where is the lie though?
Itās a lie of omission.
Youāre comparing highly polished mainstream examples of iconic Japanese media to low budget, indie, and amateur american works. If you wanted to be fair the second image should look more like this:
The cultural exchange between American and Japanese art, particularly in animation, is hardly a one way streak.
Here we have Panty and Stocking, which boasts an artistic style that draws heavily upon modern western animation with itās hard outlines and comical proportions. Shows like Dexterās Laboratory barrow dynamic posses, dramatic framing, and highly expressive faces form anime and manga. Early anime and manga developed itās distinctĀ big eyes and childlike features by taking cues from western animation of the 20ā²s and 30ā²s
Betty Boop, in particular, was immensely popular in Japan. Her creators even made this short in appreciation of her Japanese fan-base.
WAIT I CAN ADD TO THIS ALREADY OBSCENELY LONG POST.
The entire Magical Girl genre is a big example of Western (primarily U.S.) and Japanese cultural exchange!
BeWitched (which was inspired by the 1940ā²s American movieĀ āI Married a Witchā) was incredibly popular with young girls! This prompted the creation of the first popular Magical Girl Sally the Witch.
When theĀ āLittle Witchā Subgenre was big in the 70s the U.S. countered with animated SabrinaĀ (from the Archie comics) which followed the same formula albeit with an older girl.
The 80s we start seeing more āflash of lightā henshins/transformations being utilized along with the rise of the āMagical Idolā sub-genre in Japan it gave birth to shows like Creamy MamiĀ and Magical Emi, in the U.S. it made way for Jem and the HologramsĀ and She-Re Princess of Power (not a magical idol but still usesĀ āflash of lightā transformations). JemĀ was even a collab with U.S. doing the writing and Japan doing the animation!
TheĀ āMagical Warriorā sub-genre emerges in the 90s (even tho it has roots in the 70s with shows like Cutie Honey). This doesnāt catch on in America until the early 00ā²s with Atomic Betty (Canadian creation)Ā and The Life and Times of Juniper Lee but we did see the start of it with the Canadian/Argentinian collab called Cyber Six.Ā We also get W.I.T.C.H.Ā and WINXĀ ClubĀ in the early 00s from Italy which are both probably the most heavily influenced from Japanās then current MG show structure.
Today we have Steven Universe, Bee and Puppycat, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Lolirock, TheĀ MiraculousĀ Ladybug, and if it gets picked up Twelve ForeverĀ which are all great Western MG shows that are influenced by Japan!
I could go on, I havenāt even scraped the ice berg on this! I have a whole hour panel I run on this subject calledĀ āMagical Girls from Around The Worldā
The point is the Magical Girl genre- and tbh animation in general- has been Japan and America (with some other Western countries thrown in) talking back and forth since the 60s. I leave you with probably the most direct influence:
can I add to this that Osamu Tezuka akaĀ āthe God of modern Mangaā
was inspired by BambiĀ
into deciding to give big eyes to his drawings so that they would look more expresive. He also remained a big fan of a certain Jewish American animator until his death, oh yeah this guy
Walt Disney himself was also intrested in Tezukaās work, with Astroboy being one of his favorites. A similar case exists now between John Lasseter (Pixar and Disney fame) and Hayao Miyasaki (Studio Ghibli) who are big fans of each otherās work.
Japan and America are less of a competition to those who work on it and more of an inspiration, it is very often the fans and not the creators who create rivalries between people that would be friends in real life.
Originally posted by yourreactiongifs
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