He said Shrek takes the gold for best CGI movie... so I got it like he was judging the animation, which Incredibles has been rated higher.

(Sorry, somehow I didn't see this.) Like I said before, these quirks are found in movies such as Spirited Away - but it's not only found in Japanese films, so I'm not sure if it can be said that this is something that really makes Japanese movies special.

Oooooooh. Well, I don't know. I guess that's something for him to explain.

I watched Perfect Blue before. I liked the song... where is it?

... Not a perfect sound (let me know if you find better), but this music should bring back some memories.

YouTube - Angel of Love by Cham ( English version of Ai no Tenshi )

Anyway, I guess I'm forced to agree with you in part. I mean, America does not have this style of animation. Still, it has it's own style, and it's compairing two entirly different things, really.

Are you seriously beyond appreciating each style for what it is, instead of lumping them all into one category, and believing one is inferior?

I like this question. I kind of feel like the idea that one is inferior to another has been coming up. I think that it's up to personal tastes. Both Japanese and American animations are fantastic. I personally prefer American animation, but I'm not going to think that - if another prefers Japanese animation - their opinion is wrong.

actually i like them both equal.

Aside from recent Pixar films, I haven't been very impressed with American animation.

No, of course it's not limited, but I can't say personally it's ever really struck me as much in american animation as it has in Japanese animation. There's also more of this thing in Japanese animation where they break between action. Just... an overview shot or something. the flight into the city in Metropolis, for example. Not the best example, but on the other hand I can't think of an equivalent in say, a Pixar film. Bambi kind of had it, but then that was also supposed to put across the beauty of America's forests for preservation purposes. That's what skews me towards the Japanese feature-length animation anyway. Maybe a whole childhood of Disney and Pixar just got boring in the end, and the asian stuff just seems that much fresher.

In terms of pure animation though, bigger budgets in the US definitely seem to turn out cleaner stuff. Disney films lately are pretty slick looking, but on the other hand, I do really like the look of the old hand-painted cells. Howl's seemed to be a good compromise between the two; good CG, a polished finish but still some good hand-work.

Different Markets.

Japanese anime is better story wise for me alot of the time because they can hit on more mature subjects. Pixar and Disney try to stay family focused.

It's more about who the target audiance is.

Surely, japanese animation economic might is inferior.
But japanese animation is much better, even with this "overdose" of CG.
When I see how japanese animation is wonderful with relatly no staff if compared with USA, I imagine what it could be able if it had the same money...