Confession time: I’ve never been a fan of anime or manga. I’m probably the only one of my friend group doesn’t care for it as a style. My only exposure to it was through Transformers, a few Studio Ghibli movies, and technically Thunder Cats is an anime (it was made in Japan, and you can tell from looking at it). This has sparked a few very heated arguments between myself and a friend. If you can’t argue with friends who can you argue with?
The bottom line, it was a form of xenophobia - fear of foreign things. I saw anime and manga as an intrusion on my art form. Who do these foreign upstarts think they are? Rather close-minded and stupid of me, but we are all stupid on occasion. The sooner we admit that the better.
My other complaint about anime and manga probably also stems from a rather xenophobic attitude - it all looks the same to me. How very “ugly American”. American animation used to be so wide and varied - no two cartoons looked alike. Anime seemed to me like you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. But I hadn’t taken the time to pick out the individual artists and see where they differ from one another in their approach to the medium.
Looking at it from a purely objective viewpoint, peeling back the layers of prejudice, I can see how both approaches - anime/manga vs Western styles - have their own merits and their own weaknesses. Furthermore, they have two totally different sets of principles of design. You could not say one was better than the other, since they’re working from two different standards of aesthetics. One might as well say Johnny Cash is better than Metallica. While they often have very similar subject matter, one can’t rightly compare them, as Outlaw Country works off of a completely different set of musical standards than Thrash Metal. They are both excellent in their fields, but you could not rightly say one was better than the other.
Anime and Manga are fine for what they are and the stories they are trying to tell. Western styles are good as well for what they are trying to say. I don’t want all cartoons and comics to look alike. No one wants that, except for globalist elites. We should all simply accept that these differences are good, and it’s better to learn from each other than sit in opposition and fight. I don’t think I will ever “like” anime, but I don’t hate either. One might as well hate a rain cloud for blocking out the sun. But rain makes the grass grow.