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Anime Nation

On Adult Swim I saw the Japanese anime adaption of Rick & Morty -- problem is, it wasn't funny at all.

Is it fair to call anime cartoons? It seems deprecatory to me to call anime cartoons, but someone pointed out that Fantasia was called a cartoon.
 
80251 said:
On Adult Swim I saw the Japanese anime adaption of Rick & Morty -- problem is, it wasn't funny at all.

Is it fair to call anime cartoons? It seems deprecatory to me to call anime cartoons, but someone pointed out that Fantasia was called a cartoon.
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Anime is animation in Japan. The Simpsons is anime over there. But in America, "Anime" is the particular Japanese style. Its debatable if Teen Titans is "anime", but everyone agrees its "anime-style". Anime is a borrowed word. The word means what we think it should mean. The word's meaning changes depending on who you talk to.

Even under the American definition (which I admit is very ambiguous), anime itself has a variety of styles. There's the relatively realistic and gritty style of Samurai X ("small eyes", muted colors, a lack of cartoon expressions). But there's also the "Chibi" style of say... Isekai Quartet, which is anime (but absolutely a "Cartoon" by American standards).

Maybe the best path forward is to call Isekai Quartet an anime AND a cartoon.

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Samurai X is "anime", no cartoon.

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And then Kenshin is... the ambiguous one. Despite sharing a story with Samurai X, the art-style is hugely different.

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Because Kenshin's "Oro face" is... well... definitely a cartoon influence.

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Early in cartooning history: cartoons were made for adults. "Sleeping Beauty" was based off of the famous Opera, and the Disney classic pulls no punches. But over the 1950s and 1960s, cartoons somehow became a "kids thing". Don't get me wrong: a lot of anime is made for kids (the "Shonen" and "Shojo" genres are for young males and young females respectively). But "anime" never lost its ability to captivate adults... while "Cartoons" lost that ability somehow.

The only "adult cartoons" we have today are Rick and Morty, Simpsons, South Park. A particular sense of crude humor that... is fun and all... but its very rare for an American "cartoon" to actually have the storytelling and drama that is offered by Seinen or Josei anime ("For Adult males" or "For Adult Females"). Perhaps the distinction was made explicit in Japan: where the use of Kanji (the more complex writing style) explicitly segregates the "kids" from the "adult" genres.

But in the USA: our language is uniform between kids and adults. We show our kids "Its a Wonderful World" and "12 Angry Men"... while such movies would have definitely been in the Seinen genre ("For Adults") if done in a anime setting.

EDIT: Disney's Peter Pan is an Isekai. Change my mind. Trololololol.
 
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Many people just think cartoon = for kids, anime = for perverts

these people missed all the good shit in the 90's and 00's... ALL cartoons are for perverts now
 
@dragontamer5788

Back in the 1980's I had the view that anime was just cartoons and then one of my friends told me I should watch Cowboy Bebop and GIT's (thanks Frank!) and it changed my mind. I've come across people right now in the 21st century that dismiss anime as cartoons. To call Akira or the GITS movie cartoons just doesn't seem right.

I also know a Nisei guy who dismisses all anime made after Speed Racer and Gigantor, which is almost even more bizarre.
 
80251 said:
@dragontamer5788


I also know a Nisei guy who dismisses all anime made after Speed Racer and Gigantor, which is almost even more bizarre.
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Funny when Gigantor/Tetsujin 28 is just a very old anime in black&white.
Kinda like how some of the Power Ranger fandom don't acknowledge the original counterpart which is Super-Sentai or probably oblivious to it even exist.
 
Mussels said:
Many people just think cartoon = for kids, anime = for perverts

these people missed all the good shit in the 90's and 00's... ALL cartoons are for perverts now
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It's like the people that liked those classic shows in the 90's and 00's have matured but anime studios are still focused on targeting what "kids" from that age group prefer. So it's either adaptation of battle manga going for 1000+ episodes, magical girls with big t!ts, Isekai or combination of all three...

...
plus Detective Conan and straight up kids anime.
 
Chomiq said:
It's like the people that liked those classic shows in the 90's and 00's have matured but anime studios are still focused on targeting what "kids" from that age group prefer. So it's either adaptation of battle manga going for 1000+ episodes, magical girls with big t!ts, Isekai or combination of all three...

...
plus Detective Conan and straight up kids anime.
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OddTaxi, Kino's Journey, Spice and Wolf, Anohana, When they Cry (2006) break those categories and are also pretty good.

But at the same time, its stuff like "Slime" or My Hero Academia, or Demon Slayer that gets popular. Not that these shows are bad, but... Isekai / battle anime are popular. What can I say?
 
Goodbye, Evangelion.
It was a great ride.
 
dragontamer5788 said:
The only "adult cartoons" we have today are Rick and Morty, Simpsons, South Park. A particular sense of crude humor that... is fun and all... but its very rare for an American "cartoon" to actually have the storytelling and drama that is offered by Seinen or Josei anime ("For Adult males" or "For Adult Females"). Perhaps the distinction was made explicit in Japan: where the use of Kanji (the more complex writing style) explicitly segregates the "kids" from the "adult" genres.

But in the USA: our language is uniform between kids and adults. We show our kids "Its a Wonderful World" and "12 Angry Men"... while such movies would have definitely been in the Seinen genre ("For Adults") if done in a anime setting.

