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Adult animation, also known as mature animation, and infrequently as adult-oriented animation, is any type of animated motion media that is catered specifically to adult interests and is mainly targeted and marketed towards adults and adolescents, as opposed to children or all-ages audiences.

Characteristics and themes

Animated media (includes animated films, television series, and web series) in this medium could be considered adult for any number of reasons, which include the incorporation of toilet humour, nudity, sexual content (either explicit or suggestive), graphic violence, profanity, dark comedy, political themes, or other thematic elements inappropriate for children and/or younger viewers. Works may explore philosophical, political, or social issues.

Some animated productions are noted for their complex and/or experimental storytelling and animation techniques, the latter with many distinct styles have defined such unique artistry.

Definitions

Adult animation is typically defined as animation that is aimed at an adult audience. It is also described as something that "formative youths should stay far, far away from" or has adult humor and comes in various styles, but especially sitcoms and comedies. Some have stated that it refers to animations with "adult themes and situations", which uses "explicit language" and make jokes that adults, and occasionally teens, are "more likely to understand" than others. On television, such animations often run in the evening, but they are not generally pornographic or obscene. AdWeek called adult animation "animated projects aimed at grown-ups, not kids." They also focus on issues that adults handle, and have cheeky, and occasionally crass, humor "that has no limits—bouncing between funny and offensive," while evoking a "balance of reality and fantasy". They may also contain violence or sexual themes.

Notables

International animators and filmmakers were among the notables of adult animation works:

• Ralph Bakshi - Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, Fritz the Cat, Last Days of Coney Island, and American Pop
• Mike Judge - Beavis and Butt-Head, and King of the Hill
• Trey Parker and Matt Stone - South Park
• Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo and Kenn Navarro - Happy Tree Friends
• Don Hertzfeldt - Rejected, World of Tomorrow, and It's Such a Beautiful Day
• Everett Peck - Duckman
• Seth MacFarlane - Family Guy and American Dad!
• Christy Karacas - Superjail! and Ballmastrz: 9009
• Satoshi Kon - Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika
• Katsuhiro Otomo - Akira and Steamboy
• Hayao Miyazaki - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, The Wind Rises, and The Boy and the Heron
• Alberto Vázquez - Birdboy: The Forgotten Children and Unicorn Wars
• Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland - Rick and Morty
• Otto Guerra - Rocky & Hudson, Wood & Stock: Sexo, Orégano e Rock'n'Roll,, Até que a Sbórnia nos Separe e A Cidade dos Piratas
• Genndy Tartakovsky - Samurai Jack, Primal, and Unicorn: Warriors Eternal
• John Kricfalusi - Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"
• Rene Laloux - Fantastic Planet
• Alison Snowden and David Fine - Bob's Birthday and Bob and Margaret
• Loren Bouchard - Home Movies, Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil, Bob's Burgers, Central Park and The Great North
• J.G. Quintel - Close Enough
• Nora Twomey - The Breadwinner
• Mauricio de Sousa and Roger Keesse - Astronaut
• Olan Rogers - Final Space
• Vivienne Medrano - Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss
• Tim Miller - Love, Death & Robots and Secret Level
• Lisa Hanawalt - Tuca & Bertie
• Carl Joseph Papa - Manang Biring, The Leaving, The Missing, and 58th

Channels, segments and blocks

Some television channels and their segments or blocks that focused on broadcasting adult animation:

