Why isn't the American animation industry like the Japanese one?

In the context of fan animations, there are also plenty of fan music producers who will make remixes for no price other than the love of the series. But it also requires knowing who to reach out to and having good relations with them. Public domain soundtracks often sound cheesy because people already hear them as musical clichés (e.g. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for spooky scenes).

Also, avoiding paying composers this way goes against my self-interest. Making original music, let alone one that accurately tells the story of the scene it's in, takes a lot of effort and inspiration. Love Live Superstar would not work with a public domain soundtrack because the music is too important to the story itself.

I'm surprised more studios don't use public domain soundtracks to avoid having to pay composers. There aren't many ways to save money on voice acting, though, short of making a silent animation like this one.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/50727/Tezuka_Chara_Ugokashite_Mimashita

Disney did make some direct-to-video movies through the '90s to '00s, but they were all cheap cashgrabs. The reason America never had its own Akira or GitS largely comes down to cultural differences; America does not respect animation.

I love how U.S. cultural politics permanently broke some people's brain so now we have to collectively suffer through their bouts of hysteria and delusion in every thread..

I like Japanese animation more so than American animation.

american "animation" = disgusting garbage

I think it mainly boils down to the money and lifestyle.

America became the most prosperous country in the world after WW2 which left Europe and Asia in ruins and everyone owing the US money to rebuild. Americans could now very easily live good lifestyles, and there was a push for everyone to go to college and become "educated". Not going to college was demonized. "Do you want to be flipping burgers for the rest of your life? Do you want to be doing backbreaking labor?". Etc. In every culture, the entertainment industry is at the bottom of the societal totem pole, America included. You live at the mercy of other people, and your job only does okay when the economy is flourishing and people have lots of disposable time and money. Only a few select entertainers like Bennie Goodman, Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc become prolific and get heavy media coverage and are promoted as being a big deal. Most entertainers don't get that. Being an entertainer is not good at attracting a wife, since women who want to marry and have children know that entertainment is not a lucrative job career for most men. America's momentum of prosperity for the common man began stalling towards the end of the 20th century. On paper the GDP was doing better than ever but this does not reflect how it became harder and harder for your average joe to afford a house and a car. Most young men today could only dream of being able to afford a "big" home like Homer Simpson on a single income. And then the 1990s and 2000s killed off most music careers (again talking about your average musician, not the top 1%), to name one example.

My impression of Japan was that their post-war injection of cash by the US establishing Japan as their vassal and base in the East did not trickle down to the common man as much as the post WW2 prosperity did for Americans. A post-war Japanese like Miyazaki would not be overwhelmingly better off taking up a "normal" job than becoming an animator. So there was relatively less to lose. My impression is also that during that time, there was not as much of an emphasis to take exams and go to college like we see today.

Another thing is that American began exporting their animation work overseas pretty early on, whereas the Japanese didn't start relying a lot on Korean inbetweeners until much later. So I think that again goes to show that the Japanese were in a better position to take up animation and to retain control. Ofcourse, some level of prosperity in Japan was needed to fund the high production value mecha shows of the 90s like Akira or lavish OVAs.

I don't think culture like the Hays Code was the real inhibitors. The main reason we didn't see more Ralph Bakishis was that few people would be willing to deviate from the American script to prosperity and become a low income animator. We started seeing more adult animations in the West in the late 2000s with Red vs Blue, RWBY, 3D CGI Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, etc, because the 2008 crash happened and by that point it became hard for everyone to make a living. You were not going to be tremendously better off taking up "a real job", so more people were open to becoming an artist instead. Again, there still has to be a minimum level of prosperity here, because as aforementioned the bottom fell out of the music industry at the same time.

I think it mainly boils down to the money and lifestyle.

