See all 11 photosOne thing to get out of the way firstLet me start of with that by "Western" animati...

1. Western animation vs. Japanese animation
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One thing to get out of the way first
Let me start of with that by "Western" animation, I'll mainly focus on American ones and for various

2. reasons. The first one is because, even though there's animation in Europe, let's face it, animation
made in USA is world famous, just like with Anime. The second reason is because, just like with
Japanimation, a lot of people grew up watching American cartoons, sure not everyone, but a majority
have. The third reason is because those two are the most common and well-known kinds of
animation, they are giants, and thus a comparison between these two titans is absolutely inevitable.
And the final reason is because I grew up watching these two kinds of animation. With that said, let's
begin.
The basics
Let's start with American animation. Anyone reading this that's an 80's or 90's baby will without a
doubt reminisce fond memories of certain cartoons. Who could forget watching such classics like
Transformers, Thundercats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Batman, Superman, G.I. Joe,
Ghostbusters, Nickelodeon shows such as Rugrats, Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, etc.?
All of those shows were aimed at kids. Yeah, these are a lot of shows that I mentioned, but these are
ones that a lot of people, including myself grew up with. Watching them now, some of them still hold
up pretty well despite that they're mainly aimed at kids. Some of them though, can seem a bit
outdated and even incredibly cheesy, but still enjoyable nonetheless. For a long time now, cartoons
from the US have always been aimed at children. But then, the 90's came and shows aimed at an
older audience began to exist.
I'm talking about shows such as the Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, Beavis and Butt-Head and
King of the Hill to name a few. These shows are of comedic nature and are aimed mainly at an older
audience and are actually inappropriate for children due to bad language, some sexuality, violence,
sometimes a little strong (but still played for laughs) and because they normally address some adult
issues or recent world events. That's one of the main things that, at least what I think, sets American
animation apart from Anime.
For American, most shows are aimed at children and the ones aimed for a mature audience are
normally comedies and aren't as abundant as the ones for kids. Thus, there isn't a lot of variety in
American cartoons than there is with anime.
Anime offers a lot more variety mainly because the Japanese are more liberal and open with certain
kinds of topics that can be considered "taboo" in the United States, things such as death and
sexuality are the first ones to come to mind. In Japanimation, the age demographic isn't limited,
there can be anime appropriate for almost any person of any age to enjoy. There are shows with
many genres, they can be serious, comedic, about detectives, romance, sex (or "hentai" as it is called
over there), psychological and even horror. Because of this, there are anime that can be aimed at
adults and appeal to them, after all, there are many of them that deal with very mature, thought-
provoking and even psychological issues. Things that can even shock an adult person, especially if
they have the "animation is just for children" way of thinking. They can have complex character
development as well, making the characters very human and "complete".
However, I'm not saying that American animation is "stupid" or completely "inferior" because of this,
they too have their own great shows that also have pretty good stories and character development.
Ghost in the Shell (1995)

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American animation
Now, let's take another look at Western animation. As previously mentioned, most of them are aimed
at children, but just because they're mainly for kids doesn't automatically make them bad, they can
still deal with surprisingly mature issues and have great character development.
One of these examples is also one of my favorite American cartoons, Batman the animated series, or
Batman: TAS for short. Despite its main demographic being children, it's surprisingly dark, featuring
the psychological drama that Batman is known for. It had thematic complexity, the episodes didn't
always have happy endings and not all of the bad guys were completely "evil" like most American
animation would portray them. Sometimes they used to be normal people with normal lives which
then got destroyed by tragic events. It didn't light up the tone or dumb it down just because the
demographic was for children. It took its audience seriously. This is why Batman: TAS is considered
one of the greatest animated series ever and why it still holds up well today, even among older
audiences.
Another example is Avatar: the Last Airbender, a less older show, but still a great one nonetheless.
Just like with Batman, it didn't always have happy endings with its episodes and they were dark and
serious at times. What's funny though is that, even if Avatar isn't anime, it was certainly influenced
by it, not just with its animation style, but also with references to them. In fact, even the creators
said that legendary animes such as Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and FLCL were one of the
main influences on Avatar. Not to mention that the show mainly borrows from Chinese, Indian and
Eastern Asian culture as well, which is pretty unusual for American animation.
I could mention other examples, but I think I've said enough. The point with this is that older
audiences can enjoy American cartoons just like children can, as long as, of course, it's done well.
Let's also talk about animated movies from the US. When it comes to that, most of us used to watch
Disney movies, and how could we not? It's one of the most famous kind of movies of all time! The
same rule with TV shows also mostly applies with American animated movies, most of them are
aimed at children (probably the 10th time I've said this), but those that are done well can also
capture and engage an older audience. What's interesting is that older Disney movies have dealt
with death. When certain characters die, they don't come back just so kids stop feeling sad, they stay

4. dead, which is actually a good lesson to teach to kids, if they don't go too far either. These kind of
scenes can teach to kids that death may be very sad, but it's unfortunately a normal part of life and
everyone has to deal with it, it'll happen to everyone eventually and you can't come back from it.
With that said, I'm pretty sure the majority of people reading this that has seen Disney movies
probably remembers Mufasa's death from Lion King, or the death of Bambi's mom, Tarzan's
"father's" death and even Snow White's death, along with the Queen's demise.
I know that I'm mentioning death a lot, but the reason of why I'm emphasizing it is because said
topic is now rarely found in today's American cartoons. It is no longer acceptable to show any
character dying, or at least for the most part because the people behind these cartoons fear that it
might be too strong for children and that parents may complain about this, which is quite
unfortunate because kids need to learn little by little that the world ain't such a cheerful place. At
times, it can be quite, well, very dark and cruel.
If today's cartoons can deal with death, kids may get thrown off, even sad depending on the
character, but it would at least teach the fact that it will eventually happen to anyone and that we
have to deal with it.

