Thread 151060504

Why did action cartoons peak in the early-mid 00s and why did they suddenly stop being so popular?

>>151060504 (OP)
>mfw i remember how schizo was the thread spawned by this image

>>151060504 (OP)
>Why did action cartoons peak in the early-mid 00s
There was a lot of money being invested in cartoons
>and why did they suddenly stop being so popular
They didn't, there was a massive recession that made studios not want to risk money on expensive cartoons anymore

>>151060523
share with the class

>>151060504 (OP)
There's many factors but ultimately they got replaced by video games and anime as a form of boy entertainment.

>>151060504 (OP)
Toy Sales.
Them being good shows is mostly a side product. But the goal is usually to sell toys and action figures to kids.
Kids these days no longer play with those (usually sticking to tablets and phones), so there's little incentive to make them besides wanting to flex animation/direction/choreography skills and those usually take a lot of money, which companies are rarely willing to invest, unless you are some big name like tartakovsky.

>>151060546
Prepare thyself https://desuarchive.org/co/thread/148214785/#148217675

>Batman Beyond
>Justice League/Unlimited
>Teen Titans
>The Batman
>Static Shock
>Jackie Chan Adventures
>Xiaolin Showdown
>X-Men Evolution
>TMNT 2003
>Samurai Jack
>Megas XLR
>Clone Wars 2003
>Ben 10
>Danny Phantom
>Avatar

Powerhouse lineup. They really don't make 'em like this anymore.

>>151060601
Just too many assholes on 4chan. Or worth it engage with you people with creativity. Every time I make that mistake I’m reminded why I usually hold off.

What are the currently running action cartoons in the west? The last one I saw that was good was Invincible Fight Girl.

>>151060705
I genuinely can't think of any besides Primal.

Obsession with cutting costs does not bode well for frequent, well-animated action scenes.
Self-righteous mothers etc suing or forming whatever glorified sewing circle pressure groups to kvetch because little Jimmy heard something that's sorta adjacent to nearly-swear words or got into a fight within 48 hours of seeing a fight in a cartoon.
Vidya and internet increasingly take the interest of young men, which becomes cyclical.
And lastly, it basically became a policy in pretty much all media production in the Anglosphere that nothing is allowed to be specifically for boys anymore. If it's for boys, girls are being excluded, change (ruin) it. If it's for girls, good! Carry on!

>>151060705
>The last one I saw that was good was Invincible Fight Girl.
The bar is underground

>>151060705
Space King

>>151060736
at this point it’s in the core of the earth

>>151060736
>>151060898
I just remembered Invincible and the video game stuff Netflix is doing. I'm not really into any of these characters so its slim pickings and why Fight Girl stood out to me.

>>151060504 (OP)

Kids aren't interested in toys anymore

>>151060504 (OP)
>Recession mindbroke the entire industry and made them severely cut costs on cartoons across the board. You can only get a big budget for a cartoon these days if you're a veteran (Primal, Kid Cosmic) or are attached to a big IP (Arcane, What If)
>Around the same time vidya and shonen anime completely stole the young boys demographic for a slew of mostly unrelated reasons, so the industry decided to pander to young and teenage girls instead because those were the only groups who still watched cartoons (the kids stuff at least) through legitimate means
>Similarly, phones and tablets replaced toys, which is a really big problem because the vast majority of action cartoons were carried almost exclusively by toy sales. IIRC the only ones that could stand on their own regardless of toy sales were Big 2 capeshit and maybe Danny Phantom and the first Ben 10 show
>The few action cartoons that did come out like Motorcity, Tron Uprising, Korra, and GL:TAS were treated like absolute shit, which heavily discouraged people from trying to make their own
I think the exact moment action cartoons in the west died was with Teen Titans Go, which took one of the best action cartoons of all time and turned it into a generic SoL comedy with nothing to set it apart from the rest of its ilk besides the IP it's attached to. To me at least, TTG was an admission of defeat on the behalf of the entire western animation industry. It was an admission that action cartoons were dead, that they weren't even going to try to fix things, and if people didn't like it they could just stick with anime.

>>151060504 (OP)
Because they are expensive,

that's it

>>151060705
Whatever current incarnation of TMNT has been the answer since about 2019.

>>151061161
Steven Universe started out as an action cartoon with magic weapons and a monster of the week format.

Then it turned into crying and slice of life in a beach town.

>>151061161
It's kind of insane how TTG both heralded the final death of action cartoons and the death of Cartoon Network as a whole. The show itself isn't even that bad but it's like the industry equivalent of aggressive cancer.

>>151060705
Iyanu

>>151061252
Sugar should've tard wrangled her subjects

>>151060504 (OP)
microplastics, estrogen in the water and general societal libtardation. Action cartoons are out, androgynous anime slop or satanic femshit is in.

