im new and dont have the first clue what im doing
think about it
It generally boils down to one thing… Money
Interesting question. Let’s see. How many cartoon series are in production in any one year in America? 20? 30? I would venture to guess there’ that many anime series produces in a week in Japan. I’m sure there are many cases where, if it’s not a hit right out of the box, they move on.
By the way, welcome to TAN. I’m Newshawk, the lovable but cantankerous Otaku Grandpa of the group, a TAN Casting Sensei (along with LadyOfWicca, PretearHimeno and Mystic), the benevolent dictator of the Claim Your Bishoujo/Bishounen game and compulsive list maker. I’m glad to see you’ve made it to the best little slice of anime heaven this side of the Pacific!
As much as anyone would like for every anime to have multiple seasons, money and story come first. I suppose if they can’t make their money off of an anime, they simply don’t continue with it’s production. In addition, since anime is usually more story driven than american cartoons, once the story is over, there’s no need for extra episodes. Have you ever noticed, that a lot of american cartoon episodes are standalone? Meaning that each episode has it’s own plot, which doesn’t ever effect any previous or future episode. Meanwhile anime is extremely story driven, with almost every episode tying into the plot (except the mandatory beach episode).
American cartoons are in most cases, to put it bluntly, cash cows. If it makes money, they’ll milk it for all they can get out of it… and most of the time, that works. They’ll have a toy line, and a clothing line, and all sorts of stuff to make even more money if the show is popular enough…
As great as it would be for some of my favorite anime to get another season, in the end it doesn’t matter much. Because I can probably name you less than a dozen american cartoons that I would willingly watch multiple times, but the amount of anime I would willingly watch again is somewhere in the 20’s I would guess…
Now, since Newshawk is introducing himself, I’ll do the same…
Hello, and welcome to TAN. I’m Hornet65. Don’t believe what they say about me… none of it is true! (except the good stuff)
I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself while you’re here… if you have any questions, feel free to ask, and someone impersonating an official question answering associate will be happy to respond with their very own answer of questionable validity…
In all seriousness though, most of the people here are nice, and know what they’re talking about.
Well, I would put in my 2 cents but I think Coffee, Newshawk, and Hornet covered it pretty good so I will just say Hello and Welcome. 
Why are American cartoons cash cows and why aren’t anime considered cash cows? I’m pretty sure anime has more merchandising that any cartoon. Also, anime is derived from manga, so if the manga doesn’t go too long, neither will the anime.
Slick
slickwolfie wrote:
[quote]Why are American cartoons cash cows and why aren’t anime considered cash cows? I’m pretty sure anime has more merchandising that any cartoon. Also, anime is derived from manga, so if the manga doesn’t go too long, neither will the anime.
Slick[/quote]
Slick, I don’t know about Japanese TV, but I’d expect it’s the same as American TV. I remember my professor for my Intro to American Broadcasting class in college. The first day, she taught us this very important lesson:
If you look at it that way, then you’ll realize that anime is a cash cow for Japanese TV just as cartoons are a cash cow for American TV. Do they cross over to the opposite market? Not as much as you’d think.
slickwolfie wrote:
[quote]Also, anime is derived from manga, so if the manga doesn’t go too long, neither will the anime.
[/quote]
This is not always the case though, there are plenty of original anime where the manga came afterwards.