Animé or Western Animation: Which is more artistically diverse?

[Kagim]

Anime refers to animations created in the eastern regions of the world.

Western refers to animations created in the western regions of the world.

There is no specific way either of them have to be made. No rules of what makes an animation what.

If, say, Rugrats was made in Japan instead of America it would still be called Anime. Even if not a single thing was changed.

Yes, there are trends in both regions, that is all they are however. To say the Sailor Moon animations defines Anime is like saying Modern Warfare defines All western made video games.

Which is most artistically diverse? Neither of them. Both follow major trends with deviations being made that either die or become the new trend.

 

[Ham_authority95]

For what it's worth, The Nightmare before Christmas is not Animation, it is Claymation from memory.

Both are so diverse it's not even funny. I don't think it's actually possible to answer the the OP question.

There was a pic somewhere that displays some eastern anime styles, if I find it I will edit it in.
If anyone else has it, feel free to put it up.
Found it.

Spoiler

Jesus Christ, that stuff is awesome...

OT: I agree with the above on terms of diversity. Hell, sometimes Japanese and Western art styles overlap so much you think one is actually the other.

The only huge difference I see between the two art styles is the fact that they're from different places...

 

[starwarsgeek]

I'm not familiar enough with Anime to give examples, but I'd guess they're about the same.

 

[Lullabye]

I think the most noticeable differences are in the western animations. But the japanese/asian animations have a huge range too.

 

[Marik2]

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt ends all art arguments in favor of anime styling.
it combines western Saturday morning cartoon, traditional anime, realistic anime, mo'e, flash, chibi, CG, once did south park's animation, and will sometimes switch to live action for explosions.
I'd link a video but I'm not sure the moderators would allow a show with that many sex jokes.

LOL Im still gonna post it

 

[BloodRaevynn]

I agree that both anime and western animation are about equally artistically diverse, but now I'd like to draw everyone's attention to one little fact that tends not to be mentioned. Anime refers to animation produced in Japan - one country (well, not counting outsourcing, but the artistic style is decided by the Japanese producers [and usually based on the style of the manga artist who originally came up with the story] before it's handed off to the Koreans so for the purposes of this argument that's irrelevant); on the other hand, how many countries are you counting within the sphere of "western animation?" Just some food for thought.

 

[s0m3th1ng]

You can't classify all Nickelodeon cartoons to look the same, they are drastically different...
Disney cartoons are usually exactly alike seeing as they are the same developer. Anime pretty much all involves large eyed, strange haired featureless faced people.


Notice the difference.

Timmy's eyes are 3/4 the size of his head, and the only features to his face are his eyebrows...so your point is pretty much moot.
The problem with western animation is the lack of adult-themed shows...apart from comedy. Nearly all the stuff is geared towards children. With Anime, you open yourself up to a much broader audience, with stuff like GITS and Samurai Champloo appealing to older folk.
So in my opinion Eastern Animation offers a MUCH broader style simply for the fact that it isn't viewed as a purely childish medium in it's culture.

 

[Archangel768]

Both have a lot of diversity however I can understand that people that do not know much or are not interested in one or the other would see them as not being very diverse.

 

[Drakmeire]

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt ends all art arguments in favor of anime styling.
it combines western Saturday morning cartoon, traditional anime, realistic anime, mo'e, flash, chibi, CG, once did south park's animation, and will sometimes switch to live action for explosions.
I'd link a video but I'm not sure the moderators would allow a show with that many sex jokes.

LOL Im still gonna post it

ok that's just scary since I was going to post the same scene. I guess it is the best episode for showing off the art shifts.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

In terms of visual art styles, I think Western animation is more diverse. Manga and Anime have little variation with over emulated art styles.

However I think Anime is more diverse in the sense of thematic art subjects, and caters to more assortments of demographics such as age groups, genders, and maturity levels.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Wait... That's Waltz With Bashir... it's a European film...<.<

OT: I dunno Anime is more diverse right now because of the shear amount of shows being pumped out but back in the 70's and 80's with films like American Pop and Coon Skin Western animation had a lot more diversity though that didn't last long and cartoons went back to being strictly for kids...<.<

I wouldn't call Israel an European country.

 

[Space Spoons]

I see a fair amount of variation in both genres, to be honest.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Well of course Western animation is more visually diverse. Bearing in mind the definition of anime (Japanese animation), I'd expect the entire western hemisphere to have more styles of animation than a single small Eastern country.

 

[sheic99]

Scanner Darkly is the reason why I go with Western.

A Scanner Darkly was shot with live actors and had a filter placed on it during post-production.

OT: There is a reason why I call anime simply animation and group with all the Western stuff; I do the same thing with manga.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Timmy's eyes are 3/4 the size of his head, and the only features to his face are his eyebrows...so your point is pretty much moot.
The problem with western animation is the lack of adult-themed shows...apart from comedy. Nearly all the stuff is geared towards children. With Anime, you open yourself up to a much broader audience, with stuff like GITS and Samurai Champloo appealing to older folk.
So in my opinion Eastern Animation offers a MUCH broader style simply for the fact that it isn't viewed as a purely childish medium in it's culture.

(Disclaimer: this isn't directed at you, but at weeaboos. Your post simply gave me the jumping point.)

Content has nothing to do with animation. Why don't more people realize this? The number one reason that I see bandied about by weeaboos is that the stories aren't just for kids. This in no way affects the artistic style of the work itself. Yet, Weeaboos insist that their animation is better, because it offers more diverse stories.

Art design does not dictate content. Look at The Lion King. Anthropomorphic animal animation. Story: Hamlet. One does not imply the other.

Original Dragon Ball? Quasi-futuristic super human beat-em up. Story: based off of Journey to the West.

I wish people would try to make the distinction between art direction, and story content.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Scanner Darkly is the reason why I go with Western.

A Scanner Darkly was shot with live actors and had a filter placed on it during post-production.

OT: There is a reason why I call anime simply animation and group with all the Western stuff; I do the same thing with manga.

It wasn't simply applying a filter. Animators drew over every live action frame by hand, and added effects that weren't there.

The process is called rotoscoping and it's a common technique in animation. Although most do it subtly, only to capture movement and not every fine detail of reality.

 

[Bemijaminji]

For animation I gotta go with the Walt Disney. I really think the pinnacle of hand-drawn animation from an artistic view has to be Sleeping Beauty. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli make this a hard choice, I also refuse to call their work anime as it is not based on sexual deviancy. Seriously there should be some study to determine what percentage of anime is not overtly sexual.

 

[Marik2]

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt ends all art arguments in favor of anime styling.
it combines western Saturday morning cartoon, traditional anime, realistic anime, mo'e, flash, chibi, CG, once did south park's animation, and will sometimes switch to live action for explosions.
I'd link a video but I'm not sure the moderators would allow a show with that many sex jokes.

LOL Im still gonna post it

ok that's just scary since I was going to post the same scene. I guess it is the best episode for showing off the art shifts.

LOL yeah and plus this is the one episode that really stood out in the series.