I was a child of the 80's and one of the best things about growing up in the 80's was the cartoons that we had. I really have to say that we had the best cartoons that have ever existed. Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, Heman... it doesn't get much better than that. And the girls had their Little Ponies and Gem and The Sun Tots. There were just too many to even mention. Who didn't love Captain Planet?

One of the best things is that these cartoons are still watchable now even as an adult. I still love them. Not just because they remind me of being a kid again, but because the plots and characters were so good. They put so much life and detail into each character in the shows. And I love the fact that almost every show had a moral at the end of it.

They've tried to redo a lot of the shows from the 80's recently and they are so inferior to the old versions. There's a new Ninja Turtles and I actually got upset when I saw one of them smoking... it just goes against everything they stood for. And it's so much more violent now. In the old one the bad guys were tied up at the end of the fight, now they're chopped into pieces. It just seems wrong... like they're ruining something that was so good.

They're even doing it with the Looney Tunes characters now, changing them to the Lunatics and giving them super powers... I guess nothing in cartoons is sacred.

So what were your favourite cartoons from your childhood?

I love art. I love all kinds of art... except one kind. There is one kind of art that I can't stand, and the problem with it is that it's everywhere. Anime. I don't know why this style of art has become so popular now, but it seems like anyone who is under the age of 18 thinks it's the only kind of art that has any meaning and there are even several people over that age that think so. I'll admit it's not nice to pick on any one art form and say it doesn't have any value, because most art does have value... but I'm starting to think that anime doesn't.

There's just so much of it out there... It's like when a really popular song comes out and they play it on the radio so much that you end up hating it. Why is it when you go to a website devoted to art you have to wade through hundreds of pictures of girls with cat ears before you find something else? The strength of art comes in its diversity... that's what makes art interesting so why is everyone doing the same thing.

It prevents artists from creating their own unique style and finding their own voice. If all they do is copy someone elses art they'll never become real artists. They may be able to draw amazing figures but they still won't be producing anything original and nothing with personal meaning. Because that's what's happening. People aren't drawing their own anime figures they're copying them from the cartoons they watch.... there's no artistic merit in that whatsoever. This invasion of Japanese cartoons is stifiling any artistic talent we may have in the younger generation because all they want to draw is Sailor Moon.

From what I can see of most anime is that it has no meaning behind it. It's art simply for the purpose of entertainment... which is fine, so long as it doesn't kill off all the other styles of art in it's wake. And I say most there because I realize that there are some artists who draw in that style who do put some effort into creating a meaningful piece, but they are very rare from what I've seen. Still, art for sheer entertainment should never overwhelm real art in classrooms and right now real art is overwhelmed in the classrooms.

Beyond all of this anime is the ugliest style of art I've ever seen. The proportions are terrible, (even if it's still on purpose it's still ugly) the figures are overly simplified, and they offer little realistic context. It looks like it was an art form designed by someone who wanted to draw realistically but couldn't.

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I'm still working on getting music posted... apparently it's more complicated than I thought it would be. I'll repost the link when it finally gets "processed"... I'm trying on several sites now so it might not be too much longer.