Countries with the best animation

I don't see that much more variety in mainstream Japanese animation than in American animation. Certainly no more love. You might not like them, but a lot of those comedy and superhero cartoons in America are made with as much love as the best anime out there. And looking at TV anime in recent years, you could easily say it's a lot of the same kind of shows over and over again as well (shonen action shows, fanservice/moe shows, reference-heavy comedies aimed at otaku). Not to say those shows are all bad and that there's not variety amongst them, but there's variety amongst children's comedies, adult sitcoms, and superhero shows as well.



Only five shows? Only a single American show? Like, recently or in the whole history of television? What are these shows? And what about short films and feature animation?

Really, this question is rather pointless. Animation is animation and there's good stuff produced everywhere. I guess since the various animation industries throughout the world are distinct with their own booms and slumps you can say one's ahead of another at a given time, but the general trend isn't much different in terms of the number of good vs. bad product being produced.

Unless you're talking Turkmenistanimation. Love those muskfruits! :D
 
Wow, they all look great. And of course my opinion is pretty limited because I haven't seen a lot of different works yet, I plan to study as much as I can when I get to college, but just for what I've seen a lot of mainstream popular anime have similar styles. But I know, not just for Japan but anywhere, there's much much more to that
 
America, for sure.

I especially consider the circa 1989-1999 period in mainstream American animation to be absolutely fantastic. There were so many brilliant shows, and they were brilliant in their own unique ways. The Simpsons, Ren and Stimpy, Batman: TAS, Beavis and Butthead, The Powerpuff Girls, Animanaics, South Park (this one of course still going strong though), Cow and Chicken, Rugrats... All among the best television shows period, as far as i am concerned. And of course, during the same era, we also got several great Disney films.

That being said, i also appreciate a lot of anime and russian animation as well.
 
Not so much variety in terms of the subject matter. There's not really any sporting shows, and 90%+ of the action cartoons are superhero stuff, so I doubt you'll see something like One Piece or Naruto. Dramas like Monster, or Death Note, mecha, and lots of other untapped genres; including fanservice as well. Not to mention barely any cartoons for girls (most of which there are stuff like Barbie or My Little Pony). Definately no equivalent to PreCure or Magical Girl in general over here either. Not just in subject matter either, but the way it's told and thematics (shows with an actual story VS episodic, for example, for adults, and so forth)

Not really counting movies for various reasons, but in terms of shows that's of all time, as far as I know, anyway. Avatar would be the American one, Beast Wars would be the Canadian one, then you got Armored Adventures and Oban for France. Maybe a few other obscure German/French shows, but none worth mentioning since they're really obscure. Outside of those shows, I can't really think of any show I enjoy (2010 was a really bad year, not a single show that interested me or I found worth watching. 2011 looks better, though)
 
Most sport shows I've seen don't seem much different from the typical overblown shonen "I'm going to be the best _______ in the world!" formula, and in general the shonen formula is to action anime as superheroes are to American action cartoons. Serious dramas are lacking in American TV animation, but frankly they're sort of lacking in Japanese animation as well; you're lucky to get one or two a year, which is more than in America, but it's not much and with a few exceptions they're generally not very mainstream, closer to stuff that might be made in the indie animation scene in America and Europe. Shojo does seem to be the one area where Japan would demonstrate greater variety, but even today it does seem that Magical Girl stuff and such is starting to merge with the moe/otaku stuff that's overwhelming the industry and hurting variety.



So no DCAU, or WITCH, or Gargoyles, or The Simpsons, or Futurama, or Boondocks, or Venture Brothers, or any of the WB comedy series?
 
I don't see how shounen is comparable to superheroes; one's an age demographic and the other is a concept. Naruto is different from Mitsudomoe which is different from Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad. And two a year is a very.. odd number; I'm curious where you got it from. Japan averages out like 30+ shows every season; for four seasons a year. I could name a lot of shows in any genre that came out last year alone.

I find those all have very weak writing or just lots of problems in general (no real plot, going nowhere, being canceleld, Adult Swim-style of humor, etc) A show's really got to excel or stand out for me to get into it.
 
^You can't be serious. You find shows like the DCAU, Gargoyles, Futurama, The Boondocks, Pinky and the Brain, and Freakazoid to have weak writing and/or plot issues? And another criteria for not liking some of these shows was if they were canceled or not? What kind of logic is that?
 
QTF

I mean, seriously, "canceled" as a flaw? Claiming those shows have weak writing? I mean, I don't take awards that seriously, but I'd say in general "weak writing" doesn't win Peabody Awards. And what do you mean by "no real plot" and "going nowhere" as flaws? All those shows have some sort of plot; episodic plots still count as plot. And all the shows I mentioned outside of The Simpsons and the WB comedies have ongoing arcs and development amidst their episodic structures. Do you dislike Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Azumanga Daioh, Haruhi for following similarly episodic structures? If so, I'll have to question your taste in anime as well as your lack of taste in American cartoons.
 
To be perfectly honest, I just voted other just because I don't believe that any country is perfect in animation.

Each has good and bad moments alike.
 
Guys, come on. Let's not go into THAT discussion again. This thread is to talk about what countries have the best animation in your opinion. If I see getting dragged into "shows with poor writing" again, I will have to lock this thread.
 
Slight nitpick, Parappa and friends were designed by an American.

As for my choice, I'm copping out, and not giving one. I don't really have a favourite. Each country pops out good, and bad. As a citizen of Canada, I don't even feel like I can properly discuss the goods of Britain and France, since unlike the US, neither has a great impact on English Canada, and neither are discussed as vigioursly as Japan's animation is online. So I can't say I grasp either with a good sense.

But, I can for sure talk about Canada's. We're a very mixed bag. Mainstream television-wise, a lot of our animation is cheaply produced stuff made in Flash. It's far from being everything we make, but apparently it's all the Americans want from us, which makes me question their taste, but hey, that's just me. The NFB productions, and the various overseas co-productions we do are pretty amazing, and honestly some are great.
 
I knew someone would bring that up. Even though the character designs were done by an American, it was still a Japan-produced TV series. So it should count, as it's different than the stereotypical "anime" look.
 
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