Are "adult" cartoons secretly aimed at kids?

Are "adult" cartoons secretly aimed at kids?

American ones, yes
japanese cartoons are actually allowed to tell mature non-comedy stories while not being live action, whereas in the west people have somehow created the expectation that anything animated has to be a comedy and/or for kids

That would be clever and original.
So no.

There's a theory that the reason Japan makes so much adult anime is b/c it's cheaper that doing live-action.

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When will cartoons have their "Watchmen" that legitimizes the medium in the public and academic eye and brings in a new age of genuinely mature storytelling?

What is that in response to?

how much cheaper would western animation be if they stopped giving a shit about lip sync like japan does?

There's also a theory that the Japanese don't do as much live action as the west because they arr rook the same and the general population is not attractive

They're pretty openly aimed at people with the maturity of kids

This.

How come animation tends to be popular with people who are interested in stuff like science and have high IQs?

literally fucking never.
We've had cartoons that have been "smart" and "mature" but adult cartoons are still generally the same braindead schlock they've been forever.

this wins the teen choice award almost every year, so yeah.

The problem with western cartoons is that the producers need to be very careful about the level of mature content for fear of the advertisers leaving. This leads to crap that is unpalatable to many adults but is just barely raunchy enough for the kids to eat up.

The Tesla guy mentioning R&M on twitter in one instance does not make this statement true

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Family Guy is aimed at the mentally retarded.

and yet, even adult anime is still seen as childish

probably Jim's video

Which ones?

all of them
adults who watch anime in japan are seen as manchildren

TO

They're also a niche. That's why they charge like $50 for a DVD/BR with one ep or some shit, plus tons of merch.

as retarded as that post is
>Nerf portal guns that shoot portal blast slime
that sounds rad as shit.

it varies.
there are a lot of adult cartoons that I grew out of and a lot of kids cartoons I find myself liking as an adult.
I think the maturity and explicit nature of a show aren't always linked.

it was steven universe

>[Anime is] actually allowed to tell mature non-comedy stories while not being live action

99 times out of 100 anime can't tell a compelling story. They try, sure, but it's always ham-fisted shit and baby's first attempt at writing a real story.

I fucking love anime, but thinking they tell better stories than western cartoons is stupid. They might actually stick to a story, but they don't tell better ones at all.

I hope you mean standalone original shows and not adaptations of ongoing comics and light novels.

I'm talking about all anime. Almost none of the serious stories are any good. They might be fun to watch and subjectively have an interesting story, but they're not good stories. The few that do have good stories are typically movies that are self contained and not adaptions of light novels or manga.

Yes, just like Call of Duty is secretly aimed at kids

Adults who watch cartoons are kids from the inside - so yes, they are.

>99 times out of 100 anime can't tell a compelling story. They try, sure, but it's always ham-fisted shit and baby's first attempt at writing a real story.
Imagine saying this on a board obsessed with capeshit. And let's not even get into the garbage Hollywood vomits every year.

>Why are cartoons popular with people whose careers require them not to get out much

Hollywood gets a pass because they're just out for your money and have no pretense to telling good stories. Their market is the general public that doesn't want to watch an original and interesting story, they just want the same proven story repackaged with different characters and a different setting because they want to feel like they didn't waste their money.

Western comics are shit too for the most part. They have hit a complete dead end with cape shit and have no where to go because of it.

>Hollywood gets a pass
No they don't. They might get one from you because you enjoy eating their vomit.

Aimed towards those who no longer want the be entertained by childish things.

I don't actually, but they haven't been about making good original content in years. They've completely changed gears to be a money making machine and I just don't care what they put out anymore because none of it is worth watching.

They pride themselves in making art though.

No they don't. They pride themselves in making money and fellating their egos while doing it.

Bojack Horseman if more people would actually fucking watch it.

My Little user Can't Possibly Be This Ignorant

Feel free to prove me wrong.

Feel free to prove yourself right.

I'm not going to write out a huge fucking essay on why most anime doesn't tell good or compelling stories just so I can post it to Sup Forums at 1:10 AM on Sunday morning. I have more important things to do, like get high and rewatch GJ-Bu.

>Makes a huge, generalizing statement
>Refuses to back it up
Okay user.

Won't or can't?

Won't.

Sounds like can't to me.

