The Biggest Difference Between Eastern and Western Animation

I grew up on Disney films and I got into anime at a very early age back in the old tsunami days and decide from style I wasn't really sure what the difference was between Western and Eastern animation that having grown up in the Disney Renaissance and having a bunch of anime series under my belt now I'm starting to get the picture if you had to describe to a friend the biggest difference between Western and Eastern animation besides the style how would you do so I believe there is one big difference between eastern and western animation and that is how they convey emotion Western animation tends to put the character as the focal point of the emotional drama while eastern animation uses the circumstances that the characters find themselves in as what stirs the emotions of the audience now it should be noted that these methods are not exclusive to each style of animation both Eastern and Western can use characters and circumstances to produce an emotional response in the audience it's just that the main emotional drivers tend to be character for Western animation and circumstance for eastern animation there are two similar scenes that will help me illustrate this point one is from a silent voice and the other is from The Hunchback of Notre Dom before we begin breaking this down let's talk about why this is important conveying emotion with circumstances allows the viewer to more easily place themselves into the situation that the protagonists might find themselves in and this elicits a reaction of empathy we can relate to the struggle of those challenges conveying emotion through character can create a powerful bond that resonates with audiences this typically manifests itself in the heroic figure the characters of Western animation are almost always the hero and usually expressed a paragon of moral excellency creating memorable characters also lends itself to increasing emergent I sales but that's beside the point let's analyze to rescue scenes one from the east and one from the West the first scene we're gonna look at is a scene from the movie a silent voice if you haven't seen this movie yet you need to stop this video and go find it and watch it because it's amazing while attending a festival Shoko sister and mom leave to go get food and Shoko leaves the festival to go back to her apartment giving some lame excuse when they come back the sister asks showya to run back to the apartment to get her camera that she left there it's never explicitly stated but I kind of felt like this was always deliberate on the sisters part because she wanted to show you and Shoko to have some time together there's a lot to unpack in this one scene on entering the apartment he sees Shoko step onto the railing of the balcony and realizes what she's about to do because earlier in the film we see him attempt to do the same thing he calls out to her several times but she's deaf and has removed her hearing aid because we see it in the frame when he grabs her the camera come up he starts to call to her and out of habit begins to take off his shoes in the customary practice before he realizes how serious the situation is she [Music] she can't hear show you calling out and as he runs to stop her he Clips the table falls to the ground panicking he screams out her name and dashes to save her [Music] [Music] now I'm not gonna spoil what happens because you need to go watch this movie if you haven't done so already but it's within this scene that these circumstances are what is driving the tension Shoko can't hear him and show you struggles to get to her in time next let's take a look at the Hunchback of Notre Dom this movie's climactic scene is another rescue Esmerelda is about to be burned at the stake and Quasimodo has been chained to the Notre Dame Cathedral forced to watch his master judge Dom Claude Frollo has spent the entire movie convincing Quasimodo that the outside world is cruel and hateful especially to people like him Esmeralda is the first person to treat Quasimodo with kindness and respect not caring for what he looks like and she is about to be killed and maybe froze wrong about the both of us what does he city throttles nose is long and he wears a truss the chains that hold Quasimodo aren't literal they're metaphorical and the gargoyle Laverne says so these chains aren't what told you about Quasimodo leave me alone once Quasimodo can overcome the fear and lies that his master Frollo has built up around him the entirety of his life he's able to make the daring journey and rescue his friend it is only by overcoming his inner turmoil that Quasimodo is able to break the very thing that holds him back so he can move forward for the entirety of the movie the audience routes for Quasimodo to break free from the hold that his master has over him and to finally see it gives the audience a surge of emotional satisfaction [Applause] [Applause] this crying out for refuge victory and sanctuary is as much for Quasimodo as it is for Esmeralda if you need any more convincing the character is the driving force of the audience's emotional response look at Quasimodo's reaction to when Phoebus kisses Esmeralda I mean come on if that's not proof I don't know what is so in my humble opinion that's the biggest difference that I've noticed between eastern and western animation it's how they convey emotion to the audience whether through circumstance or through character but now it's your turn do you have a preference of eastern or western animation which method do you think is more powerful in creating a motion circumstance or character let me know in the comments down below thank you so much for watching storytellers if you want to see more videos like this one hit subscribe ring the bell and turn on notifications I'm drew Mele and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Drew Malou

Views: 12,553

Rating: 4.9103446 out of 5

Keywords: Video Essay, The Biggest Difference Between Eastern and Western Animation, Animation Vs. Anime, Eastern Vs. Western Anime, Eastern vs Western Animation, How Anime and Animation are different, Anime vs Cartoons, A Silent Voice, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Comparison, Drew Malou, Drew Maloo, Drew Malu, Andrew Malousis

Id: Uo9GREXbMk8

Length: 6min 15sec (375 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 13 2020