how many cartoons can you think of that effectively portray love?

by “love” i mean any kind of love: romantic love, motherly/fatherly love, love between friends...so long as it feels honest and not jokey or manipulative

love seems to be a tough emotion to get a handle on in animation. a lot of it comes down to the story, directing, voice acting, and layout; things that are not necessarily within an individual animators' control

a bunch of good examples come to mind in japanese animation: heidi, k-on, doremi, kasumin, chibi maruko-chan, my neighbors the yamadas, kaiba, kyousougiga, and princess kaguya, to name a few

i can’t think of as many examples in US animation, perhaps due to its deep roots in vaudeville gag comedy. there’s plenty of lust to be sure, and silly or sappy love, but honest, serious depictions of love seem less common. not to say there aren’t any…

dumbo had good motherly love, largely thanks to bill tytla’s powerful character animation. also grumpy’s somewhat one-sided love for snow white (again tytla), and of course some indie animation (john hubley’s “the tender game” and michael sporn’s “abel’s island” come to mind)

more recent US animation seems to be getting better about it too. steven universe, spider-verse (miles and his dad), and the incredibles have some honestly-felt relationships

i used to (and still sometimes do) see people criticize japanese animation for its lack of warmth and humanity, which seems odd given the cynicism that has pervaded US animation

character animation isn't the only way to achieve sincere emotion (and in fact it is often rendered ineffective when other aspects like story and direction fall short)

tldr - love is good and maybe it'd be more common in animation if artists were given more of it