I think some kids are drawn to it because they know that they are not allowed to watch it. Like my mom did not want to me watch South Park, which made me want to watch it even more since there must be a reason why.

anime is cheap as FUCK. it's the reason even the most niche doujins will get animated with amateur voice actors who can't get jobs in more popular series'

Only the shitty kind. Never met a kid who liked Aeon Flux or Downtown.

I say this is the case is that we all know how expensive and time consuming animation can be so in the early days of cartoons they needed to appeal to widest audience possible, hence they were made into family shorts. That being the case for while people just started expecting them to be family oriented
I would also it may do with the modern attitude a lot of film studios have right now which is to put as little money/effort into their movies as possible and make them as safe as possible. So that’s why a lot of current western are generally the same, biggest offender being illumination entertainment right now

>Are "adult" cartoons secretly aimed at kids?
They might as well be. Adult cartoons are fucking embarrassing to look at. Actually no, calling them children shows would be an insult to children shows because shows like Gumball and Star shit all over your average "adult" cartoon.

Japan makes Kino's Journey and Mahoutsukai no Yome.
We make Rick & Morty and American Dad.

No it's just a lot adult cartoons are low brow enough for kids to easily get into them.

Adult humor cartoons are aimed mostly at the teen demographic and just have a guise of being for adults to satiate parents who think their kids aren't watching them, so technically yeah. I don't know anyone who wasn't watching Family Guy and South Park by at least age 13 or younger. Plus there's this too which most creators have been well aware of for decades.

American animation, maybe, but there are Western cartoons which are unquestionably adult- Sylvain Chomet's movies for example.

What a fool you are.

We have DC's animated movies and the DCAU in general to an extent and we had HBO Spawn.
And I'm saying this completely unironically: Rick and Morty could've been this since it got adults on a large scale legitimately interested in the adventure and sci fi aspects of a cartoon and the actual plot but they decided to play it safe with the shit animation in an attempt to fit in with all the other adult humour cartoons and the sometimes OTT silliness then the writing just went shittier and shittier in season 3 because they just went HAM with the 'pandering to normies who need to feel like adults' thing and decided to overload it with the same generic ""adult"" problems that every other primetime shitshow has with all the stupid shit about relationship problems, emotional shit and the large amounts of character development. Thankfully it's going to go back to normal I guess.

He's right. A lot of anime is amateurishly written but makes up for it in raw creativity and great lovable characters, whereas most western live action shows are the exact opposite; smartly written and well plotted but typically fucking boring as fuck in a monotonous and realistic setting with cookie cutter characters. That's why amongst anime fans, shit like Cowboy Bebop and NGE are so revered, because they actually managed to find a balance and not just be solely fun crazy creative adventure shit. I'm not saying all realistic shows are bad or anything fyi I'm just saying that a lot of live action western shows save for critically acclaimed ones are boring as fuck.

>how can you consider it a children's show when the toys aren't even kept in the kids' section?

>they're not good stories

Yes, that is why "Cowboy Bebop" garnered global acclaim and became one of the most well-known and well-loved anime of all time: Because the story sucked more ass than your dime-store whore of a mother.

No, FG is just for stupid adults. They refer to ads only 45yos can know.

I know that rock music and voting for the right or left wing of the same cancer-ridden bird is for kids.

Thankfully it seems we're slowly coming out of that rut with a lot more sitcoms having a heavier focus on drama like Bojack Horseman so hopefully it shows there's a demand for a completely serious show in the future i'm gay.

They did in the late 90s with Spawn but it also ended in the late 90s with Spawn.

technically yes

Bojack Horseman as a 'cartoon' is on the same level as Family Guy--the medium is only used as a cheap way to tell jokes. None of the 'dramatic' aspects that people hail about BH would be lost at all if it was live action. BH is practically no different from FG or American Dad in that the vast majority of the scenes are the same lazy 3/4 angle shots as people stand across from each other and talk. BH puts in 1 or 2 deliberate scenes of attention to animation every season whose contrast to the rest of the show only highlights how animation in the eyes of the showrunners is an afterthought to the plodding drama and puns and have to be 'purposefully' shoved in. The Underwater episode is a perfect example of this. Practically the entire thing could have been removed from the season without any significant change to the plot.

user, Bojack Horseman is great and has some really serious episodes, but a lot of it is also Todd's and/or Mr Peanutbutter's wacky adventures
Good as the show is, it isn't the Watchmen of animation

This is true in general lines, but thereare some series that avoid this stigma either by getting popular enough to break into the general public (and not being too otaku-centric) or ones that are adaptes from really popular manga, as manga in general doesn't carry the same stigma.

