However, while gaming has since expanded to become the multi-billion dollar mainstream business it is today, anime is still relegated to the ghetto of college students wearing Attack on Titan shirts and high schoolers claiming to speak Japanese. While that niche’s growth is steady, it will remain a niche if things remain as they are.
From Walmart to Hot Topic, from Netflix to libraries, anime has become a part of American mainstream culture. Of course, anime’s been working on becoming mainstream since the 1990s with Pokemon and Studio Ghibli releases. After all, many people don’t consider Pokemon to be anime.
It’s a childhood cartoon. During the early decades of anime in the West, anime was hard to get and a niche for the extreme geeks–those who spoke Klingon and elvish. Over time, as directors of films and other movie makers (such as Steven Spielberg) admitted the influence anime has had on them, people began to pay attention.
Ironically, these niches–goths, anime fans, punks, and so on–are quite common. True niches have limited markets and smaller outlets. Anime back in the old days had limited VHS releases and no stores that allocated valuable floor space to it.
Otaku culture will be changed by anime becoming mainstream. Part of identity comes from the feeling of being different, selected. In order to retain this feeling, some otaku will have to carve a niche for themselves within the mainstream.
From Walmart to Hot Topic, from Netflix to libraries, anime has become a part of American mainstream culture. Of course, anime's been working on becoming mainstream since the 1990s with Pokemon and Studio Ghibli releases. After all, many people don't consider Pokemon to be anime.
Even though technology has made the accessibility of foreign media easier, anime and manga will continue to be considered 'niche' when it comes to the general entertainment industry.
In September 2021, Netflix announced that it would be opening an Anime Creators' Base at its Japan offices. This is in response to anime becoming one of their most popular genres, reaching over 120 million households in the U.S. in 2020.
In the 1980s, anime became mainstream in Japan, experiencing a boom in production with the rise in popularity of anime like Gundam, Macross, Dragon Ball, and genres such as real robot, space opera and cyberpunk.
Japan's anime industry is massive. And, as a result, anime imagery is everywhere across the country. This doesn't necessarily mean that recognizable anime characters are everywhere. However, the style and tropes of the form are ubiquitous.
1990sThe 1990s – Anime Hits the Mainstream It's impossible to catalog the numerous series and films that made their way overseas in the 1990s. Anime was a fertile market for American distributors whose only production costs involved re-recording/rewriting dialogue as well as editing content and timing.
The Diverse Variety of Stories. The wide range of genres in anime is the first reason why it is so popular. Every person enjoys a different story, genre, and style in anime! Romance, comedy, action/adventure, mystery/suspense, and horror are just a few of the many genres explored by anime plots.
However, anime has become more popular. Top streaming services such as Netflix have begun investing in the production of anime due to its skyrocketing popularity. According to Netflix, from October 2019 to September 2020, “Over one million households chose to watch at least one anime title on Netflix …
"The popularity of Japanese manga, anime and games have injected the world with a more human and relatable image of Japan and the Japanese." After seven years of consecutive growth, the anime industry set a new sales record in 2017 of ¥2.15 trillion ($19.8 billion), driven largely by demand from overseas.
It's a fact that even those who aren't fans can tell you: anime has been growing in popularity outside of Japan in recent years. Now, a new study is breaking down that continued growth and taking a look at what has been most successful and where.
Anime Top 10Top 10 Best Rated (bayesian estimate) (Top 50)#titlerating1Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (TV)9.082Steins;Gate (TV)9.043Clannad After Story (TV)9.028 more rows
But as it becomes more profitable and popular, anime has proven to be a boon to the diversity of cultural conversation. A form of entertainment from another culture is having a positive impact on our culture, which enables our society to break down the borders dividing us and become more diverse and tolerant.
This began to change over time however, as more and more anime came into the limelight, such as the OG Dragonball, along with shows like Sailor Moon and Yu Yu Hakusho. The anime fandom began to increase in numbers, albeit slowly. We then saw an even greater increase of fans when the so-called “Big Three” came into existence.
Today we now have simulcasts and streaming services for anime, such as Funimation and, more importantly, Crunchyroll, which started in 2006 and has been streaming anime both new and old with great success. So much so, it was bought seven years later for $100 million. The demand and appeal became so much it got the attention of larger corporations.
Not only did anime see a boost in support by way of streaming services, but places like Hot Topic and other retail outlets are catering to the demands of the growing fanbase. In fact, in some places, you could go to the cinema and watch an anime film currently screening if you wanted to.
However, this brings us to the question of whether anime being mainstream is a good thing. This point can definitely be argued due to the many influences the west can impose on the anime industry, such as censorship and all-round political correctness, among other things.