Such a well thought out article this needs to spread far and wide
Amid Amidi, editor of the animation news site Cartoon Brew, once wrote that “certain aspects of Japanese cartoons […] turn me off, and surprisingly these elements remain consistent throughout all of the anime I’ve seen, whether it’s a cheaply-produced OAV or a classy Miyazaki production. Namely, it is the unappealing and cold nature of their character designs, and the general lack of dynamics and complexity in their personality animation. The death of animation is if you don’t find the characters believable because subsequently the value and effectiveness of the stories those characters are telling is diminished,” praying “that the next international animation fad will be more visually stimulating and appealing.” Amidi’s opinion isn’t an outlier; in reviewing Hayao Miyazaki’s films, esteemed historian Michael Barrier remarked that “Miyazaki’s human characters, typically for Japanese animation, are little more than ciphers, their appearance and their actions almost wholly dictated by formulas,” with Thad Komorowski…
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