Talking about anime there is something else I believe that they have over western cartoons.Expressions.I know Bugs Bunny,Mickey and the rest have done it really well.The best I can compare anime to is Tex Averys style.I mean we all know the classic anime expressions and reactions.The stunned collapse, the wicked eye glint, the fire breathing anger, black and white despair, the sketchy face etc. But in my opinion, I know people with disagree, the people who do anime can manipulate even the classic double takes and reactions and change in many ways to make them still fresh.Let me see if i can give examples. We all know about the classic fiery rage that sets your head on fire or flares up on your whole body right? I watched an episode of Full Metal Alchemist in which a little boy was telling Ed that he was short and he not only got the blazing fire but pulled a face where his eyes turned red and fiery and his mouth became a circle of teeth that whiled around his mouth like a food processor and made an unholy wail like a monster.That to me was a much more expressive and original, not to mention funnier way to do the seething rage you see normally in many types of cartoons.Other example is the classic depression in which character changes into grey or dark colors to express his or her deep depression.In One Piece Nami was depressed that she had lost all their possessions in a flood and not only was she dark and grey colored but everything close to her including the walls, chair, floor and table she was sitting at. Even normal expressions of doubt,disbelief, held back anger, happiness, surprise etc become much more expressive especially as anime progressed to this point.Even in the more serious types of anime their expressions show much more emotion then many western cartoons do.When a character shows or states his emotions is not hard to see it unlike the flat and less animated faces and expressions that plague many modern cartoons. When an anime character is angry or afraid or sad there is not doubt in your mind that is the emotion he or she is feeling unlike many western shows which seem to find it unnecessary to explain were exactly these emotions are coming from or showing you what your specific emotion is on your face.A perfect example is Ben 10 Alien and Ultimate where Ben and friends claimed they were sad, or happy or angry but it barely showed on their faces except for a slight movement of their mouth and slight change in their eyes.In an anime like Death Note L was practically dead pan but you could still see the changes in his emotions even irritation and fear. So I guess my main point is that I found that anime has always been very expressive in both emotions and expressions and they seem to be adding more with every generation and new show while still keeping the original one as well while western animation while once being on par with them seems to be hellbent on decreasing the amount of animation used in portraying emotions or simplifying them to an even lower level or frantically trying to copy all the basic anime ones to try and compete with the ever growing popularity of it.Now before you start making lists, I know there are some western animators who can portray emotions and expression with the best of them but I find that we need more people who were like Tex Avery who despite his animation being more exaggerated then most still managed to portray emotions better then western cartoons do now. Despite people saying they hate the exaggerated or audible reactions of anime characters it is much better then the deadpan, flat faced looks and barely conceivable emotions a lot of people seem to be going for.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Apr 2014 18:36:56 +0000
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