• Adult Swim - an adult-oriented programming block only on nighttime as an opposite version of Cartoon Network, both are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
  • Examples included: Robot Chicken, The Boondocks, Mr. Pickles, Superjail!, Ballmastrz: 9009, Rick and Morty, The Venture Bros., Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Birdgirl, Metalocalypse, Primal, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, YOLO, Squidbillies, Rick and Morty: The Anime, JJ Villard's Fairy Tales, Final Space, The Shivering Truth, Lazor Wulf, Stroker & Hoop, My Adventures with Superman, Samurai Jack, Royal Crackers, Hot Streets, Momma Named Me Sheriff, Smiling Friends, Tigtone, Moral Orel, Tender Touches, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, The Brak Show, 12 oz. Mouse, Sealab 2021, Mike Tyson Mysteries, Teenage Euthanasia, The Jellies!, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Apollo Gauntlet, China, IL, Uzumaki, Baby Blues, Mission Hill, Perfect Hair Forever, Tuca & Bertie, Dream Corp LLC, Invincible Fight Girl and Xavier: Renegade Angel.
• HBO - a pay television network and programming block categorizes genre-oriented animated series generally for older audiences, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
  • Examples included: Animals, Astronaut, The Ricky Gervais Show, Spicy City, The Life & Times of Tim, Todd McFarlane's Spawn.
• Max - a streaming service categorizes genre-oriented animated series generally for older audiences and also ventures into adding to its catalog and producing animated series for adults and teenagers, also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
  • Examples included: Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Astronaut, Clone High, Close Enough, Creature Commandos, Fired on Mars, Gen:Lock, Harley Quinn, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, Santa Inc., Scavengers Reign, Ten Year Old Tom, The Prince, Velma, Young Justice and Young Love.
• Fox Broadcasting Company - a commercial broadcast television network and programming block, owned by Fox Corporation.
  • Examples included: American Dad, Bob's Burgers, The Cleveland Show, Duncanville, Family Guy, Futurama, The Great North, HouseBroken, Krapopolis and The Simpsons.
• Comedy Central - a comedy-genre television programming block used mostly animated series for older audiences, owned by Paramount Global.
  • Examples included: South Park, Ugly Americans, Futurama, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Brickleberry, Digman!, Shorties Watchin' Shorties, Moonbeam City, TripTank, Drawn Together, Jeff & Some Aliens, and Everybody Still Hates Chris.
• Paramount+ - a streaming service also categorizes genre-oriented animated series generally for older audiences and ventures into adding to its catalog and producing animated series for adults and teenagers too, owned by Paramount Global.
  • Examples included: Ark: The Animated Series, Beavis and Butt-Head, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Harper House and Tooning Out the News .
• Netflix - a streaming service ventures into adding to its catalog and producing animated series for adults.
  • Examples included: Arcane, Good Times: Black Again, Love, Death & Robots, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, BoJack Horseman, Japan Sinks: 2020, The Midnight Gospel, Devilman Crybaby, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, T・P BON, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, Big Mouth, Human Resources, Super Drags, Mulligan, B – The Beginning, Disenchantment, Dota: Dragon's Blood, Kengan Ashura, Sword Gai: The Animation, Tekken: Bloodline, Aggretsuko, Castlevania, Hoops, Levius, Blood of Zeus, Castlevania: Nocturne, Farzar, Spriggan, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Scissor Seven, Neo Yokio, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, Devil May Cry, Dorohedoro, Blue Eye Samurai, Beastars, Great Pretender, Twilight of the Gods, BNA: Brand New Animal, Skull Island, Pacific Rim: The Black, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Inside Job, Exploding Kittens, Captain Fall, F Is for Family, Dragon Age: Absolution, Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series, Kuromukuro, Tuca & Bertie, Tokyo Override, Levius, Q-Force, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, The Grimm Variations, Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf, Carol & the End of the World, Godzilla Singular Point, Super Crooks and Terminator Zero.
• Amazon Prime Video - a streaming service categorizes genre-oriented animated series generally for older audiences, owned by Amazon.
  • Examples included: Fairfax, Hazbin Hotel, Invincible, The Boys Presents: Diabolical, Batman: Caped Crusader, The Legend of Vox Machina, Sausage Party: Foodtopia, Los Lopeggs, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy, Secret Level, Mighty Nein and Undone.

