Is Anime just far superior to Western Cartoons?

NickyCharisma said:
Is it just me, or is there some permutation of this question created very week?

IntroverTurtle said:
It's just you. sike

KyuuAL said:

But when it comes to this argument, I often find people comparing stuff from the past vs anime today. That's not equal representation, because "anime" as a term didn't even exist back in the days of Tom and Jerry, Hanna Barbera, etc. Back in the 50's and 60's, there was pretty much Astroboy and Speed Racer. I'm sure there are a few others, but I'm not bothering to mention those.

FailAtLife said:
Avatar alone is better than 80% anime.

Fai said:
Nooot exactly.
In terms of art style and uniqueness:
Adventure Time, Samurai Jack, few others beat most anime shows in terms of artistic approach and unique style.

In terms of plot, complexity, character depth and overall darker themes:
Avatar - I don't think i need to explain this one, do I?
Batman Beyond - Arguably THE BEST batman adaptation to date, with thousands of fucked up plotlines, ongoing series-arc-style mysteries, actual deaths and arguably darkest incarnation of batman so far.
Avengers: EMH - arguably not as dark as the above comic adaptation, but still amongst better ones. EMH and its popularity played quite a big part into Marvel deciding to do the avengers live action movie. While design-wise its nothing that outstanding, its one of last serialized serious Marvel shows with spot-on characterization for various marvel-verse characters.
Xmen-Evolution - after relatively "safe" approach of first x-men show, Evolution was a departure toward a darker and more serialized nature. The show was certainly not perfect, but it was one of arguably first mainstream cartoons to not hold back on actually going through with character deaths.


Otherwise American side is a mixed bag, but French animation studios produced quite a few great shows back in their time, stuff like The Magician - french amalgamation of Batman, Dr.Strange and Tony Stark, which tackled quite a few dark subjects, including, but not limited to drug abuse, rape, revenge, etc and went to quite a few dark places, especially towards the end of its run.


Bassically - stereotypes are bad. Quality depends on writing and budget, not country of origin.

Aerostar said:
Anime is superior.

KyuuAL said:


I could watch Tom and Jerry over and over again.

But when it comes to this argument, I often find people comparing stuff from the past vs anime today. That's not equal representation, because "anime" as a term didn't even exist back in the days of Tom and Jerry, Hanna Barbera, etc. Back in the 50's and 60's, there was pretty much Astroboy and Speed Racer. I'm sure there are a few others, but I'm not bothering to mention those.

If you were to compare American animation vs Japanese animation today, America loses by miles. To think, Amercan animation manages to ruin Bugs Bunny with today's crap.

dankickyou said:
Adventure time>>>>>>Anime