Will Anime Be Popular Again?

[Catokun]

So here's my topic. Will anime ever be popular again and succeed or will the anime industry fail and die out (the very idea scares me). Anime is only really popular in Japan nowadays and anime and manga are very mainstream over there. But outside of Japan I think the vast majority of people don't really knows about anime and wouldn't even of heard of shows we, as anime fans, generally all know about. Shows such as 'One Piece', 'Fairy Tail, 'Naruto' etc. Anime was popular once. That was the golden age of when shows like 'Dragonball Z', 'Pokemon' and 'Sailor Moon' came about. If you asked anyone about these anime, most people would have at least heard of them. That time when everybody was watching these shows was the 1980s and 90s! A long time ago. People could go home and programs like 'Cartoon Network' would air these shows. Naruto was even on Cartoon Network once. Now, well anime isn't doing so well outside of Japan. I think there are 2 main reasons for this.

Firstly, the main reason. Anime doesn't have anything to propel it into the mainstream media. TV is a huge power among people. Cartoon Network or other programs like Toonami just don't show anime at times people would want to watch them anymore or not at all. Anime used to be on at reasonable times in the evening but now, its only shown at times around midnight or very late or too early in the morning. Anime is fairly popular on the internet but that just isn't as effective as television.

Another reason is cultural differences. Some western shows starring real actors have similar plots to anime shows in Japan. But in order to understand anime, you need to know about some terminology. Japanese honorifics, cuisine, special times and holidays in Japan. Western cultures aren't familiar with them.

I'm sorry if I missed some points, and if I have feel free to point them out or say your own opinion
RANTOVER.

[Rusty Blade]

Well, the whole Toonami explosion may not happen again for a while, but personally I don't feel the poularity of anime has waned that much. Even in it's hay day of the 80's and 90's anime was still a relatively obscure niche. Of course there was more of it on American screens and that helped but the contingent of fans wouldn't have differed that much from then till now. I can't speak for America but certainly in Australia, as far as I can tell the popularity and the industry have expanded and grown as of late. I'm not old enough to remember but I've heard tales of how ridiculously hard it was just to find a single volume of manga back in the 80's and how limited the range of anime were in stores. Hell Light novels and visual novels weren't even translated until more recent years.

I think anime will never die in the west and it is all thanks to Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece etc. Regardless of whether we as anime fans hold them in high regard is another matter entirely, but these shows have become household names even for people who don't watch anime or even understand fully what it is. People recognise them whether they are fans or not and considering that they have become lasting images in the West just proves that anime will remain popular.

Besides, over the span of the decade and a half in which I've been an anime fan I've witnessed first hand the transformation in stores. Ten years ago there never was an anime section at DVD stores or book stores, and if there was it was just a bargain bin off to one side labelled as 'other' or 'special interest'. Manga sections in bookstores were nothing more than 5 or 6 crumpled volumes of a few series, all out of order, stacked as inconspicuously as possible behind other books. A few years ago there was a store called Borders that became really huge in Australia (I think it existed in America for years earlier though) and the manga section was 4 aisles! 4 aisles! When I first saw that I came close to loosening my bowels! I was so stunned and excited and happy that for once I could actually find the stuff I was looking for. And not only that it was packed full of people every time I went there. I had never seen anyone else paw through the 'special interest' bins or camouflaged manga sections in all the years before that and suddenly there were dozens of people clambering over each other in this monstrously sized 4 aisles of manga. And the DVD stores suddenly got rid of the bargain bins and designated genuine shelf space to anime. they even gave it a proper label. Now in stores like JB Hi Fi we have an anime section that covers the wall, stocked full of hundreds of titles. As far as the consumer aspect is concerned anime is booming in Australia. And in the last few years the number of anime on TV has tripled (Mind you that is only about 6 shows but it still tripled)

But the fans, well they have always been few and far between since the very beginning, but I go to a little anime convention in Sydney called SMASH!. I've only been three times, this year, last year and the year before that. In 2011 the attendance rate had doubled from the year before and it went up another full 1000 the year after that and this year, it was so packed it is no exaggeration to say it was over 9000! It has grown so large that it was announced that next year it will run for a full second day to accommodate and has to be relocated to a racecourse to fit in the rapidly growing crowds. So when I see that I figure anime is only growing more and more popular.

Plus, in Australia we've had several new licensing companies open up in the last few years, almost doubling the output of releases each month. This wouldn't be happening unless demand wasn't increasing and so I dare say anime is becoming popular and I feel things will only get better in time.

[Albear]

I can speak for america.. And anime is growing in popularity here. My local convention (anime central) went from 24000 attendees last year to 28000+ this year! Granted, most of the attendees, are people that keep coming back. I mean, once you go to a con, you'll be patiently waiting for the next one.
Conventions don't express the whole fandom though. For example, my brother went to anime central with a friend who feels out of place at the venue. This tells me not everyone wants to indulge in anime or manga even if they are surrounded by it. I can safely say that it is still a niche fandom, a nerdy/geeky sub culture among nerdy/geeky overall culture. Marvel and DC comics and its affiliated projects still reigns supreme, and will continue to be for a long time. Still, anime is growing at a somewhat steady pace. And at this time, I am not sure if anime will reach american mainstream.

