Forum - View topicIs anime considered mainstream?
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Squall-Leonhart17
Posts: 6 |
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What would you say?
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4828 |
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I don't think we're quite there yet....but at least you don't have to explain to people what anime is, anymore.
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6524 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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@ Squall-Leonhart17,
It is a courtesy that if you start a thread with a question to be answered, that you state your own opinion on the matter. So, do you think anime is mainstream? If yes, why? If no, why not? |
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Squall-Leonhart17
Posts: 6 |
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I think it's niche for the most part aside from a few mainstream shows but it's definitely being talked about more even as opposed to two years ago.
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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By whom and where exactly? I don't see much mention of anime in mainstream US media for instance. There weren't many people in attendance at the screening of Miss Hokusai I attended, and this was in Cambridge, MA. On the other hand the one screening of Sailor Moon R with subtitles at that theater is already sold out. When they start talking about anime on shows like Today and Good Morning America I'll start to think of it as more "mainstream." |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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No, I don't think anime can be considered mainstream. It's still a pretty niche entertainment field. I'm sure many people who aren't into anime have heard of shows like Pokemon but that's probably where general awareness stops. However, despite not being mainstream, anime is able to support the activity of several NA distribs, so...
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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Honestly, even Sailor Moon and Dragonball at their most popular were kind of niche. The only anime to enjoy true mainstream status, at least in the West, was and still is, Pokemon.
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9838 Location: Virginia |
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Anime certainly isn't mainstream in North America at this time. As noted above you don't hear about it in the entertainment news and anime and anime related merchandise is absent from most big retail outlets. There was a brief period at the peak of the bubble when it was reaching for mainstream status but the bubble burst and that went away.
I also don't think anime will every become mainstream. For that see the Answer man question about anime movies getting a wide release. All told, I think it is a good thing that anime is niche. It would be nice if the niche were just a bit larger, maybe large enough to support dubs for almost all shows. Then the dub enthusiasts could fight with each other about the quality of specific dubs and quit complaining about rational business decisions. Unfortunately, in the US, there is a large vocal group of would be culture police. So far anime and manga have largely flown under the radar of such people. If it became mainstream they would be all over it. Those who are convinced that Halloween is a plot to seduce children to Satanism would be appalled by anime's somewhat tone deaf references to Christianity. Those who think that all animation is for kids would yell mightily about fan service and such things. Another thing to consider is that in the US anything that becomes really popular has money thrown at it. If anime became mainstream the current NA providers who mostly understand what they are doing would be shoved aside. Large amounts of money would be channeled to the Japanese anime industry and with money goes control. I suspect that the resulting product would have very little relation to what we currently know and love. When, inevitably, fashions changed again the money would move elsewhere and the anime industry would probably die a final death. I think it is good that anime is niche, maybe just a little large niche but still limited. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Well said, Alan45. As you point out, there is a sweet spot between being popular enough to support dubbing yet not attracting the notice of the Culture Police. It never even occurred to me the potential downside of becoming too popular - not that that is something we have to worry about, I guess.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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It is worth mentioning that at this moment, anime can be purchased from any major DVD retailer over here, and there are sporadic film screenings on certain television channels several times a year. More promisingly, anime is advertised on the London Underground every now and then. Every Ghibli release in recent years has appeared on a few billboards, as have screenings for Your Name and Ghost in the Shell. I would imagine that the anime is no longer so covert that the typical commuter is not able to identify it as such, even if they may have little to say about it.
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9838 Location: Virginia |
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@Zin5ki
That is way closer to mainstream than it is here. We didn't see that level of recognition even at the height of the anime bubble. If any anime movie has ever shown in my city in the last 20 years they did it with out my becoming aware of it. I would find it almost an impossibility to find as many as half a dozen people around here who even know what anime is. There used to be an anime club here and may still be but it is limited to the high school/junior college crowd. I should point out that you don't have as much of a problem with the culture police since you chased most of them out of England and over here to settle the new world. 
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BodaciousSpacePirate
 Subscriber Posts: 3017 |
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This reminds me of that ANNCast where Zac imagines himself suavely commenting, "it's cool... to like anime" before riding off on a skateboard.
I think it's a pretty well-known subculture that not a lot of people actually engage in. I'd probably say something like Pretty Little Liars is far more mainstream than any currently-airing anime show, though. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Anime is a huge medium, as such, it's not as a whole mainstream anywhere: hardcore otaku stuff like Kaiba and Flip Flappers is obscure even in Japan. While I think almost everybody in Japan heard of Dragon Ball and One Piece.
In Brazil shounen and shoujo stuff like Saint Seya, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura and Dragon Ball is pretty mainstream among young people. Other people know Inuyasha and some know Ghibli films. Overall though awareness of adult serious stuff like Ghost in the Shell and Serial Experiments Lain is very low. I would guess in the US there are more hardcore fans than in Brazil actually but few people overall are aware of anything related to the medium: it's like all or nothing, the average American anime fan consumes more of anime/manga than the typical Japanese but 99.5% of the population is unaware of the medium. @Alan45, well if anime became mainstream in North America (and by extension in the rest of the Western World) what would happen is that such a huge market for animation would imply in the massive growth and diversification of adult western animation with concomitant increase in sophistication. In the end we would end up with a similar situation as the videogame industry is today: a highly diverse and sophisticated global industry (in fact I believe that it's perhaps the largest concentration of artistic talent in the world right now). There would be more variety of styles of art since more cultural influences would be incorporated and new specifically western genres of anime would emerge. I think it would be great. And Hollywood would be crushed even harder than it is as of now. |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Well, there may be a metropolitan effect that skews the frequency of such phenomena. Certainly, you would be lucky to find anything anime-related in public if one were to venture into Brexitland, excluding the standard children's merchandise franchises. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9838 Location: Virginia |
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Jose Cruz wrote:
If that is what you want, fine. My point is that I came to anime because it was different from what was available in the US. I want anime to remain culturally Japanese. Personally I think that some sort of global homogenized animation as you propose would be a bad thing. Even if it turned out well it wouldn't be anime. Personally, I think that the current diversity if fine. It is appropriate that different cultures produce different types of entertainment. I can't answer to the size or sophistication of the international gaming industry as I know nothing about it except that it exists. I should point out that this is what I meant about the "culture police". Gaming became sufficiently mainstream among teenage males that it periodically attracts the attention of those people who want to censor everyone's entertainment. I suspect that this has had an effect on some of the content brought to this country.
Again, I don't watch Hollywood movies, or any live action for that matter, so I can't speak with much authority here. However, as far as I know, Hollywood is doing fine. Too the best of my knowledge it does have its ups and downs but they are usually due to demographic shifts or changes in technology. Certainly in the US it is not being hurt by any foreign productions. |
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