If you are reading this, it’s a near certainty you’ve encountered Japanese animation, or anime. It’s also a good bet that your introduction to the mediuam came through the PokĂ©mon craze of the 90s, Toonami’s afternoon lineup, or a Studio Ghibli film.
It’s hard to conceive of now, but anime was once a niche import relegated to a small counterculture. Its growth into a pop culture phenomenon took decades. Because anime’s path to the Western mainstream was anything but straightforward, it took a lot of struggle marked by groundbreaking achievements–and a distinct turning point that might surprise you.
To understand anime’s rise to Western prominence, it helps to trace its deep roots in Japan. Originating in the early 1900s, anime evolved a signature style marked by unique visual conventions like large, emotive eyes and exaggerated expressions.
It wasn’t long before Japanese culture became intertwined with anime. From kawaii mascots on merchandise to anime-themed tourist attractions in Tokyo, the medium is a staple of daily life. And over the years, anime has developed into an art form that runs the gamut from slice-of-life sitcoms to epic fantasy battles.
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This cultural force began its Western migration with the 1960s debut of Astro Boy, one of the first Japanese animated series to hit US television. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that anime reached critical mass in the West, entering its golden age on Toonami. Shows like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Gundam Wing, and especially Pokémon made anime a household word.
Pokémon, in particular, became a cultural juggernaut, not just on TV, but also video games, card games, and toys. The chubby yellow rodent that most at the time dismissed as a flash in the pan has become the new Mickey Mouse. And at lesat one copy of a game from the franchise is now a second-class relic.
Anyway, the PokĂ©mon boom laid a foundation for anime’s popularity in the West, creating a generation primed for future animated imports. But nobody could have foreseen how far and deep anime’s influence would spread.
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By the aughts, the internet was amplifying anime’s reach, making niche titles more accessible than ever. Platforms like Crunchyroll and YouTube brought anime directly to viewers worldwide, bypassing traditional TV gatekeepers and letting fans find titles that suited their tastes. This online accessibility helped anime expand beyond its base, creating dedicated fandoms.
For a while, Japanese animation seemed invincible. Anime conventions popped up like mushrooms. Brick-and-mortar and online stores alike overflowed with merchandise licensed from Japanese cartoon series. Anime even influenced Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix, which drew inspiration from Ghost in the Shell. That crucial turning point made anime tropes and aesthetics immediately recognizable to Western audiences.
But all too often, a high point precedes a downfall.
In recent years, anime has come to a crossroads. Despite its popularity, anime now faces artistic and commercial challenges that have raised questions about its future.
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Anime’s rapid growth has led to an explosion of supply but also raised concerns about quality. More and more, studios prioritize quantity over originality, relying on formulas that have proven financially successful but creatively stagnant. Series after series recycles stale tropes, while generic characters and predictable plotlines abound.
Somewhere along the line, something was lost. The creativity that defined anime is now overshadowed by an emphasis on lowest-common-denominator marketability. This commercially safe approach has saturated the scene with low-quality productions, overshadowing innovative anime and alienating discerning audiences–not to mention letting fringe Western ideology seep in.
In a strange irony, while anime’s influence has grown, it’s also experienced a cultural dilution. Western entertainment now engages in the wholesale hijacking of anime tropes. This imitation has created a curious problem: While anime’s style is more visible than ever, the qualities that once made it special are getting lost in translation. Western studios often mimic anime’s visuals but seldom capture its essence, leading to adaptations that feel hollow like the 2017 live-action Ghost in the Shell, which lacked the source material’s philosophical weight.
As alluded to above, another factor stifling anime’s growth is increased pressure from Western streaming platforms and investors to align with their boutique ideological preferences. Stories that challenge the corporate consensus or champion traditional themes are getting sidelined in favor of approved Narratives. These restriction not only limit artistic freedom, they also distance anime from the countercultural appeal that once defined it for Western fans.
As Western demand pushes for more globalized anime, Japanese creators face a choice: Bend to external pressures, or risk losing billions in international distribution deals. Corporate mandates to play it safe and foreign fatwas against wrontghink are the twin horns of the dilemma anime now finds itself impaled on.
That paradox raises the question: Can anime sustain its success?
Anime’s rise in the West from niche entertainment to mainstream powerhouse bespeaks impressive resilience and versatility. But its current state of confusion betrays a serious need for recalibration. If it’s to avoid a bleak future of artistic compromise and fan disillusionment, anime must return to its roots.
That means for anime to keep thriving, it needs to rediscover the creativity, flexibility, and appteite for risk that once defined it. Because vast audiences remain eager for fresh, unfiltered stories that only anime can tell. But it’s up to creators to rediscover what made anime a cultural force in the first place.
Anime’s rise in the West was one of the great unsung success stories of the 90s. Now, the industry has reached a crossroads. This unique medium’s future will depend on its ability to resist external pressures and focus on what differentiates it from other forms of animation. It won’t be easy, but if anime creators can pull off that self-correction, they’ll bring in new droves of new fans while retaining the legions of longtime otaku for years to come.