[ChibiLovett]

It kind of depends on what you mean. I live in little ole Utah in America so I can't speak for everywhere else, but the really big anime shows have actually become fairly mainstream since it's become so popular to be hipster and geeky. Nine times out of ten, if I talk to anyone even mildly close to my age bracket and mention Naruto, Bleach, and often even Death Note or Fairy Tale, they will generally know what I mean. Even a lot of people outside of my age bracket will at least know of them somewhat, though they don't actually watch them. I see people with merch for quite a few of those shows quite often. They will generally only watch one or two episodes, unless they're one that has to be the supergeek know-it-all, and will only watch one of those select popular titles, but they will buy merch and pretend it's the greatest thing they've ever seen, which still supports it.

And yes, as the guy above me said, cons just keep getting bigger. We don't have many cons here, and none are exactly what you would call huge (though we did just get Comic Con), but they keep growing every year. Be it full blown anime fans or "I'm geeky because it's cool!" people, I can't say for sure, but they are still growing.

[Clayton_n]

I live in Salt Lake. Comic Con sold out this weekend.

[RogueOfAllTrades]

I think a large part of it is the decline of TV. Most up-to-date people now live on the internet, not watching TV. Hence why forums like this emerge. I don't think anime is doing any worse abroad than it was 10 years ago. The only difference is the focus has shifted to online. With services like Netflix and Crunchyroll streaming anime you can hardly say it's declining. It's just shifted how it's distributed.

[ExMachina]

I am not in America.

I think that here anime has never been popular (Well, only pokemon, and Dragon ball 10 years ago), but most of people don't know that pokemon is an anime.

Comics aren't popular....I think that the most popular thing is Sálvame (Something like Big Brother...I think...)


The people-here logic is:

Anime=Cartoon
Cartoon=Kids
I am not kid=Let's watch Sálvame

Ahm...

[Clayton_n]

 

People drew warriors fighting on cave walls and men dressing up in costumes.



There are statue dug up from thousands of years ago in most cultures of beautiful women with giant boobs and small mouths, who were fought over by men and gods.



Pharaohs were buried in rooms decorated with cat girls and full of models of people and transportation.


I think we can count on anime being around in some form of another forever.

[Sky Hedgehogian Maestro]

There are a lot of factors going into anime's popularity.
Cultural differences? Yeah, there's that. But also take into consideration that anime still has some connotations. Particularly the otaku connotation. Then you have the fact that a large amount of anime coming out today plays the safe route- harem, slice of life, maybe some magic, canned seriousness... Nothing truly amazing anymore. It's not like when you first saw Sailor Moon, Akira, or Dragon Ball Z. For me, with DBZ, seeing golden haired demigods with enough power stored in one hair follicle to destroy a solar system was a turn on. Brought me into YuYu Hakusho and Naruto, which subsequently opened me up to further anime (Berzerk was a good one, and I never would've found FotNS without them). So not only did it get me hooked, it got me hooked on anime.
Watching a wangsty pre-teen deal with life? I already lived that. I'm not interested in that. I don't want to watch that. Watch a wangsty, nerdy boy lose at life despite every terrestrial goddess wanting to share in his rainbow? Nice try, but that got old real fast for me.
Well what about Sword Art Online? What with the Oculus Rift hype, a good VR anime could've done wonders. Everything we've imagined in anime could come true with VR. So Sword Art Online could've been that definitive technostic generation anime. But it was just so weakly done that I barely cared about it after a while.
Lackluster concepts with lackluster writing does that. I don't feel the need to watch more anime when I watch harem.
But what about those shows that are interesting and have great execution and great writing? That's probably the reason why my anime fix has shrunk. It's grunge all over again- follow the leader, but do it half-arsedly until we find a happy medium that's utterly watered down and guaranteed some money. One or two good ideas will come out of it sooner or later (you can't tell me Watamote isn't... well... shut up, I'm gonnabackawatchit)
If anime studios were a bit more liberal with their budgets, we'd probably get something interesting more often. It's not really an art form anymore; it's an industry and that's what hurt anime.

[A.Safwan]

Your opinion about this news:
Translation:
"KOTA BHARU - Content animated film from Japan has been identified as the most dangerous substance viewing for children in this country to have negative elements that could damage their minds.

Chairman of the Film Censorship Board (LPF), Datuk Mohd. Hussain Shafie said, many people in this country do not know the dangers of some animated film story as less sensitive about the contents of the story and thought it was just a cartoon-like stories that are suitable for children.

"A lot of Japanese animated stories to ban because although it is said to be suitable animated story for the kids but it is still more to adults.

"Some of the content that displays animated stories of women with short dresses, show the chest and a few scenes that are not good for the children to watch," he said after a dialogue between Secretary of the Film Censorship Control and Enforcement Branch of Kelantan.

[Sky Hedgehogian Maestro]

When did Japan decide to turn into America?!
No, America's not even enough of an exaggeration.

When did Japan decide to turn into Mexico?!?

[Kumagawa]

Anime is pretty popular these days, wat with crunchyroll and netflix and all that kinda shizzle. It´s definitley seeping into mainstream western media too.

[BronyBradyBuddyKiller]

I've never really stopped to think about that much. I live over in the UK and I guess people need some sense knocked into them since no-one I know watches anime over here. With Crunchyroll and Netflix, I'd imagine it's quite big over in places such as America + Canada, plus it's Japans version of cartoons / animation, as long as that's still going, we should be A-okay! It might be best not to think about it and just, "Keep calm and watch anime"?