Cute, you haven't actually watched the more modern popular anime.
The problem comes from the fact that live action does not always encompass actors, and it definitely does include bad actors. There are people who use photoshoots/pictures of models for their LA character. Bad actors don't have very strong facial expressions, and some actors have vocal tone and delivery much more than any visual cues.
Animation as a whole (anime, western cartoons, etc) tends to be expressive to an extreme because animation needs to exaggerate in order to more strongly represent reality. If you look at many tutorials on drawing characters (particularly facial expressions) you'll find that a lot of artists are highly encouraged to very much distort the proportions of a face and push the limits of "anatomically accurate", in order to create a vivid and clear character without touching Uncanny Valley. Cheap anime is a lot of sweat drops and wacky expressions and arm waving, but that's because it's cheap. Because there's a market now, the sweatdrop animating style has faded out in favor of very smooth and glorifying animation (see: Free!, Attack on Titan).
And because animation is an exaggeration, some people are a lot more used to the very strong expressiveness you get in that. And unfortunately, not every actor can be as expressive as Jim Carrey, so still photos of most actors tend to be much more subdued. Add to this the contrast between vivid and clear coloring in animation versus the duller, melding tones of most popular live action stuff these days, and the icons for animated characters have a tendency to be a lot more memorable than the icons of an LA character.
This does not make either side "right" in an argument, but there's your answer as to why this is a trend.
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(Anonymous) 2013-09-09 06:52 am (UTC)(link)The problem comes from the fact that live action does not always encompass actors, and it definitely does include bad actors. There are people who use photoshoots/pictures of models for their LA character. Bad actors don't have very strong facial expressions, and some actors have vocal tone and delivery much more than any visual cues.
Animation as a whole (anime, western cartoons, etc) tends to be expressive to an extreme because animation needs to exaggerate in order to more strongly represent reality. If you look at many tutorials on drawing characters (particularly facial expressions) you'll find that a lot of artists are highly encouraged to very much distort the proportions of a face and push the limits of "anatomically accurate", in order to create a vivid and clear character without touching Uncanny Valley. Cheap anime is a lot of sweat drops and wacky expressions and arm waving, but that's because it's cheap. Because there's a market now, the sweatdrop animating style has faded out in favor of very smooth and glorifying animation (see: Free!, Attack on Titan).
And because animation is an exaggeration, some people are a lot more used to the very strong expressiveness you get in that. And unfortunately, not every actor can be as expressive as Jim Carrey, so still photos of most actors tend to be much more subdued. Add to this the contrast between vivid and clear coloring in animation versus the duller, melding tones of most popular live action stuff these days, and the icons for animated characters have a tendency to be a lot more memorable than the icons of an LA character.
This does not make either side "right" in an argument, but there's your answer as to why this is a trend.