Other Vice Pit sessions on...
Thanks to Donwun and zaldar for their most excellent Q's!
Be sure to submit questions and topics for a future Vice Pit session here. We will answer them!
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
Sam Weller is a writer and actor who's scribed for shows like FIRST EDITION, GEEK THERAPY, and most recently BATGIRL: SPOILED. He also really likes anime. To know what is going to happen next, follow@cravesam
Alexei Bochenek is a lifelong tech nerd and film buff based in Los Angeles. He writes for various online publications and edits the Los Angeles events website LALookout.com. Follow his Twitter: @alexeigb.





















Amerime. Never heard of that term.(Doing a Google search right now as I edit this post, I see it there on Urban Dictionary.) However, I remember going to a comic/anime shop, and I see those new toys - Wonder Woman in anime form, Supergirl as well, etc. I hate that. I cannot stand when American things gets Japan'd-up. It doesn't work. Let's keep American things American and Japanese things Japanese. It just works that way.
-- Ah yeah, the AME-COMI toys. I just remembered. Example:
@swaggity:
That kind of close minded of you. For me, combining the two can be a good idea (like Megas XLR and The Futurama episode) or a bad idea (like Iron Man anime)
Also, thanks guys for reminding me that Super Book exist. Now I need to try to forget about it
@Destinyheroknight: Well, me not liking something =/= being close-minded. At all.
I really don't like when anime takes American shows and makes them into an anime.
The Wolverine anime? Dumb. X-Men anime? Dumb.
Iron Man only worked because he's a robot/mecha. That's it. Other than that, no. Keep anime out of American media.
Seriously, when people try to make the South Park characters or Family Guy characters look like anime, I just facepalm at how bad it looks.
@swaggity:
When you say this
That pretty close minded, also when did Family Guy did anime?
@Destinyheroknight: Well, I stand by that. Keep Japan anime out of American media. It doesn't work. I don't like it at all.
And if you Google it, you can see fan drawings of Family Guy in anime form. They look terrible.
@swaggity said:
No offense, but a find that statement incredibly ignorant as well as arrogant. Whether or not you like it, it's not for you, it's for all and it benefits both parties. Japan and America as well as other countries trade off influences, which go into making animation as a whole better. What would happen if the Japanese said "Keep American media out of our Japanese media!", I can tell you that you wouldn't have anything even close to resembling the anime you hold so dear today. French and Canadian animation also had a huge impact on the current animation we have in America. Experimentation and sampling is what keeps media and everything else that ticks involving, growing, and changing.
@Top8cat: I'm not gonna lie. I'm trying to not really care because this is the internet, and it's just a bunch of opinions, but I really, and truly HATE when Japanese anime gets involved in American media... to a degree. I showed you a picture of AME-COMI toys. Supergirl does NOT belong as a Japanese anime character. And I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who would agree with me as well, so it's really not all just for me.
I don't know how it's justified to call someone ignorant who watches anime and reads comics, and who likes to keep Anime to Japan and Comics to America.
Hell, I love dubbing. Bring that over. FUNimation? Let them keep dubbing. I love their dubs. I love watching dubbed anime. However... there's a degree to what I like and do not like. AME-COMI Supergirl and Power Girl? I have seen them both. Nuh-uh. That does not work. Making the X-Men into an anime? Nuh-uh. Doesn't work.
They get all ridiculous adding these cat eyes and all this... ugh. It just doesn't work. Stop doing it.
We have GOOD influences from Japanese media here like Avatar: The Last Airbender. That was done fantastically. However, it's done to a good degree and done well. It works. However, remember that old saying "Too much of anything is a bad thing"? Yeah, we all have. AME-COMI is too much. Let's take it back a little bit. Leave me my Toonami and my dubbed anime. Take away AME-COMI and X-Men the anime.
There are things that are done well, and not done well. Maaaybe I was too over-the-top with my comment to keep anime out of comics and vice versa, but when I see AME-COMI toys, it has gone too far.
@swaggity:
You're referring simply to the look, there if far more to implementation that just the look of a media. It's the style, rhythm, movement, timing, even themes. Take Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai or even DeadmanWonderland for example, it undeniably has the rhythm and timing inspired by American media and hiphop(deadman not so much). You also have One Piece which is largely reminiscent of Astro Boy and Gigantor which in and of itself is a Japanese derivative of Walt Disney's style. You will always have crap(like a lot of the crappy anime out there before they found their own unique style within the mimicked concept), there will always be crap, but you don't just cease to evolve as a culture because you have a bad experience, that's just ludicrous.
Also, you're examples of x-men and other comics being turned into 'ame-rima' (or whatever they're calling it) is far from proper implementation, you are taking a predefined concept and repurposing it instead of coming up with a completely new concept. The reason why Avatar:TLA worked so well, and other pieces like it, is that it was designed from the beginning to utilize it's influence down to it's design as well as character structure. As they get more comfortable with it's semi unique blend they can then start to veer away from certain troops and even the overall character structure, and when that happens, something beautiful is formed from it.
Since I originally brought up the question thought I’d chime in
I’ve seen American cartoon’s take chimes from Anime for years and honestly I find it to be a good thing in a lot of cases. Collaboration brings new ideas and concepts from both regions and as the Vice guys had stated Japan and US have been influencing each other for decades which has resulted in some great titles e.g The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight, Avatar TLA (which was actually animated in Asia not America btw) and many many more
Check Out: Suede's Top 11 Amerime
It would be a perfect world if everyone just saw animation from any region as animation on a whole..but the eastern and western style of animation are radically different….and in many ways American cartoons have personified the idea that cartoons / animation are for kids. That is a bold statement that is not directed to all American animators but rather how the majority of people see things to this very day and it’s because of that I have always appreciated Japanese animation more for its diversity.
Check out The legend of Avatar & Amerime Part 01 & 02
American cartoons are not what they were in the 90s. They were good then. But I was also a kid so that is to be expected. Personally, cartoons suck compared to anime, especially now. There is no source material and there is little story which does not require seeing each episode. Avatar is excluded from everything I just said.