Codename: Sailor Pluto: Paper Boast #2

Look who is paper boasting again! ^_^ C'mon, you know you like it! I found this paper to be educational and think its only fair that others have the opportunity to learn from it. (Uhuh)

Refusal to Grow Up or Member of a Cartoon Revolution?

I’m a fan of animation. By this I mean animated cartoons. My particular favorites are cartoons from Japan. These are called anime, a truncation of the word animation. People like me who are considered obsessed with anime as their hobby are called otaku, a Japanese loan word that originally means house - perhaps because they never leave the house? Anime has been shown in America during its earliest days, the genius of Osamu Tezuka was imported and audiences were exposed to hits such as AstroBoy, or Kimba the White Lion (later the inspiration for Disney’s Simba in Lion King). During my childhood I saw Japanese imports such as Transformers, and later on we were all exposed to the Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z phenomenon, followed closely by the Pokemon craze. America hasn’t decided that we “gotta catch ‘em all” when it comes to importing anime, and we fans speculate various reasons for this decision. When it comes down to it distributors simply think it won’t be a hit. Most of us agree that it won’t be a hit simply because when it is imported whole episodes are cut, scenes that show a slight hint of nudity are redrawn or cut, dialogue and names completely changed. In fact, the American distributors are known to hack an anime so much that true fans like me bemoan each day a new anime is licensed. Is it a cultural misunderstanding? No. Is it that we cannot understand the language and their humor? No, that’s not really the issue. Then what is it? For too long we have considered cartoons to be an exclusive pastime of children. People my age and older who enjoy cartoons that were not designed for children are part of a continuously growing population. It’s not that we are refusing to grow up. Whoever said that anything that was animated belonged on children’s programming?

Cartoons have a rich, healthy history in the United States. The Wikipedia, an online user-contributed encyclopedia, breaks down the history of American animations into four categories: The Silent Era, The Golden Age, The TV Era, and the Renaissance that we are living through today.

The connotations of the silent era are obvious; cartoons began at the same time we first grew interested in movies. Before there were ‘talkies’ at the beginning of the century until the roarin’ twenties we watched cartoons and movies where no one spoke, where a symphony or orchestra played the accompanied music live in the theatre. Felix the Cat was one of our first animated treats. This era is where Walt Disney would first emerge, disgusted by a former cartoon business deal gone sour, and create his whole company off the image of his anthropomorphic mouse named Mickey.

Disney was one of the founding fathers in the face of animation; his stamp on the cartoon industry is very large even to this day. His was one of the first companies to take the plunge and add voices to the characters, which proved immensely popular. Disney dominated the cartoon scene in the Golden Age, reigning King throughout the 30’s. Rival companies MGM and Warner Bros caught up to speed with Disney and cartoons really hit an all time high, the competition forcing each other to continue improving. There were numerous cartoons that appeared purely for adult entertainment purposes, cartoons were still just as much for adults as they were for children. The Golden Era ended when United Productions of America was born and the effort to depart from realism was pursued. It was quicker and easier to take shortcuts and animate the backgrounds less and less, and this is where quality began to falter.

The TV era of cartoons is what I like to describe as the ‘dark ages’ of cartoons, and this is where we have gotten many of our perceptions about cartoons today. It began in the 50s when everyone was just beginning to own a TV, and ended in the 80s. At first it was hard for companies to adjust from being brought to the average American on the big screen to being brought to the average American on the tiny tube in their living room. Production costs and the amount of time involved in creating a cartoon affected the transition and several companies clammed up and preferred not to bother. Hanna-Barbera stepped onto the scene, and became successful at creating animated series. The Flintstones was first shown on prime time TV, when families would gather around the tube for some good wholesome entertainment. Many blame the drop in quality on Hanna-Barbera during this time. Saturday mornings were traditionally targeted at kids from the beginning, and in the mid 60s the idea of syndicating cartoons for Saturday mornings caught on. Hanna-Barbera would turn out so many cartoons that they were a dime a dozen, and as it was believed that kids would watch anything, more low quality cartoons were churned out for this easy-to-please audience. Animation on TV was targeted specifically at children; Saturday morning cartoons became a ritual. It was then that cartoons were first considered a child-dominated genre. The 80s would produce many commercial cartoons after Reagan relaxed educational standards on TV shows. These cartoons, such as G.I. Joe, were basically commercials to sell the equivalent merchandise to children. Concerned parents would lobby over the years to tone down dramatic scenes and violence in cartoons, which limited plot creativity dramatically.

