why do college students seem so obsessed with anime?

anime is 99% of the time based off a manga , and that is an ART in itself , just imagine reading a really good book and soaking in the Awesomeness of it , now imagine reading hundreds of ORIGINAL Great books and watching the animation of it .

yes at first you'll say the art is childish and bad .... etc , but once you really get into it , once you really go deep in the story that the only thing on your mind is watching and knowing what happens next to you it will be the greatest thing ever .

and it isn't only college kids it's a lot of people between 13-20 ..... cause they are ( as me ) just discovering this world of anime and manga so to you it may seem that only college students are obsessed with anime but really it's everyone who reads manga or just enjoys watching the adaptation of it .

plus cartoons right now maybe really great a first but once the writers run out of ideas fans start to feel shows are getting repetitive but with anime cause it's an adaptation of a manga's author vision the story doesn't get old and it will have creativity inn every second .

so i guess my point is it's not just the art it's everything the art , the plot , the uniqueness , the creativity , the flow of the story .... etc

Sorry, but...your post actually comes across as a rather cliche 'hating on anime post'. The assumption that anime is all about giant robots or kinky schoolgirl costumes is so common, and so wrong, that anime fans actually use it as a classic, even stereotypical example. See here:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AllAnim...

For the record, of 20 anime shows I've seen so far, only ONE has featured giant robots, and certainly not all of the others have schoolgirl costumes of any kind. If you like, I could specifically recommend shows that have neither.

Also, your criticism of the artwork is unfounded. There's a range of art qualities in anime just as there is in western animation. In fact, if anything, the range in anime is probably even wider. As someone who watched Tsukihime (with its cardboard cutouts and off-screen action that just screamed 'cheap animation budget') right after finishing Clannad (with its enormous attention to detail and silky smooth motion which in the Illusionary World sequences gets EVEN SMOOTHER), I'm in a good position to attest to this.

However, this still doesn't address the main question of why anime is so popular even in the west. So why is it? I think different people are going to have different answers to that. However, the most concise, pithy way I've been able to sum it up is that 'the americans treat animation as a genre, the japanese treat it as a medium'. That is to say, americans believe in a formula that every animated show has to follow, while the japanese have no single formula. They're willing to take it seriously, and they're willing to do anything with it. Admittedly, not every american cartoon is another Family Guy or South Park; in particular, I've heard that Venture Brothers is one of the better and less stereotypical ones. But at the same time, the mere fact that people like you keep treating anime AS IF it's a genre with a formula to follow just goes to indicate what the prevailing mindset is in the west, and why anime throws it for a loop the way it does.

Besides, the unavoidable fact is that the artwork usually is more appealing. Let's face it, if I'm going to watch a cartoon show, and I have a choice between looking at these:

http://www.prlog.org/10618516-american-dad.jpg

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/9844/venture1dd...

http://images.wikia.com/simpsons/images/b/bb/Marge...

or THESE:

http://i635.photobucket.com/albums/uu78/shutouchi/...

http://bignanime.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/their...

http://www.elfenliedfansite.com/images/photoalbum/...

it doesn't take a genius to figure out what I'm going to pick or why.

(Note: The three anime pictures I used above come from animes which feature neither giant robots nor schoolgirl costumes.)

You're starting out by assuming that all anime is crazy giant robot kinky schoolgirl tentacle porn. It's not. Seriously. Please go look up anime like Tokyo Godfathers, Spirited Away, Hourou Musuko, Eden of the East, and Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. Please look up Nana, House of Five Leaves, Paradise Kiss--hell, when was the last time you've seen an anime? 1987?

1. I haven't seen a cartoon on TV that has that kind of full animation like you've described in quite a while. Besides Tom and Jerry reruns. Did you not notice that your western animation has been producing nothing but CGI in the past few years? Let's talk about some of the most popular western animation, too. South Park and Family Guy. Are those fully animated? What about The Simpsons? Danny Phantom and The Fairly OddParents? That new Garfield cartoon. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008). King of the Hill. Having trouble thinking of anything animated like you described in the last 10 years. If a western cartoon in a movie, it will be CGI. However, if an anime is a movie? Well, then it will be fully animated. See trailers of Summer Wars, 5 Centimeters per Second, Voices of a Distant Star, and Paprika.