>>151060504 (OP)
I don't like how Zoomers separate a show's messages from their greater contexts

>>151060760
> Space Kiddies
fuck off assgapez...

>>151060760
based

>>151061262
> Afrislop
Nobody cares, African Mythology is gutter trash tier..

>>151061535
Cope, tranny

>>151060504 (OP)
They still make superhero cartoons and they made a ton of Avatar sequels.
Samurai Jack eventually got a sequel too.

>>151061254
>The show itself isn't even that bad but it's like the industry equivalent of aggressive cancer.
Like what CoD4 was to vidya. What's the equivalent in other media?

>>151061552
You are

>>151061589
>they made a ton of Avatar sequels
Wrong

>>151060760
I like Space King, but it's definitely more of a comedy than an action show, though there is some action in it.
Hell, if you're going indie, then something like Skibidi 'Tism is probably a better fit for a pure action show.

>>151060504 (OP)
Gen alpha kids and zoomers aren’t into cool action stuff. They kind of onions wimps and too weak.

>>151060504 (OP)
there are numerous measurable qualities in a cartoon, such as comedy, drama, action, adventure and gayness

but maintaining the proper balance between them throughout the show's run is a fine act. to have a good cartoon you must minimize "gayness"

you can't make it all gay. you can have more of some and less others, you can focus on action/drama or adventure/comedy or any combination of the former four to suit your needs. the proportions may even evolve as the show goes. but if a lazy writer substitutes gayness for the four main qualities to make up for short runtime it will be diluted to nothingness

>>151061580
> projection
lmao, flashshitz seething

>>151061700
>Gen alpha kids and zoomers aren’t into cool action stuff
>The same people who watch Skibidi Toilet
You're an idiot.

>They kind of onions wimps
Quintessential /co/

>>151061605
>What's the equivalent in other media?
The Avengers definitely fits for movies.

>>151061711
>gayness
Absolutely wrong

>>151061605
Even Stevens is a decent show but it opened up the door to Disney Channel largely abandoning animation.
The Spice Girls are a fun band that heralded mainstream music moving towards aggressively simple pop again after a major period of genre diversification in the early 90s.
Iron Man is a genuinely solid movie that started the trend of popular movies being dominated by capeshit.

>>151060504 (OP)
Because they needed to sell toys to stay afloat, in the 2010s tablets and smart phones became more popular, less parents were buying their kids toys.
Comedies are cheaper to make, so they became the dominant genre in the 2010s.

>>151061720
Go take your HRT

>>151060727
>>151060504 (OP)
Along with what everyone else said, there was a long period that companies were pushing against series with a narrative focus, because the format didn't help tv viewers who would probably miss some episodes and then be lost with the trama.

I don't know how real that is, but it makes sense in a way when you didn't have a reliable way to watch all episodes.

Sure, now we have all the official streaming services, but shows get no publicity, YOU have to find them. Or be lucky you hear it from a mouth spread.

>>151061826
>there was a long period that companies were pushing against series with a narrative focus, because the format didn't help tv viewers who would probably miss some episodes and then be lost with the trama.
No, that doesn't make sense considering action cartoons were at their most relevant when cable was also at its most relevant.
Streaming didn't result in a big explosion of popularity in action cartoons.

>>151061753
Gayness is absolutely an observable quality. Otherwise you couldn't substantiate calling anything gay (and everybody knows you'd never give up that right)

>>151061856
>Streaming didn't result in a big explosion of popularity in action cartoons
ANIME

>>151061856
True, true. I must say it makes sense in theory, for that one little detail that it was easy to miss episodes and then you're fucked. But that didn't hurt their runs at all, be it action or not.

>>151062033
Silly anon, animes aren't cartoons

Anime took over that's why. They don't skimp on the blood, sex and guns, all the things kids and teens want and aren't fagots about. Meanwhile the only time Superman rips someone in half is when they are a cyborg and the only time Spider-Man used a gun is when it's an alien laser pistol.

>>151062057
I'll never forgive the Samurai Jack retcon of him not killing the bounty hunters

>>151062033
Anime is the elephant in the room, we're ignoring it on purpose because it's the obvious answer.

>>151060504 (OP)
>why did they suddenly stop being so popular?
They didn't stop being popular they stop being made. Pitches for new action IPs just aren't being heard anymore. And because there's nothing for action oriented animators and artists to get hired for there's no new blood to bring in fresh ideas.

>>151062203
Everything about that retcon was retarded because even if we pretend he didn't kill the bounty hunters he still regularly killed fully sapient aliens, and Jack's expressly shown to not think of aliens as being "lesser" than humans.

>>151062233
Not to mention the morality of destroying sapient robots, or how he didn't bat an eye when he started destroying all the creatures when he first arrived, caring not if they were humans or not (like when he destroyed all those vehicles). It's like, sure, let's give hin the benefit of the doubt and say he thought all of them were Aku's minions or regular demons, but how does he know WHEN a human or living looking creature is a robot or not? He just slices through and gets lucky everytime.

