Why didn't the west develop 'mature' (as in, shonen, young adult and adult targeted) cartoons like Japan did during the 80s? I get that in the 90s and 00s you had comedy cartoons like Family Guy and South Park marketed towards a teenage audience. But compared to the far east, event today in the west there's little selection for edgy western shows for teenagers that aren't straight up stoner tier comedies.
Note, this is probably a really noob thread so, excuse me in advance. I was weighing up heavily on whether to post it on Yas Forums, Yas Forums or /his/, but decided for here. My mum used to tell me growing up when I asked why Japanese had cartoons for teenagers that "we used to have adult cartoons, but people really decided that cartoons should be for kids so they stopped being made'.
>Literally every DC animated universe cartoon but mostly Justice League and Batman Beyond. >Both He-Man and Jem have adult stuff.
Hudson Howard
America's puritan values, mostly. Everything has to be sanitized.
Noah Walker
probably because how shows were just big advertisements for toys and were all prominently aimed towards kids
Thomas Reed
>Why didn't the west develop quality 'mature' (as in, shonen, young adult and adult targeted) cartoons like Japan did during the 80s? fix you, West tried, but lacked of talent. Japane with their power system copied from the games found a gold fountain.
Grayson Sanchez
There's no merchandising money to be made in actual adult/sex-focused cartoons. South Park's merchandise was marketed to teenagers, not actual adults. If a cartoon can't eventually have a toy line/video game line/100 "Volume" DVDs, no one's interested.
Xavier Rodriguez
All the above. By now it's impossible to fix, now that gaming, anime and live-action are the high brow media. Especially that last one is now capable of what used to be budget-friendly only in animation. Instead of expanding, cartoons will retreat to the niches that still work for them and try to hold the line until they become obsolete entirely.
Jordan Moore
>mature as in shonen I stopped reading here. ahah
Zachary Martinez
Look at me and Sparse on www.watercolorheart.com.... still no takers, btw, and the lore and worldbuilding are MASSIVE. It's nothing one person could possibly accomplish alone.
Hudson Parker
>There's no merchandising money to be made in actual adult/sex-focused cartoons You mean americans are incapable of creating anything interesting because japan makes a lot of money off hentai figurines
And the West makes a lot on a military figures, but it has never been translated into mass comics or cartoons, the main market for promoting today is books. Tons of books.
Wyatt Perry
>Literally every DC animated universe cartoon but mostly Justice League and Batman Beyond. What about them?
It's like the madonna-whore complex. Americans think it either has to be squeaky clean fun for the whole family, or a pointlessly edgy gore and profanity fest.
Owen Jones
>shonen >mature I ought to slap you. Realize you enjoy media for Japanese boys
Matthew Walker
Ralph Bakshi tried to develop a genre of adult animation in the 70s. But when his subsequent films didn't score at the box office the way Fritz did, his financial backers lost interest.
Camden Hernandez
>preferring men to women gay
Lincoln Evans
Yes, I realize shonen is for teenage boys. But part of the appeal of it, at least when I was a kid, as that shows like Naruto and Dragonball Z appeared to be more edgy and 'adult' compared to western shows they played at the same time.
Sebastian Howard
An 18+ Warhammer cartoon would be baller
Aaron Adams
Warhammer is overrated
Ethan Bell
Already made one. It turned out to be total shit both in terms of graphics and storyline. And in the term display of lore too. Unfortunately, when it comes to something other than books or board games, GW turns on the MEGARETARD mode.
Jaxon Anderson
What ever, it's proof that seinen exists on the west, just a comic book and cartoon format is not popular for this genre.
Robert Richardson
>Seinen is a genre
Justin Clark
Because marketing it to the same safe demographics with the same basic genres created a tradition for an entire medium that it couldn't get out of. Beastars is in the same genre as Naruto and DBZ.
Shonen was pretty good in the 90s. I remember well Beast Wars and Shadow Raiders. And you could add Marvel animated series, and if you wanted more 'mature' stuff, there was Batman TAS and Superman TAS.
I know it was not the western animation most common outlet, but there was production.
It's not "adult" animation, it's shonen.
Angel Hernandez
>shows like Naruto and Dragonball Z appeared to be more edgy and 'adult' Edgy and adult is not mature. You said mature cartoons, something like ATLA is more mature than Naruto and DBZ despite having less explicit content and aimed at younger viewers.
Lucas Edwards
MUH MATURITY fags are honestly jut incredibly obnoxious. I'm honestly pretty happy that we've got a nice selection family shows and comedies. It's so pathetic that you have to have such a disdain for that type of material, nobody here is interested in seeing self-important busy-bodies whine that everything isn't "serious" enough. The most sad part is that is plenty of animation that is serious (and even more comics), but your main concern is to agitate people with how aggressively stupid you are. Just go die you stupid bastard.
Julian Allen
Go away manchild, adults are talking
Ayden Scott
Beastars is shonen?
Justin Evans
H-anime/manga is hitting diminishing returns. Busty bimbos getting humped by manwalruses is the current trend.
Tyler Murphy
It was serialized in a shonen magazine so yeah. It's like how Death Note is shonen.
Sebastian Peterson
Most adult-oriented cartoons and comics in Japan are niche things for niche audiences, not mainstream like you're making them out to be. Stuff like DBZ and Naruto are children/teen media, DBZ in particular is goofy as fuck. They're also targeted at a slightly older audience, 11-15 year old boys, than the tv-y/7 western cartoons you're likely comparing them too.
Thomas Sullivan
If Fritz the Cat was made today, it would only get an NC-17 rating.
There's no hardcore porn, so why would it be X-Rated?