2. We watch anime not for pretty eye candy but for the greater likelihood of finding an actual plot. Venture Bros. is one of the few western cartoons with a plot. It's a show where people remember what happened in the last episode. Pretty much all anime is like that and that's why they like it. They like character development, they like an ongoing storyline, not just a 30 minute story that no one remembers after it happens.

I'll try not to be biased while answering this.

In what manner is it an inferior product? As someone who's watched enough anime to know what it looks like, there are no "jerky" motions, and if there are, it's meant to be "jerky". Last time I checked, anime has a huge revenue. Unlike in America where anime is looked down upon as a little kid cartoon, in Japan it's more than that. It's a way of life. Not to say it consumes all aspects of their life, but it's highly influential.

And what is wrong with the "giant robots"? I could ask you what's up with anthropomorphic animals? The school outfits aren't kinky, that's how they actually dress in Japanese schools [certain ones], so that's how it's portrayed in anime.

You only see anime as "less impressive" because you don't fully understand it. You seem a bit narrow minded. The complexity of some of the anime 10x harder to draw than Western animation. When you can open your mind to different ideas, then you'll begin to understand.

It's okay to be patriotic, but don't think everything your country produces is vastly superior to everything else.

I'm sorry, but American animation really isn't that great. I mean, have you SEEN the animation that's out nowadays? Most of it is crap. Low-quality art and non-existent plot-lines. Cartoons back in the 70s, 80's, and 90's had more story in 'em, but the art was rather atrocious.

Anime, on the other hand, is awesome. 7 times out of 10 the artwork is good, the characters are relatable, and there's actual plot. I mean, have you seen Ergo Proxy? Now and Then, Here and There? Kino's Journey? Gilgamesh? Wolf's Rain? Hajime No Ippo? Mushishi? Monster? Neon Genesis Evangelion? Grave of the Fireflies? Perfect Blue? Vandread? Jyu Oh Sei? Death Note? If so, then you wouldn't be asking why so many people prefer Japanese animation over American animation. Even though some of the artwork to those anime aren't all that wonderful, they're still beautiful. Why? Because they have MEANING. And that's the major difference between American animation and Japanese anime. People watch anime and emphasize with the characters and their situations. They get drawn in by these intense situations, situations that, even at their most bizarre, can still relate to every day life. Even the most seemingly mindless anime, like Naruto, teaches you something. Beneath the lackluster animation, silly humor, and simplicity, there's meaning in it. There's a message that people get and admire. I can't name a single American animation (that WASN'T a movie) created after 2000 that's similar.

You look down on crazy giant robots, apparently, but have you ever tried to get into one? Like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Gundam, RahXephon, Heroic Age, etc.

I dare you to watch Gundam Seed and tell me that you can't understand why people would actually watch such a thing. It's phenomenal and meaningful and beautiful, and anyone with a lick of humanity and intelligence in them will be drawn by it.

I don't know, why do people act the way they do for anything. That happen to me too. What you need to do is find a really good anime to revive your love of anime. Try Milleinum Actress, its a masterpiece, that what helped me. Or sometime a dry spell is a good thing, maybe you should take a little break from watching anime, focus on other things a bit more. Too much anime at one time and you might get weary of it faster. Or maybe your getting a little bored of just anime, manga, anime, manga... try geting into different subculture of the otaku fandom, like japanese fashion like gothic lolita or japanese music like j-pop, cosplay, fanart, fanfiction, etc, expand your horizon, keep the fandom fresh. If these don't work, just accept that your falling out of love with anime, your losing interest, I don't know what else to tell you.

All I can tell you is watch Code Geass, Dance in the Vampire Bund, and Planet of the beast King. Most anime is funny. It mixes drama, tragedy and comedy all in one to make some interesting shows.

I laugh at the cheap animation bit. Anyways, i prefer anime because the majority of them actually has a plot.

Honestly, how can a man your age be this ignorant.

Not all anime animation is jerky and cheap! Try watching Death Note once and tell me that the animation is better than Spongebob :)

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