Is Anime really more mature than Western cartoons?

[Kinguendo]

Sorry, I'll respond in a sec. Pardon me while I have a slightly immature interlude.

...

Mature in the sense that they ALWAYS have sexual undertones but not so much in some of the story.

I'm trying to remember the sexual undertones in Spirited Away...

You mean: Are japanese cartoons more mature than Western ones?

/Thread.

/unthread.

There is always some, very subtle maybe, but you will be watching and then for maybe 3 seconds something will happen and you will think "Well... that was inappropriate". XD

...in other words, if you really, really want to find sexual undertones, you will. Even if you have to squint a little and convince yourself.

I mean come on, even Pokemon had sexual undertones thanks to Brock... dirty bugger.

Well, duh. Brock's not an undertone. He's pretty damned obvious.

Nope, its called paying attention.

PYRAMID SLICE!

Not if you can find sexual undertones in Spirited Away, it's not.

Set in a bathhouse... all I am saying.

Because the implication that vaguely anthropomorphic (if that) spirits take baths is inherently sexual? You'd have to call Rule 34 so hard Miyazaki would start having spontaneous nightmares.

Sorry, but 10 year old girls hanging out in bathhouses does not sit well with me.

Sorry, haven't been able to do that since I left the City of Heroes forums.

Anyway, like I said, if you convince yourself they're there. Nothing in the movie is sexualized in the least, storywise or culturally; it's entirely your perception.

And reality is DEPENDANT on individual perception.

Still I think the OP has made too broad a generalisation... No, not all anime is mature but some of it is and the same applies to western cartoons too... Shame it has turned into a bit of a flame-thread.

 

[Ares Tyr]

But I swear to Zeus almighty if I see another anime fan use the 'XD' smiley again, I'm going to punch the first person I see wearing any form of anime merchandise in real life.

I don't really associate that style of emoticon with "anime fans" so much as "westerners." Personally, I prefer eastern style! ^_^

Both infuriate me.

And make me ashamed of admitting I'm an anime fan.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Ghostkai and Hannarr, try reading my comment fully before you start picking it apart.

First of all I did not say MOST Anime fans are 5-15, I said ALOT of anime fans are 5-15, and thats not just 5 year olds, that is as stated 5 .... to 15!!!

And a lot of anime fans are aged 20-35. What's your point?

And no the 5 year olds are not watching ghost in the shell (although they soon will be) they are watching stuff like Yu Gi-Oh, Naruto, Avatar you know, the stuff that apears on "NICKELODIAN" like I already said.

Stuff that's aimed at children, and thus has no requirements to be mature in any way, let alone the "blood and guts" type of "maturity."

Although Avatar does actually manage to have a mature storyline, really starting with the season 1 finale.

Hannarr who are you and what gives you the authority to make me "officialy" wrong? hmmmm?
And yes I have watched anime before in a desperate attempt to find out why everyone gave so much of a shit about this specific genre of cartoon (I never found out and still hate the damn thing) so please don't tell what I have and havn't done, or what and what not to do.

Well, if I could do it in the other thread...

But no, you're officially wrong when you post "no, anime is not mature, and neither is slipknot," and someone lists Grave of the Fireflies as the ultimate counter.

From my experience just so you know and don't start assuming things again Anime either involves as said very shallow people, people moaning about nothing, very emo like people, people who are far to happy to be sober, strange laser beam shooting monsters, lots of gore, lots of nudity, stupidlt big weapons or people taking 5 episodes to talk about a fight before it acctually happens.

I'm sorry, I had to separate this from the rest of the paragraph. It's like you went off on a stream of consciousness rant that I couldn't make sense of.

Oh no not you again

Well in response to the non understandable rant, that's pretty much how I felt with your comment on the other post we were on, i don't know mabye we are exact polar opposites and at some points in converssation, even though it's perfect English neither of us understands the other and it will all end in some epic duel ontop of a mountain in the snow with a hurricain on it's way... and probably in Cannada...

Or mabye I'm looking into it to much.

Alot of 20-30 year olds watch spongebob that doesn't make it mature.

Whats Grave of the Fireflies?

