Why are recent cartoons either science fiction, surreal, and/or fantasy?

[Papenbrook]

I noticed a recent trend going on in modern day cartoons. From 2010 and onward, most cartoons are of the fantasy, surrealism, and/or science fiction genre. I think the trend started when Adventure Time became popular and mainstream. After all, it started in 2010.

Will slice-of-life and realistic shows ever become noticed to the general demographic? Or will it become rare? Will today's shows fade in popularity? Or will it be popular for a long time?

Discussion below.

[Prowler]

I don't know, since I don't watch American cartoons these days and stick to anime. But I'm guessing it's because they're the genres that make the most money now? Just like some years ago, there were live action tv shows set in hospitals and about police investigation everywhere. It's cyclical, I guess.

[Powder]

Because modern society is on the decline & people need more fantastical things to escape it.

[Coola Yagami]

What do you mean by slice of life? I guess the Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, King of the Hill and South Park?

Or do you just mean shows that take place in a more real world setting?

[THGhost]

I have no idea, but since I love that kind of stuff I'm all for it.

[Prowler]

I have no idea, but since I love that kind of stuff I'm all for it.

Simpsons,Family Guy, South Park, etc. target a different demographic than the likes of Adventure Time, Ben 10 and such.

I'm more disappointed over the fact that the most "adult" American cartoons are always comedies. There should be more variety like in anime.

[Peanut]

Because trends exist.

[CyberCubed]

I haven't really noticed this. The same superhero shows that exist today are the same type of shows that have always been around, (new Batman cartoon, new Spiderman cartoon, new TMNT cartoon, etc).

Besides Avatar debuted in 2005 which is now a decade ago, and that was fantasy based more or less.

[Papenbrook]

What do you mean by slice of life? I guess the Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, King of the Hill and South Park?

Or do you just mean shows that take place in a more real world setting?


Mostly the latter. Slice of Life depends mosly on mundane realism in everyday life. In the genre, characters mostly take part in normal, real-life activities such as going to school, get a job, etc.

[Prowler]

Mostly the latter. Slice of Life depends mosly on mundane realism in everyday life. In the genre, characters mostly take part in normal, real-life activities such as going to school, get a job, etc.

I always found "slice of life" to be a very vague term for a genre. For some reason, plenty of anime seem to fall under the "slice of life" category. And that doesn't really tell me what they're actually about.

[THGhost]

I always found "slice of life" to be a very vague term for a genre. For some reason, plenty of anime seem to fall under the "slice of life" category. And that doesn't really tell me what they're actually about.

A "slice of life" anime sounds really boring. :P

[Prowler]

A "slice of life" anime sounds really boring. :P
I found Ristorante Paradiso and especially Bartender to be pretty enjoyable. Apparently, they fall under the category.

[Powder]

A "slice of life" anime sounds really boring. :P

Not at all. In fact, many of the most popular anime series are of that genre. Just because it's daily life doesn't mean it can't be creative. For example, K-on! is a slice of life show & it's about an all girl rock band's practice sessions, concerts, vacations, etc. Shirokuma Cafe is about a world where animals & humans live together & communicate in the same tongue, working regular jobs & having zany adventures. Then you've got your typical school setting stuff like Nichijou, but it's not tests & studying, you'll see the principal get into a fight with a wild deer, a toddler scientist with a robot caretaker & talking cat, etc. Anything can happen in these slices of their lives. Doesn't have to be grounded in reality by any means. Sometimes it's the daily life of demons/wizards or galactic soldiers. It can be whatever you want. :)

[Prowler]

Not at all. In fact, many of the most popular anime series are of that genre. Just because it's daily life doesn't mean it can't be creative. For example, K-on! is a slice of life show & it's about an all girl rock band's practice sessions, concerts, vacations, etc. Shirokuma Cafe is about a world where animals & humans live together & communicate in the same tongue, working regular jobs & having zany adventures. Then you've got your typical school setting stuff like Nichijou, but it's not tests & studying, you'll see the principal get into a fight with a wild deer, a toddler scientist with a robot caretaker & talking cat, etc. Anything can happen in these slices of their lives. Doesn't have to be grounded in reality by any means. :)
I didn't care much for K-ON!. Then again, I'm not much into the "moe" thing.

[THGhost]

I meant the typical, mundane "slice of life" scenarios, guys. But thanks for pointing out some creative examples. I'll check them out.

