alright, let’s do this one last time

Like I get it, it's very prevalent nowadays, but every era of tv animation has a ~style~ that a good chunk of mainstream shows fall into. And if you reaaaally look at the entire catalogue of shows that have come out in the past decade, there's actually a good amount of variety. The problem is most people are just looking at the 5 most popular shows that are out at any given year.

And the reason for these styles being pushed is because they ARE appealing. Appealing to kids. The demographic of most of these shows. I think people forget that focus testing exists. Kids are the people who are streaming these shows, watching on cable and buying toys (or rather their parents). Networks aren't gonna cater to teens/young adults/a much smaller demographic who likely know how to find and watch the shows they like for free. And as much as it may seem like online fandom has an impact, networks won't notice unless it's reaaally benefitting them monetarily.

I understand that people may not like this style, and that's alright, but I take issue when creators and artists are attacked for it. Most of us don't even draw in the style of the shows we work on (ex. i work on big city greens, but draw mostly anime-esque stuff on my own time). I don't speak for all of us but I don't think it's a stretch to say that a good chunk of us would LOOOVE to pitch stuff or have shows with more variety in style. But at the end of the day, most of the stuff on mainstream tv is "a product" to be sold. It sounds cynical, but it's true, and networks are usually gonna play it safe and pick up stuff that has a winning formula, and part of that winning formula at the moment is this particular style.

I think people also fail to take into account that animation is hard lol. Simple designs mean easier animation. Most American studios unfortunately do not have in house animators and animation is done overseas. Because of this storyboards are hardly storyboards anymore. They're cleaned up key poses so that there's less room for error when shipping everything over. Those errors being hard to fix because 1. a lot of the time there's a language barrier, 2. it takes a long time and 3. it's expensive. Every artist on each end of the process is already overworked, so any way to make the process easier is ideal.

If people want to see different styles in animation, they gotta support the stuff that's different and trying something new! And support it more than the kids and said kids' parents who are being catered to. That means streaming said shows (legally), tuning in on cable, buying merch, etc. I know it's a lot to ask for, and not everyone, understandably, has the means to, but a lot of the time, networks/studios/companies see everything in black and white. If a show is not a complete success, then they will assume the problem is because it's not following that winning formula I was talking about earlier. Trying new things is a risk in their eyes.