Countries

Specifically, the use of adult-oriented elements in animation of the United States and Japan influenced several countries to dominate their own work over the years, most notably the United Kingdom, China, France, Spain, South Korea and the Philippines.

Reception

Several highly-acclaimed adult animated films and television series have received substantial recognition from critics. Thanks to Bakshi's Fritz the Cat, the film influenced animators and filmmakers over the course of the late-20th century and into the 21st century, catering such important artistic and narrative structures with mature subject matter.

Conversely, several works have been largely ignored by many detractors for their depiction of graphic subject matter and sensitive topics, such as violence, race, gender, and sexuality. They still show a bias towards live-action and raunchy animated sitcoms, compared to early pioneers. However, the result is a new audience that is ready for narratively-sophisticated adult animated works and a new crop of creators exploring the adult animation space. This development allows creators to continue challenging the perceived limitations of animation.

Relationship with Academy Awards and adult animation

Many animators and adult animation fans, both international and non-Disney respectively, boycotted the Academy over remarking that animation was synonymous with "kids" during the 94th Academy Awards in 2022. The award for the Best Animated Feature was presented by three actresses who portrayed the Disney princess characters in live-action remakes of their respective animated films: Lily James (Cinderella), Naomi Scott (Aladdin), and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid). While introducing the category, Bailey stated that animated films are "formative experiences as kids who watch them," as James put it, "So many kids watch these movies over and over, over and over again." Scott added: "I see some parents who know exactly what we're talking about."

The remarks sparked controversy and with those working in the animation industry describing them as infantilizing the medium and perpetuating the stigma that animated works are strictly for children, especially since the industry was credited with sustaining the flow of Hollywood content and revenue during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. An addition to the controversy was that the award for Best Animated Short Film (the nominees for which were mostly made up of shorts not aimed at children) was one of the eight categories that were omitted in the live broadcast; some speculations suggested that the speech played a role in the decision to not broadcast the award. The winner for the Best Animated Short award was The Windshield Wiper, a multilingual Spanish-American film which is considered adult animated, while another nominee in three categories: Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature Film, and Best International Feature Film, was Flee, a PG-13 rated animated documentary about an Afghan refugee.

Phil Lord, co-producer of one of the nominated films, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, tweeted that it was "super cool to position animation as something that kids watch and adults have to endure." The film's official social media account responded to the joke with an image reading: "Animation is cinema." A week later, Lord and his producing partner Christopher Miller wrote a guest column in Variety criticizing the Academy for the remark and how Hollywood has been treating animation. The column commented that "no one set out to diminish animated films, but it's high time we set out to elevate them." Alberto Mielgo, director of The Windshield Wiper, later gave an acceptance speech for the Oscar: "Animation is an art that includes every single art that you can imagine. Animation for adults is a fact. It's happening. Let's call it cinema. I'm very honored because this is just the beginning of what we can do with animation." They also suggested to the Academy that the category should be presented by filmmakers who respect the art of animation as cinema.

Another factor is that numerous feature-length animated films have been made for older audiences or with ranges of PG-13 or more, starting in the late-1990s with South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and for those future adult animated films including The Triplets of Belleville, Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir, Chico and Rita, The Wind Rises, Anomalisa, My Life as a Courgette, The Breadwinner, Loving Vincent, Isle of Dogs, I Lost My Body, and Flee. Most of them were nominated in various categories, though none have won until The Boy and the Heron, officially rated PG-13 by the MPA. For the 22-year history since the inauguration, it became the first adult animated film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 96th Academy Awards; all the previous winners were either rated G or PG.

See also

• Arthouse animation
• Independent animation
• Cartoon violence
• Black comedy
• Animation in the United States in the television era
• Modern animation in the United States
• List of adult animated television series
• List of adult animated web series
• List of adult animated feature films
• List of highest-grossing adult animated films

References

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External links

• Media related to Adult animation at Wikimedia Commons
• The Brief History of Adult Animation on The A.V. Club

• Adult animation