11 January 2006, 11:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 15 January 2006, 9:56 AM by Digital Dreamer.)
When is anime considered anime and not a cartoon?
When is cartoon considered cartoon and not anime?
With the fact that ROBOTECH will be releasing The Shadow Chronicales this year. That I turn on the TV as see advertisement for Totally Spies. And you have Transformers cartoon which seems to be changing hands between Japan and America over the last 20 year. It does make me quetion where to put the drawn the line of were does anime and where cartoon begin.
It seems that west as finally gotten over this thing that Cartoon are just for kids. Mind you, i have to say that not all the american animated stuff on Adult Swim or Comedy Channel makes for quality view. However I think Joe Average TV Viewer is finally over the shock of mature themes, violence, nudity and even sex in animated format.
Now the next problem that i have been seeing as of lately is the amount of cartoons that seem to be influenced quite heavly by traditional anime styles. Total Spies is one of them. I have also been led to beleive that X-Men Evolution is another. Lately I have been hearing people say the same thing about Aeon Flux.
And then we have the Amercian Remakes. Now this is a rather big issue about this problem.
Firstly, this is nothing new. The yanks have been dubbing japanimation for nearly 30 years now. I am sure we all remember Speed Racer and StarBlazers. Now thankfully, the most that has happened with these shows is that the yanks just dubbed things over. And that was about it.
However we alos have shows like Battle Of The Planet, Robotech and Voltron and even Transformers where the yanks have taken a much greater creative hold on the product.
BATTLE OF THE PLANETS - Oringally this was the Gatchaman anime. However since Star Wars was the big at the time, the americans hadded this scenes of where we have talking robot giving out missions, plus the various space travels scene that never happened in the orginal japanese series.
ROBOTECH - I view both ROBOTECH and MACROSS as 2 different continuities.
Like they both start the same, but after while the both continuities got their own direction. Like a quick example for all those people that have seen both series is
Macross Time Line Year 2040 - the events of Macross Plus where YF-19 and YF-21 prototype competition is conducted at New Edwards Test Flight Center
Robotech Time Line Year 2040 - Earth forces have fallen to the Invid Invasion 9 years ago, and it only recenlty there is a growing resistance movement against the invid.
For more compairsons....
MACROSS TIME LINE
ROBOTECH TIME LINE
And now in 2006, the Robotech continuity finally continues on with The Shadow Chronicals.
ASTROBOY - Genndy Tartakovsky (PowerPuff Girls, Clone Wars, Dextors Lab, etc) is currently working on his own version of Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atomu.
Peronally I am not looking forward to it as I am not a fan of Genndy Tartakovsky's style of animation
VOLTRON - Most of the Voltron Series was just the usal dubbed over and chopped and changed parts to suit western tastes. However the americans did had another 16 or so episodes that were not in the orginal japanes series. And recently you had the Voltron 3 Deminsion.
And finally, Transformers - Rather questionable on whether or not we call this anime or not. Firstly, you have yanks that ripped off the various japanese toy companyies. And then after the first transformer's movie, the japanese seemed to have done their own thing with the series. Where as the popularityin the west died down to for the show. It was non until the late 90's where the yank disided to bring back the transformers product line. Only to later have the japanese take over from the americans with the cartoon / anime.
And then to make matter more interesting, we have the japenese that seem to be making their own version of western cartoons. Like there is a japanese version fo the Power Puff Girls. Plus as I there is what i have posted about the transformers.
And Kagaku Kyujotai Techno Voyager which is also the Thunderbirds 2086 anime.
You have AD Vision that seem to be working with various Japanese Studios for various projection. One of them is a 26 part animation based on FarScape.*
* Some thing that I hope never sees the light of day as FarScape really finished at Peace Keeper War MiniSeries and there is really not much more to tell.
So with all this, my question is this, where do I draw the line one what is a cartoon and what is anime?
Does it have to all (including production) be from Japan?
Or we can we safely say as long orginal series and concept is japanese, it still anime.
Or it is some thing in between?
Or it is simply down to simple art form (the big eyes) and slightly more mature content.
If the americans make there own adaption of a japanese anime ; Is it still considered anime?
