Does America have a bias against animation?

and I can live with this, as long as the stuff I get that is animated is good.

And I will not turn to anime as alternative. It's let me down far too much and I refuse to consider that stuff more adult. Japan just has more variety in what they show kids, but that's about it.

And, as I've said, more variety ≠ more quality.

That's pretty much a given, simply because people are dicks.

edited 20th May '15 7:19:17 AM by PhysicalStamina

I don't know...I'd rather watch anime over most of the adult cartoons on now.

I'd rather watch King of the Hill than A Certain Scientific Railgun.

I don't really put King of the Hill in that category.

Simpsons and Futurama definitely are not adult cartoons I'd prefer watching anime over, King of the Hill and Bob's Burgers would have some anime I like more, while anything else I'd rather watch anime.

Guys dont be so melodramatic. Its life lets just deal with it. If we act mature and stuff we wont be made fun of. Simple as that. But even if they do, no skin off my nose.

Just because we act mature doesn't mean that others will.

anime is for nerds ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Wanna marathon Haruhi Suzumiya?

I understand just what was going for.

Anime and cartoon give different impressions on people. its really when you grow up that is the problem. Bennete the sage generation in that akward cheese years that is the 80s when the market for anime was finding its footing and it was a very underground thing. My generation the ones born and raised in the 90 grow up In an environment when anime was getting more publicly accepted and the marketing was getting better. The next generation of kids, I really have nothing to say because I really don't know anyone younger than me that couldn't see Ducktales or that duck hockey cartoon on tv. As for the parents of this three generation grow up when the American format of animation and printed martial was THE dominate style and anime or anything japanese was getting its niche( my mom remembers limbs and ultraman and she was born in 1962 in Ecuador) do to them, it's cartoon and comics. Anime and manga is not in their vocabulary.Also you have to thing that we live in an age where you can marathon the godzilla movies, one piece, and space dandy in one day in your home while not so long ago in 2000ish that was a luxury. I think we just have to wait until the kids nowadays grow up to college age and our generation to completely take control of the market and eventually the old/ grandparent stage.

Ps is there a difference between comic and manga and if so what is it.

pss. I'm surprised that studio ghibli hasn't appeared on this thread. They are a very good example that when people truly love their work that everyone can see and appreciate it even for the people that don't like movie and/or anime can appreciate their movies.

edited 10th Jul '15 7:46:13 PM by Floatzel

I heard that Manga reads from right to left, while comic books are the opposite.

Also, Manga usually tell one story, while comics can tell several story arcs.

I don't think there's a biased, just a lack of variety. Then again, some people still look at a cartoon and say it's for kids. Oddly enough, I started watching Futurama when I was seven only because it was animated.

Indeed. Still, I really hate how mean spirited some cartoons have become. Family Guy is the most notorious example.

I think it's not a "bias", but a lot of Americans probably have an "All Animation is for kids" mindset. Unless it's something like South Park or Family Guy.

I actually have a thesis on how the whole "Animation Age Ghetto" thing came about - if it even really ever existed.

Back in the 50s, the limited-animation cartoons of Hanna Barbera and Jay Ward had a following among adults - and it wasn't an ironic one either. This, of course, led to the short-lived boom of animation in primetime, with shows made for family audiences (which implied that adults would be watching).

To understand this we have to take into account when these shows aired.

The early Hanna Barbera shows - the Huck, Yogi and Quick Draw shows - aired between 6 and 7:30 p.m., which was when primetime started back then. Rocky and Bullwinkle aired at Sundays at 5:30 p.m.

Many adults generally come home from work at about 6 p.m., so you can imagine after a long, hard day at work, they put on the TV to rest and along comes a cartoon. And they're enjoying it, unironically.

The last of the primetime cartoons was Jonny Quest in 1964, which only lasted a season. The Flintstones ended two years later. Thereafter, animation on American TV was restricted to afternoon hours, when kids are home, but adults aren't, and Saturday mornings, when adults generally prefer to sleep in or are busy doing anything but watching TV (cooking breakfast, mowing the lawn, what have you).

