@Toby chan:
QUOTE
Okay, for the umpteenth time; Yes, YuGiOh is moderately violent. It is still a kid's show. Yes, yes, Yami no Bakura tears out Pegasus' eyeball and licks the blood off, and all that fun stuff, but children are still it's target audience. Same with other bloody shows such as Naruto, Rurouni Kenshin, Fullmetal Alchemist, etcetera. They're all targeted towards children and young teens. The difference there, is that many of these series have a much more universal appeal than most of those targeted towards children in the US, thus attracting a wider audience and gathering more revenue, but most anime and manga is meant to be marketed towards the younger audiences.
Actually both Yuugioh and Naruto were put in a later slot due to their graphic nature. It was geared for teens, as said of Takahashi-sensei. I should also note that, the reason why they have a universal appeal is becuse there's enough in there to entertain both adults and children. Much like, *gasp* Animaniacs, which is one of the last great American cartoons to air on TV in my opinion. But back on topic. Apparently in Japan there are some strange ideas going around as to what show should follow which, and yes anime is for kids, but it depends on what is defined as kids. Example, the Urasai on Reload from Saiyuki was designed to be a kid friendly lead in to, Pocket Monsters.
I kid you not. Pokemon followed the guntoting, smoking foursome.
Another note, My own blame on why Anime is held in such distaste comes from the fact that you had shows like Speed racer and such being badly done. Of course you can go on and blame Four Kids, but to be fair they have to work in the WB restictions in a lot of cases, as well as with the FCC. Which can be a real pain. I mean..they got nasty over the fact that at one point in Batman the animated series, Alfred had bat guano fall on his shoulder. The restictions are insane. But japan has it's own.
As for lame excuses.
"Oh man you mean the shows that come from the 80s?"
"Okay why would you want to watch a bunch of animted hot guys when you can watch real live ones."
"The plots are soap operas."
And the OC isn't?
"The shows rip off of American shows." Uh huh...yeah...
And my favorite story.
Went into my comic shop, and was talking to the guy at the counter. A man walks in wanting to buy magic cards. I commented, "Ah gotta say I like the way they design some of those fantasy characters."
Him: "Yeah better then that crap from Japan. They don't know what they're doing there. They base all their card games on cartoons."
Me: You know that Duel master is an anime based off of Magic right?
Him: phhht. So what, that's lame there too.
Me: what shows do you like then?
Him: Thundercats. Robotech
Me: It was animated in Japan you know.
Him: No it wasn't. Harmony gold did it and it was animated by Hanna and Barbara.
Me: No...Harmony gold bought three series interwove them and made the saga.
Him: No, it and Speed Racer were made here in the states. All good shows come from here in the states.
Me: ....Yeah we all really loved Dino Riders.
Him: Dino what now...that was made in Japan right?
Me:...*smirks and just waits till he goes*
Dino Riders was a series made by Hanna and Barbera back in the early 90s just before Pokemon came out here in the states. Funny thing is that Pokemon blew it out of the water.
What I used to tell to my friends was that: *Anime is for people that do not have a life. *I also used to think that anime was like cartoons, and I would just laugh at my friends because they were still into cartoons. Anyways something that I learned is that we should give a try to everything because you might never know on what you're missing out.
