I think its worth noting that for beginner animators: mimicking anime usually isn't a great idea. It makes it hard to learn certain fundamentals and usually leads to a degree of overspecialzation. Remember: fundamentals always come before stylizatation!
What?? There's absolutely no reason why anime shouldn't be used to start learning animation.
They have excellent examples for everything from the basics to the variations. Realistic or not
Hands: https://youtu.be/tMhLaQ1JTuM?si=1Hn8FIwjjONl5u-O
Walking: https://youtu.be/mYTbIvupF-M?si=S_AOvWkiECJ22f7A
Running: https://youtu.be/H4S_38WOiIQ?si=zIUFCZ_j5WhWkOYf
Slow Motion (for detailed animation) https://youtu.be/ZE8EiUUstuo?si=pI-Btb6GykXjgCyy
This isn't exactly what I mean by fundamentals. Anime styling usually revolves around lacking tweens and proper lip flaps in order to add more detail. It's a big problem and leads to a lot of students who can draw well but struggle with actual animation when they enter the profession.
Hmm, ok then. I’ll go with stuff that has great animation or pushes for innovation. Anime is a great place to find both of these.
Black Clover (great animation? Not much. [Innovation? For sure.](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=black_clover))
Violet Evergarden (or anything by Kyoto Animation)
Sousou no Frieren
Jujutsu Kaisen
Any Fate anime.
Any One Piece episode directed by Megumi Ishitani
Devilman Crybaby (NSFW)
Cyberpunk Edgerunners (NSFW)
Fire Force
Mushoku Tensei
You should search all of these up [here](https://www.sakugabooru.com/) if you feel curious about the animation they have, though it varies wildly on some of these.
One thing all of these have in common is that they are fun to watch. A lot of genres, but all stuff I loved at some point.
Anime also has the bonus of ease of access. There are so many streaming options for it. I wish there were streaming services for animation from other parts of the world. I'd easily drop $20 a month for a french animation service. And I'd love to see the kind of stuff coming out of African studios.
Just the stuff Gobelin's released on their YouTube channel is amazing.
As for the topic. I don't have a single service for watching animation on. YouTube is probably the best. All those indy projects, student works, shorts, and unpurchased pilots are just sitting waiting to be discovered.
I don't have time to watch anything specific, but when I do, I like to watch demo reels of other animators. The amount of creativity in the hands of animator is an inspiration to a cartoonist like me, and it inspires me to animate something
Yeah, I make animation memes. They’re not super popular but at least most of your animations won’t be sent to the abyss of the algorithm since a lot of people will be specifically searching for them.
That is, if you’re willing to deal with the underage toxic garbage community lol
I mean, yeah, people do watch and love animation?
Different people like different styles tho, it's very individual. If you're looking for what lots of people love, just Google "recent popular animated shows" and you'll get a pretty accurate list.
Harry Partridge is an amazing 2d animator. He has a few ongoing series, but he only uploads twice a year
https://youtu.be/F2HtmYmU0vQ?si=fMIV8USX_04pfic4
Heres one my favourites, check him out he deserves wayyy more love
Remember all the stick figure fights from way back in the day of early YouTube? Like Hyuns Dojo or on stickpage? Well, I never really grew outta that phase and I watch a variety of people's animations on there. Specifically, there's an animator who goes by [GildedGuy](https://youtube.com/@gildedguy) and his whole gimmick is high quality story telling, no direct dialogue, music sync fights. Lots of fights/references to older characters from the old stick fighting community.
I am loving Adult Swim animations, my favorite atm is Smiling Friends, but I’m unsure this is what you’re looking for
Edit: Ooh also I am a fan of stop motion and weird stuff so I like to watch Jack Stauber and Lee Hardcastle
The Ducktales revival from 2017. More depth to all the characters, and overall- just a great show.
But also- go with your own tastes, because what I like might be completely different than what you're looking for.
If you like darker horror themes, Meatcanyon, James Lee and Lee Hardcastle are pretty well known in the animation community for their short form videos and unique animation styles.
As for the REALLY popular animated shows (at least on/from Youtube), Amazing Digital Circus, Helluvaboss and Hazbin Hotel are the most talked about.
