QUOTE However, niche cartoons are not very mainstream, evident by their broadcast time slots, and the fact that most of them are only available on cable TV or genre-specific TV channels and broadcasts.
The Simpsons, futurama, Daria or even South Park (I forgot this one), the Boondocks can hardly be called niche cartoons. They have been exported, dubbed and broadcast on classical TV channels across the world, so we can't dismiss them as an anomality.
QUOTE Anime in Japan and Asia if broadcast throughout the day, during "primetime," and accounts more mass amounts of recorded media sales. Anime is much more embeded into the Asian mainstream than here in the US.
Quite true (some anime are broadcast only late in the evening).
But it's not really relevant with the age group problem.
I guess my problem is the impression that the whole "anime is for grown-ups, cartoon is for kids" is a cheap way to justify the interest in animes, by emphazing that no, it's not like all the Walt disney series.
QUOTE
you're not going to find cartoons geared towards 18+ age group here (with the exception of Construction Paper freeze-frame photography South Park, and that puppet show: Team America).
Akira or Blood were aimed specifically at the 18+ age group? Doubtful.
By the way, I doubt that Disney's Gargoyles or Warner's Batman were more aimed at kids than your average shonen anime (Bleach, Naruto, I'm looking at you). Aeon Flux even less.
If you want pure adult stuff, movies like Persepolis or Les triplettes de Belleville are explicitly made for adults.
Of course, there's less than in Japan. Because there's less animation in a whole.
Edit: Oh, and let's not forget international productions, like Ulysses 31, The mysterious cities of gold or Oban Star-racers. are they orthodox animes or bad cartoons?
The Simpsons, futurama, Daria or even South Park (I forgot this one), the Boondocks can hardly be called niche cartoons. They have been exported, dubbed and broadcast on classical TV channels across the world, so we can't dismiss them as an anomality.
QUOTE Anime in Japan and Asia if broadcast throughout the day, during "primetime," and accounts more mass amounts of recorded media sales. Anime is much more embeded into the Asian mainstream than here in the US.
Quite true (some anime are broadcast only late in the evening).
But it's not really relevant with the age group problem.
I guess my problem is the impression that the whole "anime is for grown-ups, cartoon is for kids" is a cheap way to justify the interest in animes, by emphazing that no, it's not like all the Walt disney series.
QUOTE
you're not going to find cartoons geared towards 18+ age group here (with the exception of Construction Paper freeze-frame photography South Park, and that puppet show: Team America).
Akira or Blood were aimed specifically at the 18+ age group? Doubtful.
By the way, I doubt that Disney's Gargoyles or Warner's Batman were more aimed at kids than your average shonen anime (Bleach, Naruto, I'm looking at you). Aeon Flux even less.
If you want pure adult stuff, movies like Persepolis or Les triplettes de Belleville are explicitly made for adults.
Of course, there's less than in Japan. Because there's less animation in a whole.
Edit: Oh, and let's not forget international productions, like Ulysses 31, The mysterious cities of gold or Oban Star-racers. are they orthodox animes or bad cartoons?