If the Animation Age Ghetto ever developed at any point, it would have to be then. In 1967, there was a flurry of attacks on the wave of superhero animation on American TV (Space Ghost, Birdman, The Herculoids, and so on), with wildly inaccurate descriptions of the content. After the networks got rid of those, the attacks switched to the wacky funny animal stuff that used to be considered inoffensive.

And thus it remained until the 90s, with various attempts to start primetime animation in between. Only one, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, was even remotely successful.

edited 11th Jul '15 1:21:44 PM by Aldo930

I remember that in the early 90's, too, that TNT started an hour and a half block of classic WB/MGM cartoons that ran from 5:30 to 7 pm (central time). I believe that Nickelodeon started airing Looney Tunes after 5 as well (this was shortly before the big WB consolidation, when they, by hook or by crook, managed to gather all their animation properties back in). So they were clearly going for a slightly expanded audience. I remember as well that WB corporate was at the time a bit surprised at how well Tiny Toon Adventures and later Animaniacs did among the High School/College crowd. When did CN start, does anyone know/remember off the top of their head?

edited 11th Jul '15 1:39:29 PM by Robbery

Cartoon Network launched in 1992.

By that time, however, everything had changed. The baby boomers who had grown up on classic theatrical cartoons as well as the works of Hanna Barbera and Jay Ward were running things, and they were more sympathetic to animation than their predecessors.

The Simpsons had already proved that animation could work in primetime again, and many children's shows, as you mentioned, were beginning to get cult followings (in particular the Disney and WB shows of their time), culminating in the spectacular adult success of Ren And Stimpy. The Cartoon Network presentation reel - it's on You Tube somewhere - mentions the adult cartoon watching demographic as one reason that a network based on animation would succeed.

Clearly things had changed from when the "weirdo superheroes" and funny animal stuff were being blasted for violence.

Don't forget the "half-hour toy commercials" either. The first one was a Hot Wheels cartoon in the 60's, which I think only lasted one season, and is what got the FCC to ban Saturday morning programs that were based on merchandise (this didn't apply, or wasn't made to apply, to super-hero shows based on comic books, which also frequently had merchandise based on them). This ban lasted until 1979 or 80, when they changed the rule so that a cartoon could be merchandise based so long as it's merchandise wasn't advertised during the show. The first merchandise-based show of this era was, believe it or not, Strawberry Shortcake.

Anyhow, my point in all that is that being "half-hour toy commercials" is a charge frequently leveled against broadcast cartoons to this day. The feeling is that they prey on innocent li'l consumers and are of a neccessity, crappily produced. Which is sometimes the case, but certainly not always. Some merchandise driven cartoons have been very good and very well done.

There was also the Linus the Lionhearted show of the 60s, where the characters were based off of cereal mascots, and which hasn't been seen since then because that's just not something you can do these days. Similarly, the Twinkles segments from King Leonardo haven't been seen since either.

As for half-hour toy commercials, for every show that is well-remembered enough to inspire new visits to the material like He Man or Transformers or Thundercats, there's stuff like Rubik the Amazing Cube or Saturday Supercade that are really only remembered as snark bait.

(They were still going to make stuff based on food mascots, though. Plans were made for shows based on the Noid and Chester Cheetah...)

Well, there's someone else who knows that Saturday Supercade existed.

Though that isn't the only video game based show that is used as snark bait (All Mario cartoons, Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Captain N, Sonic Underground, and Sonic X). Though there are some that are remembered for other reasons (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog for how memetic it is, and I don't see too much hatred for Kirby: Right Back At Ya, Sonic Sat AM, Donkey Kong Country, and Sonic Boom).

Sonic Boom is way too recent to talk about it being remembered.

And AOSTH memeticness is because it's snark bait.

edited 11th Jul '15 9:00:09 PM by PhysicalStamina

I'm only counting Boom because I have not heard anything bad about the cartoon. The Wii U game, though I hear is as bad as '06.

The Pac-Man Adventures had the most sought-after advertising slots of any cartoon of it's era; it's commercial breaks were actually longer than normal as a result.

I actually kinda liked "Dragon's Lair" from Saturday Supercade.

As to mascots, heck, the California Raisins DID have their own show...