Sym-Bionic Titan could be considered slice of life; an alien princess, her bodyguard and a robot are sent to Earth to pose as teenagers to hide from a war happening on their home planet. They go to school, make friends, go on dates, go to parties, etc. But they also fight invading monsters with a giant robot they all control. :P

[Cure]

Will slice-of-life and realistic shows ever become noticed to the general demographic?

Clarence exists. There's an episode where he goes to the grocery store.

[BubblyShell22]

Why would we want to see stuff like that when we see it every day? Fantasy and sci-fi shows are a way for us to get away from all the mundane sh*t that goes on in our lives.

[Candy Kappa]

Cause it's popular.

/thread.

[TurtleTitan97]

Cause it's popular.

/thread.

Yeah, this is pretty much the best explanation.

[Leo656]

Why would we want to see stuff like that when we see it every day? Fantasy and sci-fi shows are a way for us to get away from all the mundane sh*t that goes on in our lives.

I'm with ya on that one.

The entire reason cartoons and comics exist, is to have things happen that simply couldn't happen in real life, or be reproduced in live action. So it tickles me when people want to take a medium based primarily on presenting the extraordinary, and make it mundane. There's other, better places to get that kind of thing.

Like yeah, you could potentially turn something like Tuesdays With Morrie into an animated series, but it seems like a colossal waste of time on every single count.

[BubblyShell22]

Exactly. It's like if the TMNT had a show where all they did was just sit in the Lair all day and not even fight but just do everyday stuff. Who wants to see that? I want to see my TMNT with action and kicking a**. I remember there were some people complaining about April and not showing enough of her high school life, and I'm glad they didn't because I don't want to see that in a TMNT show.

[Duke Nukem]

I love cartoons like Venture Bros that are ridiculous but actually correlate some things to real life as they'd actually work. For example, when one of the main villians, the Monarch, was captured by Captain Sunshine (a Superman knockoff), he's later seen coming back to his lair when his wife asked what happened, he said "He threw me in jail. I mean literally, dropped me off in the yard at the state prison. I guess he forgot about due process!"

[Netkeeper]

See, I like Slice of Life A LOT when it's about distinctly non-human characters, and plays with their antics or struggles. I wouldn't like it about normal humans very much, but when zany, silly things happen in an otherwise normal setting, I'm all for it.

Kinda like those silly Inuyasha filler episodes when he's in Kagome's modern era. Say what you will, but I ****ing loved those and I wish they could have done a spinoff series all about that.

[pennydreadful]

Me too, Net - I always got a real kick out of them. I would've liked to have seen a spin-off where InuYasha had to go to school with Kagome. :lol:

[Candy Kappa]

Saint Young Men is a pretty fun "slice of life" show, being Jesus and Buddha having vacation in Japan.

[Netkeeper]

Me too, Net - I always got a real kick out of them. I would've liked to have seen a spin-off where InuYasha had to go to school with Kagome. :lol:
Holy **** don't feed into my guilty pleasures.

[Please keep doing this.]

[pennydreadful]

http://i.imgur.com/OhywrZP.jpg?1

[Papenbrook]

So, I keep noticing that recent cartoons that concern said genres all start to resemble each other.



https://imagesvc.meredithcorp.io/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.onecms.io%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F6%2F2021%2F08%2F16%2Fi nside-job-4-2000.jpg&q=85 (https://ew.com/tv/netflix-inside-job-first-look-photos/)

https://i2.wp.com/decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/CENT_104_272_194-resize.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&ssl=1 (https://www.google.com/amp/s/decider.com/2021/07/30/centaurworld-netflix-review/amp/)

https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/1200x680/public/2020/06/06_lower_deck_group.jpg (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.syfy.com/syfywire/who-won-the-week-star-trek-lower-decks%3famp)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/solar_opposites_e208_0017-H-2021.jpg (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hulu-solar-opposites-season-four-1234971977/)

https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/feda217/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600x900+0+0/resize/1486x836!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdf%2Fa6%2F9f404d2226 7a23bcb413f7231e87%2Fla-1519585512-i6jx7lqztm-snap-image (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-final-space-review-20180226-story.html)




It's ... very strange ...

[Leo656]

Exactly. It's like if the TMNT had a show where all they did was just sit in the Lair all day and not even fight but just do everyday stuff. Who wants to see that? I want to see my TMNT with action and kicking a**.

Change the word "show" to "comic book" and this post turned out to be eerily prophetic.

