Forum - View topicJust how popular is anime in general in Japan?
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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Sorry if there is already a post like this, but I have always been rather puzzled as to how popular anime is in general in Japan. I know for a fact that in countries like Taiwan and Singapore anime is incredibly mainstream and popular among like everyone, but from what I hear of Japan its always been different. I always hear its either just a "nerd" interest or incredibly mainstream as mentioned before. Besides for a select few franchises/series being incredibly popular with the majority such as Eva, Gundam and the Ghibli films to name a few, how mainstream is it in general? Is it something that a large portion of the population watches or is it relatively "nerdy" with the exception of a few series?
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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I was always under the impression that in Japan animation isn't thought of as a genre unto itself, and rather each series has specific stigmas related to it directly. So the question wouldn't be whether anime is mainstream or nerdy, but rather is this particular series mainstream or is that one.
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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Pretty much. Anime is a normal thing in Japan, it's known by everyone and is a huge part of their culture. Akihabara as we know it wouldn't exist if it wasn't. Now, that doesn't mean everyone in the country actually watches every show that comes out. Certain mainstream ones like Sazae-san, Doraemon, Detective Conan, One Piece, Pokemon, and so forth are well watched and popular, but more otaku-based shows like Queens Blade isn't, and mostly just seen as a 'nerd thing'. It's on a show-per-show basis. Though the shows that are mainstream and popular really show it, you have museums, themed restaurants, parks, exclusive stores, faires, and all kinds of stuff dedicated to certain shows. When I visited Japan I got to check out the Detective Conan Museum, it was pretty neat. They actually had little mock-cases that you can try to do (like learning how to lock a door from the outside to commit a 'locked room murder' that the show often likes to do. Then again, otaku shows can have themed stores and events too because of how dedicated and nerdy the otaku are. So I guess there's examples for both extremes. But overall, it's a big cultural thing that changes depending on what you're talking about. |
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mind over matter
Posts: 67 |
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I think the idea of animation is less equated as being a child's thing, being as many signs, ads, and instructional videos sport "anime-ish" characters...
but I don't think that anime is main stream. Definitely certain genres are looked down on (eg. Oremo ) but in general, I don't think that anime is main stream. My "proof" is Kurt, from the softypapa forum. Kurt is an American English teacher and J-vloger in Japan for quite a few years, who is married and has a young daughter (meaning he has a kid, and he works with kids all day) and when I brought up the concept of anime and manga, it was something he had never heard of and was completely new to him. I think Aiba is pretty much a specialty neighborhood, kind of like San-Fransisco is known for...uhh...trolley cars |
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Nerv1
Posts: 601 |
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I guess I was right for the most part then, it just seems to depend on what the series is.
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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I know that during the 1970s, the Space Battleship Yamato series became very popular and attracted many fans that took it very seriously. This mirrored, say, Star Wars in the west. In fact, the films are often compared. I thought that in 1979, the original Mobile Suit Gundam turned some heads and made some splashes as a relatively mainstream military drama.
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EricDent
 Posts: 997 Location: Georgetown, TX |
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When there are a ton of people who visit particular shrines just to put a wish about anime characters/shows there must be a reason.
Really good examples include the shrine in Lucky Star & Tenchi Muyo! which are based on real shrines. Of course these can't even begin to compare with a major video game release in Japan (like Dragon Quest, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy). |
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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I remember seeing still shots of movie theatres during the glory days of the Space Battleship Yamato craze that were literately flooded in the same manner that western theatres are when people love a movie a great deal. People seemed to camp out for tickets, again just as they do in the west when a particular release has an outpouring of fan support. In fact, weren't those movies so respected as cinematic triumphs that they received some form of a North American release way before the days of the anime and manga subculture here?
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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I wonder about that. I remember when I was studying Japanese at university, out tutors were sometimes inviting their Japanese friends for us to speak to. And each and every single one of them seemed to loathe anime and kind of despise people who do, or at least to roll their eyes when they heard we watched it (it was a common among us to watch a fair amount of anime, with a manga shop right in front of the university too). One of the guys told us he felt it slightly irritating that people ask him about anime so often. He came to Paris to study classical music and found our interest in anime very shallow. If I remember correctly, out of all the people I met at that time not very many watched/liked anime.
So I guess you have two sides of the story- people being obsessed with it and those who are totally not interested. |
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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I imagine it'd be like if a foreigner came to you in America and kept asking you about baseball and apple pies and guns even if you never expressed interest in sports and stuff. Tourists can be annoying... and I'm sure they get annoyed at people who take Japanese courses just because of anime all the time. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Of course- it is exactly the same thing- or asking French people whether they eat snails and frog legs. Just to clear out- not that many people took up Japanese because of anime, or at least those who did, did not last long. It is however a good medium to listen to the language, and quite accessible. However, because of the amount of series out there, we took it for granted that anime would be a lot more popular than it actually was. |
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vashna
Posts: 1313 |
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I took it in school because my other choice was German, but as a German speaker that hardly seemed sporting for me. I also took courses in the Cantonese dialect of Chinese. We had one or two students who were taking Japanese because of anime and manga, which the teacher had never actually heard of. When we described to her where to find them in an American store she expressed that she always assumed those were coloring books and not Japanese comics.
By the way, I remember a lot of the German exchange students getting angry in high school when everyone kept asking them about gothic rock bands. It's the same sort of concept. |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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Or maybe you thought anime was so ubiquitous in Japan that any Japanese you strolled up to would readily talk to you about their top 5 anime of all-time. (I am sure if those tutors get frequently asked about karate, sushi, or anything 'Cool Japan' related they would have the same reaction.) How long some anime have being going and the number of anime that gets made is more suggestive and quantifiable to it's popularity than some random opinionated encounters of people that don't talk about anime for whatever reason. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Well ArsenicSteel, I dont think anyone in their right mind could expect every single Japanese person to love anime. Back then, and mind you that was 8 years ago, I was just surprised that so many Japanese people I met never watched and never cared.
Which of course does not mean it is not popular (it obviously is immensely popular)- all I was saying is that there is a large group of people in Japan who is not interested in it and that group might larger than people often suspect. Or maybe not, I do not know what the statistics are or whether anyone actually tried to check how many people do/do not watch anime. |
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ArsenicSteel
Posts: 2370 |
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Well yeah I find it surprising that a person has never watched any cartoons in their lifetime too. But hey that's what you said they said.
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