Forum - View topicWhat is mainstream anime?
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Youkai Warrior
 Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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I have heard this term, and to be bluntly honest, I'm not sure exactly what it means. Can someone tell me what mainstream is? All I know, that when things are mainstream, it's not always good.
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neilly
 Posts: 14 Location: uk |
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i guess when they say something is mainstream they mean it has reached a national/global audience and can be seen or heard by almost the entire population of the country/ planet. Here in the uk anime like pokemon and yu-gi-oh are considered mainstream probably(and that certainly ain't a good thing in my eyes:x)
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Unit 03.5-ish
Posts: 1540 Location: This space for rent |
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What is a mainstream anime?
A miserable plethora of cash-ins and licensing deals! But enough chit-chat, have at the butchering of One Piece and Yu-Gi-Oh! ...but seriously, stuff like Naruto, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh...that's all pretty mainstream because they're concepts that caught on with the general public. I doubt some shojo-style romance series would ever be even thought of as mainstream. |
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Azdio
Posts: 1 |
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Mainstream just means that it's well known enough that you can reasonably expect most people to have heard of it. Usually, something has to be pretty popular to reach the point where basically everyone knows at least a little bit about it. Mainstream anime would be things like Naruto, Dragon Ball, and Pokemon that practically anyone would recognize.
Being mainstream isn't in and of itself a bad thing, but things that are extremely popular tend to get criticized a lot by certain people, particularly fans of more obscure shows. For one thing, sometimes a show or whatever can get popular to the point where it gets merchandised out the wazoo and you can't go for 5 minutes without hearing about it, and people just get sick of it. Also, fans of a more obscure series sometimes get frustrated when a different series that they think isn't as good becomes really popular and overshadows the things that they like. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Pokemon, for sure. But Naruto, while big with the kids, isn't nearly as widely recognizable on any multigenerational basis. Nor was Dragon Ball in its day. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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Mainstream anime is anime that's reached beyond the anime fandom and seeped into general pop culture in some way. Pokemon is probably the current best example- visit your local target and you'll find pokemon toys. Shoe stores sell Pikachu slippers. Stop a random person and ask them what Pokemon is, they can tell you.
Basically, if you can find merchandise outside of anime dedicated dealers, it's 'mainstream' to some extent. Deathnote, Bleach, Naruto- all notably available without hitting anime dealers. You'll also notice these are all shows that have had TV runs- this is vital to becoming mainstream (people have to see it to care, after all.) |
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Youkai Warrior
Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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Ah, I see. I kinda figured that, but I couldn't explain it. I admit I do like some mainstream anime, (Bleach and Pokemon, and Naruto, though my liking for it is on/off) Pokemon was my first anime, so it holds a special place, I'm not into the new series though. Anyway, anymore examples of mainstream are welcome.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Then you have examples of shows that are super popular that most people know them or about them without being anime watchers themselves. These are things like Gundam, Evangelion, or different anime movies like Akira or the Ghibili films.
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motaku96
 Posts: 237 Location: New York |
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Well if you want examples of mainstream anime that haven't already been said, than I would say Sailor Moon. One of the earliest anime I ever saw. When I talk to people that say they've never seen anime, they admit to having watched Sailor Moon at least.
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soulninjaa
 Posts: 5 Location: ny |
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Yeah 4 me it was salor moon and then pkomen then dragon ball my fave was salor moon though lol me luvs romance |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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Mainstream: Products and services which are readily available to and appealing to the general public, as opposed to being of interest only to a very specific subset of the public. (businessdictionary.com)
In other words; it's when a product is accepted by and targeted to a wide audience, opposed to only being accepted by a specific group (in this case anime fans). With that in mind all you have to do is look back and see what animes fall into this area. I'd first bring up Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z, but also looking back we can see that during the 90's OVAs like Akira were quite popular. [EDIT: Changed excepted -> accepted.~Zalis] |
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Youkai Warrior
Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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I admit to watching Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z but I have lost interest in both. I am glad you don't see it everywhere though.
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Most North Americans do not know about Gundam, Evangelion or Akira. Poll a random group and see (no, not a group of friends of anime viewers). You might find more awareness of Ghibli movies, but probably not. |
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Elfen12
 Posts: 480 Location: Bay Area |
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Okay, i can agree with you on Akira and Eva... but Gundam. Everyone at my school, anime viewers or not, defintiely know about gundam. Perhaps not the teachers, although i'm sure a lot of them do. I'm not sure how many canadians know about Gundam, but i'm sure maaanny people know what Gundam is. An example is just the other day this jock i know was like "HEY DUDE, REMEMBER GUNDAM!, I found like Half the episodes online on some site, you want me to link them to you"... and like the group i was with at the momenet started to have this conversation about Gundam. At the time, i would have never ever guessed they knew about it, but they did... i mean it was Cartoon Network's Toonami wasn't it? Not to mention teachers. Ihave a teacher who is into like the "cartoons of the 90s" as he puts it, some of them are anime but he doens't quite know that. He knows about Gundam... so i mean, i wouldn't say most the population doesn't know about Gundam. (And this jock, isn't my friend, we were in a group for my Psychology Class, and ... well they weren't the best group to be paired with in terms of getting things done). Not to mention my Mom, i just asked if she knew what it was, and she did. She said "isn't that that robot show". She's a 61 year old psychology Ph.D (she's a teacher and has her own private practice)... so she doesn't associate with a crowd who likes gundam... yet she knows, and she said she didn't know through her private practice hah. Just another example. -Elfen12- |
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Koji98
 Posts: 112 |
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Well if you had watched gundam living with your mom, then it's no surprise that she knows because you most likely talked about it/watched it in front of her and she remembers that. As with people from your school, I have no doubt that you are in the generation that grew up with Toonami. Most kids who lived in the early 2000's probably have watched Toonami for their cartoon fix at some point. Outside of this, however, not many people know about Gundam. I'd also like to take a guess and say that when the "jock" said "Gundam", he meant "Gundam Wing". Everyone knows about pokemon because a huge majority of kids played the old game boy games and a huge fad came out of it. You couldn't go anywhere without pokemon being somewhere nearby in 1998/1999. Same thing can be said about TY Beanie Babies and anything else that has been a fad. Gundam didn't have all the random stuff to market it like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh for that matter. It was just an anime that kids who watched Toonami happened to see and nothing more outside of this group*. *(Yes, I know other people knew about Gundam and such before coming onto Toonami, but for the sake of the argument, I didn't add this group of people.) |
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