Random Thoughts Thread

[Forlorn Drifter]

In the west "cartoons" are meant for kids. The vast, vast majority are actually created with children in mind. That's just the way it is. Yes I know adults enjoy them too, but adults are not the demographic.

I want to know when this changed, as, for example, Looney Tunes were not intended for children, neither were Tex Avery cartoons. Not to say a child couldn't or didn't watch them, but that was not the intended audience.

[Michi]

As such, I was never interested in "teen" anime like Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, whatever...

I don't know if I'd really label any of those "teen" myself. Wikipedia says that an estimated 62.9% of the readers of Shonen Jump, the magazine these originate from, are under the age of 14. I suspect that a lot of them fall around the 10 year mark. The shows just get marketed to a bit of a higher age demographic here because our standards of 'child appropriate' are so different.

I think "cartoon" tends to have that connotation, similar to "comic". Often see animated series and graphic novel used instead, when the content doesn't line up with that.

Right. The word 'cartoon' has somehow gained more of a youthful connotation over time. It didn't always used to be like that. Originally they were amusing diversions that played in theaters before the feature film.

But over time this changed. I suspect it may have had something to do with the moments people from the 80s and on remember from their youth, getting up on Saturday morning and watching their favorite cartoon program or even watching something more educational before going to school. Who knows. But for some reason it changed, and because of that people relate the word 'cartoon' with 'youth', and by doing that it almost becomes implied that the act of watching cartoons is just another thing that you are inevitably meant to grow out of at some point.

The exception to this seems to be animated movies. The vast majority of people don't seem to classify those in the same way. Admittedly, there's a point in middle school where you might get picked on for admitting out loud that you're going to go see the latest animated feature, but there are also plenty of grown-a$$ adults (and children alike) who get excited for the latest Disney or Pixar film. Some to the point of rabid fixation and obsession. For an example of this, look to Frozen. It shouldn't be hard. Just walk into a store. Any store will do. It's kind of hard to miss.

[Ack]

Doesn't rural Maine not sustain a large enough population for anything to be considered popular?

Yeah, but Stephen King.

*Drops the mic*

No, no, Stephen King IS the state of Maine. He is like a turtle, carrying the entire state on his back whenever he goes out and about. It is the only world he knows, and that is why all of his stories take place there or all of his characters come from there. Also dead children. There are apparently a lot of those in Maine.

[isiolia]

The exception to this seems to be animated movies. The vast majority of people don't seem to classify those in the same way. Admittedly, there's a point in middle school where you might get picked on for admitting out loud that you're going to go see the latest animated feature, but there are also plenty of grown-a$$ adults (and children alike) who get excited for the latest Disney or Pixar film. Some to the point of rabid fixation and obsession. For an example of this, look to Frozen. It shouldn't be hard. Just walk into a store. Any store will do. It's kind of hard to miss.

Even then, Disney/Pixar movies and such are seen as "all ages" entertainment. The U.S. does have a good number of animated series aimed at teens/adults now, on Fox, FX, Adult Swim, etc. Also a decent number of straight-to-video releases of (usually) superhero properties. However, animated films past a PG rating are pretty rare still.

Print media, I think, can pretty well point at the Comics Code Authority as a major reason that comics would be seen as "for kids". While I know Hollywood had codes in place as well, like the Hays code, I don't think it would have limited animation as much as it generally was.

[RCBH928]

I would say anime is cartoons with a storyline that spans over all episodes unlike American cartoons that has a story line of 1 episode. Although I am sure I have seen European/American cartoon in that format I just can't recall it.

I think the biggest differentiator of anime is that it has cartoons targeted for adults, but the same thing could be said about The Simpsons and The Family Guy. Even then, the most popular anime are child friendly like the ones I mention below.

There's series, which are TV series. These usually run the gamut of 12 or 24 episodes. It's uncommon for an anime series to ever reach the length of 300 episodes.

All the popular ones I wanted to watch did. Naruto is 220, Dragon Ball, Bleach, and One Piece is 690 something.

[Exhuminator]

All the popular ones I wanted to watch did. Naruto is 220, Dragon Ball, Bleach, and One Piece is 690 something.

There are some anime series that have ridiculous episode counts like those, yes. But those are the minority in comparison to the vast majority of far shorter anime series.

[isiolia]

Those series are based off of long-term (or still ongoing) weekly manga (and shounen manga at that), pretty much making 'em the prime candidates for long runs. Though they -are- very popular series, they are kinda the exception.

Anime, in general, gets released in seasons that are 12 episodes long these days (used to be 13). So, most wind up in some multiple of that - commonly 12 or 24, or 13/26 for older stuff. Also why a lot of older shows (particularly) have a recap episode in the middle.
Some might get an extra finale episode, some might end one short. You do get some slightly longer runs too. Death Note was 37 episodes, Monster is 74, FMA Brotherhood is 64, etc. However, if you look at things season-by-season, most shows only tend to be there for 1 or 2.

You could, for example, go peruse Crunchyroll's anime section and look at the video count (keeping in mind that they may have promos/trailers included in that).

[Gunstar Green]

Doesn't rural Maine not sustain a large enough population for anything to be considered popular?

Yeah, but Stephen King.

*Drops the mic*

No, no, Stephen King IS the state of Maine. He is like a turtle, carrying the entire state on his back whenever he goes out and about. It is the only world he knows, and that is why all of his stories take place there or all of his characters come from there. Also dead children. There are apparently a lot of those in Maine.

Maine has the Moxie Festival. Everyone else thinks I'm insane for loving that soda, but they understand me.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Maine has the Moxie Festival. Everyone else thinks I'm insane for loving that soda, but they understand me.

Moxie is the best. My wife and I bring home two twelve packs every time we visit her parents. The strange thing is...it is actually brewed in Atlanta.

[jp1]

Doesn't rural Maine not sustain a large enough population for anything to be considered popular?

Yeah, but Stephen King.

*Drops the mic*

No, no, Stephen King IS the state of Maine. He is like a turtle, carrying the entire state on his back whenever he goes out and about. It is the only world he knows, and that is why all of his stories take place there or all of his characters come from there. Also dead children. There are apparently a lot of those in Maine.

I just assumed Maine didn't exist except in the mind of Stephen King and the nightmares of lobsters.


Random thought: I had to leave two Sony Trinitron CRTs at the thrift store at the price of $15 each. Both had hd support, one was 4:3, the other 16:9. I'm a little torn on this, because they were huge, in great shape, and worked perfectly. On the other hand they were huge, weighed a couple hundred pounds each, and I didn't have a vehicle to transport them without a second trip.

Also, is the GTA double pack for PS2 worth anything? I could have sworn it was rare, but upon checking it seems not. They had that GTA 3 and Vice City greatest hits set with VC still sealed for $5. What do you guys think, should I go back?

On the plus side I got a brand new pc CRT Monitor (seriously, never even unboxed) for $5. Now, where could I get a vga female/female adapter locally?