Avatar: The Last Airbender

[thecursor]

The problem is anime isn't for children. Or not exactly for children as we understand it. They don't try to "moralize" or being educational because that isn't their job. Japanese people have this crazy idea that this is what Education is for (although yes, merchandising plays a good deal too.) For my part, I was a fan of Captain Planet, but I could never stand GI Joe and its way of trying to make me swallow the "American way of life".

Now, I understand what you are saying. I don't think anime/manga is better than American or European cartoon/comic. Some of them are better, others aren't. Just like everything.

Just calling it as I see it, truthfully I hate most of the shit. Call it a lack of cultural understanding, call it an over developed sense of nationalism, but when I close my eyes I see Eisner.

[Escriba]

Don't worry, "for tastes are colors" (as we say here )

Eisner... the author or the award?

[thecursor]

The Author, the original Spirit is still the anti Batman of choice. The trailer for the movie looks terrible.

[Escriba]

They are going to make a movie?!

Now that I surf the Net... Yes, yes, that's what it seems. Directed by Frank Miller?! Uhhh, boy... Why?! He's a good comic author, but a film director? "Sin City" wasn't that good and there he had help.

[thecursor]

I know and it looks completely wrong in tone. Like Frank Miller sat down, read every Eisner penned book and said "Let's completely ignore all of that and just write the same damn thing I always do."

[Escriba]

I know and it looks completely wrong in tone. Like Frank Miller sat down, read every Eisner penned book and said "Let's completely ignore all of that and just write the same damn thing I always do."

Knowing Miller's ego, that's probably true.

Likewise with the stuff that tries to be SO edgy and SO sophisticated when its all just bullshit. Series like the aforementioned Elfen Leid come to mind where its all about gratuitous violence, nudity and shock value but its oh so deep! and again credibility down the drain.

I don't know who said gratuitous violence equals deep plot. C'mon, I remember that the best anti-Nazi declaration I watched in my childhood was "Alfred J. Kwak" (which doesn't have a drop of violence. Dangerous violence, at least.) You don't need so much action to pretend you're telling something meaningful, in fact, most of the time, the overuse of action and violence tries to hide a real plot-hole.

[CX]

I have yet to see an American animated movie or TV series match, let alone exceed The Ghost in the Shell. Even the second, sucky movie, is better than anything Disney puts out on a good day. First off, the problem with American animation is that, thanks to Disney, the automatic assumption is that any "cartoon" is supposed to be a kiddie show. All the good anime is most definitely not made for kiddies. Second off, musicals suck. Third off, Disney is evil, and thanks to them our copyright laws are completely FUBAR.

The closest I have ever seen an American animated series come close to the awesomeness of Ghost in the Shell was the Spiderman and X-Men animated series from when I was in middle school, and the animated Batman series. That's it.

[thecursor]

Go see Wall*e, really. A surprisingly adult film that sucked me in.

All of Adult Swim's line up save a few low points are pretty good too. Venture Bros. tickles me.

[CX]

Venture Brothers, South park, Family Guy, and other such shows are more comedies, and while cool and meant for mature audiences, I'm thinking of something that would be more akin to a regular show, but animated. Hence why I bring up Ghost in the Shell and the animated Batman in the same context.

[leslina]

Venture Brothers, South park, Family Guy, and other such shows are more comedies, and while cool and meant for mature audiences, I'm thinking of something that would be more akin to a regular show, but animated. Hence why I bring up Ghost in the Shell and the animated Batman in the same context.

Exactly. Family Guy et al, is just like watching Scrubs or Married with Children. They're not cartoons. They're animated sitcoms. Really great, whacked out, cracked out sitcoms at that. Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Batman the Animated Series, Justice League are like watching Firefly or 24. Lots of action, intrigue, complexity, plot, all that good stuff, geared towards a mature audience only its animated and not Live Action. Too often animated is erroneously synonymous with children. This is what separates anime from cartoons. People hear the word cartoon and they think Warner Brothers or Disney. An anime will always have a defined demographic/audience. In Japan its understood that Pokemon is a kiddy show and will run at an early time during the day for that particular audience. A series like Ghost in the Shell or Cowboy Bebop will have a really late/early morning run, 11PM through 2AM.

[CX]

And the irony is that WB used to be geared toward adults, as were many cartoons back in the day. Then Disney came along and ruined all that.

[thecursor]

I hate Family Guy.

I do agree, it would be nice for a cartoon that isn't a comedy.

[Escriba]

Batman the Animated Series was great and somehow influenced by anime because the creators saw that you could make a serious cartoon without trying to make it for children (and was the first animation that used pure black for the backgrounds.)

People usually mistakens animation with kids or funny cartoons, but animation is an art form, it allows you to make things you couldn't do in real world.

After Ghost in the Shell, the most serious anime I've seen is Gasaraki. It's a real pity that the studio (and the creator) messed the story up with the esoteric plot line, which isn't very well done. The politic plot line was very interesting (and somehow prophetic.)

[Lady Rainbow]

I watched a lot of anime when my family was stationed overseas. Like Lupin, the International thief. There was one called "Cat's Eye" that focused on 3 sisters who ran a coffee shop by day and were art thieves by night. It wasn't as clear cut as it seemed, because the 3 sisters were retrieving art pieces that were stolen from their (now deceased) father. Lots of morality issues there.

Another one I kinda liked was one that ran on Tech TV (I guess it's called G4 now?) when they had Anime on REALLY LATE Monday nights. It's called "Silent Moebius", based on a manga from Kia Asimaya (sp?). Setting's really Blade Runner-ish.

And Pokemon...ARGH... I was teaching elementary/middle school when that was really popular. I learned how to play the card game out of self defense...really. (I was the only teacher who actually knew what it was all about. LOL).

[leslina]

I watched a lot of anime when my family was stationed overseas. Like Lupin, the International thief. There was one called "Cat's Eye" that focused on 3 sisters who ran a coffee shop by day and were art thieves by night. It wasn't as clear cut as it seemed, because the 3 sisters were retrieving art pieces that were stolen from their (now deceased) father. Lots of morality issues there.

Another one I kinda liked was one that ran on Tech TV (I guess it's called G4 now?) when they had Anime on REALLY LATE Monday nights. It's called "Silent Moebius", based on a manga from Kia Asimaya (sp?). Setting's really Blade Runner-ish.

And Pokemon...ARGH... I was teaching elementary/middle school when that was really popular. I learned how to play the card game out of self defense...really. (I was the only teacher who actually knew what it was all about. LOL).

I'm a big fan of Kia Asamiya's work for several reasons. First there's his clever use of satire and the way he pokes fun of anime/manag pop culture, like he does in his series Martian Successor Nadesico. There's a character in the series who's an otaku (anime geek) and meets a tragic yet heroic end and the hero of the story is but the ships clumsy, yet endearing cook.

Second, how he writes female characters. He succeeds in writing a complex, feminist perspective (i.e. Silent Mobios) that Joss Whedon utterly fails to do in his own work, imho.

An interesting thing about Kia Asamiya is that he was a big fan of American comic books, particularly Batman when he was growing up and you can see the subtle American influences in his own work. I believe he lives in New York City, or at least spends a lot of time there, and occasionally does work for Marvel and DC. He did some art for Uncanny X-Men and made a manga version of Batman called, Batman: Child of Dreams which was well received. His manga series Dark Angel, was even treated to an Americanized serialization called Dark Angel: Phoenix Resurrection.

And all these posts about comic books and manga are making realize why I'm so damn broke all the time.