Classy

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Keirii Kashii left the following comment, which got me thinking: "Manga is definately classier than things like Fairly Odd Parents and such. American cartoons tend to have cheap jokes, and worse art." First off, no offense to Keirii, but it's a bit unfair to compare one society's comics with another society's animation. They're too different. Comparing manga to American comics would be much more fruitful, and there's plenty of classy fare in American comics.

However, when you compare Japan's and America's television animation, the statement is absolutely true.

I wouldn't call American art worse, as that implies an objective standard. A nice still from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends has plenty of charm and artistic merit.

But American cartoons certainly don't have the visual finesse of anime, even comparing kids' shows like Foster's Home and Fairly OddParents to Japanese kids' shows like Astro Boy and Precure. American animation tends to have much more limited and more simplistic facial expressions than anime. Anime characters can show a surprisingly subtle array of emotions simultaneously: surprise, fear, and determination, for example.

On the gripping hand, allow me to defend American cartoons for a moment.

First, American cartoons have a much more limited stable of animation talent. Japan has been producing dozens of new anime series every year for decades. America sees far fewer shows, and many of those were outsourced to Japan. So the talent pool is smaller in America.

Also, American television animation has a long tradition of extremely limited animation, thanks to Hanna-Barbera and other forces. Yogi Bear's art is simplified to Takashi Murakami levels. Worse, those cartoons tended to have simple stories, simple characters, and simple jokes.

American action animation is often outsourced to Japan. But that's the animation that often stretches animators' muscles the most, leading to a certain amount of atrophy in TV animators' abilities.

Moreover, modern American cartoons aren't trying to look pretty. Artistic flair isn't required to sell well; look at successful shows like Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, and The Fairly OddParents. That's not a complaint; it's a matter of a certain art style just working in America.

Whatever works.