[neatoman]

Maybe it's a bit late to chime in here but I'm pretty sure this has been the case since... Well... Since the invention of the television and quite possibly before that? Animation, while expensive in it's own right, is still cheaper for making imagery that would cost a fortune accomplish in live-action. The old Battlestar Galactica got cancelled because it was too expensive to make despite good ratings and reviews, while the reboot kept the budget down by conveying the "alien worlds" not with clever set but rather a color filter. And because animation on it's own is clearly more expensive than just filming without SFX, it would be considered a waste to make "realistic" cartoons.

Isn't it harder to think of cartoons that aren't Sci-Fi, Fantasy or make use of weird elements? Even the exceptions I can think of, like King of the Hill, still make use of hallucination scenes and alike.
94qYfk46s88

[CyberCubed]

Cartoons are definitely more, "gay" than they've ever been before. That's the only change I've noticed between modern cartoons and the cartoons I grew up with in the 80's, 90's and even early 2000's.

[IndigoErth]

So, I keep noticing that recent cartoons that concern said genres all start to resemble each other.

It's ... very strange ...
Yeah, it's definitely a trend we've been stuck in for quite a while and I generally really dislike them and wish western animation would move past it. (With the exception of Centaurworld, it's weirdly good with its purposeful contrast and dark tones it starts showing. Can't wait to see more. edit: Dammit, now I need to go look up the music again...)

Really wish shows that look and feel more like 2003 TMNT (the first few seasons) would become more of a thing again.

[neatoman]

Cartoons are definitely more, "gay" than they've ever been before. That's the only change I've noticed between modern cartoons and the cartoons I grew up with in the 80's, 90's and even early 2000's.

True, up until fairly recently it wasn't common to see unambigious depictions of homosexuality in children's media. Of course, it didn't really start until after the legalisation of same sex marriage on a federal level in the US which was a mere six years ago. I think we're in a bit of "honeymoon phase" in regards to that, it got "safe" for networks to depict that stuff fairly recently and it has been hush-hush for so long that it still seems... I don't know... Novel (?) enough for critics to praise these shows on that merit alone. Of course, eventually having gay stuff in your won't turn any heads anymore when it just becomes expected and emphasis on it might die down a bit. Not exactly go away entirely, I don't think it will ever be like that again, but certainly it might no longer be focused on anymore when it's no longer cheap accolade bait.

Still if you want gay stuff from before 2010, just take a look at the stuff for adults.
mBpvncpKVlQ

[Papenbrook]

Yeah, it's definitely a trend we've been stuck in for quite a while and I generally really dislike them and wish western animation would move past it. (With the exception of Centaurworld, it's weirdly good with its purposeful contrast and dark tones it starts showing. Can't wait to see more. edit: Dammit, now I need to go look up the music again...)

Really wish shows that look and feel more like 2003 TMNT (the first few seasons) would become more of a thing again.


I get that they want to look similar to Rick and Morty, but still.

It's ... somewhat creepy.

[Coola Yagami]

I get that they want to look similar to Rick and Morty, but still.

It's ... somewhat creepy.

Good ol' fashioned lack of originality and drive to make money. "That show makes money, do what they're doing!!"

[sdp]

Cartoons are too gay nowadays, they need more action. I'm tired of the current trend of cartoons, but it shouldn't be too much longer, it's already lasted quite a few years so it should be on its way out. Style of cartoons change over time so it's not like we're stuck with this forever. I'm sure plenty of people thought "i'm tired of xtreme cartoons" back in the 90s.

[CyberCubed]

I also hate how all cartoons look the same now, there's no distinct style in cartoons like there used to be. Also what's with the lack of realistic proportions? In the 90's all cartoons were drawn like real people in terms of length, now they're all little short almost chibi like characters with big heads/faces that are bigger than their body.

[Leo656]

Still if you want gay stuff from before 2010, just take a look at the stuff for adults.
mBpvncpKVlQ

Drawn Together was the greatest TV show ever made, and a perfect example of something that NOBODY, not even Comedy Central, could have ever gotten away with making nowadays. What with all of the unapologetic racism, homophobic jokes, anti-Semitism, blatant over-sexualization, etc. etc. etc.

Nobody'd even be able to wrap their heads around it. "Wait, the black actress (Cree Summer) is WILLINGLY playing a racist stereotype?! The Jewish actress (Tara Strong) is playing TWO characters who constantly praise Hitler and make anti-Semitic jokes? How the... WHY the... what is going on?!"

