History Analysis / AnimationAgeGhetto

However, it should be noted that this does not mean that adults cannot appreciate or like animation, or take animation seriously like children since animation is simply another form of media (raping a woman in a live-action movie or raping a woman in an animated cartoon are both shocking- and '''''not real''''') By our very psychological hardwiring, cartoons were bound to have found a wider audience with children. However, thanks to the Age Ghetto, entertainment culture also led to a baseless psychological belief that not only is it weird for adults to like cartoons, adults shouldn't like cartoons because cartoons are for kids- the only reason why is because cartoons are 'not real.' (As aforestated, live action fare technically isn't 'real' either, ''but'' there is more emotional attachment and recognition with live actors than drawings, especially since animation very rarely capture the nuances of real life acting due to budget constraints) Even if a growing number of adults watch cartoons, it's less to do with the content and more to do with downfall of the idea of cartoons being solely camp or crude edutainment. In fact, there's absolutely nothing stopping adults from liking cartoons outside of cultural norms. It is merely noted that adults prefer depth, which almost all cartoons for decades sorely lacked.
* Also because of bad dubbing of anime prior to the 'Animation Quality Revisionism' of the New Millenium, most English-dubbed anime featured horrendous voice work. As mentioned before, a major reason why many adults look at animation in disdain is because of the fact that, traditionally, animation has had a much lower standard for voice acting that, in live-action, would be seen as wholly unrealistic. Anime's long trend of extremely over-the-top dubbing led to many seeing it as having an almost polarized quality= adult content, but "kiddy" voice acting, besides leading to purists disavowing dubs. But in recent years, especially thanks to said revisionism by artists and animators, dubs and voice work in animation in general has improved manyfold. And thanks to an exponentially rising quality of writing along with it, even average cartoons are gaining critical acclaim for their direction.

Actually, most shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are definitely not meant for kids will suffer this without reasonable doubt. You use a talking animal, you are for kids, even if you have mindless sex orgies, gratuitous cursing, intense violence, and/or realistic tense situations. The Ghetto then kicks into full swing- you will immediately find a major resistance, even amongst some of those against the ghetto, of using {{Funny Animal}}s in such things simply because the ghetto is so built into them that the very concept of {{Funny Animal}}s in realistic situations is something that shouldn't be done. Although some countries such as Belgium and The Netherlands avert this trend and consider using the {{Funny Animal}} with the intent of sex, violence etc. to be OK the catch is that these shows always tends to be inspired by medieval Dutch animal fables such as Literature/ReynardTheFox.

It should be noted though that if you want to work with any kind of visual media the above is one of the very first mentalities one should avoid stepping into, as animation and live-action are very interconnected to each other when writers are still working on the script. Plenty of times drawings will be made to understand which location is the best to shoot film footage in and where objects are going to be set in live-action films. Similarly plenty of animation relies on live-action photography to give a general direction which style of animation is going to be used in an animated work.

* The case for Anime and Manga when dealing with the Animation Age Ghetto (without trying to deal with AllAnimeIsNaughtyTentacles) is as laughable as it is sad considering that so much anime that the West knows (shonen, almost completely)- while considered safe for kids or teens in Japan - could end up with R ratings in other countries, and yet countries such as Mexico, who are still deep inside the Age Ghetto, refuse to see it any other way than 'if it's drawn, it's for kids, even if there are exposed penises, exposed breasts, on-screen decapitations, and cluster F-bombs.' Anime is what students of the Age Ghetto (for and against) use to prove that there is, in fact, an Age Ghetto. Some of the outright funny/ridiculous/laziest examples occur when studios try dubbing out suggestive or offensive dialogue, but the show itself still features massive levels of sexual themes or gore -- a character tries playing it off with 'cute' or 'cheesy' dialogue that suggests that the sword clearly impaling her and pushing her heart out through her chest is actually nothing more than a trick and she actually caught the sword under her arm.
* What most in the west don't know is that there is more than just shonen, but in terms of shipping it to the West, at least on major broadcasting, the ghetto prevents anyone from learning about this because executives/moral guardians are going to ''make it'' shonen. Any anime that isn't acceptable for kids and not set on a network that plays such stuff uncensored- or is acceptable for kids to an extent and has to be excessively censored- will suffer this. However, that particular aspect is not Age Ghetto- it begins with Bowdlerisation and continues from there.

