User blog:Groxiuos/Western Animation vs Anime

Alright, so I saw on Mitchell's facebook a brief challenge between "Cartoons" and "Anime". Before I could comment however, the topic was lost. So, because I have nothing better to do, I'll post my thoughts here.

Edwin and Mitchell were talking about Transformers, and Mitchell said the cartoon one wasn't as good. Edwin came back and told him that was short sighted (paraphrasing).

So, what makes people think that Anime is better than Western Cartoons? Well, let's compare the two.

Plot
In Western Cartoons, we have a generally one pilot episode that takes care of any and all plot the series needs before it can take on a more episodic nature. We get the characters established, set the scene, and for many series, that's the end of it.

In Spongebob we had about two episodes before this took place. In them Spongebob met Sandy and in the other he got his job at the Krusty Krab. Storywise, that's about it. Yes, some characters are introduced later, but nothing really big happens again after that. (Not counting the TV specials/movie)

On the other hand, while not all Anime have an over reaching story, there is a good enough proportion that one can find a story-driven Anime without looking too hard. The story may be simple, beat up the next big bad, or may involve a plot to rid the world of evil with a notebook, there is a pretty big range of stories in Anime.

Animation
In Western Cartoons you never know what a person is going to look like. They may have blue skin, bulging eyes, rubber arms, or a combination of the three. That isn't a bad thing per say, in fact, it gives a good variety of images. You could argue that Western Cartoon's tend to be more "stiff". However, the art in these series, while constantly evolving, tends to be fairly consistent. There probably isn't going to be one episode that looks amazingly animated while the next looks like junk. To the untrained eye Western Cartoons are rarely off model, unless it is intended.

Anime, on the other hand, tends to follow the same few rules of how things should look. There are different takes on the "Anime" art style, but it still, for the most part, is based on that single style. As for constancy, you often hear complains of shows that are very different from episode to episode. I would say this is because they save their budget for better animation in more important episodes, but don't take that for a fact.

The Unfamiliar
I think one of the big draws to Anime is that, it's something different. Some Anime are so drastically different from what we are used to, we forget we are, in fact, watching a cartoon. That's it. I think that also, over time, once you get used to the "enivornment" of anime that it become less of a "Wow, this is awesome" to a "Oh, this isn't that great".

Final Thoughts
Both Western Cartoons and Anime have the potential to be good. Both have the potential to be terrible. I think the only reason this argument even exists is because people divide Anime from Cartoons in their mind. Really, if this devision wasn't there people might look for more quality animated series, then just something that fits into their class of cartoon/anime.

So, what do you guys think, Western Animation vs Anime? Is one better than the other? Should we just drop the titles and just call then all cartoons (or any other alternative)? Leave a comment below to weigh in on this rather pointless subject.