by Cederick Godfrey

Westernized Animation

According to www.diffen.com, westernized animation is “animation that is made in the West. Whether it is North American and/or Western European” (Diffen.com). Compared to anime (Japanese animation), westernized animation has a completely different style, use of content, language, and musical accompaniment to attract a different type of audience to watch it. To start, westernized animation uses characters with lower amounts of detail, but tend to have exaggerated features, like over the top muscle, body and face structure and so forth. In terms of content, westernized animation focuses on family friendly content typically made for children, which is usually their target audience. For instance, in the new movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Two, the character design for Flint Lockwood, the main character of the movie, shows the over exaggeration of the characters nose, wide structured eyes, and extremely outrageous hair style that Western animated characters usually have.

Another difference that sets Western animation apart from anime is the language used. Since western animation entertains those typically in the North American region, English is the language used vs. that of anime, which uses Japanese as the main language. Lastly, music in western animation is also different from anime because western animators use light and happy-hearted music, or lightly sad music at the appropriate times. In terms of advertisement, a great place to advertise westernized animation would be to put an ad in the Baytown Mall Premier Cinema. At the movie theater, you be able to put up an ad for a child’s movie, which is the audience that westernized animation attracts.

"A film is only really good when the camera is an eye in the head of a poet."

- Orson Welles, Filmmaker

Anime

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “anime is a style of animation created and originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes” (Merriam-Webster). Compared to Western animation, anime is different in terms of its style, content used, language, and the music used. First off, in anime, they style their characters with higher detail in the face and body area, with more depth too. For content, anime features more action and drama, and the occasional bits of comedy. For instance, in the popular anime series Sword Art Online, a drawing of the shows’ main characters shows all of the elements that anime incorporate; the characters’ swords show the action side, and you can see the detail used in their character design. 

Another difference that sets anime apart from western animation is the language that is used. Since anime was originated in Japan and is mainly targeted by the Japanese people, Japanese is the primary language used. English is sometimes used, but this is only if it is an Americanized adaption of that anime. Lastly, the music used in anime differs from western animation. Anime uses J-pop, non-extreme heavy metal, or upbeat music that is played in the background during dramatic or non-intense moments, or to make battle scenes more intense. For advertisement purposes, a good place to advertise anything in anime would be animefreak.com, which houses anything to do with anime. On this website, it shows episodes of your favorite anime shows, as well as allowing you to read the manga of that anime series.

Cosplay

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, cosplay means “the practice of dressing up as a character from a film, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese genres of manga or anime” (Oxford Dictionaries). Cosplay is one of the biggest parts of anime and is used to allow its fans to express themselves through the characters they love to watch in anime. So why is cosplay generally used for anime? Mainly it is because of the characters used and the audience that it tends to target. For instance, anime uses characters that use amazing weapons and powers and magic and are extremely strong and face great challenges and they tend to an audience of young teens to young adults, whereas western animation tends to young children and have characters that are childish and made to make their audience laugh.

People that participate in cosplay are usually adults, and they gather together in groups at what is known as comic conventions, anime expos, and things like that. This allows cosplay participants to dabble in the same place and do the same thing that others just like them enjoy to do, which is why it is exclusive towards anime because with westernized animation, this is not possible with the lack of dynamic characters. For advertisement purposes, cosplay.com would be the best place to advertise any cosplay needs. This website offers anything and almost everything cosplay, including costumes, wigs, and merchandise to sell, as well as learn of upcoming events dealing with anime.