6th March 2005, 10:12 PM
:p
Anyway, Kino's Journey is many times more intelligent and has a much more beautiful art style than any American animated series that I've ever seen. The thing is the average American animated series just isn't that great. There are some great comedy series, like Family Guy, Futurama, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and so on, but that's not where the problem lies. The problem is that when it comes to INTELLIGENT animation with DECENT ART is usually only found on the other side of the pond, at least as far as series go. I'd really like to see American series get better in that respect, but so far there hasn't been much progress. One problem with that is that American animators seem to think that if they copy the CHARACTER DESIGNS from Japanese animated series that they can also capture the appeal of those same series, but it just doesn't work. Japanese animated series tell a COMPLETE story, usually within the confines of 26 episodes, instead of what just about every American animated series does, which is to generate more and more episodes without really getting anywhere. Add into that the fact that most American animated series are targetted towards an audience that is 12 and below, which means that an intelligent storyline problem isn't going to happen. You likely won't find anything thought provoking or emotionally stirring in those series. Another problem is that most series are just comedy series and very little else. There's little in the way of action, there's no mechas [well...there is that one series], there's very little science-fiction [nothing of the series nature anyway], there's very little in the way of romance, and I could go on but I think I've gotten to the point. Well, I turned this into a rant anyway.
There's one Japanese series that I'd like to talk about for a second. It's called Azumanga Daioh, which doesn't really mean anything, and it's about schoolgirls who...go to school. That's it. And yet it's such a wonderful series, even achieving something of an absurd sort of beauty. It's funny at times, and touching at other times. I've never seen a series from America that's even close to being as great as AD at what it does.
Anyway, Kino's Journey is many times more intelligent and has a much more beautiful art style than any American animated series that I've ever seen. The thing is the average American animated series just isn't that great. There are some great comedy series, like Family Guy, Futurama, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and so on, but that's not where the problem lies. The problem is that when it comes to INTELLIGENT animation with DECENT ART is usually only found on the other side of the pond, at least as far as series go. I'd really like to see American series get better in that respect, but so far there hasn't been much progress. One problem with that is that American animators seem to think that if they copy the CHARACTER DESIGNS from Japanese animated series that they can also capture the appeal of those same series, but it just doesn't work. Japanese animated series tell a COMPLETE story, usually within the confines of 26 episodes, instead of what just about every American animated series does, which is to generate more and more episodes without really getting anywhere. Add into that the fact that most American animated series are targetted towards an audience that is 12 and below, which means that an intelligent storyline problem isn't going to happen. You likely won't find anything thought provoking or emotionally stirring in those series. Another problem is that most series are just comedy series and very little else. There's little in the way of action, there's no mechas [well...there is that one series], there's very little science-fiction [nothing of the series nature anyway], there's very little in the way of romance, and I could go on but I think I've gotten to the point. Well, I turned this into a rant anyway.
There's one Japanese series that I'd like to talk about for a second. It's called Azumanga Daioh, which doesn't really mean anything, and it's about schoolgirls who...go to school. That's it. And yet it's such a wonderful series, even achieving something of an absurd sort of beauty. It's funny at times, and touching at other times. I've never seen a series from America that's even close to being as great as AD at what it does.
Sometimes you get the scorpion.