Make the cartoon show you’d actually watch

Adult animation isn't about being explicit. It's grown-up problems in a style that lets you exaggerate them.

• A specific place

  Skip "a city". Go for one street in the Mission, a laundromat that's secretly a bar, an apartment with one working burner. Specific places write their own jokes.

• Flaws you can draw

  The planner who dates by spreadsheet brings a clipboard to brunch. Give every Character one visible habit and the animation does half the comedy.

• The cutaway

  Animation can jump to a flashback, a daydream or the worst possible outcome in one cut. Save it for the joke live action couldn't afford.

• A grown-up engine

  Adult cartoons run on adult problems: rent, exes, a job you hate, a parent who calls at the worst moment. Pick one that never runs out and it writes a new Episode every week.

Cartoon audiences notice everything about a design: hair shape, outfit colours, a gap in someone's teeth. Change one of them and the Character stops being themselves.

• Lock the silhouette

  Describe each Character with a shape you could recognise in shadow: the tall one in the beanie, the short one with the huge tote bag. The design is locked once and holds every Scene.

• Treat the World as a regular

  The apartment, the bar and the corner store become Characters too. The World keeps them the same, so the stain on the couch is still there in Episode 8.

• Let the style exaggerate

  2D gets away with what photoreal can't: huge expressions, impossible double-takes, a heart visibly breaking. Push it, and keep the take where the face goes furthest.

• Recurring side Characters

  The downstairs neighbour, the barista who remembers everyone's ex, the landlord who only communicates by note. Small parts that keep coming back make the city feel lived in, and each one stays on-model.