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Film critics, animation, and anime.

(Rick and Morty, a quite decent shounen light comedy show that I watched said about anime fans: "people in the internet that are only turned on by cartoons about Japanese teenagers").

@JoseCruz Eh, much of what you said is down to personal preference. That, and a lot of what you said is erroneous.

For one, the majority of people in Brazil are of European descent, much like the US, with the majority of people having Portuguese roots and much of Brazil's culture is similar to that of Portugal, albeit with some differences, as well as hints of German and Italian culture. Secondly, Brazil is technically in the west, so if it's not a western country, I don't know what is. I'm of Portuguese background myself, so I kinda know what I'm talking about when it come to Portuguese matters and Brazil is certainly not devoid of that. It couldn't be, considering it retains virtually everything that Portugal's colonization. That and all Brazilians are united by one sole language. Portuguese, I.E a European language. Most of the western influence in Japan is there for superficial reasons. That is certainly not the case in Brazil.

Three, stop using the "more is better" or "popular" argument. One, 90% of everything is bad, so by your logic, most anime sucks and therefore, there is more bad anime than US media.

Two, anime isn't even more popular than US animation and not by a long shot. American animation is far more popular monetary wise on a nominal and per capita measurement.

Four, Miyazaki's skewered and egoistical opinions mean nothing. If you only like your own stuff, then that tells me your opinion means nothing. Oh, BTW, did I mention that Miyazaki absolutely LOVES Pixar? That only shows Miyazaki's rampant hypocrisy, considering that Pixar movies aren't doing anything Disney movies aren't. That and he loves Bugs Bunny, which IMO is more ENTERTAINING and fun than a lot of anime and in my mind, that's all that matters. Personal enjoyment of something.

Honestly, I don't put any stock at all in film critics or read any reviews for two simple reasons. First, because no review will be true for everyone due to the reviewer's varied experience, tastes, and biases. Second, no reviewer can accurately judge a film based on my personal taste better than me because they're not me.

I use the blank slate approach, personally. All I want to know about something before I watch it is what the general story will be about and maybe I'll watch a trailer. Part of the magic of films, books, anime, etc. is the experience of discovering them on your own and forming your own unique opinion. Reviews spoil that aspect for me. If I read a review I'm going to be analyzing the movie for flaws when I watch it instead of just having a good time like I want to do.

I want to hasten to add that I'm not talking about different cultural mores, here - I'm talking about differing story-telling traditions, for instance. To give a specific example, I remember Justin Sevakis saying during a podcast (I think) that Asian audiences tend to be a little bit more tolerant of stories that start in the middle where things are confusing and mysterious. They may not understand what's going on, but they tend to be more willing to be patient and assume things will become clearer later on.

Also, in Japan film critics also don't pay much attention to animation as well. In the Kinema Jumpo top 10 of the year lists anime films rarely show up, in 1988 Akira didn't, in 1995, GitS didn't, none of Oshii's or Kon's films did, excluding some famous ones. Though there are animation critics in Japan who specialize in animation, so I guess film critics tend to specialize in live action.

Where? In Brazil in the late 1990's and early 2000's anime's influence over the kids at the school I attended was certainly greater than US's cartoons.

Monetary wise I am not sure. While some US movies had huge grosses there are very few of them.

Jose Cruz wrote:

Also, in Japan film critics also don't pay much attention to animation as well. In the Kinema Jumpo top 10 of the year lists anime films rarely show up, in 1988 Akira didn't, in 1995, GitS didn't, none of Oshii's or Kon's films did, excluding some famous ones. Though there are animation critics in Japan who specialize in animation, so I guess film critics tend to specialize in live action.

Aren't Akira and GITS popular in the west because they're often cited as being gateway anime movies to people? How popular were they in Japan to begin with? They could be like Voltron where only American viewers care about them because it was what introduced them to anime, but in Japan Voltron/Golion was just a random mecha show so they don't have any special attatchment to it compared to older classics like Mobile Suit Gundam, Tetsujin, and Mazinger.

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Where? In Brazil in the late 1990's and early 2000's anime's influence over the kids at the school I attended was certainly greater than US's cartoons. Monetary wise I am not sure. While some US movies had huge grosses there are very few of them.

I too would like to see if GalicianNightmare has a source for their claim. When I think of the most successful animated franchises, I think of anime like Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, One Piece, and the recent Youkai Watch. I'm trying to think of an American animated cartoon as popular as those. Spongebob, maybe? But that's just one show compared to Japan's dozens of huge franchises. Action cartoons and toy sales in general seem to be down very low in America recently. Korra had no merchandise and was dumped onto the internet due to failing ratings and that was the last real action cartoon out of the US.

The core culture of Brazil is derived from Portuguese culture, because of its strong colonial ties with the Portuguese empire. Among other influences, the Portuguese introduced the Portuguese language, Roman Catholicism and colonial architectural styles. The culture was, however, also strongly influenced by African, indigenous and non-Portuguese European cultures and traditions.

According to the Constitution of Brazil, the Portuguese people have a special status in Brazil. Article 12, first paragraph of the Constitution, grants to citizens of Portugal with permanent residence in Brazil "the rights attached to Brazilians", excluded from the constitutional prerogatives of Brazilian born. Requirements for the granting of equality are: habitual residence (permanent), the age of majority and formulation of request from the Minister of Justice.

In Brazil, the Portuguese may require equal treatment with regard to civil rights; moreover, they may ask to be granted political rights granted to Brazilians (except the rights exclusive to the Brazilian born). In the latter case, this requires a minimum of three years of permanent residence.

As for @Jose, Brazil has a European language as its sole official language, whilst the US actually has none. And whilst the US is more "white" than Brazil, according to Wikipedia, Brazil is based upon European/Portuguese culture, so your professor is wrong.

Oh and because I am a Portuguese citizen, certain rights are bestowed upon me should I choose to reside in Portugal.

Also, the US is mixed in its European culture, whilst Brazil is more focused on Portuguese, Italian and German culture, making Brazil more defined.

All countries that were colonies still retain their colonialist roots with there being no exception.

But myself being a huge fan of American science fiction would say that there are about 7 great works of science fiction in US media made since 1984:
1 - Babylon 5 (1995-1998)
2 - Terminator (1984)
3 - Aliens (1986)
4 - The Matrix (1999)
5 - Battlestar Galactica (2003-2010)
6 - A.I. (2001).
7 - Back to the Future (1985)
The rest is pretty much on a lower level (including all Star Trek series and movies released since 1984, all Star Wars stuff, all those mediocre movies including the sequels of Terminator, Matrix, Mad Max 3, Robocop, X-Files, Firefly, those superhero films (which might be classified as sci fi like Iron Man) etc, all second rate stuff not comparable to the greats I mentioned above). A TV series like Psycho Pass, which I regard as third rate anime, is better than anything else I have seem from the US made since 1984 except those 7 titles. Notice that only four are from 1987 onwards.

Now the one exception is if I am struggling to finish the show. Every so often a show will just not grab my attention. In those few circumstances I might read a review or two to see if it's worth seeing through to the end. I am a pretty hard core completionist though so it's very rare I find myself struggling to actually finish a show. Even if it sucks dragonballs I still finish them most times just to say I did.

Korea was a Japanese colony. It still retain their colonialist Japanese roots?