The two 'flashback' episodes were done in a good way that wouldn't have worked nearly as good in live action and the both had an important role in the plot
How they would blend present and past was done well
All Beatrice's memories lacking details, such as Henrietta's scratched out face, every other person missing their face, seeing as the world outside Bojack's car as only a white area
Bojack's voice that tells him he's a piece of shit/how he found out who's Hollyhock's mother, that wouldn't work as well either in live action

watchmen is beyond overrated, written by a faggot who can't take criticism, & ends in an ultimately retarded way

so I agree with that faggot who said steven universe is the watchmen of animation. I don't see that ending in any non-retarded way

Again we're talking about a handful of moments in each season when "animation" matters to BH. The fact that they need to be called out specifically attests to their relative scarcity and exception to the show itself. Even Family Guy has its own moments like that--the Disney episode for example.

Compare BH to something like Ping Pong the Animation where practically every scene has its own moments of spectacular animation. The show was created by people whose interest in animation itself was an integral part of the creation. BH on the other hand, is a story first and the animation is an afterthought. Ping Pong without its unique style and animation would be something completely and totally different. Bojack without those handful of scenes where animation matters would be largely unchanged.

>we're talking about a handful of moments
Fair point
Other than that, I'd guess you and I have different opinions on how much a role animation has to play in an animation
Never seen Ping Pong the Animation, tho, so I can't say anything about that

>most western live action shows are the exact opposite; smartly written and well plotted
No.

Spawn was an adaptation of a crappy comic book.

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I watched Aeon Flux sometimes b/c the designs were cool, but had no idea what was going on.

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Japan also makes Generic Moe Harem Tentacle Fanservice Show #1234567

>Has no idea what moe means.
>LE TENTACLE PORN XD meme
Sure thing, normalfag. It's still leaps and bounds better than most of the shit being shown on U.S animation networks. Go back to watching Faggot Universe.

You seemed to have missed the qualifier "almost none" in that same sentence you quoted.

This.
For the industry to stay afloat they need to underpay their over-worked animators on as many projects they can make a given season and the vast majority will be shit shows that barely make them enough money to start the next project.

They also need to bank on marketable things like female characters, collectibles and barebones world building that people are used to for merch to sell.

>this is what weebs actually believe
neck yourself retard

Hopefully never, given the impact Watchmen actually had on comics.
It was a well-crafted work but the only lesson anyone learned from it was "hey, superheroes can be dark and edgy" which just ended up proving the medium/genre was beyond salvation, because the audience and the creators are both retarded.

Huh, a defense of Rick and Morty invoking penis humor, that's unexpected

It's a Comic's comic. It's a piece of media that the medium itself is an integral part of. It's a creation that required an in depth and personal understanding of its mediums own limits and strengths and even draws on its own history to create something that's a quintessential expression of the 'comic form' itself.

To add to what you're saying, and I know I'm gonna get shit for this, but women are the majority buying market now too. Anime for guys is mostly dried up as the only guys that rush to buy Blu-Rays are otaku, whereas shows for girls are entering a Renaissance when you see series like Free, Haikyu, Yuri on Ice, etc. because girls will buy the cellphone key chains, the bookmarks, the purses, and the other swag that comes with it. They're helping keep anime afloat in a big way, whether you like those shows or not.

Secretly? No. Pic related's humor is mostly gross-out/vulgar stuff made to appeal to middle/high-schoolers who are into that sort of thing because it's new to them.

I don't see that happening any time soon. Most Western animation with artistic merit is either made to be family-friendly (which restricts its possibilities) or hopelessly indie/foreign stuff that can never have widespread impact.
Aside from maybe Don Hertzfeldt and the like, contemporary adult animation just seems focused on the humor and nothing else. Occasionally you get half-dramas like Bojack but as a trade-off the animation is shit and it lacks formalist qualities.
It doesn't help that adult cartoons have a much narrower market and animation is pretty damn expensive.

How often have you seen tentacles in anime that wasnt ecchi/hentai or some fanmade porn?

It made sound cynical but it can be explained by empathizing–systemizing theory. People who's brains are more equipped for science and IT (systemizing) than understanding complex emotions (empathizing) are likely to enjoy simple plots and colorful characters.

It's coming, millennials take cartoons far more seriously than the previous generations, and once they get more in charge of stuff and Boomers/Gen X die out I can see the animation industry expanding.

Not kids necessarily, but definitely teenagers.