI Joe cards sa ovaltine packs dati? Meron ako ng mga nun ang a number of them are deceased. That annoying Duke was dead and also General Flagg. Don't know where that guy came from though. Oh yeah, and also Firefly

[Lucca Yamazaki]

Originally posted by don
Even though I can't understand Japanese, I could usually follow what is going on.


In Akira, even if you translate it in English you'll probably still not be able to understand what the hell's going on. Oh well. Primal screaming, anyone?

[Hulk]

Originally posted by tetsuya komuro
Uy may namamatay naman sa GI Joe. Naaalala niyo pa ba yung free GI Joe cards sa ovaltine packs dati? Meron ako ng mga nun ang a number of them are deceased. That annoying Duke was dead and also General Flagg. Don't know where that guy came from though. Oh yeah, and also Firefly

Really? Di ko alam iyon ah. I stopped reading the comic book after 1 year, the cartoons the same.

General Flagg I think is the commanding officer of the GI Joe Unit. I have seen him several times in the comics kasi.

[kartoonista]

I'll have to go with the amount of details they put into each scene. Plus yung shadows, Western cartoons don't put that much emphasis sa shadows. *okay*

[tetsuya komuro]

may intro and a bit of comparison on japanese and american animation na video akong nakita sa isang hentai video. ill try to write it down here if i have the time.

hulk, thanks for the info...

[onwils]

Nobody ever dies in an American cartoon.

They get shot, hit by trucks, fall from ravines but they keep on coming back. To me, that constitutes even more danger to kids watching them than say a violent movie.

The kids will not be able to distinguish which action would kill or maim. To them, nothing hurts or kills just like in the cartoons.

[master_deej]

the only difference i see is the location kung san gnawa yung cartoons... either japan or USA.. parepareho lang yan sakin.. cartoons parin yan lahat yan! GIjoe or the simpsons can be as good or even much better than like rurounikenshin or evangelion....

[SoliduS_AlphA]

Maganda rin naman ang Western animation all they need to improve is the story or plot of each titles,for example yung X-men maganda ang plot nya pati yung Spiderman dati kasi medyo cheesy pa pero nag improve naman sya in a way,Spawn also has a good story line except for the film that one was a flop for me, dinaan lang sa graphics.For example if you have read the Infinity Series ng marvel at yung X-cutioner's song ng X-men you will notice that the story has got so deep and the story wasn't really a kiddie stuff but I have read that when I was in highschool then but it made sense for me because the story evovled and with the appearance of Onslaught and the WhiteQueen being the new mentor of the new mutants Marvel have somehow shown that they have guts to match the Japanese,but over all , I would say that Japanese animation is still ahead by a mile.

[onwils]

Originally posted by master_deej
the only difference i see is the location kung san gnawa yung cartoons... either japan or USA.. parepareho lang yan sakin.. cartoons parin yan lahat yan! GIjoe or the simpsons can be as good or even much better than like rurounikenshin or evangelion....

Just like you said, they could be. Which means to say they still suck.