Now Transformers Animated is on TV are the toys flying off the shelves?

[GoktimusPrime]

And having a kids cartoon that is not based off a card game or some kind of competitive battling game is a nice change too.

Heh. Although that doesn't necessarily mean they're badly written. I've never seen Digimon, but a lot of people have told me that it's pretty well written.

That's why I never buy the whole "Transformers is a cartoon made to sell kids' toys" as a justification for poorly written juvenile stories and other such story elements which talks down to the audience. There are plenty of examples of stories (cartoons, comics etc) based on kids' franchises which don't talk down to their audience like juveniles. In fact Transformers has always been primarily a kids (boys) toy franchise yet there are plenty of examples where the supporting fiction is really well written, e.g.: G1 comics, G2 comics, Beast Wars Canadian cartoon et al. - all made to market children's toys yet had good story-telling.

[Gutsman Heavy]

I've never seen Digimon, but a lot of people have told me that it's pretty well written.

It isn't. A notch above Pokemon, but that don't mean much!

[i_amtrunks]

It isn't. A notch above Pokemon, but that don't mean much!

Agreed, it's better than most stuff thats on, but it still isn't great (but thats the dubbed version, apparently the originals are "better"). I've seen 3 different series, and the 2nd and 3rd series seem to cut copy more or less every story element and character from the first.

Kind of like what happened with Zoids...

[kup]

It isn't. A notch above Pokemon, but that don't mean much!

Anything that has a different story every episode is above Pokamon which followed a strict template for the story of every episode.

Alongside American cartoons in general, Japanese kid's animation has also hit the floor in the past 10 years, at least the ones that are imported and dubbed for the west.

[SilverDragon]

Anything that has a different story every episode is above Pokamon which followed a strict template for the story of every episode.

Alongside American cartoons in general, Japanese kid's animation has also hit the floor in the past 10 years, at least the ones that are imported and dubbed for the west.

I think Japanese kid's anime has hit the floor, given that half of it is either crappy adaptations of manga (Naruto, I'm looking at you) or selling something (Dinosaur King. Sure, it's awesome, but dinosaurs trapped in cards? WTF).

Not so much American cartoons. I think they've improved-Avatar, for one, is effing awesome. The animation style's certainly gotten better since the 80s. Heck, TFA, which serves to plug toys, is really good.