The first ever Xrated animated feature film was called Fritz the Cat, and was a box office hit during the 60s. It appealed to the free love movement. The same company would also produce animated versions of The Lord of the Rings. They barely dented Hollywood. Adult cartoons would remain underground, away from mainstream audiences for years to follow.

1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, one of my childhood favorites, is given the credit of being the cartoon that broke the mold, that turned everything we knew about cartoons around again and brought about the new Renaissance movement. The movie combined film noir style with our favorite cartoon characters, the first time such characters as Daffy and Donald Duck shared onscreen time. This production in the late 80s also marked the return of Disney. Spielberg would also get into the action, with his movie The Land Before Time, and before we knew it cartoons were back on a roll. The avenue of computer animations was first explored and is still being experimented with today. During the beginning of our current Renaissance cartoons targeted towards adults, such as the Simpsons, would become big hits. Anime would also begin to gain popularity and become mainstream in America during the 90s.

Anime in Japan was born in the 60s by anime pioneer Osamu Tezuka, who also influenced manga (comics). His inspiration was none other than America’s cartoons from the Golden Era. He was the first to coin the big eyes, which so largely characterize anime, inspired by his favorite characters Mickey Mouse and Betty Boop. He realized the power of expression in the eyes, contrary to the belief that Japanese people were making up for something they lack – via their squinty eyes. He would also be the first to animate series in Japan, rather than the episodic shows typical of America. An episodic show in America belonged in no timeline, didn’t have to be seen in sequence to be understood. An episodic show can stand alone on its own. The series shows in Japan focused on the character’s development, as seen in Tezuka’s Kimba the White Lion series, where Kimba grows from lion cub to the proverbial King of the Jungle during the season. Cartoons and comics in Japan never took the ‘kids only’ route; in fact adult manga can be found on almost every street corner in Tokyo. Some of them can be overly violent, I might add.

The Simpsons was the first mainstream adult show during my time, found on prime time television. I specifically remember a time when I was banned from watching it. Now it is almost considered a family sitcom. The 90s would produce many more adult oriented shows, but the majority of them were restricted to cable channels. Nickelodeon produced it’s late night Ren and Stimpy show, while MTV progressed with a string of adult audience intended shows such as Beavis and Butthead, Aeon Flux, Duckman, and Daria to name a few. The crudely drawn South Park entertained adult audiences on Comedy Central late at night. South Park was good at pushing the envelope; featuring blood (Kenny died almost every episode), talk about sex (such as the search for the great clitoris), politics, and other adult only topics. They were limited in their use of swearing because they were a show on TV, so the creators adapted a big screen version which served the purpose of getting all the swearing out of their system and making fun of our media. It proved to be a big hit especially considering its Restricted (R) rating.

Some adult-only cartoons have met with a flop on the big screen, such as the movie Cool World in 1992. Its plot involved a human discovering the dimension of the cartoon world and committing the ultimate taboo – sex with a toon. Cartoon box office hits generally appeal to both children and adults, (adults tag along with their kids and vice versa) but adults will notice their kids get bored halfway through. A friend of mine divulged that her 4yr old son wished to leave the theatre halfway through watching the new Incredibles movie. She described it as being riddled with adult humor and really not something for her son at all. Even the latest of the Shrek installments contained jokes about women’s underwear that many would consider inappropriate for children, hence it received a Parental Guidance (PG) rating for language and crude humor. Many today will agree that the original Bugs Bunny & Looney Tunes Co. were not intended for the amusement of children, often containing violent imagery (Kill the Waaaabit!) and kids are hard pressed to find the humor. At least as a child I was.

