Forum - View topicAnime Having an Impact?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4 Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Case
Posts: 1016 |
|
|||
|
I hear people talk all the time about how American cartoons are inferior to anime, and about anime not being accepted because mainstream America views animation as childrens' entertainment...
...But I never hear the flip side of those arguements. Anime is here in force now, and enjoying quite a bit of popularity. It's all over TV, available in all kinds of mainstream retailers, and in general more people are aware of it now than ever before. Is it changing people's minds? Is it finally showing people that animation has a place outside of Saturday morning and family movies? Will its popularity change the course of our own animation to any noticable degree? (To a point where experts would look back fifty years from now and be able to point out a definite trend?) What do YOU think? |
||||
|
||||
|
KiMasterMike
Posts: 43 Location: Franklinville, NJ |
|
|||
|
Anime is definately here. Not as much as all of us have hoped for...but its still early. I wouldn't say its a major trend yet, though. What sucks...to me, anyway...is that a lot of the mainstream shows are like pokemon or something like that. Although that would be the "get em while they're young" approach. I say we ask this question again in a few years...it may seem that there is a lot here, but this is just the beginning.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Case
Posts: 1016 |
|
|||
|
Thanks for the input KiMasterMike, but I'm not sure I understand how your post relates to my question.
What I'm actually asking is whether or not anime has affected the American animation market, or the future of American animation. Like I said in my original post, anime IS here in force. I mean, that's more or less a fact, is it not? What I want to know is whether or not it being here is changing America's feelings toward animation in general. 
|
||||
|
||||
Mr Mania
 Posts: 581 Location: UK |
|
|||
|
In my veiw its not going to make that significant a change on how animation is viewed in the west,at least not with a mainstream audience.I cant see a GITS or Akira coming out of America any time soon.
|
||||
|
||||
avius viator
 Posts: 101 Location: Ohio |
|
|||
|
Interesting question. I think the change in American animation has already partially begun with shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Family Guy. Granted, they are a long way from being serious dramas, but it’s a start… shows like that are definitely intended for an older audience. Also, the people who grew up watching shows like Voltron… who had exposure to anime as kids… are the ones making American animation now. The influence is there… look at the design of the powerpuff girls.
People are indeed more aware of anime and its style, but the exposure is coming from multiple sources, including video games. I’ve been reading all over about how gaming has become such a huge part of the entertainment industry. Many of those games have an anime style to them, and its becoming more accepted. The anime on TV offers great exposure, but people will see what they want to see. Sit them down in front of Kenshin or Trigun, they’ll see goofy outtakes…. with Bebop, a “strange” story and a scantily clad chic. The point is, they’ll have to be willing to let their minds be changed. I will say that there is a greater chance of it happening now… certainly tales of DBZ conversion in the DBZ threads offer proof of that. Perhaps now a days there is such a thing as a “fair weather” anime fan… random people who may know DBZ or a Miyazaki film, but not who’s interests do not extend much further. I think as a whole anime will continue to be a bit of an enigma to most, but perhaps its come out of a proverbial closet a bit… I guess that sort of answers the question....? 
|
||||
|
||||
|
Mr Mania
Posts: 581 Location: UK |
|
|||
Although your right in saying these shows are aimed at an older audience,I dont think anime has influenced them in any way.Remember the Simpsons has been running for a long time now,it started way before anime became main stream. |
||||
|
||||
Cassandra
 Posts: 1356 Location: Birdsboro, PA |
|
|||
The 'influence' was meant as the "animation is not just for children" ideal. (Not to say there wasn't adult animation before, just that some American animation has....umm...matured.) I don't know that anime is the influence though. Shrek was made so that adults wouldn't be bored of their skulls taking their kids to a movie. I think companies are just realizing that while they may attract the kids with their shows, they're losing the adults. Once Generation X started moving into the positions to make animation, they aimed it at everyone in the family, not just the kids. I don't know if early anime influenced them or not....Gen X is pretty infamous for their 'selfishness'.....so it could quite possibly be that they wanted to make stuff for themselves and it happened to be good. |
||||
|
||||
|
Case
Posts: 1016 |
|
|||
Point taken. The one problem I have with that suggestion is that those three shows (and a few others similar to them, such as South Park, that come to mind) is that they don't really represent any real trend that I can see. For starters, I'm afriad that I'd have to dismiss The Family Guy as a one hit wonder. Sure, there are a lot of people who remember it - many fondly so - but it disappeared pretty quickly compared to the other two, and I just can't see how it could hold a place in the public consciousness comparable to that of The Simpsons. King of the Hill is an alright example, but not outstanding. So it's kind of hard to go anywhere with it. (Futurama would have been a bit better, I think.) The Simpsons, certainly, is a landmark in American animation and deserves a whole lot of credit for keeping some intelligence in the market. But it's been around for a long time, and it seems to me that there haven't been a whole lot of attempts to copycat it, considering that it's been on for something like ten years now. It seems, to me, that The Simpsons has stood out on its own, filling that gap in the American entertainment spectrum mostly by itself through the past decade or so; perhaps with a little help from South Park and maybe a few other titles that simply aren't coming to me at the moment. And then there's also a point that could be made in the fact that a lot of people seem to be increasingly unhappy with what The Simpsons has offered us in the past two or three years... But since that could be chalked up to nothing more than personal opinion, and I don't have any figures to substantiate such a claim as fact, I won't even go into that. (Still something to consider though, ne?) I could be wrong, of course. If you see some kind of connection between those series - or between those series and what we have today - that you think shows definite growth and/or evolution in the artform in the last decade or so, I'd be happy and more than interested to hear them. But looking at it from where I understand things now, I just can't see anything worth cheering about.
