Why is Anime Popular?

**Tyrael** · 31st-January-2011

This is based on personal experience with both anime, and cartoons. I'll explain briefly why Anime triumphs where American cartoons cease.

There's good reason why Anime is so popular nowadays. First of all, Anime and manga appeal to a very broad audience from kids to seniors. American cartoons are almost exclusively produced for kids and teenagers.

The art-direction and quality of Anime is superior in general. Cartoons and Comics usually have a more "messy" art direction, whereas Anime and Manga are cleaner. For example the amount of lines to used to draw characters, facial expressions etc.
The Anime style is easy to get into, yet hard to master. There's thousands of books and guides on the subject available for anyone. Anime ranges from very cute, little characters to complex Mecha.
Many young people draw their own manga,thus in the process create new, refreshing ideas for future series, and franchises.

The only serious competitors of Anime are Disney and CGI. Disney makes very impressive cartoons, but they are usually aimed at immature target audiences.
CGI movies from e.g. Pixar are very advanced and contain more details, but usually only full-fledged CGI movies reach this jaw-dropping high quality. It's still (very) expensive to produce.
CGI is actually a different category, and people can't re-draw it exactly the same at home. It requires expensive CGI programs and computers which is beyond the ability and budget of normal persons.

Many western people think anything cartoony is for kids or teenagers, but that's not true, because Anime has an astounding broad range of the most imaginative, mature, deep stories and topics which you rarely find in western counterparts.

**Zuberi** · 31st-January-2011

I don't worship Anime like the masses of brainless fan boys and fan girls. I am very picky about the Animes I watch because a lot of them seem to be target towards the sexually repressed and the sissified specimens who can't lift 50lbs without wailing in agony. The animation for American cartoons is better but the art in some Animes are superior. Quite frankly, I find Anime nerds to be insufferable!

**dievas** · 31st-January-2011

In general, modern TV is bad for you. Avoid it as much as possible. I haven't watched a TV in almost 6 months, and I'm 19.

**Zuberi** · 1st-February-2011

Quote from dievas

In general, modern TV is bad for you. Avoid it as much as possible. I haven't watched a TV in almost 6 months, and I'm 19.

That's great. I haven't watched TV for years and I'm 23 years of age.

**Tyrael** · 2nd-February-2011

Quote from dievas

In general, modern TV is bad for you. Avoid it as much as possible. I haven't watched a TV in almost 6 months, and I'm 19.

Yes, lots of mind-dumbing shows and subtle propaganda on TV. Anyway, please stay on topic.

**Zuberi** · 7th-July-2011

Did anyone catch the first episode of the new Blade anime?
I thought it was great minus the emotional rookie in the skanky outfit. I can't wait for the next episode.

**Raziel** · 7th-July-2011

I enjoy anime a great deal, tho I'm picky about which ones I watch as well.

I usually dislike certain types of anime for obvious reasons, like: Harem types as well as Magical Girl types, for examples. Harem types are usually 3 or more women surrounding a male character, but said male often endures ridiculous amounts of verbal and/or physical abuse from the girls around him for often stupid reasons. Magical Girl types are centered around a female character who is one day given (or inherits) magical powers of some kind and somehow manages to master them rather quickly on a ridiculous level, leaving out a lot of time where they would have to practice and work to gain any kind of control over them at all (males are often used as a mere plot device at times in these).

However, there are some really good types of anime as well, like Mecha types, tho I normally don't like mecha much. Neon Genesis Evangelion is a mecha/physcological one I REALLY and surprisingly enjoyed. I enjoy anime that have a great story and character development (like Neon Genesis Evangelion) and the occasional lighthearted story (Rosario + Vampire [which is a Harem type, but is an exception to the otherwise rampant male-bashing in other ones and involves the male, Tsukune, more into the story]).

Favorite anime of mine are as follows:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Rebuild of Evangelion
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Elfen Lied
Chrono Crusade
Karas
Blue Seed
InuYasha
Angel Beats!
Dragonball Z
Dragonball GT
Rosario + Vampire
Final Fantasy: Unlimited
Hellsing
Hellsing Ultimate

~ Raz

**Kargan3033** · 7th-July-2011

I find most of the up to date anime are geared towards girls most of the good anime for boys was juring the 80's and early 90's and I agree with Raz about the types of animes that he does not watch and for the reasons why he does not watch them.