I don't know if want to get into this or not.
I have always been a fan of animation. Anyone who knows me, knows that I watch more animated than live action TV. I have also become more and more dissatisfied with the shows being played in the US. Not because of quality of the animation, but because of the content. I suppose it is because of my age, in some cases, and because of my sense of humor in others. I don't like most of the shows playing on Cartoon Network Adult Swim. In fact I often wonder how many of them ever got a green light to be put on TV at all. I know there are fans of these shows. I am not one of them. Of course Japan has it's own series of shows that cater to the same audience. The new show
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is a good example. There are a lot of Japanese anime that fall into the questionable subject matter category in the current line-up.
MM!, and
Yosuga no Sora being two that come to mind. I believe this all has to do more with why I like or watch the anime than the visual quality of it.
I think the best example of Japanese quality in animation for a TV series is
Seirei no Moribito. I am amazed at the quality of the animation in this show. The attention to detail, the lighting and shading, the motion in the fight scenes. Everything is motion picture quality. I think the closest American analogy is the already mentioned
The Last Airbender (look for the sequel
The Legend of Korra on Nickelodeon soon).
I grew up watching cartoons in the 70's. You want to talk about choppy and crappy animation look at anything produced then. That goes for both American and Japanese animation. At the time I suppose you could say that Disney had the edge on quality as the best studio out there. Even Disney had some competition though.
Ralph Bakshi put out some pretty controversial animations during the 70's and 80's, and even early 90's. And
Nelvana up in Canada put out quite a few cartoons and movies that were popular in the US. Ever hear of the
Care Bears,
Strawberry Shortcake, or
Inspector Gadget? They also did the cult classic animated feature
Rock & Rule Another name in the industry is
Don Bluth. In the early 80's he left Disney with a lot of other Disney animators who felt that the new Disney movie
TRON and the whole 3D CG revolution were not what they joined Disney to do. They all left anf did their own film. It was called
The Secret of N.I.M.H. They paid for it with the proceeds they made from two laser disc games they produced called
Dragons Lair and
Space Ace. This was followed shortly with
An American Tail and
Land Before Time I still feel that Bluth and his crew are the ones responsible for giving Disney the kick in the butt they needed to put out all of the films they did in the 80's and 90's.
Studio Ghibli is still the top producer of 2D theatrical releases, in my opinion. I am waiting to see
The Borrower Arrietty. I will compare it with
Tangled, the latest release from Disney. Maybe I should use
The Princes and the Frog instead since it is 2D and
Tangled looks like they are going to go 3D with all of it. From the little bit I have seen on
the trailer, I already think
Arrietty will win, hands down.
Another French animation to add is
Ōban Star-Racers by
Sav! the World Productions. I would also recommend
Asterix and Obelix Also many of the Jetix shows on Disney are from Europe, either France or Italy. Both
W.I.T.C.H. and
Winx Club being good examples. A good animated feature to look up some time is
Allegro non Troppo It is a combination of live action and animation and sort of makes fun of Disneys
Fantasia.
Anyway, this is my two cents. Feel free to reply however you want.