The problem is that very often, anime CG looks worse than Star Wars Rebels. And even then, it's a medium where 90% of the shows that come out are done in 2d or at least try to use CG to emulate the 2d style.
Hmm...arguably that's what's being done with
Ronja. These are still distinctly ghibli designs.
Here's the
ED which features only 2D sketches of the characters.
That said, I think on the whole 2d or at least CG-assisted 2d is still fairly prevalent the norm. Korra, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, all the Adult Swim/Fox crap... in fact, I want to say that all the children's edutainment stuff like that girl who teaches kids languages is all 2D as well. So I don't even know anymore. lol
I think all(?) 2D Western cartoons today are CG-assisted and rely on digital means of production. Flash is a very popular software. We might be discussing people turned off by 3DCG in this thread/anime fandom, but you can find people out there who will cause an uproar over Flash being used in 2D animation. A lot of people complained after the Steven Universe pilot was released and then for the actual show they simplified the designs to use in Flash. And there are even people who hate the whole digital to begin with and won't watch an anime/cartoon not totally hand-drawn/with film grain and all that.
In the West, 3DCG is prevalent. It will not make a show a gauranteed (financial) success though. Polygon Picture's Tron Uprising got cancelled, as did Titmouse's Motorcity, which played on the same channel right before or after it, and the latter is gorgeously done 2D in Flash (and Facinator). I guess it's risky business however you do it.
Popular 3DCG shows like the How to Train Your Dragon show and stuff like Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First targets the really young kids and sells a ton in
merchandise. Interestingly they are done by studios known more for their movies and that have largely abandoned 2D (Dreamworks and Disney). To me that says brand recognition is powerful and kids are the prime market (kind of obvious if you watch cartoons at all).
That's what I've been saying for a while. For kids who grew up in the late 90s and beyond, I notice that very often they don't really see traditional animation in the same way. The appeal isn't ingrained at a young age, and there's no nostalgia at all for older works. Stuff like videogame FMVs and Pixar movies have a much deeper impact on them in terms of what "animation" is.
This
article about TV ratings at least shows kids today are watching 2D. I don't know the full implications/context though. I guess they are also watching whatever 3D blockbuster is in theatres. But if they grow up and enter this business in the future they might have nostalgia for 2D.
Anime in Japan exists because there is a culture of passionate people inspiring younger people to take up the art form even though you are likely going to start out working 7 days a week nonstop on physically demanding but trivial work like in-betweening, and getting possibly less than a thousand dollars a month. That culture doesn't exist outside of Japan for animation for various reasons, and honestly I don't think it's healthy to encourage that sort of thing. It is what it is though.
I agree that this happens less outside of Japan, but if there wasn't some sort of culture that loved 2D animation as an art and was inspired by it, it I don't know why shows like Gravity Falls or Steven Universe would be made.
Shows like Archer and Family Guy though...they don't need inspiration; They're basically using relatively cheap and easy means to get across their content. Japan's got some shows like that.
digital dept., since their first standalone project (
