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Why are most adult cartoons comedies? Why aren't there more adult cartoons that are like The Sopranos or The Wire?

Well, there are if you count anime. Western animation doesn't lend itself to serious genres as well due to the style, imo. The ones which do kinda resemble anime, like Aeon Flux.

I think animation being often seen as childish plays a part in it. Obviously you have a lot more adult-oriented animation in Japan, and some Western adult-oriented sci-fi/action like Samurai Jack or AEon Flux.

I also think "adult" animation tends to lend itself to genres like comedy, action, sci-fi and fantasy because the medium allows animators to do things that they can't do in live action. With dramas, the focus is often on realism. The Sopranos and The Wire in particular are praised for their realistic depictions of their themes. It's obviously a lot easier to do "realism" when there are actual humans on the screen. Animation for a story like that could be seen as a barrier in making those connections to audiences.

It obviously doesn't have to be that way, and even the silliest animation can tackle extremely real human emotion. I think there are a lot of animators who want to continue to push animation in these directions and have the art taken in a more serious fashion, but there's still a lot of ground to cover in getting especially Western audiences to take the medium as seriously as they probably should.

I think Pan explained it pretty well.

You should check out the Netflix Castlevania for a good non-comedy, adult cartoon.

that castlevania show absolutely whips and i'm not just talking about trevor belmont's weapon of choice

RinkuTheFirst wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 03, 2020 8:21 pm

You should check out the Netflix Castlevania for a good non-comedy, adult cartoon.

+1

Yea, very well said Pan.

It feels like most people who want to make an "adult" cartoon are afraid of it possibly being rated anything below "R"/"TV-MA". So they... fill it up with a bunch of sex, gore, exploitation, and other types of adult humour.... which includes sex, gore, exploitation, and oftentimes reference humour. (Family Guy has a LOT of it....)

And of course, when someone tries to make a series that does treat the audience as if they're adults.... it ends up being seen as a "kid's show" despite having an adult fanbase. (see: Avatar the Last Airbender, even the recent iteration of My Little Pony.)

Like, it doesn't have to be super GRIMDARK to be "adult".

That said... you can also thank Leo Burnett. While not the SOLE reason for the "animation is for kids", he did contribute - remember it was im who wanted to use cartoons to sell **** to kids.

Sounds like you're watching your h**tai with the wrong mindset. The comedic value of the bad animation is unintended.

Does Bojack Horseman later series count as being more drama than comedy? I would argue it does I think.

Is henta* a bad word or something which our virgin ears cannot handle? lol. It's not profanity. Why does it get blocked is that even real? Why can I type pornography but not that lol

What's the percentage of adults in the U.S. that actually routinely digest adult animation or cartoons. If that number can be published then I think we'd be looking at a good reason why there aren't as many Adult Cartoons around that aren't comedies.

We are technically a PG website.

There's a simple explanation--------the h-word gets blocked because site administration doesn't want VGF to show up in people's search results when they're Googling the h-word.

United Nations wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:39 am

Does Bojack Horseman later series count as being more drama than comedy? I would argue it does I think.

I don't know. I think it's really funny, myself. But then, I laughed a lot at 'Deadwood', too, and that was indisputably a drama.

that just sounds like an untapped audience to me

The site already has me----------how many revolting perverts does one message board even need?

^ Good question. Last I checked the DA forums, it was a lot.

DarkZero wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 09, 2020 2:28 pm

that just sounds like an untapped audience to me

I'd tap that ayyyyyy

OHHHH so it's like a google analytic sidestep. Gotcha. Well, we gotta pump those numbers up.

So, I think 'Mike Tyson Mysteries' is way up there in my favourite Adult Swim shows, man. I just got into it a couple weeks back, and it already trumps most of the rest. It's so weird and out there, and the humour is really on point. Also, it's fun and funny to hear Mike and Norm clowning around---------I love that those two are friends in real life. I wonder if they ever hang out with Glass Joe.

Midnight Gospel.


That is all.