* A quick note: sometimes, people assume the "adult" in "adult animation" means [[RatedMForMoney lots of foul language, sexual content, and violence]] -- but "adult" can also refer to content too complex for children to handle (as in "Would kids really understand this?"). Such content often ends up interpreted as either {{Parental Bonus}}es. Further confounding this is that some things may be too complex for kids...but is presented in a way that actually wouldn't be out of place in something meant for kids, [[WesternAnimation/{{Cars2}} such as a movie about the oil industry's excessive greed and ignorance towards the environment, and the hero of the day being a talking superspy tow truck.]] Many shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are not directly meant for kids (usually due to portraying stereotypes, such as the 'fat cat Wall street executive' actually being a fat cat) sometimes suffer this.

* Another factor is ValuesDissonance between the Anglosphere and other cultures: The idea in Japan, France, The Netherlands etc. that cuteness is meant for the entire family means that cute characters and settings are enjoyed or at least tolerated by every demographic, whereas cuteness in North America is associated with childishness or femininity. In addition, the Japanese concept of the ChristmasCake (which states that a woman is old once she reaches 25 years of age) clashes with the American PaedoHunt. Hence, while a fan of {{Moe}} is considered a social outcast in both Japan and overseas, liking moe is simply geeky in Japan, France and Belgium but appallingly immature in North America and the United Kingdom. All together, the prevalence of anime and manga with a cute aesthetic causes anime fans in North American countries to appear immature and childish.

However, it should be noted that this does not mean that adults cannot appreciate or like animation, or take animation seriously like children since animation is simply another form of media (raping a woman in a live-action movie or raping a woman in an animated cartoon are both shocking- and '''''not real''''') By our very psychological hardwiring, cartoons were bound to have found a wider audience with children. However, thanks to the Age Ghetto, entertainment culture also led to a baseless psychological belief that not only is it weird for adults to like cartoons, adults shouldn't like cartoons because cartoons are for kids- the only reason why is because cartoons are 'not real.' (As aforestated, live action fare technically isn't 'real' either, ''but'' there is more emotional attachment and recognition with real actors than drawings, especially since animation very rarely capture the nuances of real life acting due to budget constraints) Even if a growing number of adults watch cartoons, it's less to do with the content and more to do with downfall of the idea of cartoons being solely camp or crude edutainment. In fact, there's absolutely nothing stopping adults from liking cartoons outside of cultural norms. It is merely noted that adults prefer depth, which almost all cartoons for decades sorely lacked.

* A quick note: sometimes, people assume the "adult" in "adult animation" means [[RatedMForMoney lots of foul language, sexual content, and violence]] -- but "adult" can also refer to content too complex for children to handle (as in "Would kids really understand this?"). Such content often ends up interpreted as either {{Parental Bonus}}es or GettingCrapPastTheRadar. Further confounding this is that some things may be too complex for kids...but is presented in a way that actually wouldn't be out of place in something meant for kids, [[WesternAnimation/{{Cars2}} such as a movie about the oil industry's excessive greed and ignorance towards the environment, and the hero of the day being a talking superspy tow truck.]] Many shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are not directly meant for kids (usually due to portraying stereotypes, such as the 'fat cat Wall street executive' actually being a fat cat) sometimes suffer this.

* Also because of bad dubbing of anime prior to the 'Animation Quality Revisionism' of the New Millenium, most English-dubbed anime featured horrendous voice work. As mentioned before, a major reason why many adults look at animation in disdain is because of the fact that, traditionally, animation has had a much lower standard for voice acting that, in live-action, would be seen as wholly unrealistic. Anime's long trend of extremely over-the-top dubbing led to many seeing it as having an almost schizoid quality= adult content, but "kiddy" voice acting, besides leading to purists disavowing dubs. But in recent years, especially thanks to said revisionism by artists and animators, dubs and voice work in animation in general has improved manyfold. And thanks to an exponentially rising quality of writing along with it, even average cartoons are gaining critical acclaim for their direction.

* On a streaming site or purchase/rental storefront, is animation listed as a "genre" in the same way as comedy, horror, or drama, rather than being treated as medium the same way live action media is?

* On a streaming sight or purchase/rental storefront, is animation listed as a "genre" in the same way as comedy, horror, or drama, rather than being treated as medium the same way live action media is?

* Are people surprised, or criticize, slightly objectionable content in a animated film. Who would not raise an eyebrow if similar content was in a live action film?

Actually, most shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are definitely not meant for kids will suffer this without reasonable doubt. You use a talking animal, you are for kids, even if you have mindless sex orgies, gratuitous cursing, intense violence, and/or realistic tense situations. The Ghetto then kicks into full swing- you will immediately find a major resistance, even amongst some of those against the ghetto, of using {{Funny Animal}}s in such things simply because the ghetto is so built into them that the very concept of {{Funny Animal}}s or PettingZooPeople in realistic situations is something that shouldn't be done. Although some countries such as Belgium and The Netherlands avert this trend and consider using the {{Funny Animal}} with the intent of sex, violence etc. to be OK the catch is that these shows always tends to be inspired by medieval Dutch animal fables such as Literature/ReynardTheFox.