I think the guy who posted the first comment pretty much had it nailed.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

A perfect example of such treatment is the well-known Yu-Gi-Oh!. While the original is not something that adults would enjoy either, it still contains enough mature themes to qualify for a late teenager demographic. However, 4Kids, the company responsible for dubbing the anime in English, heavily edited it and even changed entire plot points in order to make it more friendly towards young children.

See also: Yu-Gi-Oh the Abriged Series. [http://www.yugiohtheabridgedseries.com/episodes/]

Ah, thank you for reminding me of the Abridged Series. I recommend it to anyone, even people who dislike Yu-Gi-Oh! or animes in general. Not only is it hilarious, it also makes fun of the many changes 4Kids did to the show. Overall, very entertaining.

 

[Ghostkai]

*silly badly thought out rant*

I had prepared a nice reply for you, but honestly, everything that needs to be said has been said by NeutralDrow in his disection of your post.

Also, the quote function is great, lets people know your replying to their comments is very helpful in furthering the discussion, unless of course you don't want a reply...

 

[hannarr]

*silly badly thought out rant*

Learn to hit the quote button next time as well, unless you're too much of a puss to start a flame war and then not want to face up to it.
GJ!

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Whats Grave of the Fireflies?

Congratulations on paying attention:

If you want to see an anime that does not have anything to do with large robots or oversized swords, I would recommend Grave of the Fireflies. It is a movie about two children who lose their parents and try to survive as best as they can in Japan during World War II. It is a very touching movie (one of the few that made me cry) and it is highly praised to the point that it is compared to Schindler's List.

 

[Ancientgamer]

Mature in the sense that they ALWAYS have sexual undertones but not so much in some of the story.

I'm trying to remember the sexual undertones in Spirited Away...

You mean: Are japanese cartoons more mature than Western ones?

/Thread.

/unthread.

There is always some, very subtle maybe, but you will be watching and then for maybe 3 seconds something will happen and you will think "Well... that was inappropriate". XD

...in other words, if you really, really want to find sexual undertones, you will. Even if you have to squint a little and convince yourself.

I mean come on, even Pokemon had sexual undertones thanks to Brock... dirty bugger.

Well, duh. Brock's not an undertone. He's pretty damned obvious.

Nope, its called paying attention.

Not if you can find sexual undertones in Spirited Away, it's not.

Set in a bathhouse... all I am saying.

Because the implication that vaguely anthropomorphic (if that) spirits take baths is inherently sexual? You'd have to call Rule 34 so hard Miyazaki would start having spontaneous nightmares.

Sorry, but 10 year old girls hanging out in bathhouses does not sit well with me.

I'm sorry. But this line of thought, more than any in this thread, absolutely disgusts me. Reactionary puritanism at it's finest. Bathhouse\sex. Especially considering cultural differences. If you can empirically show me any scene in that movie with sexual undertones, that doesn't reek of Freudian soft-science bullshit, I'll admit I'm wrong. But baths are so far removed from sex it's not even funny. What relation even is there? nudity? Big fracking deal. There's not a nude shot in the entire film. If a bunch of crocodiles and animorphis blobs sitting in water seems sexual to you, you have problems. Talk about taking one of the most innocent, imaginative, and intelligent children's films of all time and trying to pervert it.

Also, my point was that western cartoons have had heavy sexual undertones since the times of bugs bunny. Why are you using it as an argument at anime?

 

[SultanP]

Isn't it just Japan fanboys who worship anything from over there who claim that they're more mature? I've never heard anyone else say anything to that effect.

 

[The Great JT]

It definately differs from anime to anime, but I think they are a lot more mature than western cartoons.

Stupider and more likely to make you think that it's stupid as hell, as well.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

*silly badly thought out rant*

I had prepared a nice reply for you, but honestly, everything that needs to be said has been said by NeutralDrow in his disection of your post.

Also, the quote function is great, lets people know your replying to their comments is very helpful in furthering the discussion, unless of course you don't want a reply...

