Anime is "Hotter Than Ever"

Anime's International Appeal

Hotter Than Ever

Sophisticated Storylines

Anime as an Artistic Medium

Reaching Into the Real World

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Anime: The very word suggests a cross-cultural connection. Borrowed from French by the Japanese to describe any and all animated films, the word "anime" was later adopted by English-speakers to describe the unique style of animation that comes from Japan (Levi 1). Today, not only is anime one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Japan, it has a large international audience as well. In America, anime is "hotter than ever," gaining a foothold in popular culture by attracting larger and more diverse audiences through its continuous exposure (Atwood). A growing mainstream interest in Japanese animation is bringing it out of the shadows of the underground and into the spotlight of American entertainment. Yet the question remains, why are Americans so attracted to something that’s made for a Japanese audience?

Antonia Levi, author of Samurai from Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation, lists several reasons why many Americans are fond of anime, including:

  1. the high tech look,
  2. the creative fantasy worlds,
  3. the genuine tension created by the fact that bad things happen to good people,
  4. the multidimensional characters,
  5. the robots, powersuits, and other mecha,
  6. the sexy, powerful women (20).

Creative fantasies, complex characters, big robots and sexy women are arguably the things that Japanese animation is famous for abroad.

 

Creative fantasies, complex characters, big robots and sexy women are arguably the things that Japanese animation is famous for abroad.

 

 
Although these elements add up to a fantastic show, they still don’t describe why Japanese animation is acquiring following among Americans. I can think of half a dozen American movies which capture the same qualities, and several of them at the same time. These qualities alone are not the reason that there is a special program slot for Japanese animation on the Sci-Fi Channel, or that video stores are starting to carry more anime tapes. Why don’t they order a few more popular and less expensive copies of Armageddon or Titanic in its place? Both of those movies are high tech, they have creative stories, bad things happen to good people, the characters are well developed, they focus partly on technology (or the failing thereof), and feature strong, even defiant female characters who overcome the odds of their situation. I believe the thing that makes Japanese animation unique and attractive to a Western audience are not limited to the particular details of character, plot, and theme. Rather, it is the unique method of capturing "real" characters and concerns in a particularly "unreal" setting—an animated setting—that intrigues me.

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