Ask John: Why Do American Anime Fans Hate American Cartoons?

Question:
Why do American anime fans feel the need to bash American cartoons? Just because anime is different from what they grew up with, and that it’s foreign doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s better.

Answer:
You are correct. The fact that anime is foreign doesn’t intrinsically make it better than domestic American animation. I do think that some American anime fans callously criticize American cartoons only because American cartoons are mainstream while Japanese animation is underground and therefore more trendy. However, I believe that a significant number of the American anime fans who savagely criticize typical American cartoons have a reasonable basis for their criticisms. Both American and Japanese animation are commercial art. Both American and Japanese animation are primarily targeted at children and young adult viewers. But Japanese animation, even anime made for small children, typically addresses its viewers with a degree of intelligence and maturity absent in typical American animation. Typical American cartoons are simply condescending. They’re written for non-provocative, lowest common denominator viewing and are commonly sanitized to avoid illustrating too much similarity to real life situations or personalities. I have nothing but respect for American animators, but I think that they’re often constricted to the demands of corporate sponsors, moral majority expectations, and television network requests.

Japanese animation is appealing because it stars believable characters that have believable emotions and deal with believable situations. Realistic themes and believable human characters are a rarity in American animation. I think that many American animation fans consider average American cartoons “dumbed down” and designed to intentionally avoid engaging viewer’s intellegence and rational comprehension. Japan and America just have different philosophies related to the content and presentation of animation. American popular culture seems to believe that animation should be a whimsical escape for children that’s safe and non-threatening and which avoids introducing children to the concerns associated with adulthood. American animation is typically a fantasy world in which viewers can escape from reality. Japanese animation seems to prioritize verisimilitude and storytelling that viewers can relate to and vicariously place themselves in.

These are two different principal goals for animation. I don’t consider one innately superior to the other, although I do prefer one style over the other. Clearly, many other American anime fans also have a strong preference for one cultural variety of animation over the other. Unfortunately, many American anime fans don’t recognize, or haven’t consciously realized, that a difference in intent isn’t necessarily the same thing as a difference in quality.