• Replies 9 replies
  • Subscribers 10 subscribers
  • Views 175 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Why have cartoons got so spikey?

TheCatWoman

One of the things I've noticed over the last decade or so is how angular and spikey cartoon characters have become, why do people have to have noses that look like the prow of a yatch? Chins that could be used as pickaxes and big eyes with spikey eyelashes? I wouldn't want cartoons to be all soft and rounded like early Disney, but just more normal looking. I find them really freaky to look at and it puts me off.

Parents

  • It's mostly due to the influence of Japanese anime. Western animation has become more and more japanified over the years.

    Now, the big eyes are meant to emphasise expression and reaction, making them look easily readable. The "prow shaped" nose is supposed to resemble a youthful, almost babylike profile to make the characters look youthful and appealing. Of course, there's also a lot of anime that don't do this though. Like Fist of the North Star, which focuses more on giving characters stronger profiles and narrow, intimidating eyes.

    Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE anime and manga. The amount of detail and the expressive faces are really something that appeals to me, and the focus on key frames is dynamic and cool, heck, I even draw manga inspired web comics myself! But when most American studios try to emulate it, it's often cringey. They miss a lot of the techniques and nuances used in Japanese animation, such as lack of focus on key frames (most western animation just focuses on having every frame flow continuously instead of having key frames with more detail and inbetween frames).

    On that note, anime itself was actually based on early Disney cartoons in the early days. Have you heard of Astro Boy? The art style very much resembles the classic Disney style and is very rounded and soft. Early episodes of Dragon Ball also had that softer, rounder looker.

    If you also look at series such as Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, that also has a very western looking feel, in fact it practically looks like The Powerpuff Girls, which ironically was also inspired by the snappy, dynamic flow of Japanese anime.

    Point is, as the more American cartoons get inspired by Japanese anime, the more Japanese anime also take from American cartoons. Right now we happen to be at a point where the two are becoming almost indistinguishable. 

    Outside of that though, a lot of cartoons from the 50s like The Flinstones also had a sort of angular style as well.

    Do you have any examples of cartoons you are describing in your post? I'd like to see what you're referring to specifically, I enjoy analysing this sort of stuff as an artist.

    ...sorry for rambling, this happens to be one of my special subjects

  • in reply to Jamesmac

    I rarely watch cartoons now, and I really dislike manga and anime, I find it visually jarring and the big eyes and exagerated expressions scary and freaky. I can't remember what the cartoons where I first became aware of it were, sorry, I must have tuned out.

    I get what you mean about The Flintstones, but they were softer and the angles were taking less of the story line, they were more like visual punctuation than the story itself, if that makes any sense?

Reply Children
No Data