Is Japanese Animation better than American Animation?




Introduction


It’s no news that the modern animation of the United States has had a great impact on animation worldwide. American animation industry has over time warped around itself various features from Disney, Don Bluth, Warner Bros , Ralph Baski and so many more (Marwah Zagzoug,2001).  In the same vein, there are noticeable attributes about the anime industry which in its own uniqueness embraces a whole lot of attributes different from the American animation industry (Marwah Zagzoug,2001).



The Beginning of Animation


American animation has over time evolved through processes, most of the cartoons developed from being comically designed to having short escapades helping people escape from the harsh world of depression(Smoodin, 1993). One major difference which exists between both animation industries hinged on the audience. During the past evolutionary years, cartoons from the American animation industry had children as its main audience, it presented cartoon as an escape from realism (Rowland, 1996) and its main goal became to major in selling merchandise alongside theatre seats and commercial spots (Rowland, 1996). This process did not follow for the anime industry which majorly has the definition of the Japanese animation industry.
  

Liberation and Animation


Religious influence also presents as a major difference between both industries. Most American animation portrays the western civilization as a Judeo-Christian culture, where a good and a bad are highly distinguished and established (Smoodin,1993). This has been designed to have only one right answer at the end, being an escape from the harsh world with realities but the Japanese animation industry fashions out anime which not only captures the audience across all ages (Linda Sieg, 2008), it is mostly also rooted in the Japanese religion of Shinto which can be described as a disorganized religion where God does not exist but only extraordinary people worshiped as deities (Linda Sieg, 2008).   There are no strict restraints on homosexual relations and its similitude which the American animation industry strongly discourages. The liberality which exists in the Anime industry is quite more, focus being on the “Shinto” legends and celebrated heroes (Linda Sieg, 2008)



 The Japanese Gods Of Death "one of the Shinto Gods" -
 (Japanese Mythology Explained)

In addition, as a religious effect, the Japanese audience seems not to be shocked at the discovery of the death of a legend, because of the honor-ability of death in the Shinto but the American animation industry does not celebrate honorable death like the anime industry, most times it is regarded as a taboo to feature it expressly in the media (Rowland,1996). 


Conclusion


Character design is a sting point of debatable difference between the two animation industries. While many of the characters are in human form , the anime industry simply employs facial design to  distinguish its characters. But giving an overall analysis, American animation industry has been found to have decreasing quality of story lines as well as falling target audience as opposed to the anime industry which has dedicated more time to the production of more quality anime.


References


Marwah Zagzoug,(2001). The History of Anime & Manga. History 135.
Litten, Freddy. "On the earliest (foreign) animation films shown in Japanese cinemas" (PDF). Retrieved 15 July 2013.
Reporting by Linda Sieg (March 27, 2008). "The first anime was called [Katsudo shashin], Japan finds films by late "anime" pioneers". reuters.com. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
"Oldest anime found". Anime News Network. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
Sharp, Jasper (2009). "The First Frames of Anime". The Roots of Japanese Anime, official booklet, DVD.
Yamaguchi, Katsunori; Yasushi Watanabe (1977). Nihon animēshon eigashi. Yūbunsha. pp. 20–21.
Campbell, Alan (1994). Japan: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (1st ed.). Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN 978-4-06-206489-7.
Lorimer, Rowland and McNulty, Jean.(1996) Mass Communication In Canada. Oxford University Press, Toronto CANADA, 
Smoodin, Eric. Animating Culture. (1993). Hollywood Cartoons from the Sound Era. Rutgers University Press, New Jersey USA, 
Levi, Antonia. Samurai from Outer Space(1996). Understanding Japanese Animation. Open Court Publishing, Chicago USA.


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