(Wow, that went on longer than I thought it would.  )
I'm not saying that it has to be the only influence. I'm just interested to know whether people think it has contributed or not. Whether it has done its job in one sense, since so many anime fans are always complaining about anime having so much of so many things that American animation has been lacking. You don't think it has had ANY influence, though? Certainly, with so much of it being shown on TV and available in video stores in recent years... and with the impressive numbers the dubbing studios have been throwing at us and the box office returns for theatrical releases (Spirited Away especially)... It's only logical to assume that it must be playing SOME role, isn't it? Or do you disagree? |
||||
|
||||
|
BrianC
Posts: 95 |
|
|||
|
Well, I think anime has had an influnce on Star Trek and vice versa. Some episodes of Star Trek TNG even have anime referances(not sure about other Star Trek series).
Star Wars influnced anime quite a bit and I think the newer Star Wars movies may have been influnced by anime. Some shows like Batman the Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Samurai Jack, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and some others definatly had some anime influnce. Some Disney movies like The Lion King and Atlantis were definatly influnced by anime. I would be very suprised if The Iron Giant and Titan AE didn't have any anime influnce. Iron Giant has a giant robot and Titan AE has many anime like elements like a girl with purple hair. Last edited by BrianC on Wed Apr 16, 2003 1:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
|
Case
Posts: 1016 |
|
|||
You know what's funny? I'm not sure if you're being honest or cynical. 
|
||||
|
||||
|
Cassandra
Posts: 1356 Location: Birdsboro, PA |
|
|||
Let me start off with: Family Guy is seriously underrated. Like Futurama, it got the shaft with one of the crappiest timeslots available. (And, IIRC, a timeslot that never stayed the same from week to week.) So it didn't have staying power, not because it's not a really good show, but because some network exec decided to put it on Tuesday nights at like 7PM. (Look over your TV schedules.....notice how 7PM has nothing but reruns and game shows? There's a reason.) Now. About the influence thing. It's *so* difficult to tell what influences a person without directly asking them. Sure, we can sit here and say "This was influenced by that episode of Star Trek!" or "That's a direct rip off of that Ranma episode!" but honestly....we don't know that. We don't know if any of the staffers ever even heard of anime, much less watched any of it to be influenced by it. The argument FOR the influence is just as solid as the argument that adult-aimed animation was simply the next step in the evolution of animation. |
||||
|
||||
|
Aaron White
Old Regular
Posts: 1365 Location: Birmingham, Alabama |
|
|||
|
A professional animator I know says lots of animators in the west hate and fear anime because for every Cardcaptors or Bebop that gets on TV, that's a half-hour worth of animated programing that isn't making work for domestic animators. If it's making a financial impact, it's making a big impact.
|
||||
|
||||
The Ramblin' Wreck
 Posts: 924 Location: Teaching Robot Women How To Love |
|
|||
|
Well, you always have to remember that animation was invented here in the states.
A good while before Astro Boy, you had Max Fleschier, Tex Avery, Walt Disney, a young Chuck Jones and William Hanna........ It would be an interesting read to see how the form progressed over to Japan, and is now making it's way back here again. |
||||
|
||||
|
Mr Mania
Posts: 581 Location: UK |
|
|||
Star Trek hasn't really been influenced by anime at all,at least not from what I can see.Yes it has had an influence on anime but also just about every other sci-fi movie/series. Yes Star Wars has had an influence on anime and again its influenced a hell of a lot of other stuff.Its widely acknowledged that Lucas has an interest in Japanese culture and that it was influenced by Hidden Fottress.I believe the original Lensman manga influenced him as well,but not the anime.
Iron Giant was based on a book which wasnt infleunced by anime at all.Thats not to say the movie wasnt infleunced by anime but simply that the idea of the giant robot didn't come from an anime influence Anyhows Im tired of writing influence and influenced so Im going to leave it at that. |
||||
|
||||
|
Case
Posts: 1016 |
|
|||
|
Thanks for ther input guys.
I think it should be said, though, that I'm looking at this in a bigger sense. I'm not so much talking about "Star Trek stole this scene from Ranma!" as I am about the types of themes and storytelling conventions that are prevalent. I'm thinking, is anime (and perhaps other things) pushing animation away from (or expanding from, if you prefer) Looney Tunes and the Powerpuff Girls and that sort of thing, more toward the serious drama or action that people celebrate in anime? (Or in other ways?) I honestly don't know. I can see the market expanding, especially in light of such recent unlikely favorites as Nickelodeon's Rocket Power (breaking into the little-appreciated sports genre) and a number of Cartoon Network shows including Samurai Jack. I'm not sure if that necessarily relates to the influx of anime or not, though. So I'm asking what you all think. 
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group