Simple answer being, people had a sense of humor back then. BUT, that's not a good enough explanation for most people nowadays. Cree and Tara would both be "cancelled" for taking roles like that nowadays. As it is, I'm surprised nobody tries to use it against them Now. I know they both loved doing the show, and at the time it aired would always deflect any criticism of it by saying "People need to lighten the f*ck up and get a sense of humor, it's just jokes". And at the time, Tara Strong said that it was her all-time favorite project she'd ever worked on, but who knows if she still feels that way after working on My Little Pony. It's just funny how someone who's mostly known for all of her kid-friendly roles had such a blast performing on what's essentially The Most Offensive Show Ever Made.

On that note, I absolutely adore all the videos on YouTube where people dub Tara's Princess Clara lines over Twilight Sparkle. :lol: Seeing Twilight going on racist/homophobic tirades and singing songs about child molesters is just too f*cking funny.

I really miss Drawn Together. :tsad: Thankfully I have all the DVDs, where all the nudity and cursing are completely uncensored. Which you don't get whenever it (VERY rarely) gets rebroadcast. I doubt anybody will ever even attempt to make a show like it; we're too far into "You can't say THAT!" territory nowadays.

[CyberCubed]

If we're talking about improvement in action cartoons, I have to say characters actually being allowed to punch and kick each other on-screen is a vast improvement. As we know from 80's and 90's shows, many characters weren't allowed direct physical contact because it would be "too violent" for kids, even though we all knew back then that was nonsense. In shows like the original TMNT cartoon, 90's Spiderman, even B:TAS at times characters would resort to "throwing" their enemy or indirectly attacking them like slashing a tree branch so it would fall on the bad guys heads or something like that. Sure sometimes the cartoons would get away with physical violence, but it wasn't often.

Honestly sometimes watching modern action cartoons I'm surprised how violent they are. Characters punch each others faces in, smash their skulls against the pavement, kick them right in the stomach, and even with female characters too! Kids today don't realize how good they have it compared to the insane censors of the 80's and early 90's. Goddamn Soccer Moms ruined everything back then, worried that, "Little Timmy" was going to go kill someone because of violent kids cartoons...that were so tame in retrospect.

[sdp]

soccer mom and christian censorship was definitely worse than the current SJW censorship all things considered.

[Leo656]

If we're talking about improvement in action cartoons, I have to say characters actually being allowed to punch and kick each other on-screen is a vast improvement. As we know from 80's and 90's shows, many characters weren't allowed direct physical contact because it would be "too violent" for kids, even though we all knew back then that was nonsense. In shows like the original TMNT cartoon, 90's Spiderman, even B:TAS at times characters would resort to "throwing" their enemy or indirectly attacking them like slashing a tree branch so it would fall on the bad guys heads or something like that. Sure sometimes the cartoons would get away with physical violence, but it wasn't often.

Honestly sometimes watching modern action cartoons I'm surprised how violent they are. Characters punch each others faces in, smash their skulls against the pavement, kick them right in the stomach, and even with female characters too! Kids today don't realize how good they have it compared to the insane censors of the 80's and early 90's. Goddamn Soccer Moms ruined everything back then, worried that, "Little Timmy" was going to go kill someone because of violent kids cartoons...that were so tame in retrospect.

To a point it was even worse back in the 60s and 70s. If you watch some of the Filmation Superman cartoons or the earliest Seasons of Super-Friends, not only was no physical violence allowed, even actual Bad Guys doing Bad Guy Things were practically verboten. Most of the "villains" in the early Super-Friends cartoons were just misguided scientists whose experiments had unforeseen consequences, which the heroes then had to clean up after. Or they'd have to stop some kind of environmental disaster or something.

Even the sanitized violence of the cartoons in the '80s was miles ahead of what they could get away with 10-15 years earlier. We're constantly making progress with this sort of thing.

[CyberCubed]

Yeah even when I rewatch the Fred Wolf cartoon you can tell the writers were trying as hard as they could to include more action even when they weren't allowed to show much physical contact. It's hard to believe back then characters in cartoons were not allowed to throw a single punch at a bad guy. Even then the original TMNT show was probably the most action oriented cartoon of its time, there were still explosions, laser blasters, at least some physical punching/kicking in a few episodes, and so forth. Sure a lot of eps had slapstick or the Turtles just pulling a rug from under Bebop/Rocksteady's shoes and them going flying, but there were still some regular fight scenes. That's why I can't be too hard on the show, I know the writers were fighting the censors at the time and soccer moms.

[Coola Yagami]

It's all sorts of weird. While older cartoons can't even throw punches or so much as make a fist, newer cartoons mostly only throw punches when the bad guy is able to dodge them.