* Are people surprised, or criticize, slightly objectionable content in a animated film. But would not raise an eyebrow if similar content was in a live action film?

However, it should be noted that this does not mean that adults cannot appreciate or like cartoons, or take cartoons seriously like children since animation is simply another form of media (raping a woman in a live-action movie or raping a woman in an animated cartoon are both shocking- and '''''not real''''') By our very psychological hardwiring, cartoons were bound to have found a wider audience with children. However, thanks to the Age Ghetto, entertainment culture also led to a baseless psychological belief that not only is it weird for adults to like cartoons, adults shouldn't like cartoons because cartoons are for kids- the only reason why is because cartoons are 'not real.' (As aforestated, live action fare technically isn't 'real' either, ''but'' there is more emotional attachment and recognition with real actors than drawings, especially since animation very rarely capture the nuances of real life acting due to budget constraints) Even if a growing number of adults watch cartoons, it's less to do with the content and more to do with downfall of the idea of cartoons being solely camp or crude edutainment. In fact, there's absolutely nothing stopping adults from liking cartoons outside of cultural norms. It is merely noted that adults prefer depth, which almost all cartoons for decades sorely lacked.

* Also because of bad dubbing of anime prior to the 'Animation Quality Revisionism' of the New Millenium, [[Horrible/VoiceActing most English-dubbed anime featured horrendous voice work.]] As mentioned before, a major reason why many adults look at animation in disdain is because of the fact that, traditionally, animation has had a much lower standard for voice acting that, in live-action, would be seen as wholly unrealistic. Anime's long trend of extremely over-the-top dubbing led to many seeing it as having an almost schizoid quality= adult content, but "kiddy" voice acting, besides leading to purists disavowing dubs. But in recent years, especially thanks to said revisionism by artists and animators, dubs and voice work in animation in general has improved manyfold. And thanks to an exponentially rising quality of writing along with it, even average cartoons are gaining critical acclaim for their direction.

It should be noted though that if you want to work with any kind of visual media the above is one of the very first mentalities one should avoid stepping into, as animation and live-action are very interconnected to each other when writers are still working on the script. Plenty of times drawings will be made to understand which location is the best to shoot film footage in and where objects are going to be set in live-action films. Similarly plenty of animation relies on live-action photography to give a general direction which style of animation is going to be used in an animated work.

* A quick note: sometimes, people assume the "adult" in "adult animation" means [[RatedMForMoney lots of foul language, sexual content, and violence]] -- but "adult" can also refer to content too complex for children to handle (as in "Would kids really understand this?"). Such content often ends up interpreted as either {{Parental Bonus}}es or GettingCrapPastTheRadar. Further confounding this is that some things may be too complex for kids...but is presented in a way that actually wouldn't be out of place in something meant for kids, [[WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} such as a movie about the oil industry's excessive greed and ignorance towards the environment, and the hero of the day being a talking superspy tow truck.]] Many shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are not directly meant for kids (usually due to portraying stereotypes, such as the 'fat cat Wall street executive' actually being a fat cat) sometimes suffer this.

It should be noted though that if you want to work with any kind of visual media this is one of the very first mentalities one should avoid stepping into, as animation and live-action are very interconnected to each other when writers are still working on the script. Plenty of times drawings will be made to understand which location is the best to shoot film footage in and where objects are going to be set in live-action films. Similarly plenty of animation relies on live-action photography to give a general direction which style of animation is going to be used in an animated work.

It should be noted though that if you want to work with any kind of visual media this is one of the very first mentalities one should avoid stepping into, as animation and live-action are very interconnected to each other when people are still working on the script. Plenty of times drawings will be made to understand which location is the best to shoot film footage in and where objects are going to be set in live-action films. Similarly plenty of animation relies on live-action photography to give a general direction which style of animation is going to be used in an animated work.

It should be noted though that if you want to work with any kind of visual media this is one of the very first mentalities one should avoid stepping into, as animation and live-action are very interconnected to each other when people are still working on the script. Plenty of times drawings will be made to understand which location is the best to shoot film footage in in live-action films. Similarly plenty of animation relies on live-action photography to give a general direction which style of animation is going to be used in an animated work.

