As I mentioned in my “Why I like Anime” post, I’ve always been a huge fan of animation. This has included both western and Japanese animation. In certain circles of anime fandom though, I feel that western animation is looked down upon, as if anime were the only form of animation worth experiencing.
It is worth noting that Osamu Tezuka, in many ways the father of modern anime and manga, was an enthusiastic fan of western animation, having watched various cartoons from America and Europe on a home projector. Osamu Tezuka even claimed to have watched the film Bambi 80 times in theaters when it was released in Japan in 1951 and later drew a manga adaptation of it.
From the 60s to late 80s, western animated TV series were often considered to be sub-par entertainment for adults. This is commonly viewed to be because of Hanna-Barbera, the first major animation studio to develop cartoons for television. In order to keep costs low, a new form of limited animation was developed that allowed for TV series to be produced at a fraction of the cost.
With the success of many of their series, other animation studios quickly adopted this new form of animation. However, it was quickly discovered that the audience most tolerant of the decrease in animation quality was children. Because of this, many of these shows were overly simplistic with many essentially being an advertisement for toys and products.
Since then, we have seen a dramatic rise in the quality of western TV animation, likely sparked by the widespread success of the Simpsons. Numerous classics have followed such as South Park, Spongebob Squarepants, Rick and Morty and, my personal favourite western animated series of the past decade, The Legend of Korra.
These shows offer us a different take on the animation medium, featuring smoother animation than anime and different styles of comedy and drama. As Uncle Iroh once said from Avatar: The Last Airbender “It is important to draw wisdom from different places. If you take it from only one place it becomes rigid and stale”.
I only hope that this article sheds light on many of the reasons why anime fans should not simply dismiss western animation. The quality of modern western animated series is too high to be simply ignored and that is why I think western animation is worth watching.
If you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!
Yeah I saw the attitude towards western anmation in the anime fandom too. It’s again, just shallow ignorance and anime puritans trying to fetishize anime and Japan as this ultra holy land where everyone lives, breathes an sleeps anime. Which obviously isn’t the case. A lot of the shows I used to love and watch on Toonami and Cartoon Network where western cartoons, like Teen Titans, Megas XLR, Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack…the list goes on! A lot of these western shows may have been influenced by anime, but by no means were they rip-offs or sub-par, they made it their own! Great blog man