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This Week in Anime - The Anime Movie Magic

2. Anime isn't that big of a draw.

While it may seem like everyone in your world watches, or at least is open to, anime... the vast majority of the world still doesn't. If you were to take a sampling of the general population, I'd wager that less than 10% of Americans even know what anime is. Even among anime fans, fandom is so fragmented between so many shows and subgenres, that it's a very rare bird of an anime feature that would attract most of them to the point where they'd go to a theater.

3. Westerners are not that curious about anime.

Anybody who's ever tried to get non-anime fans into anime knows that getting Americans to check out these weird Japanese cartoons is like pulling teeth. Most people just don't care. It's too foreign, too animated, and too not-what-they-like. There's no real curiosity there. If someone normally doesn't watch anime and their friends don't watch anime, it serves no purpose for them.

I've long had a theory about the less intellectually curious: whether or not they like something is contingent almost entirely on whether or not it satisfies a two question binary: is it what they expected when they walked in the door, and does it fit in with their social group? If one of these basic cinema-goers hasn't seen anime, they don't know what to expect. Since most of their friends don't watch anime, it's not something they can discuss with their friends. And therefore, their immediate reaction to anime is "I won't like it," and they go see the latest Transformers movie. It's just like someone choosing to go to Applebees rather than trying that new Indonesian restaurant that just opened.

Does anybody remember that 2017 Answerman that talked about why anime film can't get a wide theatrical release in the US/North America?

Justin Servakis aka Answerman wrote:

2. Anime isn't that big of a draw. While it may seem like everyone in your world watches, or at least is open to, anime... the vast majority of the world still doesn't. If you were to take a sampling of the general population, I'd wager that less than 10% of Americans even know what anime is. Even among anime fans, fandom is so fragmented between so many shows and subgenres, that it's a very rare bird of an anime feature that would attract most of them to the point where they'd go to a theater. 3. Westerners are not that curious about anime. Anybody who's ever tried to get non-anime fans into anime knows that getting Americans to check out these weird Japanese cartoons is like pulling teeth. Most people just don't care. It's too foreign, too animated, and too not-what-they-like. There's no real curiosity there. If someone normally doesn't watch anime and their friends don't watch anime, it serves no purpose for them. I've long had a theory about the less intellectually curious: whether or not they like something is contingent almost entirely on whether or not it satisfies a two question binary: is it what they expected when they walked in the door, and does it fit in with their social group? If one of these basic cinema-goers hasn't seen anime, they don't know what to expect. Since most of their friends don't watch anime, it's not something they can discuss with their friends. And therefore, their immediate reaction to anime is "I won't like it," and they go see the latest Transformers movie. It's just like someone choosing to go to Applebees rather than trying that new Indonesian restaurant that just opened.

Now, not to insult the great Justin, but is this now irrelevant today because of Gundam GQuuuuuuX film made over 1 million dollars in the US alone despite a limited release and the Gundam franchise hasn't had a big mainstream hit in the US since Wing?

Oh, how times have changed...

These specific IPs also Pavlov'd me into thinking that theatrical releases for ongoing anime are exclusively non-canon, but that's increasingly not the case anymore.

I have definitely had some anime moments that were greatly enhanced just by seeing them in theaters with fans. I remember being in the audience for a showing of the first Fullmetal Alchemist movie at a con, and the crowd had so much enthusiasm and emotion that it just swept me along. I'll never forget the cries of audience anguish when spoiler[Alternate Reality Maes Hughes turns out to be not just a bad guy, but an actual Nazi.]

The funny thing is, rewatchiing the movie years later at home, I realized that I didn't actually like it very much! But I loved watching it the first time around because the crowd was just so into it.

I just see the Demon Slayer movie and its accompanying TV season as two options for watching a story arc. You don't have to watch both. Watch the movie to have a good time at the theater, or just wait a bit for the next season to air and watch it that way.

That's not even that true with Pokemon! The first movie was totally canon since there were multiple episodes featuring stuff to build up to the movie (like Giovanni using Mewtwo to wreck Gary Oak in Viridian City).

Dr. Wily wrote:

That's not even that true with Pokemon! The first movie was totally canon since there were multiple episodes featuring stuff to build up to the movie (like Giovanni using Mewtwo to wreck Gary Oak in Viridian City).

Funny how that isn't referenced in the movie at least not the U.S. cut.

I've only seen a few anime films in theaters, and pretty much all of those had maybe a half-dozen other people in the auditorium, so I can't say I've ever experienced any crowd energy from them. (Well okay, probably the OG Pokemon movie many moons ago...) I'm honestly not much of a movie person in general; the last movie I willingly chose to see in theaters was, appropriately enough, Top Gun: Maverick. I certainly wouldn't shell out ridiculous ticket prices just to see someone slap a few TV episodes together.