As some of you may know, I’m currently living in Japan and teaching English. Part of my job also involves giving the occasional speech to members of the community. Knowing I’m a huge animation fan, the woman in charge requested that I give a talk on anime in America. So, I did my best to come up with a presentation but there are a few things I based on my own opinion that I’d like to confirm with some fellow animation fans. I’d particularly like to hear from fans of 60s to 80s American cartoons if possible, seeing as I’m most familiar with 90s cartoons and up.
Here’s a quick overview of my presentation. (Get ready for a long post!):
A brief history of anime in America:
-Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Star Blazers
-Battle of the Planets and Robotech, plus the difficulties with American censorship and editing
-90s anime and the rise of Pokemon, plus Sailor Moon and DBZ becoming well known. Toonami.
-Popular anime of the last decade: I chose to mention Nauto, Bleach, FMA, Inuyasha, FLCL, Cowboy Bebop and Death Note based on American popularity and the fact that
they could be watched on cable TV. Video of 2012 Toonami line-up commercial.
The influence of anime on American animation
-American cartoons are traditionally episodic but over arching plot lines are growing in popularity, likely due to people becoming accustomed to such story telling in anime
(this is my opinion, do you guys agree?) A few examples of overarching plot lines would be Avatar and Korra, the new TMNT show (possible older versions too, but I’m not
familiar with them), Young Justice, parts of the original Justice League and X-men Evolution…
-Character development (maturation of characters, enemies becoming allies)
-Characters actually dying (albeit not as explicitly as in anime, it’s more implied. However, I’m pleasantly surprised by what’s been getting by the censors lately *cough*
Korra *cough*. I realize that deaths were common place in Transformers as well, but perhaps because they were not really human. Any actual on-screen human deaths in American TV cartoons before 2000?)
-Time skips – Young Justice (and perhaps Ben 10?) have implemented the old time skip technique which I believe to be mostly in anime up to this point (any examples to contradict this?)
-Style – big eyes, small nose, fairly realistic body proportions (excluding certain chest etc. embellishments…)
-Super-deformed/chibi style, sweat drops, anger marks etc. Shows such as Teen Titans and TMNT have been using these to the extreme
-Briefly discussing Teen Titans (Japanese theme song, anime style, emotion marks)
-Briefly discussing Avatar (creators’ quote on how they were influenced by Miyazaki, showing an example of his influence from Siege of the North, comparing Appa and the cat bus)
-Discussing how samurai and ninja are always popular cartoon subjects, and discussing TMNT and Samurai Jack as examples
-Discussing some Hollywood examples, the anime that influenced major motion pictures: (Miyazaki > Avatar, particularly Pandora’s landscape, Paprika > Inception, Ghost in the Shell > The Matrix)
American influence on Anime
-Briefly saying how Japanese anime has also been influenced by America, starting with Disney, but now also with superheroes (Tiger & Bunny) and cartoony style (Panty and Stocking) etc. (There is probably a lot more to mention from way back when Tezuka was getting started, but that’s not the focus of the presentation)
Ending, I briefly mention how manga have become a bookstore staple and cosplay has become a niche activity. If there’s time, I plan to briefly explain the animation process and show off some of my cels <3
Phew! Sorry for all of the detail, but if you have some time to kill, please let me know if you agree with these points. If you disagree, please tell me why (nicely please XD). If you have any other brilliant examples of anime’s influence on US animation, please share! Also, I’m mostly dealing with mainstream TV in this presentation, so please take that into consideration
This is just a fun little presentation for the community, not a serious lecture, but I'd like to have some input from those who are knowledgeable on the subject. Who better than the members of A-B ^_^