America became the most prosperous country in the world after WW2 which left Europe and Asia in ruins and everyone owing the US money to rebuild. Americans could now very easily live good lifestyles, and there was a push for everyone to go to college and become "educated". Not going to college was demonized. "Do you want to be flipping burgers for the rest of your life? Do you want to be doing backbreaking labor?". Etc. In every culture, the entertainment industry is at the bottom of the societal totem pole, America included. You live at the mercy of other people, and your job only does okay when the economy is flourishing and people have lots of disposable time and money. Only a few select entertainers like Bennie Goodman, Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc become prolific and get heavy media coverage and are promoted as being a big deal. Most entertainers don't get that. Being an entertainer is not good at attracting a wife, since women who want to marry and have children know that entertainment is not a lucrative job career for most men. America's momentum of prosperity for the common man began stalling towards the end of the 20th century. On paper the GDP was doing better than ever but this does not reflect how it became harder and harder for your average joe to afford a house and a car. Most young men today could only dream of being able to afford a "big" home like Homer Simpson on a single income. And then the 1990s and 2000s killed off most music careers (again talking about your average musician, not the top 1%), to name one example.

My impression of Japan was that their post-war injection of cash by the US establishing Japan as their vassal and base in the East did not trickle down to the common man as much as the post WW2 prosperity did for Americans. A post-war Japanese like Miyazaki would not be overwhelmingly better off taking up a "normal" job than becoming an animator. So there was relatively less to lose. My impression is also that during that time, there was not as much of an emphasis to take exams and go to college like we see today.

Another thing is that American began exporting their animation work overseas pretty early on, whereas the Japanese didn't start relying a lot on Korean inbetweeners until much later. So I think that again goes to show that the Japanese were in a better position to take up animation and to retain control. Ofcourse, some level of prosperity in Japan was needed to fund the high production value mecha shows of the 90s like Akira or lavish OVAs.

I don't think culture like the Hays Code was the real inhibitors. The main reason we didn't see more Ralph Bakishis was that few people would be willing to deviate from the American script to prosperity and become a low income animator. We started seeing more adult animations in the West in the late 2000s with Red vs Blue, RWBY, 3D CGI Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, etc, because the 2008 crash happened and by that point it became hard for everyone to make a living. You were not going to be tremendously better off taking up "a real job", so more people were open to becoming an artist instead. Again, there still has to be a minimum level of prosperity here, because as aforementioned the bottom fell out of the music industry at the same time.

There is.

Some of the most beloved and critically acclaimed Animation-Movies and Series were made by western companies.

Imagine being this proud of being this ignorant. Many cultures have had third genders forever, e.g. hijras in India. In fact, transphobia was forced on the nations the UK colonized.

Imagine being this proud of being this ignorant. Many cultures have had third genders forever, e.g. hijras in India. In fact, transphobia was forced on the nations the UK colonized.

@MelodyOfMemory If you see unhinged posters do not engage they will beat you down to their stupidity. Only do it if you want to poke the bear, and see what next insane thing they plan to say.

The art in that show is so pretty.

Funny how no one connected the dots to manga and comic culture, since that's the root of most Japanese animation. Even in 70s, mere years after Shounen Jump was founded, it surpassed DC Comics (around for decades) in monthly sales, and then widened the gap in the following years. Popular manga simply had more variety than popular comic books, latter being mostly superheroes (and even among superheroes, a lot of it was spin-offs of side characters from a more popular comic). Worse yet, they don't have any continuity, and keep getting rebooted or AU'ed, versus something like One Piece that is one continuous story from start to now.

It probably didn't help that major publishers in US adopted a Comics Code that prohibits many aspects that may be inappropriate for children, including rules like "criminals shall never be depicted in a sympathetic light", "in every instance good shall triumph over evil", "don't show excessive blood nor use horror or terror in title" etc.

They had a different approach towards comics, which bled into a different approach towards animation. There just isn't anything in the mainstream American comics of the 70s like Lone Wolf and Cub, or Barefoot Gen. It'd be caught by a gazillion reasons why it's improper to be shown by comic publishers and basically be DOA.

@rodmanii

You are so cool and edgy for posting this.