I’ve been told that if cartoons are not intended for children, then why are they aired during typical children viewing hours? Well the answer is that the American shows aired during these times are intended for children. The Japanese shows that are chosen do not necessarily follow suit. Sailor Moon was intended for a pre-teen/young adult female audience, but marketed in America to even younger girls. The culture of Japan has different views on nudity and evil villains, and this reflects in all shows, even those intended for kids. In Sailor Moon the characters do what all girls their age do (12-14), dream about falling in love! There’s the occasional battle against evil and in major episodes characters will die, including the main ones for the sake of saving the world. The good people are reborn again which follows the strong belief in reincarnation, and the evil will turn good, an idea heavily influenced by Buddhism. Death scenes were either muted or cut in the American version, death being an unacceptable occurrence. Gay relationships were glossed over by making the characters a proper heterosexual couple in the English version, or in one case explaining that the two were so close because they were ‘cousins’. Such material was considered inappropriate for our Christian children, but Japan saw no reason to not pursue the thought in a show geared towards young adults who are in that stage of life where they are trying to find their proper place. DIC, the American distributor, wanted to market the show as a commercial success. Cartoons traditionally experience commercial success when aimed at the young.

As we begin to realize the extent at which cartoons are enjoyed by fans of all ages, we begin to get curious and demand to see our share. Cartoon Network first launched a programming block called “Adult Swim” in 2001. The intent was that the shows broadcasted in this late night block would be shows that older audiences could watch without mistaking it for children’s programming. It was called Adult Swim as a parody of pool hours, when children aren’t allowed in the pool. The program on the mainland begins at 11PM (Hawaii seems to start earlier). It currently includes American made shows such as Futurama and The Family Guy, both of which were dumped by Fox regular broadcasting. Ironically the Adult Swim lineup contains a hefty chunk of anime from Japan, finally geared at the right audience. Cartoon Network conducted a survey before embarking on this endeavor, wondering how parents would feel about the move to include adult entertainment on a channel typically considered a child’s channel. According to Cartoon Network, the parents appeared a bit selfish. They agreed to this as long as it was done responsibly and was clearly separated from children’s programming. Basically meaning parents wanted to eat their cake too. A column in Pulp Culture online suggests that since its launch the viewer rating increased more than 138% in the 18-34 demographic. Cartoon Network does not deny the success of the programming block; they know their viewership immensely increased. It is continuing its 4^th year in a row and Adult Swim officially split from Cartoon Network on March 28th, 2005, thus becoming its own entity. This mirrors the split in Nickelodean in their Nick Jr, Nickelodean, and Nick at Nite programming.

For me its great to know that I don’t have to stop watching cartoons now that I reached adulthood. It might take a few more years before the vast majority of Americans understand whom cartoons belong to. I would like to suggest that to speed up the shifting view we should consider changing the words we use. When looking up the word cartoon on dictionary.com I notice that each and every of its meanings refer back to humor as an element. I myself have seen very sad cartoons without the slightest bit of humor, so I find this an inaccurate description. On the contrary, when looking up anime, I find that it is defined as “A style of animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sex”. My suggestion would be to use the term cartoon exclusively for those Saturday morning animations, the ones targeted specifically at the extremely young. Anime could be used to refer to those shows that don’t fit the kid’s sphere, the shows that don’t belong on Saturday mornings and fit the style described in the definition. I think fans of anime and cartoons are already starting to differentiate between the two in the same manner. On occasion I find Family Guy or SouthPark under the anime category when searching for cartoons on the Internet. Although they are American in origin, I would say they deserve the right to be called anime because they don’t fit our current cartoon mold. Fans recognize the difference and are constantly defending their love of animation to their peers and parents. In due time we may not have to explain things to our parents, the media will do it for us. Despite my efforts over the years to educate them, my parent’s still consider anime to be that “Sailor Moon stuff” that comes from Japan. They may never realize that in their own way they are right.

Bibliography:

http://www.dictionary.com

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/gen/asfaq/index.html

http://home.hiwaay.net/~tfharris/pulpculture/index.shtml

Wikipedia links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation#Animation_history_of_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation_Before_Hollywood:_The_Silent_Period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Animation:_The_Golden_Age

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Animation:_The_TV_Era

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Animation:_The_Renaissance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_animation_of_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney