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Forums - General - What's up with all the japanese nerdism?

A Bad Clown on 16 October 2010
c03n3nj0 said:
A Bad Clown said:

It's because most American cartoons don't have giant boobs or hair that can increase tenfold when the character decides he wants to.

Male characters have size-changing boobs? 0_o


We call them Moobs



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Severance on 17 October 2010
darthdevidem01 said:

LOLLOLOL that guy must be bullied at school!!!!!!!!!

BTW is the guy that said "ANIME" a girl or a boy?!


An alien.



I live for the burn...and the sting of pleasure...
I live for the sword, the steel, and the gun...

- Wasteland - The Mission.

Killiana1a on 17 October 2010
Torillian said:
Killiana1a said:

My freshman year in college, I was big into Neon Genesis Evangelion. Almost to point of considering to buy a mech robot from the series to build and place on my desk.

I have to disagree it is nerdism. People have their hobbies. You would be just as crazy to go into a college anime club and trash talk just as you would go into a sports bar in Pittsburgh, PA and loudly taunt, root against and laugh at the Pittsburgh Steelers during one of their games...Well, I would take my chances with the anime club rather than a bunch of middle-aged, ex jocks buzzed off of alcohol.

I see the term "maturity" being thrown around a lot as a reason why non-Japanese prefer anime over other cartoons. Can someone please define how anime is more mature than say...South Park? Does having more emo-like emotions make it more mature? Does having male guys in anime cry make it more mature? Is it the dialogue? Subject matter parodying real life controversies inside the anime?

What makes anime "mature" if well over half of it is fantasy? The exclusion of muscular protagonists making the scrawny male viewer more at ease with their lack of wanting to build their own physique? Middle aged women characters having the voice pitch of a 5 year old?

Maturity is meaningless unless you define it and compare it to something else like South Park, Family Guy, or American Dad.

South Park from my perspective is the best there is in parodying Western culture as a "mature" cartoon. From the latest season with Cartman dreaming to be a NASCAR driver, to Cartman parodying Glenn Beck with Wendy wanting to kill the smurfs, to Butters becoming a pimp, and on.

I would suggest watching some South Park along with your anime. Classic show that is right with making fun of the times.


It's not that there aren't mature cartoons, it's that there aren't mature cartoons outside of the genre of comedy.  I love South Park but it certainly isn't where I go if I want a nice romance story in a cartoon or a bloody action oriented cartoon, or a slice of life comedy.  All of the mature cartoons in the west are for the sake of comedy and none take themselves seriously.   That doesn't mean they're bad and I love ATHF, Venture Bros., Boondocks, and South Park, but it does mean that you can get a much greater variety in anime than you do in Western cartoons.

btw, most of the stuff you said about anime makes me wonder if you've ever seen any outside of Evangelion.

Well, if you can get a nice romance story in anime, then that is definitely a sign of more maturity compared to a Western cartoon. I agree, Western cartoons that most consider "mature" are all comedy.

Anime outside of Evangelion. Sure, a lot of free, online hentai when I get tired of Brazzers.



theprof00 on 17 October 2010

Also, it's not entirely true what you said about voice dubs and anime.

There are a lot of shows with very good english dubs that most nerds prefer over the original audio.

DBZ is a very good example of that. I don't know any that prefers the japanese voicing of dbz.

It's just that bad voicing detracts from an anime. If we don't know the language, that's one less annoyance to deal with. However, there are many good dubbed shows; Evangelion (though I still prefer the Japanese for this one), Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, FLCL, DBZ, etc etc. The list really does go on and on.



Mr Khan on 17 October 2010
theprof00 said:

Also, it's not entirely true what you said about voice dubs and anime.

There are a lot of shows with very good english dubs that most nerds prefer over the original audio.

DBZ is a very good example of that. I don't know any that prefers the japanese voicing of dbz.

It's just that bad voicing detracts from an anime. If we don't know the language, that's one less annoyance to deal with. However, there are many good dubbed shows; Evangelion (though I still prefer the Japanese for this one), Gundam, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, FLCL, DBZ, etc etc. The list really does go on and on.

And there's a reason for that, because they understood DBZ was going to fit in with the west well (for whatever reason), so invested a lot in making sure it was a high-quality dub. Only dubs i've ever preferred were DBZ and Eureka Seven for some reason. These anime that were top-tier in Japan but are small potatoes in the West, they're the ones that get mangled, and for good reason, because you're just dubbing for an enthusiast group with no hope of a mass-market pitch

Or you make the stupidest fucking decision in the history of history and let One Piece's initial western dub be done by fucking 4Kids of all people, and kill the best series ever before it even had a chance...



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.