My main interest lies in critically comparing and contrasting mainstream animation in the Ease and West. I first became interested in this topic when I started researching the origin of the modern Manga (Japanese comic art). It became apparent that a lot of modern Manga, especially the famous Manga eyes was influenced by characters in Walt Disney's early Feature length films. I wrote an essay concerning it for Art foundation in 2010. i shall try to upload it in pictures as due to all the pictures it will not be 'copy,n,past-able'.
Animé is known in the west as a genre on its own but in Japan it is simply a vehicle to provide the same type of entertainment as live-action movies.
Many Animes' are adopted from Mangas'. The first official comic strips in Japan came from USA in the post-WW2 era and from that, Japanese artist began making their own comics. The difference was, the reader had to have every comic strip to understand the story. Typical US comics involve story lines which start and finish with the characters in a 'normal' or same situation.
Animation in the US was still developing and looking for business in the beginning of the century, through its TV shorts and occasional features, Largely developed by Disney or Warner Bros. During WW2 these cartoons served as short escapes from the harsh reality. In fact, the 1950 Disney feature, Cinderella was put down by reviewers. They claimed it had a large amount of human characters which made the film seem real and should be alien to animation.
In the 1900s the US mainstream animation market sold its soul to business and the main goal of the industry was to sell merchandise. Saturday morning cartoons effectively became 23 minute adverts for action figures. Story, was not as important, you could watch an entire series of X-men or Spider-man in mixed order without realising you have done so. Western civilisation took on a Judeo-Christian culture, identifying 'Good' and 'Bad' with one aim.
In Japan the majority of animations were based on the Shinto culture, in which many stories of great people and items are worshipped as deities. For this reason a lot of themes such as homosexuality and death could be explored through animation, but they would be considered taboo in the US. The Japanese stories showed a mix of human characters and their lives with some fantasy element. 'Kimagure Orange Road' focuses on a love triangle between a guy and two girls, but the boy and his family have the power of ESP (Brain Powers). Many are popular for being just like an American drama series. A continuous story line with plot twists and occasional slap-stick comedy. Characters can change and develop within episodes so the viewer has to have seen the previous episodes to understand the story.
Animations made to sell merchandise were primarily aimed at children, but soon they started appearing for adults as well. To this day Bart is 10, Lisa is 8 and Maggie is still sucking on a pacifier. The Simpsons, South Park and King of the Hill all poke fun at typical American life. This episodic approach fit into the busy American lifestyle. Animé on the other hand is developed from Manga, which was popular with all ages, so viewers will take time out to watch the episodes.
I'm not saying that all Animé is not episodic, Series such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z were made popular on American and British TV channels because they fit the bill. The latest interesting distributor of Animé is Disney company itself. They released feature-length films from Studio Ghibli, all directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Disney has recognised the underground Animé market in the USA and UK and is buying into it.
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