Most Obnoxious Fandoms

[Drtooth]

The generic anime look fallacy is something that truly bugs me as an animation fan. It's shared by 11 year old girl and 50 year old white businessman alike. How many ugly sort of anime-ish coloring books have you came in contact with at Rite Aid or Dollar Tree? That sort of thing is responsible for Loonatics Unleashed among others. I'd say at least the tweenage girls have an excuse of being tweenage girls.

Not that there aren't Western artists that can't actually do anime style justice. They had to get someone to redraw all the Go Lion characters for the Voltron DVD sets because TOEI didn't provide them with artwork for example. These guys are usually on varying levels of professionalism that actually get the subtleties of how this stuff looks.

But back to Gumball, those animators know their stuff. That had an entire episode that managed to pull off the hardest anime style to capture. The ever recursive and elusive 1980's Japanese Outsourced American Cartoon trying not to look Japanese. One of my personal favorite styles of anime, actually. THOSE are true animation fans right there if they even managed to get that amazing subtlety. They even managed to have the background jitter as if it was being shot by camera. That's research only years of watching cartoons can give you.

 

[charlietheowl]

Lately I've seen tons of humanized versions of nonhuman characters, for example Muppets. Sometimes they're done well, but sometimes you'd never know what they were supposed to be because they look like generic anime drawn by someone who has never drawn anything but his or her favorite anime characters. I don't know how many pictures submitted to the DeviantArt groups I run I've had to turn down because I honestly can't see any resemblance.

I've never liked drawings of non-human characters as humans, I feel it strips the essence of the characters away. Maybe it's fun as a stylistic exercise once in awhile, but most of the time it takes away what makes the characters the characters. Kermit the Frog was meant to be a frog!

 

[Drtooth]

I'm in-between. If it's done right and has its own merits as an artistic piece, I'm all for it. If it's gratuitous "What-Ifs" with generic looking characters that look like they're vaguely dressed up as them, I'm not a fan.

But I do agree that it strips away the point. There's a reason why he's not Bugs Human, after all. Come to think of it... is there a flipside that anthro-morphs human characters into animals?

What I think there's not enough of is cartoon characters drawn in the style of another cartoon series. Sure, everyone does Simpsons versions of characters, cool enough, but I'd love to see more shows in the mix. Except South Park because everyone gets that wrong and just lazily uses a South Park character generator. Chances are, the characters would look the same, only have South Parky Eyes and look like cutout paper. Y'know, like in the Imaginationland episode.

At the risk of self promotion, I managed to get a couple down.

Because I found a similarity between a certain Smurf hunting wacko and a certain fairy hunting wacko

and I watched a Dudley Do-Right cartoon where they said "puny" every other word... and who hates puny things?

 

[Slackbot]

Lately it's been a thing to draw bishounen humanized versions of the FNAF animatronics. That's especially mindbending to me, because the whole point of the...characters?...is that they are anthroporphic robots, designed to be cute but actually terrifying. If you draw them as cutesy humans, then you've thrown the character's appearance, origin, purpose, and personality out the window, so how can you claim they have anything to do with FNAF?

 

[Slackbot]

What I think there's not enough of is cartoon characters drawn in the style of another cartoon series. Sure, everyone does Simpsons versions of characters, cool enough, but I'd love to see more shows in the mix.

Did you see the most recent Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode? They showed the Simpsons in a whole bunch of other styles, including the original Tracey Ullman designs, pop anime, "hip" CGI, Adventure Time, South Park, Lego, funny-animal, and...wait for it...Minions. It was a thing of beauty.

 

[Drtooth]

Lately it's been a thing to draw bishounen humanized versions of the FNAF animatronics. That's especially mindbending to me, because the whole point of the...characters?...is that they are anthroporphic robots, designed to be cute but actually terrifying. If you draw them as cutesy humans, then you've thrown the character's appearance, origin, purpose, and personality out the window, so how can you claim they have anything to do with FNAF?

I believe I posted it in this thread, but that's exactly the same problem I had with Ed, Edd, N' Eddy OC's. Not only were they far removed from what EEE is all about (Vampire hunters? Really?!) but when you draw them in Bishonen style, it removes them even further. I want to see Edd, Rowlf, and Johnny... not character that has nothing to do with the show nor looks like it. Stopped watching that group as a result.

Did you see the most recent Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode? They showed the Simpsons in a whole bunch of other styles, including the original Tracey Ullman designs, pop anime, "hip" CGI, Adventure Time, South Park, Lego, funny-animal, and...wait for it...Minions. It was a thing of beauty.

I'm shocked that Homer was Zoro from One Piece. That's like the only time I've really seen OP referenced in mainstream US animation... that and the Japanese Game Show host that used Luffy's exact Gum Gum Punch stance in Regular Show.

 

[Slackbot]

Is that who Homer was? I couldn't tell. The only one I recognized in the anime group was Maggiechu. Marge might be someone specific, or she might just be a generic sailor-fuku-wearing girl.

 

[mr3urious]

What I think there's not enough of is cartoon characters drawn in the style of another cartoon series. Sure, everyone does Simpsons versions of characters, cool enough, but I'd love to see more shows in the mix. Except South Park because everyone gets that wrong and just lazily uses a South Park character generator. Chances are, the characters would look the same, only have South Parky Eyes and look like cutout paper. Y'know, like in the Imaginationland episode.

I'd like to see more stuff drawn in the Gravity Falls style myself, especially Daria and Rainbow Brite.

 

[Drtooth]

Is that who Homer was? I couldn't tell. The only one I recognized in the anime group was Maggiechu. Marge might be someone specific, or she might just be a generic sailor-fuku-wearing girl.

If I can remember correctly, she's someone from Bleach. And for the record, Bart's Naruto, and Lisa is someone from Attack on Titan. Personally, I'm glad they didn't just go the Dragon Ball/Speed Racer obvious joke route.

I'd like to see more stuff drawn in the Gravity Falls style myself, especially Daria and Rainbow Brite.

Actually, know what I kinda miss? How in early episodes of Family Guy, the outside character references used to be drawn in their style. Now they just use their exact designs for them.

 

[AlittleMayhem]

Lately I've seen tons of humanized versions of nonhuman characters, for example Muppets. Sometimes they're done well, but sometimes you'd never know what they were supposed to be because they look like generic anime drawn by someone who has never drawn anything but his or her favorite anime characters. I don't know how many pictures submitted to the DeviantArt groups I run I've had to turn down because I honestly can't see any resemblance.

I've never liked drawings of non-human characters as humans, I feel it strips the essence of the characters away. Maybe it's fun as a stylistic exercise once in awhile, but most of the time it takes away what makes the characters the characters. Kermit the Frog was meant to be a frog!

I understand where you're coming from. In some cases, I can just put it down to an Alternative Universe. In others, it just really makes no sense and I've often wondered just how the heck would this work with humans. In an anime style, it can really depend on the skill of the artist.

Having said that though, I'm all up for human versions of all things non human! It's fun for me as it gives me a chance to experiment with character design and try different things. Plus, it's a great way to cheese off racists, believe it or not.