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There’s another facet that you left out and that’s the seeming massive cultural shift around the early 2000’s. At least to my noticing of it, 2007/2008, around the beginning of the Obama years, we saw the culture fully embrace “Normal is bad.” The status quo, cultural norms, and attitudes were now facing total scrutiny. It became cool to be weird. When it became cool to be weird, the interests of the weird became mainstream like comics, manga, cartoons, and anime.
I see the anime industry making the same mistakes as Western Entertainment, but the saving grace is that it seems to be about 10 years behind. So if Western/American Entertainment gets fixed, Japan won’t be too far behind.
The other option is, we all bow down to the French because I hear they go overlooked. Their manga and anime scene is supposedly top notch right now.
Yes, the years you mention were the flashpoint of Revenge of the Nerds style cultural subversion. It’s no coincidence that was when Gen Y left college to join the work force. They had their own disposable income for the first time, and the entertainment industry’s marketing departments made sure they squandered it flying their freak flag consoomer identity.
The Franco-Japanese collaboration goes way back. I’m instantly reminded of Interstella 5555, the hour long anime music video to Daft Punk’s (greatest) album Discovery that was done with Toei Animation (if Wikipedia is to be believed).
“It’s also a good bet that your introduction to the mediuam came through the PokĂ©mon craze of the 90s,”
Nah, it was Voltron (aka Golion) and Robotech (aka Macross) and Tranzor-Z (aka Mazinger Z). Of course we didn’t realize yet that these were animes, so the first acknowledged animes were Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z in the 90s.
What happened to anime in my opinion is this: Western media died a painful death in 2010 by going woke. Japan was behind and it didn’t happen to them fully until maybe 2017-2018. The woke contageon took a bit longer to completely destroy them. But all anime from 2018 forward is pure trash.
Yet at the same time, it can be said they in a way had the woke contageon first and we stood against it over here. For instance in the 90s you mentioned Sailor Moon, but there was also CardCaptors, what in Japan was Cardcaptor Sakura. In the Jap original her brother was gay and dating a dude, and the US adaptation shortened the episodes to remove that; you could still kind of tell by how feminine he was drawn that something was up, but he barely appeared in the show. Sailor Moon also in the later seasons that didn’t make it to US broadcast television but only cable, also featured lesbian shite. Steins;gate was pushing transgender bs before it was being pushed by US media, aside from Jerry Speinger. So the relationship of Japan to the woke mind virus is complicated.
I would highly recommend anyone who wants to understand why anime and manga from the 80s and 90s remain so influential to read Koji Maki’s autobiography “Series Axed!” (done in manga style) which covers his beginnings as an artist through his run in Shonen Jump before striking it out on his own. He worked there during the manga and anime boom and you see a lot of the attitude and influences that would eventually take over the west. Pay attention to the things he said inspired him, then look at the premises to his manga series, then realize that despite never having a proper hit in Shonen Jump his stuff still sold crazy back then. There is something missing now that existed then.
The secret sauce, in my opinion, was the back and forth between East and West influences before the latter imploded in on itself. I would say if there is a problem anime and manga suffers from now is that it has nothing left to bounce off other than itself which leads to a smaller cultural splash. The recent hit Kagurabachi, for instance, is a response to John Wick and “Cool Japan” media from the West, and as a result it is starting to blow up in popularity. There is a cultural conversation there that appeals to both East and West in a way that does not seem to be as prominent as it once was.
The back and forth can only happen if both parties are willing, and we well now how damaged the West’s system is right now. Until that gets sorted out, I expect manga and anime to continued it’s strange recent balancing act. Better that then the alternative of turning insular and becoming like Marvel and DC. No one wants that to happen.
Note that there have been many straight remakes recently, ex. Rurouni Kenshin, Hell Teacher Nube, Grendizer and Spice and Wolf. We also have “reimaginings” like Trigun: Stampede, sequel series, mobile app tie-ins, etc. Heck, if we just limit ourselves to Rumiko Takahashi we get two remakes (Urusei Yatsura and Ranma 1/2) and one sequel (Yashahime). There are still original works, but they are much fewer than in the past. We also don’t have anything which is really equivalent to the creative OVA scene from the 80’s and 90’s.
One interesting thing about this is that you can compare remakes to the originals to try to hash out the differences between modern anime and anime through the 90’s. The biggest trend that I’ve noticed is that the remakes tend to look cleaner and nicer in screenshots, but as they use less action and creative framing they are less interesting to actually watch. Though given how popular “anime recap” channels are, I don’t know if young anime fans are even watching most new shows.
Those are all sound points. It should be mentioned that OAVs are having something of a renaissance via streaming, though.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention that one of anime’s biggest upcoming problems is probably going to be Japan’s demographic and population issues. There’s less Japanese in each generation so far, and that means less to make anime.