Criticism of Anime and Manga

[KissofKetchup]

I personally do not like anime and manga and never have really, with the exceptions of the Pokémon TV anime back when I was obsessed with the franchise back in the late 90's, and getting into Dragonball Z for about a week and then losing interest. Bear in mind that I do have somewhat limited experience with anime and manga, however I have done a bit of research in writing this post.

My major criticism of anime and manga is that there is a lack of any really different artistic styles, save the styles of traditional anime and the cutsey Hello Kitty-esque style. To me, pretty much all anime that is out there looks stylistically the same to me. Looking at Astro Boy, the first really successful anime series, the style looks almost identical to anime series today like One-Piece or Bleach. The utter lack of originality in artistic style in my opinion is kinda sad.
Compare that to American animation. Looney Tunes of the 1950's look nothing like cartoons of today like Spongebob or Ed, Edd, & Eddy. American animation today bears very little semblance of it's ancestors.

Let it be known that I am not trying to bash anime or manga and say that people who like it are studpid or anything like that. I'm only trying to spell out my perspective of how I view it. Please, if you are an anime fan, please post a response as I am deeply curious of what you think.

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention the many different styles of anime that are out there. I will concede my ignorance.

EDIT2: This was meant to be a criticism like an art critique. This was not meant to be an attack on manga or anime or anyone who enjoys either.
Shred Hexus sums up what I meant to say quite nicely.

To someone already invested in anime, the stylistic differences are more pronounced. To someone on the outside (such as OP and myself) the general lack of clear distinction between anime art styles can be off-putting and make it harder to get into. The fact that you can look at and anime and instantly know it's an anime is indicative of this. It uses a specific set of motifs and styles, and rarely alters them in a clearly distinctive way.

OP's argument isn't that anime is all the same, it's that there is significantly less visual variety between series and artists compared to american cartoons.

 

[delet]

Ohwaityoureseriousletmelaughharder.jpg

Man, that's funny. You've done absolutely no research. There's a picture that proves you completely wrong with this, but I don't have it on this computer right now. I'm sure someone else will post it, though.

 

[KissofKetchup]

I think the art styles are different.

Just look at the complete fuckup of the animation in gunslinger girl season 2.

Completely different from the first.

Do you get my point that anime styles haven't changed all that much in comparison to US animation though? I agree there is some variation in styles today, but not enough at least for me to really discern much difference.

 

[Korten12]

I personally do not like anime and manga and never have really, with the exceptions of the Pokémon TV anime back when I was obsessed with the franchise back in the late 90's, and getting into Dragonball Z for about a week and then losing interest. Bear in mind that I do have somewhat limited experience with anime and manga, however I have done a bit of research in writing this post.

My major criticism of anime and manga is that there is a lack of any really different artistic styles, save the styles of traditional anime and the cutsey Hello Kitty-esque style. To me, pretty much all anime that is out there looks stylistically the same to me. Looking at Astro Boy, the first really successful anime series, the style looks almost identical to anime series today like One-Piece or Bleach. The utter lack of originality in artistic style in my opinion is kinda sad.
Compare that to American animation. Looney Tunes of the 1950's look nothing like cartoons of today like Spongebob or Ed, Edd, & Eddy. American animation today bears very little semblance of it's ancestors.

Let it be known that I am not trying to bash anime or manga and say that people who like it are studpid or anything like that. I'm only trying to spell out my perspective of how I view it. Please, if you are an anime fan, please post a response as I am deeply curious of what you think.

Actually One Piece has a pretty disticnt art Style, Fairy Tail is similar but its not as good...

 

[NeutralDrow]

My major criticism of anime and manga is that there is a lack of any really different artistic styles, save the styles of traditional anime and the cutsey Hello Kitty-esque style.

*<url=http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4929/animedesignstyles.jpg>cough*

Also, I don't quite get how you're calling <url=http://www.watchcartoononline.com/thumb/astro-boy-2003-episode-50-english-dubbed.jpg>this and <url=http://www.psp-themes.net/data/media/3/one%20piece.jpg>this the same or near to it.

 

[Bon_Clay]

It really seems like you have had an incredibly small exposure to anime. The style differences between them can be pretty big sometimes. Look at something by Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, the animated part in Kill Bill) compared to Naruto or Bleach (One Piece I would say has its own style I don't see how you think that looks the same). Or look at stuff from a little while ago like Great Teacher Onizuka, there's a pretty big difference to mainstream stuff today.

If you look for anything past current mainstream shonen (action stuff targeted to young boys mostly, DBZ and Naruto, etc) you can find styles ranging from incredibly detailed to stylized lack of detail, cutesy colourful stuff, dark shaded stuff, etc.

And then on top of all this even if you had one production group doing everything and it DID all look the same, anime is a MEDIUM not a genre. They obviously are all highly influenced by Japanese culture and entertainment, but the same is true of media coming out of any country. Even if you don't like that style I'm sure almost everyone could find some anime they like, there is stuff of every possible genre.

Spoiler: Another example of differences

 

[unicron44]

I never liked Anime, but like someone mentioned, Cowboy Beebop is extremely badass and is great. You should really check it out.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Ohwaityoureseriousletmelaughharder.jpg

Man, that's funny. You've done absolutely no research. There's a picture that proves you completely wrong with this, but I don't have it on this computer right now. I'm sure someone else will post it, though.

I'm pretty sure that picture isn't necessary with a brilliant line like this in the OP, "Looking at Astro Boy, the first really successful anime series, the style looks almost identical to anime series today like One-Piece or Bleach."

Spoiler

OP suffers from blindness?

 

[Jim From Accounting]

ok if you want to see diffident styles watch the animatrix and halo legends

 

[delet]

snip

Nah, that picture is always necessary, and it was posted by NeutralDrow like I thought it would.

The OP's blindness is horribly evident though, yes.

 

[Kirch Libre]

Meh. If you don't like it, you don't like it. I'm not gonna shove anything down your throat.

 

[The Lunatic]

I can see how you'd say this, the differences in most of the well-known animes tend to be pretty minor, and only somebody who was actually into it could really be interested enough to go into the details of the distinctions between the styles.

Not something I care enough for.

 

[NeutralDrow]

snip

Nah, that picture is always necessary, and it was posted by NeutralDrow like I thought it would.

Man, I know Lordlee got banned for posting that image and nothing else, but at least his sacrifice wasn't in vain.

All I have to do by this point is type in "anime design styles." It auto-completes.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

As my mother says often, "It's an acquired taste." (She uses it to describe food, but it applies here.)

If you don't like it, you don't like it. Move along.

 

[Snownine]

I actually find this to be extremely untrue. The animation and character design differs from artist to artist and group to group. As you used DBZ as an example I will do the same. I can look at a character and pretty much immediately tell that it was designed by Akira Toriyama. There are similarities that appear in many (not all) anime but there are a great deal of differences.