Animation is one of the most beautiful forms of expression. Ever since I was a child, the thought of thousands of singular frames of artwork coming together to create motion was just… magical.

In recent years, however, the art of hand-drawn animation isn’t as prevalent in America. CGI 3-D animation, Flash animation or sometimes a little hand-drawn mixed with flash. It is bothersome; the main appeal of animation is its ability to create beautiful, unrealistic worlds where anything and everything is possible. Organic hand-drawn animation brings that feeling of realism and weight, where as Flash animation feels to artificial. It may be animation, but it feels so lifeless, like a robot.

This longing for less artificial content led me to search for alternatives; French animation is usually abstract and artsy, cool but not my favorite. Korean is close to organic, but lies within that sort of uncanny valley between artificial and organic. But then there was Japanese animation.

Considering the prevalence of hand-drawn animation within Japan, and the fact that many animations are translated, it was a perfect fit for me.

So for many years I’d spend my summers ogling over the seemingly endless torrents of animation at my fingertips, thanks to the Internet. It was wonderful; I was in heaven.

But, then I began to notice something; a pattern. Out of the tons of shows I would watch, I found that only a hand few actually profoundly affected me positively. This isn’t too odd itself considering this is how most modern entertainment is. But what shocked me was how prevalent the same kind of trash would appear. A vast majority of the shows I watched had the same problem; there was always the same, cookie cutter, bland and artificial girl in each.

Short, big-breasts, cute hair colors, cute hairstyles, dreamy emotionless stairs, absolutely no personality aside from acting cute. Most would say, “You’re over thinking it; it’s just a show,” but that is and inexcusable way of thinking about it. Because if this is what the magical world of animation justifies as the proper ideal of a woman, then where does that leave women like me? I see women around me, constantly changing their hair color, constantly covering their natural beauty with layers of paint and continually fretting over appearances in one way or another. What I’m getting at isn’t the animation changing how women see themselves. The problem is how much it reaffirms and perpetuates the craziness even further.

Why artificial? Why can’t we just see the beauty within the organic, the natural. It is infuriating, the dozens of beautiful women I see, fretting over their body, thinking they need to be better, they need to hide their natural form, and then I go to animation and see how the industry expects women to be robotic templates. This is bad, this is horrendous; and I’ve yet to see many animations take a stand against this.

They may have made better female characters with better personalities, but the image is still artificial. We are organic creatures, and there is only so much artificial we can take. This is the problem with artificial.