Worst. Series. EVER.

I'm glad you're such a big fan of W.I.T.C.H. It's one of my favorite western action cartoons of the last ten years.

To this "raising the bar western action show listing", I would add,

Good Western Action-Oriented Modern Shows Influenced by Japan-based stuff
  • Code Lyoko
  • Totally Spies
  • Oban-Star Racers
  • Martin Mystery
  • Team Galaxy
  • Skyland
  • Storm Hawks
  • Hellboy
  • Fantastic Four (the newest version)
  • Teen Titans
  • Ben 10 Alien Force
  • Danny Phantom
  • Avatar
  • Boondocks
All released post-2000, and mostly co-pros. I love me some co-pros. I think the French are onto something there, at least in terms of visual storytelling. Much of it compares favorably, especially to the more cartoon-ish Japanese non-West-made anime out there. Ben 10 and Danny Phantom are like the two exceptions in terms of what they're influenced by, mostly due to the fact that they both seem more influenced by superheroes and traditional comics than anime...

The die-hard anime fans who resent the West trying to keep up with the East often love to shoot this type of stuff down without giving it any kind of real chance, but I keep saying, 40 years from now there are going to be like at least three times that many shows done in said style(s), if not a ton more. Europe is fairly fast when it comes to producing quality visuals.

If you want my honest opinion, the franime/Avatar-school of animation (which is incredibly recent) produces decent animation of a world-class scale. In terms of the way they're made and the way they're narrated and the way they look, they're basically the closest thing we have to Western Anime, without having to call it "just anime-influenced" which is a nice way of saying France or America are no longer strong competitors, but when you look at stuff like "franime" (I'll just call them what they are: co-productions), that is clearly not the case. The West can still do something very cinematic and high quality, every now and then at least.

Sorry for double posting there. My apologies. I forgot how to correct that part...
 
I really liked the second season, but the first, in my opinion, was pretty uneven and uninteresting. Mainly because alot of the source material was moved away from, altered, or removed entirely. Several characters' personalities changed for the worse too, especially Cornelia's and Lord Cedirc's (in the original comics, he was my favorite villain, but in the show he's barely reckongizable as the manipulative bastard I knew and loved.) Thank goodness for Greg Weisman and Season 2, eh? :p

Totally Spies and Martin Mystery are debatable. But Boondocks? I never saw anything good about that show at all. An African-American show that uses racist humor to be funny just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. White-American based shows that use racist humor ala Family Guy are bad enough as it is, and now this? Ugh. :yawn:
 
Wait, how is The Boondocks an action cartoon, or Danny Phantom Japanese-influenced, or even good? In that case, at least add the GREAT teen super-hero show on that list.;)
 
"Totally Spies and Martin Mystery are debatable. But Boondocks? I never saw anything good about that show at all. An African-American show that uses racist humor to be funny just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. White-American based shows that use racist humor ala Family Guy are bad enough as it is, and now this? Ugh. :yawn:"

I enjoyed the Boondocks. Was there racism in it, yes, but only as a tongue in cheek reference to the pre-existing racism already present in real black stereotypes, media, and culture, and made them a lot less serious than they deserve to be by making fun of them for what they are, ignorance in society. I viewed it as more tongue in cheek than hateful. And if you read the comic strip it's based on, the "n word" is not used even once, and there is a lot of clever social commentary in there. The Boondocks is controversial, yes, but it is still very entertaining in many ways. I view it as a show whose time has come in many respects. It makes the PJs and Proud Family look like a joke by comparison.





Didn't you know? At least one or more of the same artists who did many of the fight sequences for Avatar also worked on the Boondocks. If we're citing obscure similarities between the two series (Avatar and Boondocks) here, consider what influenced them. Both were heavily influenced by anime without actually being anime technically speaking. And Cowboy Bebop was a big influence especially...supposedly for BOTH series. Two points for Bebop. To add to that, season 2 of The Boondock was supervised by the Madhouse anime studio, and I'm sure they did their best to make the various fight sequences Huey, Riley, and Grandad have in season 2 as "anime-ish" as possible. Afterall, why bring in a Japanese studio if they're not going to add a helping hand in bringing in certain elements of what they know? And one of those areas of that studio's expertise is action anime. How's that for anime cred?
 
I never got the complaint that it was bad because it wasn't like the source material... they pretty much improved almost everything they adapted from the comics (Nerissa, Knights of Destruction, the reason why they became Guardians, how they use their powers, the magical lore behind the series, etc, as well as added a lot of original characters and storylines which was great, and gave the show a centralized plot) Though the comic in general suffers from why I dislike most superhero comics; the writers/artists change often, which make the story and art inconsistent and jarring, eventually killing my interest, so one character can act one way in one issue than be completely different in the next. The first season was definately the weaker one though, but that's pretty much how it is for all shows.

Danny Phantom is Japanese influenced because he has white hair, and a transformation sequence, at least that's what I've heard people mention before.
 
Since when was Boondocks an action show? I never really liked the show, if just for how much an arrogant prick Huey is. It's as if his only reason for existence was to act superior to everyone else and ramble on about some white/government/media racist conspiracy that doesn't exist.
 
Three Words:

BABY LOONEY TUNES

That show features characters who are only Bugs, Daffy, Taz, Sylvester, etc. by name. They act nothing like their adult counterparts. The show is basically a "Muppet Babies" ripoff as we have the babies playing in the nursery at the beginning of the show and Granny = Nanny. (BTW, shouldn't Granny be younger if this is when the LT characters are babies).
 
"Monster of the Week" shows with minimal dialogue can still be done amazingly well. Just look at Samurai Jack (admittedly it came before WITCH, but by your logic, if it's not as good as the latest new thing, you lose your enjoyment of it). Do you consider that to be "canned spam"?
 
Sonic Underground. It had a bastardized version of SatAM's plot, gave Sonic siblings, and then it decided to make them rock stars. Geez. Speed is Sonic's weapon, not music. Add in saturday morning plots and really terrible singing, and you have one awful package.
 
Actually, yeah, I find it an incredibly overrated show. The plot went nowhere, there was only maybe a handful of episodes you needed to watch for the plot (most of them flashbacks about Jack's childhood so technically it never goes forward.) and it didn't even bother to make an ending, despite having about 40+ episodes of filler to utilize one. Outside of that, the little character interaction and dialog made me not care or find interest in the characters, the fact most of them were one-shots (besides the Scotsman) also made me lack any interest in them since they never show up again. I wouldn't call it the "worst ever" but I definately don't care for it one bit.

Though even if a better show comes out, I'll still like previous shows. B:TAS revolutionized animation by showing it can be darker, serious, and more realistic, and just because W:TAS came out and showed animation can also have a set goal, continuing storyline, and magnificent (plot) writing, doesn't mean all previous shows are suddenly bad, it just means we've reached a new point in what animation can do, so creators should take advantage of it. I can't really fault a previous show for not following a future show's example. While a lot of shows have followed the seriousness of B:TAS, the only other show with a set goal (that actually develops) that comes to mind is Avatar.
 
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