Then in 1998, an amazing thing happened. Cartoon Network’s Toonami block launched Dragonball Z. Yes, I would imagine that the credit from a national influence really started out with them. That was about the time that Sailor Moon also was showing up in the States all edited so that kids wouldn’t be “shocked” by the naked Sailors changing into their super powerhouse costumes.
Things have come a long ways since then. Adult Swim launched in 2001, showing more mature rated anime such as the ever popular Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, and Death Note. In fact, there are more and more anime conventions being handled in the United States where popular jrock bands are taking their world tours like the S.K.I.N. launch at the Anime Expo in 2007.
Even the manga industry has literally exploded in the last three years or so. By observation alone, I remember when the bookstore, Borders, only had one single bookcase of manga and that has since grown to six eight foot bookcases in only a couple of years. If a single store can manage to grow that much of this genre, then they’re obviously selling them like hot cakes. This also shows the growth of English manga publishers like Tokyopop which coincides strangely enough within a couple years of the Cartoon Network move towards Japanese animation.
Overall, this niche of Japanese art has single-handedly dominated not only the last decade of toys and entertainment, but will continue to do so for many more to come. Isn’t it flabbergasting how it wasn’t but a couple decades ago that I wondered why the US didn’t have Dragonball?
Photo Credit: (bluemodem)
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Ernie wrote:
Fun, yet completely trivial fact: Dragonball Z is also one of the top non-porn related search terms on Yahoo!. Which says a lot, really.
Posted on 07-May-08 at 9:28 pm | Permalink
Jen wrote:
do you think anime will “evolve” in Western culture? Besides being less racy/nude?
Posted on 07-May-08 at 9:47 pm | Permalink
darkmoon wrote:
@Jen:
lol. Single word answer for that one. “No.”
Mainly because you can tell when the animation becomes non-Japanese. Let’s be honest, that’s more of a Western media culture issue. Push the envelope on what’s violent, what you can get away with on television, etc etc. Nip/Tuck? Good luck with trying that show about fifteen years ago.
Anime in itself brings out a lot of societal issues that people are less willing to talk about up front. But being less racy, and less nudity? Eh. Depends on what you define those boundaries as I suppose.
Posted on 08-May-08 at 5:06 am | Permalink
Moye wrote:
Well, I think you can see the influence in American entertainment and fashion, especially with shows like The Last Airbender which were created by Americans and are clearly based on the anime style/world.
Posted on 08-May-08 at 9:06 am | Permalink
Takeo wrote:
I find it amazing that to find Anime or Manga I simply need to stroll down to the local book or video store. I still remember in the mid nineties having to troll the shops in San Jose Japantown to find original, Japanese language anime/manga/music.
Anime’s had influences far beyond the “kid focus” market. Many of the shots in big budget movies like “the matrix” have their origins directly in Anime.
It’s not a one way street either. Modern manga had it’s main influences from Disney animation, and there is a tremendous amount of crossfeed between American and Japanese animation/comics.
I think the appeal for Anime geeks like me is that Anime is highly detailed in a way that American animation is not. In the anime series “Gunslinger Girl”, the character Rico carries a sidearm I recognized immediately: A Czech CZ75 in 9mm. How did I recognize it? Because I have one sitting in my weapons cabinet. It’s not just guns, but cars (AE86 anyone?) airplanes (C-17’s in STRATOS4, I know, because I work around them) and places (Tokyo Tower, from YOU’RE UNDER ARREST).
It’s just nice to see other people recognize the value of anime/manga now.
Posted on 08-May-08 at 12:48 pm | Permalink