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Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Aren't Tezuka and Ishinomori Anime Popular In The West?
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SonicFanA
 Posts: 159 |
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For 009 the earlier series would have been a problem because of how some of the characters were portrayed right?
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DmonHiro
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Absolutely agree with this answer. And VERY well written, as usual.
Indeed, if an anime doesn't seem to give me what I am looking for I'm not going to waste my time on it. Especially since I can immediately find something that IS going to give me what I am looking for, regardless of what that is. I simply don't see old Tezuka anime having anything to offer to new anime fans who are not blinded by nostalgia. Most of them aren't even that good. They were revolutionary, yes. But so was that floppy disk and I don't see many people wanting to go back to the 1.44 MB days. Most of the time new is better. |
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Emma Iveli
Posts: 679 Location: Hobo with internet |
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I'm not a fan of Cyborg 009, but one of my friends are. However there are two reactions she gets when she cosplays as Jet: 1. Hey it's Robotnik/Eggman! (This year at Fanime she made a sign that said that she wasn't him) or 2. Hey! I remember that show!
One of them was shown on Toonami after after all, so people do remember seeing it. It's just not that popular. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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So the answer is they don't pander to teenagers egos in the same way "modern" anime do? Fair enough.
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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I have always felt that Tezuka's works like Astro Boy and Kimba were exceptional concepts, but execution has been spotty in recent times. Certainly, the 1960s and 1980s Kimba and Astro Boy shows are classics and well done for their times, but they are dated now and don't appeal enough to modern sensibilities. However, there have been attempts to remake both properties for more modern audiences, but those remakes have been uninspired cash grabs. (The recent Hollywood 3D animated Astro Boy movie is a perfect example of this. It had absolutely no vision.)
I think those stories could be fantastic for modern audiences if they got the right person to write them. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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Honestly, I'd rather they try to adapt one of the hundreds of other Tezuka manga rather than have to endure another pointless prequel or reboot. The guy tried his hand writing for all ages & tastes, after all.
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5499 Location: Iscandar |
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A very insightful explanation. I have tried watching anime that is older than 25 years, and most of the time they don't work for me. Visuals are part of the problem, but my biggest issue is the writing because overarching narratives and actual character development were not a big priority back then.
Among the few classic animes that have worked for me are some movies, Ghibli movies, Space Battleship Yamato, Gundam and the Rose of Versailles. Beyond those, I cannot recommend many classics to any fan, especially younger ones. |
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Scalfin
Posts: 249 |
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I think it's a very common mistake to say that viewers are looking for someone they can pretend to be as wish fulfillment, as the shows that do best are the ones with characters possessing distinctive personalities and the ones that people pass on have bland everymen, at least outside of a context that's specific to seeing the everyman's reaction (parodies, mostly). A much more accurate analysis would be that people respond to characters they identify with, as opposed to "as," which fits with the large amount of psychosocial research showing that people respond more to those they view as part of their group. Given that adolescents are formally grouped by cohort and informally grouped by interest and social status, they obviously connect most readily to characters in their age group and social niche. We can see alternate social connections sometimes, especially in media for adults, with a good example being parent-child (or owner-pet, in the case of Chi's Sweet Home and Homeward Bound) affinity.
Of course, there's also a thematic element. Just as few of us are going to respond much to the cutting social and political commentary of The Wizard of Oz because none of it is relevant to us (I also imagine that Fiddler on the Roof does less well in cultures with strong senses of cultural continuity and control), adolescents aren't going to resonate with the questions and messages of Astro Boy or Death of a Salesman. |
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Parse Error
 Posts: 592 |
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Well, let's not pretend there isn't frequently a self-insert escapist fantasy involved in things like gritty Seinen as well. However, there's still a lot more to it than that. Older anime tends to be more heavy-handed about everything, and this is especially true once you look past the movies and OVAs aimed at a general adult audience. Another issue with TV series is that most of them had terrible animation overall with tons of stock footage or other cheap shortcuts, even relative to the higher-budget TV shows from the same time period. It's more tolerable if you grew up watching things like that, but I can't really blame people who didn't for not being able to stomach them.
A character doesn't have to be a mostly or entirely blank slate in order to self-insert, for instance they can just as easily be something the viewer sometimes wishes they were, such as a powerful, battle-hardened warrior. |
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luisedgarf
Posts: 669 Location: Guadalajara, Mexico |
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If by "the west" you mean the U.S, Canada, the U.K. and many of the NATO countries, maybe you're could be right, by outside the anglosphere many of Tezuka and Ishinomori's works are very popular, especially in Mexico, some Latin American countries and Europe, as far I know.
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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My personal answer: too old and too cartoony. I've seen a lot of the more serious Tezuka anime, but it doesn't stop the general look of his works from feeling extremely dated, and it's hard to make me think of something as dated.
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CatSword
 Posts: 1489 |
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Great write-up as usual, Justin. I do feel like Western kids' fare is a lot less "sanitized" than it has been in recent years, perhaps due to creators recognizing why kids turn to anime.
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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What Justin said it is true, but IMO it is not the real answer to the question. The real reason is the same why Saint Seiya is popular in europe and latin america, but not in the angloshpere. It is also the same reason why Superman is atm more popular than Captain Marvel (aka Shazam) when back in the day it was not (remember, captain marvel is a kid which most readers could easily identify with). Astroboy was shown in the USA on broadcast tv a long time ago and then disappeared from the airwaves while i.e. tom and jerry continued to be shown. Out of sight, out of mind. If you do not grow up watching an animated series (or at the very least watch it when it is brand new) it is very rare that you will start to like it a decade or more later.
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Lady Multi
Posts: 675 |
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I love Tezuka stuff. I may be a bit bias in the fact that one of my favorite "cartoons" when I was little was the 'Fantastic Adventures of Unico' and it led me to find all the others created by the same person.
...I had no hesitation to import the Unico manga years ago before it was brought over in English, either. I always just wrote the lack of influence of these older anime series and films to the lack of exposure. For an extremely long time the only way to watch Unico, for example, was via the VHS tape from the early 1980s. That was until Discotek got hold of it. ...That and, just like myself for the longest time until the mid 1990s, some of these older series were "just cartoons" to a lot of people I'm sure. |
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ultimatehaki
Posts: 1090 |
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Yep that pretty much sums why I like the anime I like. Not saying american cartoons can't do this either but its more prevalent in anime. |
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