90's cartoon Wolverine was a perfect example, only allowed to use his blades on robots and the like. Always told to pull back before he would actually use them on someone, or the times that he did it was because the person was able to either dodge them or had some sort of force-field or whatever that prevented the blades from actually cutting the guy up. I think for long-time Wolverine fans it was amazing to see him actually cut up soldiers in the X2 movie.

Then some cartoons do stupid stuff like 'character A swings sword towards the screen, character B is thrown back as if they were punched, rather than being sliced'.

I still remember the 2012 cartoon when Leo used his swords on Dr. Falco. Of course he was only allowed to do so cause Falco was able to dodge every move, but it still looked weird seeing Leo swing his swords at a 'defenseless' human who would have been sliced and diced had he not been able to predict and dodge.

I still think it's stupid that 'adult comedy' shows can have Peter and the Chicken beat the living **** out of each other while American action cartoons can't. This is why I like anime. I can't imagine something like My Hero Academia working if All Might wouldn't be allowed to punch his foes.

[Leo656]

People crack on it - especially because it happened so often and Filmation's re-use of stock animation was legendary - but He-Man's whole "Punch the camera, cut to the bad guys falling down" gimmick was actually a rather elegant and clever solution to not technically being allowed to show him making contact on a punch.

You still had silly stuff like him having a sword but only ever using it as a flyswatter, but considering the restrictions of the era that show was actually way ahead of its time as far as how much "violence" they got away with due to their creative staging of it.

[Coola Yagami]

People crack on it - especially because it happened so often and Filmation's re-use of stock animation was legendary - but He-Man's whole "Punch the camera, cut to the bad guys falling down" gimmick was actually a rather elegant and clever solution to not technically being allowed to show him making contact on a punch.

You still had silly stuff like him having a sword but only ever using it as a flyswatter, but considering the restrictions of the era that show was actually way ahead of its time as far as how much "violence" they got away with due to their creative staging of it.

I'll never forget the Legend of Zelda episode where Link sold his sword for another, but this new sword didn't fire off those blasts his regular sword did. So he gets in a situation where he's surrounded by bad guys and he's in a jam because the sword can't fire energy blasts. The dude was legit acting completely defenseless despite the sword still being fully functional as a regular sword. Like the thought of him actually swinging it at the bad guys doesn't even occur to him.

[Leo656]

It makes you wonder why anyone in an '80s cartoon even had a sword. BUT THEY ALL HAD SWORDS! Swords they couldn't use properly! Like f*ck, man, just give 'em a goddamn baseball bat, same difference. :lol:

Like Thundercats. You'd think the Sword of Omens would be the only thing that can defeat Mumm-Ra. But no... it's his REFLECTION. :roll: Nevermind that Lion-O himself is a goddamn putz. But they go and give him a big bad-ass sword that essentially only functions as a mirror and occasionally a pair of binoculars.

He also, to my knowledge, never used the sword to gain "Sight Beyond Sight" into Cheetara's shower. Or if he did, the show never presented it as such. Lion-O is a f*cking assclown.

[IndigoErth]

Swords they couldn't use properly!

Let me tell you that I am annoyed as I was going to post what I thought was a clip of FW Leo hacking off the (albeit robot but still talking) heads of Herman the Horrible...and then the clip ends right before he does.

[Andrew NDB]

I'll never forget the Legend of Zelda episode where Link sold his sword for another, but this new sword didn't fire off those blasts his regular sword did. So he gets in a situation where he's surrounded by bad guys and he's in a jam because the sword can't fire energy blasts. The dude was legit acting completely defenseless despite the sword still being fully functional as a regular sword. Like the thought of him actually swinging it at the bad guys doesn't even occur to him.

Reminds me of anything TMNT that isn't Mirage since forever (and no, blocking doesn't count).

[Leo656]

Let me tell you that I am annoyed as I was going to post what I thought was a clip of FW Leo hacking off the (albeit robot but still talking) heads of Herman the Horrible...and then the clip ends right before he does.

Leo did get a little bit more leeway with his swords than some other folks, but to be fair he did mostly fight robots and using your sword against robots has generally been fair game in cartoons. I'm almost positive that He-Man sliced up a few robots in his day, too.

I like how in one of the first few episodes of FW TMNT the Turtles are genuinely surprised that the bad guys they're slicing up are robots. It illustrates that in the moment, not knowing any better, they had every intention of killing the f*ck out of whoever it was they were fighting. :lol:

Any balls that show had vanished pretty much immediately after that. But FOR A MOMENT they actually pretended to take things seriously.