Violence in Cartoons/Anime

Welcome to my web page about violence in cartoons and anime. This page is based completely on my opinion as opposed to what I've heard many times in my life. I also don't claim any of the pictures on this page, they are all copyrighted to their respectful creators, some I found on the internet and others are screen captures from DVDs.

A big topic among adults/parents is that there is too much violence in cartoons. I have to admit that there is a fair amount of violence, but personally I don't see much more than before. With the addition of America airing Anime (Japanese Animation), there is even more violence than we are normally used to in cartoons. I prefer the "new" violence as to cartoons like Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. Don't get me wrong I love those kinds of cartoons; but as to how I see it, those cartoons showed children that they can shoot someone or something and the only thing that will happen is that what ever they shoot will get a hole in them but be ok a few minutes later. Or with the case of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, that shows that someone can fall off a cliff (many times even) and make a hole in the ground, escaping with just a few bandages.

But with Anime, normally you see humans beating up each other or demons. Sometimes it is illustrated as hand-to-hand combat or as a futuristic version, where they are fighting each other in robots. Here is where most adults complain. If you ever watch the subtitle versions the violence is way worse than any American cartoons, sometimes ever worse than American Action Movies. Not to mention there is a also a large amount of nudity/sex, depending on what Anime you're watching, but that's not the topic of this page.

Another major thing that the Japanese show in their Anime, is blood. And LOTS of it. In picture 1:2 (a shot taken from the Anime Jin-Roh) you can see how they illustrate blood, although this is minimal compared to what is normally shown, as in picture 1:3. Not all Anime shows this little, or this much. There are many that the U.S. has toned down drastically so they could air them over here. A great example of that is the popular Anime show, Dragonball Z.

When they first started airing Dragonball Z FUNimation wiped out all blood that was ever shown, and many punches that were thrown were either blocked out with a colored shape, or if they punch/attack had literately gone threw the being, FUNimation colored out that part of the shot, making it look like the being was just punched/hit very hard. This in turn made the show look incredibly fake, and many people wrote in complaining. Soon FUNimation gave in and started showing all of the blood, death, and much more violence.

Not all Anime has more blood gushing out of the victim than they can honestly have. The Anime Yu Yu Hakusho does show blood, but it's normally a reasonable about of it, or at least that is what's aired on Cartoon Network and Uncut videos. There are also many times where no blood is shown when one would believe so. Like in picture 1:4, the person with the spirit sword has no blood flowing from his back. Even later on when you see the guy lying on the ground there is no pool of blood under him, even though he had been lying there for at least 2 hours.

It's not always Anime that has violence, the new generation of cartoons has a lot of violence in them but not exactly showing blood or dead bodies. Like the new Batman cartoon shows, they put in a lot more violence than normally shown and are kind of trying to illustrate blood without showing it. You will see people get punched or kicked in the face and then you'll see them move their hand over their face, wiping nonexistent blood from their mouth or nose.

The only American cartoons that I have see that really illustrates blood is the movie Titan A.E. and Animatrix, which is kind of American Anime. With Titan A.E., a 20th Century Fox production, not only do they show blood from where the people were shot, but there is even a scene where the captain , Korso, literately snaps the neck of a former shipmate, Preed, shown in the animation (Picture 1:7) to the right.

Pretty much, violence is a high demand now for TV. shows and movies, especially the younger generation. Violence is all around us, adults blame it all on violent shows and games, but personally I believe it is more because of the adults that are blaming the shows.

For more pictures of shows/movies I got off of DVDs click here.