>>151060598
>Kids these days no longer play with those
Yeah, what happened there? Figuers and toys were always good, there is no way that electronis changed the landscape that much.

>>151062033
>>151062057
>>151062221
Here's the thing. Anime didn't "take over", anime just filled in the space after action cartoons were left abandoned. At some point "action" wasn't a priority anymore to the big kids networks, because cheap kids comedies were easier to sell and produce, actively killing some of their golden gooses because they didn't fit their brands anymore, its why in the mid to late 2010s we had more pseudo-action mellow drama shows like SU or Star Vs. shows that aren't action shows but liked to pretend they were because of a few moments

With no action, anime was doing what it always had been, and filled in that spot and doing more with it, and that only grew.

And now we're at a point where 8 and 10 year olds are watching JJK and Demon Slayer more than anything the kids networks are shitting out, because they somehow forgot kids, namely boys, like action and everything that comes with it. and that doesn't go away because you decided they wanted TTG more

>>151062415
Increased accessibility to the aparatus. Unrestricted access and bombardment of content dulls your mind and creativity, less need to use your brain to imagine things or go outside and play with other kids (and have imaginary adventures or fights). When you have games that easily emulate the experiences or battles you want so you don't to rely on everyone to follow the same made up rules and expect them not to break them, you know like the typical:
>Hey I shot you, you're dead
>Nuh huh, I had a protective shield
Apply any of that to playing with toys.

Also, if I had to guess, it's probably cheaper to buy them a tablet that will last like 5 years instead of constantly buying expensive toys every month.

>>151060504 (OP)
Video games I mean why watch a guy beat up some bad dudes when you can control the guy beating up the bad dudes.

>>151060504 (OP)
Western animation lost the skills needed to do good fight animation and focused entirely on childish blob characters and depressed Gen-X adult humor cartoons. Meanwhile, the rise of internet streaming, legal and otherwise, meant that japanese action shows easily filled in the gap, and western animation has yet to find a way to compete with that. Magical Girl shows for elementary school girls have better fight choreography than western action cartoons with a supposedly adult audience, its wild how big the gulf is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl2ck8I5spI

>>151062415
Yes they did, even good toys like Beyblade can barely survive in toy stores these days. Yet Minecraft and Roblox can somehow take up massive shelf space. Movies still have impact which I think people are disregarding itt. If there was a big Avatar or Ben 10 animated movie I think they would sell a shit load of merch

>>151063437
You are making the classic mistake of thinking that "A company made and is selling this" == "This thing is in demand and is popular".

If anything about modern america is a sure thing, its that companies make retarded decisions that they put all of their poker chips on forever because the executives are so disconnected from reality that no amount of evidence can convince them that they are wrong until they literally go bankrupt.

The year is 2025, and Sony is STILL convinced that they can make movies with Spider-man secondary characters and villains but no Spiderman and that people will watch them anyway, despite the fact that the only time this was even remotely true was Venom 1.

>>151061252
Reading this takes me back to the episode with the centipedes, holo pearl and lapis' first appearance. Really liked the OST too, Mirror Match is peak. What could have been.

>>151063866
And Venom was already a relatively popular and well known character.

>>151061252
>>151064067
It's really jarring how everything after season 1 just completely drops whole aspects of the show like the gem artifacts and even the corrupted gems are barely touched on anymore.

>>151060598
>Kids these days no longer play with those
Not true. Kids still play with the usual marvel, TMNT and dinosaur toys.

>>151064240
Not as much as it forgetting the planet's core is literally the result of Gem war crimes.

>>151060504 (OP)
The zoomers were always on their damn phones; that's why.

>>151064364
AY DIOS MIO

>>151060504 (OP)
>2001-2003 Recession caused by the Dotcom bubble bursting and 2008 Global Financial Crisis
>youtube, video games and anime started cutting into the market
>the new blood animators brought cancer with them
>boomer executives making arbitrary decisions like Cartoon Network green lighting a bunch of bad Live Action shows

>>151060705
A lot of capeshit still exists in some form.
Also, Netflix fauxnime stuff.

>>151060504 (OP)
There was a good system that let expensive and experimental cartoons were allowed to thrive and make money back on the risk.

That system isn't around, and companies don't feel like risking money these days, and probably haven't come up with a new way for the cartoons to bring money back in

>>151062415
>toy companies cheap out on quality
>shut down competitors making superior knock-offs
>shareholders believe this means they should exclusively chase trends, like video games
>shareholders will command the franchise die if it doesn't meet their lofty expectations this quarterly
>everything homogenizes into the same products if they aren't copyrighted
I wonder if wooden toys have made a comeback like homeschooling.

>>151063866
Not every tv show was successful either, not everything is despicable minions