American animation tends to have subpar cinematography because it took from two sources: stage plays and vaudeville. Stage plays are where the "sitcom ¾" style comes from and is why American character designs prioritize having identifiable silhouettes over anime ones. Vaudeville films like the Three Stages didn't focus on staging but the actors. This is what American animation does, as it focuses more on character acting.
On the other hand, anime takes after cinema. As a result, it deprioritizes character acting and instead focuses on cinematography, so it looks like a 3D space rather than a flat space with an imaginary line. I don't think this is bad, as I prioritize how a scene "looks'' rather than if there's animation, but tastes vary. Additionally, character acting is not antithetical to cinematography. At times (ignoring cliche tendencies), anime can have better character acting than American animation. I prefer the look of anime, but like American animation, most of it is shit.
To put it simply, imagine if every anime was shot like Spongebob. That's the situation in the US.
Wow finally a good thread. Also Three Stooges, not Three Stages, your auto correct is acting up. I personally between the two good things prefer the characters acting, emoting and being able to see the set design. At the same time it is retarded how in 2022 they refuse to add basic lighting, shadows, textures, etc. refuse dynamic camera shots, thus everything looks flat, when a simple camera switch and some filters can improve the graphics ten fold.
Cinema despite most being live action does not utilize body language properly and often lacks good choreography and easy to understand movement. Harry Potter 3 and Alien 3 have great cinematography but horrid combat, body language, creativity, sometimes it even seeps into non-character scenes and the cameraman/director doesn't know how to make scenes interesting without a character talking over it and staring the audience in the face as the actor goes through 7 different expressions. Crappy shows like South Park where there isn't much movement to begin with could prioritize cinematography. Anime is still far more shallow just like French cartoons. They lack the creativity in body language, they tell rather than show just like cheap live action. It's 90% dialogue and 10% action.
I care so you can go SUCK A DICK NIGGER. Filthy niggers. Get some culture or fuck off, you've become worse than the Youtube comments section.
Nathaniel Murphy
japanese animation prioritizes style american animation prioritizes substance
Carter Sullivan
>substance Kek. Like what? Nihilism and cynicism?
Austin Wood
I don't have the webm on hand that flashes between 20 different anime doing the exact same scenes and camera angles but trust me they aren't exactly innovating. >point camera at fist slowly clinching At most for cartoons with a sitcom setups it is mostly used for cartoons that are comedy focused.
most of these are Sol/comedy anime, basically the sitcoms of anime. And these scenes aren't particularly important either. It would be like compiling a bunch of shots from comedy cartoons that use the same single-camera style of cinematography OP is talking about.
That being said the whole discussion is baity as hell because it devolves into east vs west shitflinging. It would've been better to make comparisons between American tv animation and its film counterparts like ITSV, or more recent endeavors in more cinematic animation with shows like Arcane. These two are a few rare examples of what OP is talking about, but we don't see that style of filmmaking as much in our tv animation.
I was just thinking about this the other day. You get glimpses of nuanced "camera acting" (I say that instead of cinematography because I don't want to sound like a snob) in some western animation but mostly there's a focus on creating identifiable and memorable silhouettes first to prioritize easy merchandising. Western animation used to be good
Julian Roberts
I have to agree, When I think of anime fight scenes I think anime fight scenes I think DBZ bullshit, (Guy moved so fast you couldn't see, Guy slashed and the entire mountain got cut, energy blast leveling a city block) With weightier, more realistic action being the exception. Western has the opposite with grittier but more subdued action. In a western animation a guy getting his head exploded is brutal, gory, has some buildup and is given attention for about a second and makes you react irl. It also makes you wonder why the author is being so edgy. In a Shonen anime the same scenario is completely bland. no buildup, It has no weight or impact, no meaning. it reminds you of tomato sauce. It's flashy but so is everything else, so it comes back around to being nothing. you will forget it completely within 15 seconds as the character kills 100 mooks a minute. It's like they inflated the value of violence. Hence no substance.
Hunter Peterson
>That being said the whole discussion is baity as hell because it devolves into east vs west shitflinging. That's why we're here?
Julian Myers
I will never get over how angry you get over brown people but then are worship anime, which is made by brown people
Lincoln Flores
Its mostly to avoid drawing in perspective, shure it resembles a play, but it is well stablished as a way to make it easier to produce.
Hudson Hernandez
Grow up and get a life.
Ayden Myers
>Wow finally a good thread. It sure is OP
Noah Morgan
I can agree there. The biggest problem with shounen is it's insistence to constantly ramp up the power to stay interesting. Past a certain point it stops having any substance or feeling like anything. Dragonball Z is an apt example because when Dragonball (referring to the series as a whole) wants to do more down to earth fights it can feel really good. At its core it's just Wusha and Martial arts being exaggerated. I couldn't care less seeing a guy fire a fireball out of their hands that blows up an island or something (outside of the narrative reasons that might be scary) but I'm very invested seeing two guys duking it out in well choreographed close combat. And I'm not talking those random punch/kick flurries the anime likes to do to show characters are "fighting"
Nicholas Lee
>The biggest problem with shounen is it's insistence to constantly ramp up the power to stay interesting Naruto is something that always comes to mind that really had this problem, they get better with it and started going back to more martial arts fights mixed with the magic attacks later on. The sequel series has been great with that. Anime action direction varies from genre to genre, Most of what you're describing is really only found in modern battle shounen and modern isekai. There are other shounen anime where the action is much more restrained like FMA, early Naruto, or Attack on Titan But if you were to look at other genres like sci-fi anime you can find stuff like GitS or Psycho-Pass and you'll see they use a different style there. Mecha anime is another example that also can have a ton of variance in how their action is directed. Also what western animation are you referring to? Because I can't recall a single show that was that visceral, most of them aren't even allowed to show punches as far as I'm aware.
It's funny I was also thinking of naruto with that. Mainly how, to this day, I think Sasuke's Lion Barrage is the coolest thing he did. Cooler than shooting a fireball or the chidori or god forbid any of the bullshit he can do in Part 2. Shows his ability to copy moves pretty well while also showing his ability to improvise. And the whole thing is driven a constant rotating momentum. It's just a punch-kick- combo but it honestly feels way cooler than the unquenchable black flames or his giant ancient samurai stand he can summon.