And If the Japanese make there own adaption of a American Cartoon ; Is it considered anime?
Or is it some thing else?
When is cartoon considered cartoon and not anime?
With the fact that ROBOTECH will be releasing The Shadow Chronicales this year. That I turn on the TV as see advertisement for Totally Spies. And you have Transformers cartoon which seems to be changing hands between Japan and America over the last 20 year. It does make me quetion where to put the drawn the line of were does anime and where cartoon begin.
It seems that west as finally gotten over this thing that Cartoon are just for kids. Mind you, i have to say that not all the american animated stuff on Adult Swim or Comedy Channel makes for quality view. However I think Joe Average TV Viewer is finally over the shock of mature themes, violence, nudity and even sex in animated format.
Now the next problem that i have been seeing as of lately is the amount of cartoons that seem to be influenced quite heavly by traditional anime styles. Total Spies is one of them. I have also been led to beleive that X-Men Evolution is another. Lately I have been hearing people say the same thing about Aeon Flux.
And then we have the Amercian Remakes. Now this is a rather big issue about this problem.
Firstly, this is nothing new. The yanks have been dubbing japanimation for nearly 30 years now. I am sure we all remember Speed Racer and StarBlazers. Now thankfully, the most that has happened with these shows is that the yanks just dubbed things over. And that was about it.
However we alos have shows like Battle Of The Planet, Robotech and Voltron and even Transformers where the yanks have taken a much greater creative hold on the product.
BATTLE OF THE PLANETS - Oringally this was the Gatchaman anime. However since Star Wars was the big at the time, the americans hadded this scenes of where we have talking robot giving out missions, plus the various space travels scene that never happened in the orginal japanese series.
ROBOTECH - I view both ROBOTECH and MACROSS as 2 different continuities.
Like they both start the same, but after while the both continuities got their own direction. Like a quick example for all those people that have seen both series is
Macross Time Line Year 2040 - the events of Macross Plus where YF-19 and YF-21 prototype competition is conducted at New Edwards Test Flight Center
Robotech Time Line Year 2040 - Earth forces have fallen to the Invid Invasion 9 years ago, and it only recenlty there is a growing resistance movement against the invid.
For more compairsons....
MACROSS TIME LINE
ROBOTECH TIME LINE
And now in 2006, the Robotech continuity finally continues on with The Shadow Chronicals.
ASTROBOY - Genndy Tartakovsky (PowerPuff Girls, Clone Wars, Dextors Lab, etc) is currently working on his own version of Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atomu.
Peronally I am not looking forward to it as I am not a fan of Genndy Tartakovsky's style of animation
VOLTRON - Most of the Voltron Series was just the usal dubbed over and chopped and changed parts to suit western tastes. However the americans did had another 16 or so episodes that were not in the orginal japanes series. And recently you had the Voltron 3 Deminsion.
And finally, Transformers - Rather questionable on whether or not we call this anime or not. Firstly, you have yanks that ripped off the various japanese toy companyies. And then after the first transformer's movie, the japanese seemed to have done their own thing with the series. Where as the popularityin the west died down to for the show. It was non until the late 90's where the yank disided to bring back the transformers product line. Only to later have the japanese take over from the americans with the cartoon / anime.
And then to make matter more interesting, we have the japenese that seem to be making their own version of western cartoons. Like there is a japanese version fo the Power Puff Girls. Plus as I there is what i have posted about the transformers.
And Kagaku Kyujotai Techno Voyager which is also the Thunderbirds 2086 anime.
You have AD Vision that seem to be working with various Japanese Studios for various projection. One of them is a 26 part animation based on FarScape.*
* Some thing that I hope never sees the light of day as FarScape really finished at Peace Keeper War MiniSeries and there is really not much more to tell.
So with all this, my question is this, where do I draw the line one what is a cartoon and what is anime?
Does it have to all (including production) be from Japan?
Or we can we safely say as long orginal series and concept is japanese, it still anime.
Or it is some thing in between?
Or it is simply down to simple art form (the big eyes) and slightly more mature content.
If the americans make there own adaption of a japanese anime ; Is it still considered anime?
And If the Japanese make there own adaption of a American Cartoon ; Is it considered anime?
Or is it some thing else?