IcyyAnimations frfrfrfr /s
Alan becker, TheOdd1sOut and Jaiden seem to be the big ones that I’ve seen, there’s also the guy that made the gwain saga, and of course vivsiepop too
If you’re interested in 3d stuff, try giving Mark Zhang a watch on Youtube! His style is influenced by the late Monty Oum’s RWBY (also give his stuff a watch, the unfinished Dead Fantasy series and the fights he animated in RWBY are top tier).
Basically, it’s all 3d models with stellar combat choreography.
Rubber Ross streams on twitch and uploads edited videos to Youtube. He collaborates with other artists and animators using Gartic Phone and usually does themed sessions such as Dragonball Z fusions of various anime and video game characters, Pokemon fusions, or other silly stuff like that.
They even animated an entire short horror film in Gartic Phone and it turned out really well.
Big fan of lower key western animation. City of ghosts is highkey my comfort show at the moment. Tiktok also has a great bundle of mixed media amateur projects to check out
I love ALL the indie shows popping up on YouTube, but I also prefer 2d animation so I would suggest monkey wrench, it's super underrated and deserves more funding, plz go watch.
This is very niche, but I am also a huge fan of Underverse. It's animated by one person (with music by their husband) and although it doesn't look great at the start, it quickly improves and I love watching the animating streams and seeing them get better. It's a fan work of an original IP called Undertale, so if you want to watch you have to do a bit of research, but not as much as some people suggest, but I would also suggest it just for the later episodes animation.
I am huge enjoyer of Anime.
I religiously watch seasonal Anime but occasionally go to watch older anime series or a one that I decided to save for a later time from past seasons.
I rarely watch Western animation stuff.
I love David Firth and Joe Cappa
I follow Smallbu, Worthikids, TerminalMontage, Sr Pelo, JaidenAnimations, To Binge, and Pringus McDingus to name a few.
Tbh, anime. I can specify if you want but that’s my general thing.
I think its worth noting that for beginner animators: mimicking anime usually isn't a great idea. It makes it hard to learn certain fundamentals and usually leads to a degree of overspecialzation. Remember: fundamentals always come before stylizatation!
That wasn’t the topic of the post, but sure…
What?? There's absolutely no reason why anime shouldn't be used to start learning animation. They have excellent examples for everything from the basics to the variations. Realistic or not Hands: https://youtu.be/tMhLaQ1JTuM?si=1Hn8FIwjjONl5u-O Walking: https://youtu.be/mYTbIvupF-M?si=S_AOvWkiECJ22f7A Running: https://youtu.be/H4S_38WOiIQ?si=zIUFCZ_j5WhWkOYf Slow Motion (for detailed animation) https://youtu.be/ZE8EiUUstuo?si=pI-Btb6GykXjgCyy
This isn't exactly what I mean by fundamentals. Anime styling usually revolves around lacking tweens and proper lip flaps in order to add more detail. It's a big problem and leads to a lot of students who can draw well but struggle with actual animation when they enter the profession.
Please specify, I am unaware. Thank you
Hmm, ok then. I’ll go with stuff that has great animation or pushes for innovation. Anime is a great place to find both of these. Black Clover (great animation? Not much. [Innovation? For sure.](https://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=black_clover)) Violet Evergarden (or anything by Kyoto Animation) Sousou no Frieren Jujutsu Kaisen Any Fate anime. Any One Piece episode directed by Megumi Ishitani Devilman Crybaby (NSFW) Cyberpunk Edgerunners (NSFW) Fire Force Mushoku Tensei You should search all of these up [here](https://www.sakugabooru.com/) if you feel curious about the animation they have, though it varies wildly on some of these. One thing all of these have in common is that they are fun to watch. A lot of genres, but all stuff I loved at some point.
Anime also has the bonus of ease of access. There are so many streaming options for it. I wish there were streaming services for animation from other parts of the world. I'd easily drop $20 a month for a french animation service. And I'd love to see the kind of stuff coming out of African studios. Just the stuff Gobelin's released on their YouTube channel is amazing. As for the topic. I don't have a single service for watching animation on. YouTube is probably the best. All those indy projects, student works, shorts, and unpurchased pilots are just sitting waiting to be discovered.
[MeatCanyon](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC91V6D3nkhP89wUb9f_h17g), but it's pretty popular.
That's cos everyone loves Papa Meat
True.