Because "The Lion King" live-action sold more than any animation Disney has ever done (Except if you adjust Snow White for inflation).
...also because the average Joe LOVES kitsch, same reason people beg for games to be remade in Unreal Engine 5 despite the fact that they artistically look like shit that way.
America has a "caste society" view towards animation: If one accumulates enough karma, they'll be able to be reborn as one of the "higher castes"... as a live-action.

Regarding 3D in specific, if the last decade of economics didn't make that clear enough: Investors are actually incredibly stupid.
2D-animated movies had a series of flops in the early-2000's, meanwhile 3D animation had a ton of successes. Therefore investors were pavlov'd into "2D BAD 3D GOOD".
Also the fact that when Disney decided to try a 2D animated movie again, they decided to release in it in the same week as fucking AVATAR.
Moana was supposed to be 2D, but the investors said no, and if the investors say no...

Moana was going to be an animated 2D movie?

A few factors play into this.

1. Animation, like any visual medium, is highly multidisciplinary and labour intensive, something your post greatly underestimates. There's a reason fan works are usually limited to still art. While they are talented fan animators out there, they are usually short and done cheaply, and they still need musicians and VAs. A typical person does not have the time and money to compete with big studios.
2. The vast majority of anime is YA fare, and many people grow out of that at some point. Specifically being an anime themed artist can be limiting not just in audience reach, but also what topics one covers in their work. So a lot of people may take inspiration from anime, but not specifically define themselves as such to avoid pigenholing.
3. Too many anime fans watch anime and nothing else, which again compounds the audience reach issue if an artist wants to move on to different things eventually.

Because the US made Hollywood its priority.
The idea was to conquer the world with movies showing everybody that the US was the best place on earth.
Japan made anime its own 'Hollywood' and is now conquering the world with it pretty successfully too.

I agree with this point, most people here for example reject even the idea of watching Chinese "anime" just because they aren't Japanese despite the ability to log them in this site.

I think a better question is why does the Japanese/East Asian nerd culture revolve so completely around anime and manga when even when American and French comic books were still relevant they were a relatively much more modest part of the scene outside Asia?

Who's down to make a proper North American Anime studio? We will call Animerican. Or Westernime. Eigo-nime. I'm sure we got some talent in the Western part of the world.

I think a better question is why does the Japanese/East Asian nerd culture revolve so completely around anime and manga when even when American and French comic books were still relevant they were a relatively much more modest part of the scene outside Asia?

@butahime American comics relevant in 2025? Lol its even more dead than American animation at this point. Their irrelevance started in the early 2010s and died by late 2010s while American animations stared to decline in mid-2010s and died by early 2020s. No one cares about American comics in 2025 anymore except to make fun of how their "writers" used them for just political propaganda. The Japanese/East Asian nerd culture like the Western one stopped caring about American comics long time ago. All American comics popularity they used to have went to Manga and Manhwa.

@butahime American comics relevant in 2025? Lol its even more dead than American animation at this point. Their irrelevance started in the early 2010s and died by late 2010s while American animations stared to decline in mid-2010s and died by early 2020s. No one cares about American comics in 2025 anymore except to make fun of how their "writers" used them for just political propaganda. The Japanese/East Asian nerd culture like the Western one stopped caring about American comics long time ago. All American comics popularity they used to have went to Manga and Manhwa.

@this_shit_again
Thanks to Riyoko Ikeda, Marie Antoinette will always be with us.

Who's down to make a proper North American Anime studio? We will call Animerican. Or Westernime. Eigo-nime. I'm sure we got some talent in the Western part of the world.

we would still call it cartoon. But there is power house studios.

https://www.powerhouseanimation.com/about/

@Old_School_Akira But aren't cartoons for kids? (and the problem goes on.....)

@HokutoMumyoZan no. Cartoons are for everyone.
The Simpsons and Family Guy are cartoons not for kids but for adults.

pokemon and Doraemon are anime for kids.