EDIT: Disney's Peter Pan is an Isekai. Change my mind. Trololololol.
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In the USA I'd include as "adult cartoons" Archer (made in Georgia and currently in production) and Venture Brothers (although I don't know if they're making any new episodes).

Someone once told me that Bullwinkle and Rocky had a political or adult(?) sub-text to it. I never watched it to verify that though.
 
80251 said:
In the USA I'd include as "adult cartoons" Archer (made in Georgia and currently in production) and Venture Brothers (although I don't know if they're making any new episodes).

Someone once told me that Bullwinkle and Rocky had a political or adult(?) sub-text to it. I never watched it to verify that though.
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I think my overall point is that Archer, Rick and Morty, Family Guy, Simpsons and South Park (etc. etc.) lean very heavily upon sex-jokes / fart jokes. But Archer / Venture Bros are probably better cartoons.

The only adult-animation I can think of that could be taken seriously was maybe Samurai Jack (final season). The first few seasons were aimed at kids however. Young Justice had a good plot (probably aimed at late-teenager crowd, similar to Full Metal Alchemist). Ducktales / Gravity Falls / Avatar the last Airbender all are aimed at older teenagers as well, but the child-protagonists clearly indicate how the show is really for a younger audience. (And no "Madoka" moment either: where the characters are nominally teenagers but the plots are relatively grown up).

Not that imaginative series don't exist. Avatar (blue Na'vi fighting humans) was adult oriented, and enough CGI existed of it that you can argue that its more CGI than live-action. But that's the art style of adult shows in the USA.

Its just hard to think of an animated series from the USA that can be taken seriously and with an adult level plot. I'm not necessarily saying I want a drama or anything, but where's the American cartoon equivalent to Spice and Wolf?
 
GoldenX said:
Goodbye, Evangelion.
It was a great ride.
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Until Awano pulls out...BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE...Shin Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 + 0.5 special edition on blu ray!
 
Cant believe evangelion is finally over


it's literally the first anime i watched, at the first LAN party i ever attended all those years ago
 
It left us with the best trolling weapon ever, mentioning the winning girl :roll:
 
Pre-ordered this thing:
www.zavvi.com

Neon Genesis Evangelion – Zavvi Exclusive Collector's Edition Blu-ray

Buy Neon Genesis Evangelion – Zavvi Exclusive Collector's Edition Blu-ray from Zavvi, the home of pop culture. Take advantage of great prices on Blu-ray, 4K, merchandise, games, clothing and more!
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Now waiting for 3.0 + 1.0 + 0.5 blu ray edition release.
Slowly going through Jojo part 5 at the moment, currently on episode 18 and I have to say I am enjoying it so far.
 
I sat down and watched the second season of that Ghost in the Shell series... Stand Alone Complex, only this time it's a nuclear war on the table. :laugh:

It never really stood out in my mind. I've seen it a couple of times a long time ago. The first season with the Laughing Man was great. That might've been one of my favorites back in the day. But I think maybe that overshadowed the second season, which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected to. The episode about Saito's past was awesome. It had some interesting character studies strewn in. Actually... that's it, I think. It had more character development all around. More focused on the state of the world around the characters, too. No longer is Section 9 just in this discreet pocket within this more vague surrounding world. It's headier and more ideological. It looks more into what Section 9 is, where it fits in whatever the world is, and where the characters fit into Section 9. I think I partially disliked it because it had Section 9 on the ropes more often and I liked seeing them with their plot armor, just being the best. But I think the second season tried to be more human. It's more about weaknesses and triumphs in a world where humanity itself is in an increasingly more nascent state and people are sort of clinging onto a sense of existence in their lives. The geopolitical environment has been in and out of turmoil the entire time and everything is a confusing mess. Makes it a bit dry at times, but the exposition can be worth sticking out.

Occasional weird soundtrack choice. I'd like to know who was pressing the button for the weirdly melodramatic and intentionally cacophonous orchestral swells. There were a few moments like that, which didn't work for me tonally.

I will say that in the grand scheme, it's much much darker than the first season and I kinda like that about it.

Also, call me crazy but from an animation standpoint it had way more eye candy. Just those awesome good-looking sequences with weapons and rollouts, like the first movie had. There's some heavy homage mixed into certain scenes. The downside is that it's less consistent in quality. When it's good, it's consistently showing you great stuff. But it has these pockets of meh, little eyebrow raisers at seemingly arbitrary style shifts.

I think maybe it's one of those that's best for fans of the series. Like a heavy double helping with a slower pace.
 
hey guys any of you collect manga?
 
Hyderz said:
hey guys any of you collect manga?
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I don't make enough money, but I would like the Death Note manga someday and a few others.
 
Hyderz said:
hey guys any of you collect manga?
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I bough Ária the masterpiece Last year and Blame masterpiece as well.
I also have a colection of some old and obscure stuff...
 
Edit:
Just finished buying all of the Fruits Basket Collectors edition manga volume 1-12 for my GF they cost just under £200 as they are couple years old and it's difficult to get new.
Edit:
Volume 1 I had to get used.
Vol 2,4,5,6,8,9,10,11 and 12 I managed to get new.
Volume 3 was going for a bit of premium but managed to get one new on eBay and volume 7 I had to ask my cousin from Seattle to get me one and ship over to the UK.
 
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