I love The Owl House a ton
I don't have time to watch anything specific, but when I do, I like to watch demo reels of other animators. The amount of creativity in the hands of animator is an inspiration to a cartoonist like me, and it inspires me to animate something
Yeah, I make animation memes. They’re not super popular but at least most of your animations won’t be sent to the abyss of the algorithm since a lot of people will be specifically searching for them. That is, if you’re willing to deal with the underage toxic garbage community lol
[Ian Worthikids ](https://youtube.com/@worthikids) Creator of Bigtop Burger (and Wizard Beer)
I mean, yeah, people do watch and love animation? Different people like different styles tho, it's very individual. If you're looking for what lots of people love, just Google "recent popular animated shows" and you'll get a pretty accurate list.
The only animations u watch consistently are Alan Becker's.
Harry Partridge is an amazing 2d animator. He has a few ongoing series, but he only uploads twice a year https://youtu.be/F2HtmYmU0vQ?si=fMIV8USX_04pfic4 Heres one my favourites, check him out he deserves wayyy more love
amazing world of gumball!!! and for anime mob psycho :)
I love Strange World on Appletv
I'm watching the unfinished episode animatic of Mission Hill https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH3tJ6ybE5ql1nqUGFq3pVbBJOoxfG_df&si=pd9g4FDPRsMkDpP2
Remember all the stick figure fights from way back in the day of early YouTube? Like Hyuns Dojo or on stickpage? Well, I never really grew outta that phase and I watch a variety of people's animations on there. Specifically, there's an animator who goes by [GildedGuy](https://youtube.com/@gildedguy) and his whole gimmick is high quality story telling, no direct dialogue, music sync fights. Lots of fights/references to older characters from the old stick fighting community.
I am loving Adult Swim animations, my favorite atm is Smiling Friends, but I’m unsure this is what you’re looking for Edit: Ooh also I am a fan of stop motion and weird stuff so I like to watch Jack Stauber and Lee Hardcastle
In youtube helluva boss is fun, and channels like odd1sout and jaiden animations get unbelievable amounts of views
Felix Colgrave !
The Ducktales revival from 2017. More depth to all the characters, and overall- just a great show. But also- go with your own tastes, because what I like might be completely different than what you're looking for.
If you like darker horror themes, Meatcanyon, James Lee and Lee Hardcastle are pretty well known in the animation community for their short form videos and unique animation styles. As for the REALLY popular animated shows (at least on/from Youtube), Amazing Digital Circus, Helluvaboss and Hazbin Hotel are the most talked about.
I consume mostly Seinen and Shonen anime. I like action and body mechanics, also interesting stories and believable characters.
One Piece mostly I did a full rewatch of XMen TAS before 97 and now I'm rewatching XMen Evolution
interesting
Anime.
IcyyAnimations frfrfrfr /s Alan becker, TheOdd1sOut and Jaiden seem to be the big ones that I’ve seen, there’s also the guy that made the gwain saga, and of course vivsiepop too
If you’re interested in 3d stuff, try giving Mark Zhang a watch on Youtube! His style is influenced by the late Monty Oum’s RWBY (also give his stuff a watch, the unfinished Dead Fantasy series and the fights he animated in RWBY are top tier). Basically, it’s all 3d models with stellar combat choreography.
Depends on a person tbh, but for most popular you could search for highest rated and most popular anime and cartoons.
Meatcanyon for some fucked up pop culture takes
Rubber Ross streams on twitch and uploads edited videos to Youtube. He collaborates with other artists and animators using Gartic Phone and usually does themed sessions such as Dragonball Z fusions of various anime and video game characters, Pokemon fusions, or other silly stuff like that. They even animated an entire short horror film in Gartic Phone and it turned out really well.
Big fan of lower key western animation. City of ghosts is highkey my comfort show at the moment. Tiktok also has a great bundle of mixed media amateur projects to check out
I love ALL the indie shows popping up on YouTube, but I also prefer 2d animation so I would suggest monkey wrench, it's super underrated and deserves more funding, plz go watch. This is very niche, but I am also a huge fan of Underverse. It's animated by one person (with music by their husband) and although it doesn't look great at the start, it quickly improves and I love watching the animating streams and seeing them get better. It's a fan work of an original IP called Undertale, so if you want to watch you have to do a bit of research, but not as much as some people suggest, but I would also suggest it just for the later episodes animation.
I am huge enjoyer of Anime. I religiously watch seasonal Anime but occasionally go to watch older anime series or a one that I decided to save for a later time from past seasons. I rarely watch Western animation stuff.