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American and Japanese cartoons have always had that difference. Look at Bugs Bunny, all of his adventures were purely episodic, and never ever effected any of his other episodes. Even running American cartoons with a basic storyline are segmented so that they can show them in any order without consequence. The Japanese adopted animation as a conduit for storytelling instead, favoring drama over comedy; so when you watch one episode of an anime, you have to see the ones that came before in order to get the full blast of what happened. While American animation studios have adopted a Japanese style of drawing, they still tend to stick to their single-episode continuities, because networks tend not to buy cartoons that they have to make sense out of.

This all makes sense, because in the end, cartoons are aired solely to children here in the States, and so they lack any kind of dramatic storytelling elements in order to keep the child's attention. On the other hand, it's considered childish to watch cartoons, so adults tend not to do it. That's why you tend not to see dramatic anime aired on US network television, adults won't watch it, and children will be bored by it leaving the network to rely on the sliver of American-otaku, who just aren't big enough a group.

However, all of these things are starting to blend together. American style animation will be a thing that will look old, choppy and unappealing to the masses soon, because all the animation schools are spitting out people who are only entering them as people who want to go to Japan someday and work as animators.

xd Sanzo I was going to respond in this thread, but you essentially said everything I was going to.
Before I actually watched it, I thought "Avatar" was just some dumb show pretending to be anime. Then when I sat down and saw an episode, I realized that it really wasn't. It was it's own unique style that borrowed a form of storytelling more commonly found in anime than Western cartoons.

Oh... so many things you just said bother me, Sanzo...

First of all, there is such thing as American-anime. Most new cartoons are borrowing so much of the anime style, that to someone only just looking into the culture it would be impossible to tell which of Teen-Titans and Naruto actually came from Japan.

Speaking of which, Naruto is a good example of a anime that has taken more and more cues from western television in my opinion. I remember a time when anime actually ended, and had it's own distinct style. However, and probably BECAUSE I can remember that time, I notice all the push and pull between American and Japanese television and how they're ripping into one another until soon it'll all just be the same sea of ugly big-headed characters refusing to have sex with each other on-screen when in our minds that's all they do.

Yeah, that was a rant. Also, please try not to use the word "required;" the day that I'm required to watch more then one episode of Naruto, or Bleach is the day I find a sandbox to bury my head in and pretend I'm Gaara.

I stand by there is no American-anime there is American animation that is influenced by anime but it is NOT anime. I said at the beginning anime is limited to Japanese animation. I know most newcomers don't know better but it STILL annoys me. As for Naruto, meh I never really got into it, its okay. It's actually considered by a lot of people I know to be one of the not so good animes out there, not worst but not great either

And where did I use the word required?

@Kyla ...when did they do that to Bugs and who must I kill for it?

edit: nevermind I see where I used required and some animes ARE like that. Not all but some. Hell if you try to watch Paranoia Agent out of order you'll be confused like hell. Some animes you can watch out of order and only be slightly confused but you'll get the swing of things.

Yeah I just noticed that Jimmy, I'd like to point out I never said you had to watch more than one episode of an anime you didn't personally like. Just that you have to watch it in order. There are animes that you pretty much have to if you want to understand what the hell is going on.

Ha! I was actually thinking about you when I wrote that Waku. More specifically I was thinking about how you would react, and you're about on que. I'm sorry if that was insulting, but I'm of the firm belief that you got there after the bubble of people I was referring to, the people who are saturating our selection of animation with that style. It's that bubble that caused your teachers to frown upon the whole thing.

Also, I only mentioned in my post that Japan adopted animation as a way to express a storyline. But I realized that Astro Boy and Gigantor were out and around before more complex stories like Metropolis and Galaxy Express. But if you look, I think you'll notice that even Hamtaro has more cannon and continuity then Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy.

However, I don't like to get elitist about all this. Cartoons are cartoons, if they're here or there, or even pornographic. I'm more likely to get huffy about people getting huffy then I am to get huffy over this or that, and who's the biggest fan.

The horror...the horror: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvdMz4KJIt8