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Calling Anime "cartoons" isn't really an insult and really shouldn't be treated as such (thelemmy.club)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/unpopularopinion@lemmy.world
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As someone who likes both Cartoons and Anime equally, I have yet to find someone who doesn't get offended by me saying that. They're just animated projects at the end of the day, just made differently through cultural norms. I'll enjoy both like I'll enjoy a burger & ramen, both are good and tasty, don't care which one's better as long I'm munching down

That's it, I'm just writing this because I'm bored

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[–] 9 points 2 months ago (11 children)

I mean... yeah... sorta. That's like saying Comic Books and Manga are the same thing. Sure, there is some overlap, but they are both on a pretty different wavelength. I think the difference is the cultural weight behind them. Cartoons in the west are entertainment mostly aimed at children. Anime has that, sure, but there is a whole slew of it aimed at adults, too. You can argue that the West has adult cartoons, but I think you'd be stretching it to say they are even remotely the same. Only in recent years have cartoons really taken a transgressive turn in the public eye.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago (10 children)

    I think one indicator of this is that I’ve never once ever heard anyone refer to something like king of the hill or South Park as a cartoon. They’re just TV shows, not cartoons. Cartoon implies “kids”. Anime does not. So to an American, calling anime a cartoon is insulting, because it would be like calling Game of Thrones a cartoon.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    Never??? Not even like "Cartman is a cartoon character from South Park"??

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    I’ve never heard anyone refer to any adult swim type show as a cartoon.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (4 children)

    Is that because of the cultural connotations? "Cartoons are for kids and I'm not a kid, so I don't watch cartoons. I will not call South Park or Adult Swim a cartoon because I watch them and I don't watch cartoons."

    That doesn't imply the word is wrong, just that using it that way is taboo in western culture.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (3 children)

    Well yeah, that’s what I was saying. It’s an insult because “cartoons are for kids” is the prevailing thought process.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (2 children)

    People used to say games are for kids, now the game industry is bigger than the movie industry, with plenty ofnadults playing. Times change, so do cultural norms and word usage. I'd be unsurprised if in 10 years people think calling something a cartoon is an insult in any way.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Listen, I don’t think it’s an insult, but this post is literally an “unpopular opinion”. Not only that but we’re literally discussing how people see cartoons as being for kids.

    People used to say games are for kids, now the game industry is bigger than the movie industry, with plenty ofnadults playing. Times change, so do cultural norms and word usage

    People didn’t say this in the 80s and 90s. They only started calling them for kids in the 2000s when republicans had to find another boogeyman to attack. Then you can see people started to figure out that was clearly stupid.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    In the 80s and 90s, I knew of no adults who played computer games, but plenty of kids did. Advertising was targeted at preteens to young adults. I still know people who roll their eyes at the idea of adults playing computer games. This was very much a norm that only started to change in the 2000s, which is when conservatives started clutching at pearls. If you look at revenue charts, it really started picking up around 2005, doubled from 1995 to 2010, and increased by about 150% from 2010 to 2022.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    On the other hand, I have heard both referred to as cartoons, often with some derogatory prefix like "pervert" or "Democrat". Ditto The Simpsons. I always assumed that calling them cartoons was fairly widespread; maybe it's a southern and/or conservative thing specifically.

    It does usually carry the connotation of an insult; IME there's generally an understanding in conservative circles that anything "cartoonish" is inherently childish and therefore unworthy of any respectable adult's attention, and any adult who admits to enjoying animated TV is given a raised eyebrow, at least by the older folks.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I grew up in Texas and don’t remember anyone ever calling any of those shows cartoons.

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