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Author Archives: Marlon Palmer
Hey!
I just posted a short piece over on my friend Philip Zeng’s blog Spark of Inspiration. Go check it out.
The MoMA Changed My Life
When I was in the 12th I went to the Museum of Modern Art for the first time, and it changed my life.
Up until I was 15 I lived in Jamaica, on the country side. There was a lot of fresh air, fresh fruits, and beautiful trees, but no museums. The only art I had ever seen was on TV or in books so my concept of art was a bunch of portrait and landscape oil paintings. I knew nothing of the new generation of art and artists and the MoMA changed that for me.
When I stepped into the MoMA for the first time in the spring of 2012 my idea of what art was got completely revamped. For the first time ever I was seeing Picassos right in front of me, close enough to touch. I saw abstract pieces, sculptures, and print. I was learning what really good art was, and I was loving it. After that trip I abandoned my ideas of becoming a doctor and decided to become a graphic designer and surround myself with as much art as possible, whether it be a painting, a really good movie or TV show, a great band, digital designs or graffiti on the side of a building.
Now I am studying Graphic Design at the New York City College of Technology and I go to museums all the time, I especially like the small museums in Chelsea NYC because they show a lot of unknown artists, and theyâre mostly free entry. Also I am writing this blog analyzing the art style between cartoons and anime and I love it all. Thank God for the MoMA.
The Big Four: Characters (Part 2)
Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece
These are the main characters from the big four, and you can see they look like people. Also you might notice a few things that they all have in common, that is because the illustrators are following the general guidelines for drawing anime characters. Although these guidelines are not written anywhere, most of the anime artists follow them diligently that is why most anime characters look so much alike. Humans should look like humans (except for the eyes). Anime characters are almost always way more realistic than cartoon characters. No oneâs head is too big, or have short arms, or legs twice the size of their bodies. In the world of anime things look like they are supposed to look because the art style of anime is close to real life.
These four anime are unofficial standard for the art style of all anime. Even between Naruto and Bleach you can see that they are very similar, and if you should look at all anime you will see that the art takes after one or several of these four anime. Characters heads are almost always oval, eyes are a little bit large and hair is spikey. In western cartoons characters have a very wide variety of looks, people heads are the size of their whole bodies, and they have square and triangular heads. Cartoons have much more relaxed art guidelines, they not even have any guidelines because they do not have to be close to reality.
 Phineas and Ferb, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory
In part three of this series I will be taking a look at the worlds in which both cartoons and anime exist to spot the differences, until then check out characters from some anime and cartoons and see what differences you notice.
Fooly Cooly (FLCL): Review
Fooly Cooly is a show about a boy, his alien house maid and the robots that jump out of his head, and it is every bit as awesome as it sounds.
It all starts when Haruko Haruhara shows up out of nowhere and hits Naota Nandaba in the head with her bass giving him an unusual bump, but little did Naota know there was going to be a robot coming out of the bump later. What ensues after that first robot is six episodes of pure awesomeness. In my opinion this anime has everything you could want; its comical, the writing and voice acting is great, it has exceptional action sequences, and a really interesting story. The animation is also very well done. I love how they switched up the animation style. Sometimes itâs perfectly drawn, other times itâs a little rough, they did a manga (comic) sequence twice that was really fun to watch, and at one point they even did South Park which I found really amusing. One thing I don’t like though is the fact that there are some characters that are unnecessary. They have no impact on the plot at all, they are just there to fill space. Otherwise I can find no fault with this show.
Usually when a show I like is as short as six episode I would want more but with FLCL six episode is just right. Itâs short and sweet, and if you have three hours to spare on a Saturday morning you should definitely give it a watch.
The Face Of Anime
  
As you look at this picture of a âcartoonâ character flying through the sky holding an orange sphere, those of you who are not familiar with the world of anime might be thinking, who is this and why does he matter? Well his name is Goku and he matters because he is the face of anime.
I got this image as a wallpaper from dragonballz.com which is the official Dragon Ball Z website. It shows Goku in his famous âsuper saiyanâ mode, thatâs why he is blonde instead of his normal black hair.
But why is Goku the face of anime? Itâs not because he is the best anime character ever created, or even because he is my favorite anime character. He is face of anime because he is the star of the Dragon Ball Z franchise, and Dragon Ball Z was the first anime ever to be popular the whole world round. For many, many people Dragon Ball Z is the first anime they ever watched, and for a lot of those people it is the only anime they ever watched. When I look at this picture I am brought back to childhood when I didnât know what an anime was. I was just in love this amazing âcartoonâ that I would watch every time it came on TV. Its popularity opened the western world to all those other anime that we love, and to this day is till one the most popular and recognizable anime ever, and for that Goku gets to be the face of anime.
THE BIG FOUR: Intro (Part 1)
As you can probably tell this is going to be a series. In the next three post I will be covering the topic of âthe big fourâ, these are the four most popular anime on the planet. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece and the Dragon Ball franchise. Every anime watcher is a fan of at least one of these anime, also for most people these anime are the only reference they have to anime art style, which makes them very important when trying to explain the art styles of anime and cartoons. In this series I will be comparing the various art styles of the four biggest anime ever to American cartoons to establish a standard for the anime and cartoon art style.
The Difference Between Anime and Cartoons
What is the difference between an anime and a cartoon? With the help of my little brother will attempt to explain some of the main differences between anime and cartoon. A lot of people might think that anime and western cartoons are the same thing, but I can assure you that they are very different, and here are some of the reasons why:
The first difference is most anime are mangas (Japanese comics) before they get animated. Each anime has to first earn their popularity as a graphic novel before it can be brought to the small screen. If they donât then they normally donât make good a series and are canceled very quickly. Another difference is that most anime is in fact made for more mature viewers rather than children. While anime for children do exist, most of them deal with some very graphic subject matter that is not suited for children like, death, murder, crime, personal loss and loneliness.
The final difference is the one that everyone can recognize as soon as the watch an anime, the art style. Anime are more focused on details, realistic characters, and vast worlds. While a western cartoon usually exist a couple are locations that are repeated over and over, anime create vast worlds, with new and exciting places for the characters to travel to. All the people look like people, and have actual human characteristics and they even change outfits.
They are many more differences between anime and cartoons, but I think these are some of the main differences that you should know if you are going to read my blog.
A Community I love
I response to Chris Brogan’s 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write, a community I love is the Anime and Gaming community. Even though I don’t consider myself a part of it, because I only casually watch anime and only casually game I still love the community and big part of the why is the type of people that it attracts. Gamers and Anime lovers are some of the nicest and most enthusiastic people ever. I know the rest of the world thinks that these guys are a bunch of introverts, but that is not true; they are friendly and kind and some of the most decent people I know.
Another reason I love the Gaming and Anime community is how passionate they are. I feel that nowadays people, especially younger people are too indifferent. No one is exited about anything anymore, except for Gaming and Anime “nerds”. I love to see how excited my little brother gets when he is talking about an Anime he loves, or hate. I love to see when my friend gets “red in the face” angry because I am beating him at a videogame, and I like the fact that I get angry when I just can’t get past a level in a videogame. Some people might think that’s stupid, but it’s a way better alternative than not having any strong feelings about anything. I think Gamers and Anime lovers have figured out how to liver life well, and I hope one day I will figure it out too.
So to all the Gamers and Anime freaks out there, I love you and never change.
Hi.
Thanks for checking out my blog. I’ll be posting stuff for you guys to check out soon, so come back.