Yes I know this is a very useful tool and would have used it had I not had to take two peoples replies and answer them both beccause you'll have to excuse me in that I don't know how to specify what I want quoted or get more than one quote, I'm sure this is a very easy task and you'll want to go on at me for how simple it is but really all you would be doing is helping me so I'll leave the choice between assisting yet feeling smug or leaving me in the dark upto you. However I did trust that either you or that other girl who can't spell her name properly would come back to this thread at some point and use this useful tool to inform me of your own seperate responses, which you did so al is well.

And even if you hadn't I was pretty sure some fanboy/girl would have picked up from where you left off because lets face it there isn't exactly a shortage of them.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Oh no not you again

Well in response to the non understandable rant, that's pretty much how I felt with your comment on the other post we were on, i don't know mabye we are exact polar opposites and at some points in converssation, even though it's perfect English neither of us understands the other and it will all end in some epic duel ontop of a mountain in the snow with a hurricain on it's way... and probably in Cannada...

I hope not. I used up my training montage quota trying to beat Vergil in Devil May Cry 3.

And reality is DEPENDANT on individual perception.

Still I think the OP has made too broad a generalisation... No, not all anime is mature but some of it is and the same applies to western cartoons too... Shame it has turned into a bit of a flame-thread.

True. And I'm kind of ashamed of contributing to the flames.

But I swear to Zeus almighty if I see another anime fan use the 'XD' smiley again, I'm going to punch the first person I see wearing any form of anime merchandise in real life.

I don't really associate that style of emoticon with "anime fans" so much as "westerners." Personally, I prefer eastern style! ^_^

Both infuriate me.

And make me ashamed of admitting I'm an anime fan.

Wow. If not-anime-related emoticons make you ashamed of admitted to liking anime, I'm surprised you haven't seen some of the fandoms and gone completely insane.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Well most contain alien cyborg pirate tentical rape, so yea.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

*silly badly thought out rant*

Learn to hit the quote button next time as well, unless you're too much of a puss to start a flame war and then not want to face up to it.
GJ!

Happy, go read the one I left with Ghostkai because she said pretty much the same thing you did.

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Whats Grave of the Fireflies?

Congratulations on paying attention:

If you want to see an anime that does not have anything to do with large robots or oversized swords, I would recommend Grave of the Fireflies. It is a movie about two children who lose their parents and try to survive as best as they can in Japan during World War II. It is a very touching movie (one of the few that made me cry) and it is highly praised to the point that it is compared to Schindler's List.

Sorry, I was to busy with the other three.

Mabye I will watch it some day seen as you were nice about it.

 

[Ghostkai]

Well most contain alien cyborg pirate tentical rape, so yea.

Define most?

Yes I know this is a very useful tool and would have used it had I not had to take two peoples replies and answer them both beccause you'll have to excuse me in that I don't know how to specify what I want quoted or get more than one quote, I'm sure this is a very easy task and you'll want to go on at me for how simple it is but really all you would be doing is helping me so I'll leave the choice between assisting yet feeling smug or leaving me in the dark upto you. However I did trust that either you or that other girl who can't spell her name properly would come back to this thread at some point and use this useful tool to inform me of your own seperate responses, which you did so al is well.

And even if you hadn't I was pretty sure some fanboy/girl would have picked up from where you left off because lets face it there isn't exactly a shortage of them.

Actually, I would have been happy to show you how to quote, like alot of escapists, I'm not a bad person, and would be happy in showing you certain functions, except of course that you decided to have another dig at me.

Good day sir! I shan't fan the flames anymore.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Well most contain alien cyborg pirate tentical rape, so yea.

I guess. But the ones containing alien cyborg pirate perfectly consensual tentacle sex are pretty good.

 

[Bobtowna]

i like the one where light eats a potatoe chip and its all dramatic and stuff.

 

[A random person]

As I guy that has watched a lot of anime and only enjoyed a very, very small portion of it, I can assure everyone that anime is at least as stupid and vacant as Western animation.

Could you please list some of the anime you've seen? You might have just seen the crap put on TV here, like 4kids dubs and Naruto (seriously, I know he's supposed to be young and obnoxious, but that voice is just too shrill), or just some random crap (sturgeons law, of course).

But yes, some anime (like Eiken) achieves levels of stupidity beyond pretty much any western cartoons. Not all of it, though.