[Librarian]

This has always been something that comes and goes in waves.

Trends, both film and video games as well as tv series vary in content per era.

It's nothing new, and it'll change again in a few years as trends begin to lean elsewhere in what gains attention and holds audiences.

Games have done the same as they've gone from puzzle eras to sandbox eras to FPS eras, and even sports dominated for a time. Every era changes and grows. And even with the comedy leanings of modern cartoons, there still is a strong pulse of action and adventure intertwined.

You may look at it outwardly and see 'abstract art' but that doesn't mean it's devoid of action or adventure. Though as more games lean to reality, more abstract alternatives become wanted on TV. Same as how when games were leaning more abstract, more reality based styles were sought after on TV.

The conveyance of the art though doesn't negate the active components of adventure or action oriented. It's a matter of where each aesthetic is getting satiated. An abstract form doesn't directly mean solidly comedy oriented. It could even be argued that such things like Adventure Time are more slice of life than they are fully comedy. Same to other wider forays of the abstract conveyance.

In time, styles will continue to evolve and types of stories will vary more. Though I really wouldn't compare this to japan either where the stories more vary in animation ranges due to a different cultural aspect of animation as a whole.

It could also be said that things like TMNT recent as well as voltron survived strongly because they played to both action adventure and comedy. Balancing the components for wider tension breaks. It's really not much different than toons of older in that regard that used comedy to tension break and hold audience attention from drama getting too overwrought. Avatar and Korra played to this too, where the seasons that became more overwrought with drama having the most concerned fan responses of the shows getting too dark.

Though I would say if you're comparing action toons of yesteryear to action toons of now, Steven Universe is leagues above the action of 80s cartoons. So the argument is more on the abstract or not component and how people deem that as "acceptable" or "kidified". Those can be as action adventure or convey gut wrenching stories as anything else. The aesthetic doesn't deem it non-adventure or action oriented show.

It's all part of trends though. Aesthetics change in waves, whether it's film story types, TV, or video games. It all changes in what's the dominant usage per era, roughly every 4-6 years. I really wouldn't read too much into it. It's the nature of the mediums.