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Message: <blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 584486" data-attributes="member: 6929">Why so popular? Perhaps (regardless of arguments about whether it's really popular, or what anime really is, etcetc) because anime caters to a wider market than occidental cartoons. It's been said before, most people think that cartoons are either kiddy shows or three-panel newspaper gags. You look at what comes out of Japan, and... well, I think that they're more willing to do stuff that can be interesting than just slavishly churn out another soap opera or medical drama show.But you don't see the proper stuff in English because 'cartoons are for kids'. Which is stupid. Go watch Ghost In The Shell and see if you can spot the bits that were taken from St Paul (I watched it with an ex-priest and we were both quite surprised at that), then say toons are exclusively for kids.I don't know if it's been animated (probably not), but one of the funnest things I've read recently was Hikaru No Go, about this kid who plays Go, and there's this ghost and some really good players, and it's really good. It's not even in English, and I don't read Japanese so I got the manga equivalent of a fansub. But when was the last time anyone read a long, continuing story about people who play a strategic board game? It's that kind of new experience that turns me onto certain anime.And I say certain anime for a reason, because most of what's out there sucks. I mean, people probably like it... look at Pokemon. Artistic merit? I think not. I mean I like shows that I like, whether anime or not, largely because they have explosions, now that I think about it. That's probably not the primary reason, but there are an awful lot of things blowing up in everything I watch. And it's because the Japanese do a good combat scene (when they want to; uncensored DBZ isn't always good, but when it is good it's very good) that a lot of that's popular with action junkies like myself.Of course, having just watched Kiki's Delivery Service (subbed), I can say that quality and fun doesn't correlate directly to explosions.To reiterate my point: Variety. That's what I blame for popularity.</blockquote>

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