Forum - View topicwhy is anime popular
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lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
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Sorry if this has been done before. I did a search and didn't really find an exact match. Anyway,
One of my friends came up to me the other day with one of the Eva DVDs. He was wondering why "this stuff" is so popular. I really couldn't give him a good answer. So, why is anime such a popular thing? |
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SkullKnight
 Posts: 317 Location: Deep South |
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I didn't know anime waspopular. Its popular to us cause we like it. but to mainstream its still niche.
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radicaledward
 Posts: 776 |
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I can't say why anime is poplular, but I can give my reasons for why I like anime:
I like anime because (most of the time) its used to tell a good story that needs to be judged on its own merits. Also, I feel that becuase the medium used to tell the story is not live action its is easier to set aside disbelif, thus allowing you to enjoy the story. |
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3794 Location: Montreal |
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Let's not turn this into a why-I-like-anime thread, there's already plenty of those.
The question: why is anime popular? Personally, I think it's because anime is part of a world-wide movement towards virtualization. The internet and telecommunications in general have create an environment where it's possible to socialize while staying at home, i.e. virtual socialization. As those technologies spread and people become accustomed to them, people's conception of 'reality' is shifting more and more towards the virtual. With the phone you didn't need to have someone in front of you as long as you could hear his/her voice, and now with the internet even the voice is replaced with text. The social contact is completely virtualized. This accustomization to virtuality extends to entertainment, where you don't need to actually see live actors anymore; virtual actors (animation) are sufficient. This rejoins the topics of abstraction and focus previously discussed on this board. People have always had some measure of abstract thought (necessary to enjoying animation), but I feel that nowadays the *overall* level of abstract thought is rising, allowing more people to enjoy animation, to "get it". |
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Samurai CDZ
 Posts: 776 Location: Manhattan, KS |
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It could just be the fact that it's different. Everything that's on nowadays is just so unoriginal.
Or, it could be that it's a departure from the real world. A place to get away. |
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lianncoop
Past ANN Contributor
Posts: 1705 Location: Indiana |
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Thanks. I was worried about that and considered just putting this in one of those threads. These are some interesting responses. |
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RantingOtaku
Posts: 219 Location: Sudbury, Ontario, Canada |
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I think it's because it goes in a totally different direction than all the mainstream stuff, for the most part it's unpredictable, and keeps you wondering from one episode to the next.
Plus it appeals to the intellectual crowd by having a fair ammount of series' that make ya go 'huh?' and keep you thinking about every little thing (these are my favourite kinds... I like a mental challenge, and trying to figure out how it's all gonna tie together in the end before it does end), some examples are Evangelion (well duh!), Jin-Roh, GitS... Plus it's all innovative, I haven't seen any duplicate anime (without really getting picky about detail), while most live movies are starting to get repetative, or just keep making sequals... I haven't seen an absolutly GOOD movie in 6yrs or so. |
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Ian
 Posts: 149 Location: Thaxton, VA |
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When you think about it, this post will turn into a "Why-I-Like_Anime" post because that is why people watch anime. I agree that people like anime because it is very different from everyday programming. I can say that my sattelite company does not have american program that is as sensless yet enjoyable as Excel Saga and FLCL. There are no american programmings that so freely express imagination and creativity. The art is so different yet each artist has their own style. Anime stories are so rigional in their own yet eighty different shows and manga of the same type are made, but not one outside it's culture. In anime you cn watch a show that has more blood than a horror film, more sex than a porno, more heart than a romance more action than a Terminator movie. Anime is just appealing in the fact that it is appealing, and there is somthing for everyone.
And anime IS mainstream, it is no longer a niche.I can stay inside my house and watch about three to six hours of anime, and I don't even have the Anime Network. Then I can leave my house and go to the mall, FYE, Best Buy, Waldenbooks, GameStop, Books-A-Million, Wal-Mart etc. and easily find anime or manga. Whole sections are dedicated to this phenomenon that even the Baby Boomer generation has at least heard of it. |
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LuppyLuptonium
 Posts: 139 |
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Well in the case of me and people like me...... I like cartoons. The inside of my head is a constant stream of them. Hence when I was growing up and growing away form american animation I felt a kind of sadness... Now I have anime and all is right with the world again.
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molloaggie
 Posts: 578 Location: Texas |
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I think anime in general gives it viewers more character growth than anything else on tv right now. The characters grow, take responsibility, and make mistakes. This characterization is lot better than the American sitcoms that protray life a muddle of event that just happen and there's nothing else you can do about it.
I think anime has more action too! All the tv shows are comedy or drama. It's expensive to do magic effects and big fight scenes on prime-time television. Anime fills that niche for a lot of people. |
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Mr Mania
 Posts: 581 Location: UK |
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Two things to say
1)Although anime is becoming much more popular its still not actually that popular(at least not in the western world) 2)As a response to those who say anime is original,its not(at least not the majority of it)I dont mean to be negative but most anime either copies another anime to an extent or steals from ideas that originally came from the US ect Id have to say that the reason anime is becoming more popular is because it is from another culture so some of the ideas are foriegn to us and we dont often see them displayed in western productions(mecha ect).Another reason is the fact that animation allows directors to try things they couldnt in in live action a(saying that these things I talk of are becoming much more available with the advancement of cgi |
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