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Batman the animated series (1992-1999)

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Another common element that, at least, I've seen with American cartoons is that a lot of them have
an episodic nature. Events that happened in past episodes are barely mentioned at all and the
characters don't seem to always have a continuing storyline or objective. Sometimes, an entire show
revolves around characters striving to reach or accomplish a certain objective, examples could be
defeating an evil, finding someone, getting to a certain place, etc. But in shows like Spongebob
Squarepants, the Simpsons, Family Guy, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Beavis and Butt-Head,
etc., you can pretty much watch any episode and you won't be lost on the plot at all, in every episode
the characters just do some random thing that wasn't present in the last episode, thus it doesn't
establish some kind of story arc, and it doens't have to either. Those shows work perfectly like that.
But like everything else, there's always an exception, like the DC Animated Universe, made up of
Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League, Static Shock, Batman Beyond and Justice League
Unlimited. All of those previously mentioned shows have an established continuity in which some of
the events that happened among any of those cartoons get mentioned in some episodes.
Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006)
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7. Teen Titans (2003-2006)
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Anime
Now let's take another look at anime.
Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999)
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As already mentioned in this hub, anime has a lot of variety in its shows.

8. They can be about so many things and can be aimed towards a lot of age demographics, children,
teenagers, young adults and even adults. Because of this, anime is less limited about their genres
and subject matter than most American cartoons.
Personally, I love anime more because of this. The shows and movies it offers are not afraid to
handle topics that would be considered taboo in Western society. As a result, we get very thought-
provoking shows and movies.
To further show how varied they can be, let's take a brief look at some anime shows and movies and
what topics they have.
First the movie "Perfect Blue". A very confusing and thought-provoking one. Pretty much a
psychological horror, but also a critique of celebrity-obsessed culture. It's about a young woman
called Mima that was a J-pop star and then decides to leave that behind and become an actress.
These news really upsets her fans (most of them being men) which includes an obsessed, mentally
disturbed stalker. But the stalker is not the only problem for Mima here, it's also the hard work,
pressure from the crew of the TV serial that they're making, stress and the huge changes that she
has to face of being an actress. She begins doubting herself if she made the right choice of leaving
her J-pop career, something which I think that we can all relate. I mean, I'm pretty sure that at least
once in our lives, we have doubted ourselves for any kind of decision that we have made, normally
when it brings big changes in our lives. Due to this, Mima's J-pop past begins to haunt her and
doens't leave her alone.
It's a great movie, one of my favorites actually.
Perfect Blue (1997)
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Second, let's take a look at "Neon Genesis Evangelion", one of the most complex and confusing
animes out there.
What's it about? On the surface, it looks like another typical mecha anime, but when you really dive
into it, you'll see that it's not. It has a lot of psychological analysis on the main characters, what
issues they have, why they have it and how that made them into who they are and, thus why does
that make them pilot the "robots" to fight against giant monsters in the show. It's almost like a

9. character study, but instead of just one, it's on all of the main ones.
The further the show analyzes the characters, the more you see the horrible issues that they suffer
and how they deal with it, or sometimes not at all. That's all I'll say about this one.
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996)
Third, the anime "Death Note". An interesting anime right here because, at least when it comes
these shows on TV, it's not too common to find one like that.
It's an anime that doesn't have much action, it relies instead on suspense, it's not horror, but it can
keep you on the edge of your seat once it grabs your attention. It's has a mix of detective fiction and
supernatural elements.
It's about a high school kid, a very smart one too, called Light Yagami that finds one day a note book
called the "Death Note". If you write any name onto it, said person dies after 40 seconds and you can
even choose how you want that person to die. Light starts using it against criminals and then
becomes hell-bent on "cleansing the world" from bad people. Because of this, the Interpol wants to
capture him and for this, they ask for a famous detective, known as "L", for his help. So, a game of
cat and mouse ensues between Light and L and, I've got to say, it's one of the best intellectual
battles I've ever seen. Not having much physical action might put some people off, but it definitely
makes up for it with the battle of wits between Light and L.
Death Note (2006-2007)
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Fourth, "Princess Mononoke", one of my absolute favorite animated movies ever and one done by the
master himself, Hayao Miyazaki.
An epic tale with an environmentalist message. Nowadays, movies with those kind of messages are
those that have been done so many times now, thus, they can get, or maybe even have become,
pretty tiring.
This one's different however. It's not just about saving or taking care of the environment, it's also

10. about saving and caring for your fellow human beings. In the movie, there's a war between humans
and animals, however, it's not just about the "big bad corporation or humans" polluting and
destroying forests. The humans actually have a good reason for doing it, they're not really the
antagonists, just like how the animals have a good reason to fight against them. Instead of being
black and white (think James Cameron's "Avatar") it's actually a very gray area.
And for that reason and other things as well, it's one of the best anime movies ever. I won't say more
because it's one that must be seen.
Princess Mononoke (1997)
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And finally, because if I keep going at this rate, it'll drag on, let's an even more brief look at three
other animes, Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing Ultimate and Samuari Champloo.
These three, man, they are so badass. In fact, you know what?
Instead of both showing and telling, why don't I just show the openings of these three? Because I
cannot do them justice.
Samurai Champloo (2004-2005)
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