This page in a way is really one of the most one-sided and bias pages to the site. If you are going to insist this page stands, it needs a counter-argument paragraph or give a page to the actual more wide spread idea. Most people that assert this are elitists looking for a face for their persecution complex. We as humans are always going to like or dislike things. Some of us are more snobby than others. Just because you think "adults prefer depth" or programs with children as the primary demographic "write down to their audience" doesn't give you the right to push it down the throats of everyone else. Plenty of people will look at pages like this and feel offended that it allows a minority to speak for a majority, and probably never help this place. Let's be fair here or just pull the plug all together on the subject.

Actually, most shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are definitely not meant for kids will suffer this without reasonable doubt. You use a talking animal, you are for kids, even if you have mindless sex orgies, gratuitous cursing, intense violence, and/or realistic tense situations. The Ghetto then kicks into full swing- you will immediately find a major resistance, even amongst some of those against the ghetto, of using {{Funny Animal}}s in such things simply because the ghetto is so built into them that the very concept of {{Funny Animal}}s or PettingZooPeople in realistic situations is something that shouldn't be done. Although some countries such as Belgium and The Netherlands consider using the {{Funny Animal}} with the intent of sex,violence etc. to be OK. The catch is it always tends to be inspired by medieval Dutch animal fables such as Literature/ReynardTheFox.

Actually, most shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are definitely not meant for kids will suffer this without reasonable doubt. You use a talking animal, you are for kids, even if you have mindless sex orgies, gratuitous cursing, intense violence, and/or realistic tense situations. The Ghetto then kicks into full swing- you will immediately find a major resistance, even amongst some of those against the ghetto, of using {{Funny Animal}}s in such things simply because the ghetto is so built into them that the very concept of {{Funny Animal}}s or PettingZooPeople in realistic situations is something that shouldn't be done.

Actually, most shows featuring humanoids and anthropomorphic animals but are definitely not meant for kids will suffer this without reasonable doubt. You use a talking animal, you are for kids, even if you have mindless sex orgies, gratuitous cursing, intense violence, and/or realistic tense situations. The Ghetto then kicks into full swing- you will immediately find a major resistance, even amongst some of those against the ghetto, of using {{Funny Animal}}s in such things simply because the ghetto is so built into them that the very concept of {{Funny Animal}}s or PettingZooPeople in realistic situations is something that shouldn't be done.

* Also because of bad dubbing of anime prior to the 'Animation Quality Revisionism' of the New Millenium, [[Horrible/VoiceActing most English-dubbed anime featured horrendous voice work.]] As mentioned before, a major reason why many adults look at animation in disdain is because of the fact that, traditionally, animation has had a much lower standard for voice acting that, in live-action, would be seen as wholly unrealistic. Anime's long trend of extremely over-the-top dubbing led to many seeing it as having an almost schizoid quality= adult content, but "kiddy" voice acting, besides leading to purists disavowing dubs. But in recent years, especially thanks to said revisionism by artists and animators, dubs and voice work in animation in general has improved manyfold. And thanks to an exponentially rising quality of writing along with it, even average cartoons are gaining critical acclaim for their direction.

Do ask yourself "Why are cartoons generally geared towards children?" Psychology has the answer: Children are more susceptible to being drawn to the simple art and feel more connection with brightly colored drawings than they do real people and grittier colors. And because children respond to laughter and happiness over other emotions, cartoons were created squarely with comedy in mind. Adults tend to more realistic fare, even if animated, and most don't like being made to feel like children. Because of the dumbed down writing of the Dark Age, adults couldn't find any serious emotional depth to attach to. "But if they couldn't like it, who would? Children, of course!" Children are far less critical of finer things, and care much less about realism and depth. Children are generally excited by action, and Dark Age cartoons were mostly action with very little in the way of the mellower moments of live-action acting. This emphasis on action (action meaning "events occurring", not necessarily "fighting") further removed adults from the equation.
However, it should be noted that this does not mean that adults cannot appreciate or like cartoons, or take cartoons seriously like children since animation is simply another form of media (raping a woman in a live-action movie or raping a woman in an animated cartoon are both shocking- and '''''not real''''') By our very psychological hardwiring, cartoons were bound to have found a wider audience with children. However, thanks to the Age Ghetto, entertainment culture also led to a baseless psychological belief that not only is it weird for adults to like cartoons, adults shouldn't like cartoons because cartoons are for kids- the only reason why is because cartoons are 'not real.' (As aforestated, live action fare technically isn't 'real' either, ''but'' there is more emotional attachment and recognition with real actors than drawings, especially since animation very rarely capture the nuances of real life acting due to budget constraints) Even if a growing number of adults watch cartoons, it's less to do with the content and more to do with downfall of the idea of cartoons being solely camp or crude edutainment. In fact, there's absolutely nothing stopping adults from liking cartoons outside of cultural norms. It is merely noted that adults prefer depth, which almost all cartoons for decades sorely lacked.