How is Anime viewed today?

Communities Anime, Movies, Video, & TV
1

I wanted to give a little background information before I began. I'm in my early 30s I been into anime since 1997. I watched toonami and after that I went to Suncoast video and bought Myself a neon Genesis evangelion volume 2 DVD. Besides watching dubbs I watched a lot of subs some of the shows did not make it to America ever. I think it still happens even to this day. I watched allot of gundam shows.

Well I can sit here and list all the anime i watched. But I wanted to know something.

I wanted to know what is the view of anime today. Has the view of it changed from people's perceptions about a decade ago?

Has it been more widely accepted?

Are people still confused more than ever about FLCL?

like to hear your answers. Thank you for replying.

2

Fanbase almost killed it for me. Watched a lot of gundam growing up, always thought of anime as cartoons. I guess I should know better and put on my beret when watching these shows lol. Watched some new shows that arrived on a thumbdrive from my friend. Heard about a few subscription based sites but I don't feel like seperating the wheat from the chafe. Some of that shit gets weird real fast.

3

At uni I find everyone watches it or has at least seen a studio ghibli film. I find that people think anime is very hisptery and cool in a "ohhh im a nerd" way. A lot of girls who "love" comics and superheroes are the same group that "watch" anime. 

I dont watch anime 24/7 but I can definity tell when they are faking it. Most of them have maybe seen a couple of episodes of dubbed death note but dont get me wrong there are still people who actually watch anime but you have to wade through the posers.

4

Mostly from what I've seen not much has changed as far as people watching dubbs and subbs. I have seen places like conventions get more popular. But I cannot make out what kind of environment that is. That makes it look like it is all mainstream. I see a lot of competition between cosplayers.

I spoke with at least one person that seemed to believe the stereotype about otakus in Japan. They had a fascination with anime, but they seem to have a weird outlook. It's like on one hand they like anime and on the other anime seemed only for popular people. I don't get this concept.

Maybe I'm just confused about how anime is perceived in America today.

5

I grew up on Toonami watching anime too. i think right now since the Toonami reboot they are just playing re-runs of the classics and have a good few new ones that have potential, i haven't caught up on the reboot of it, [don't watch tv lol]

i remember watching stuff like Ghost in the shell Big O, One Piece, Bobo Bobobobo, Dragonball Z, Trigun, also Naruto before it got stupid, Zoids, YuYu Hakusho, Inuyasha FUCK i even liked Hamtaro (anyone remember that lmao) I'm thankful that Toonami made Anime/manga popular here in the states at least that's how i saw it in my opinion. also to get into anime now-a-days YOU have to go look for it, not like it was back then where Toonami did our job for us by bringing the most popular animes to our television sets. but the anime industry its slowly dying, at least according to statistics and sales cause people are pirating the content now-a-days.

now to the questions

My view of anime today would be it deserves more attention than its currently getting. some of the stories I've seen from animes and read from manga have better fucking stories than some of our modern American television.

I Love Fooly Cooly i was disappointed it didn't continue it was such a good show.

now, has it been widely accepted? i would say yes and no. yes cause its definitely popular but i think whats truly killing it is people pirating the content now. also cause the translations don't come out quick enough. sure there are people on the interwebs who have dedication to learn japanese and translate the raw formats of manga or add subtitles to the animes which i don't mind i prefer it on some animes more than others but it would be nice to have a hard copy of the manga. or to see more dubbed seasons of the anime.

i don't really care for the fanbase that much. sure they are posers or whatever but at least they like the anime, at least they are promoting it in someway.

Overall i want it the anime/manga industry to prosper and i want to read and watch more of these stories cause to be honest some of the manga I've been reading lately are fucking awesome.

6

>Opinion from a life-long fan of Anime.

Everyone as of today has a 99% chance to have watched at least dubbed anime like Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, Dragon Ball, and Studio Ghibli films.

But aside from the community-side affairs, the external views have widely both gotten more negative and more positive. People are more likely to accept someone who is a fan, but the threshold of "enough is enough" is fairly small, people tend to almost find people who are actively involved with anime/manga to be "mega nerd" tier and generally looked down upon by "Normal" people. A lot of the negativity has built because of the popularity of the bad side of the furry community and the bronie community. Yes, MLP is not anime, but it's hard to deny that bronies are anime fans in general. Since 4chan is much more known now, a lot of the impressions on anime is taken on the reactions of someone who stumbled on /b/ or something of the like and then spread by word, ect.

This is especially evident with the general persons' reaction to anything being mentioned about Conventions in many areas. Anime seems to be treated by general public the same way Trekkies were treated when most were in their late teens/early adulthood. People generalize the average anime fan to be fat sloppy perverted young adults, a lot like the DnD stigma.

Though most kids grew up watching many anime dubs, so if you were to talk in nostalgia about series like that, then people are more likely to react in a positive manner. But when you talk about anything modern the mind goes straight to the "eww you're a weeaboo/nerd/fat sloppy pervert" and the negative connotation is the only thing they see.

I suspect this will get more drastic with time the contrast between the "accepted" anime fans and the "weeaboo" anime fans. As the hardcore Japanese NEET Otaku will likely become more close to general knowledge and the "perverted" side of the connotation will be expanded and assumed on anyone who watches/enjoys subbed or raw anime.

I hope it doesn't go to that, and it just stays as "the other comic nerds" connotation. Especially because its a much less offensive and less hurtful generalization, at least in North America.

Either way, I will personally never care what people think when they look down on me with my hobbies and passions, especially if they make me happy.

7

Started with Robotech in the 80's been hooked ever since. I'm having a hard time finding current mecha content that i enjoy past the refresh of evangelion and appleseed. Any recommendations? Oh has anyone seen the live action akira trailer yet i think they may start a kickstarter. It's effing sick!!!

http://youtu.be/qPlN7ejeHow

 

 

8

Have to say myself I got to be a hard-core anime fan. I did not read much manga ,probably because I'm a tech nerd, and I like to read e-book versions of manga.

I do understand and appreciate printed material and I can understand that people want to read this material. For me personally I don't have space to store all of my reading material. so that's why my priority is towards e-books because I don't want to take a manga and have it scanned into an e-book,because, I know they are going to take it apart.

I do understand there are criticisms about the community in general. And there are positive aspects as well. I just don't want to see people with fascination with anime and manga to lose interest.

I think that the problem  is that the businesses in California wanted to keep pushing and pushing and pushing thousands of copies of DVDs and Blu-ray's of people's favorite shows. And on the other side never not being competitive with their prices. I don't want to be paying 59 bucks per combo Blu-ray DVD of my favorite show.

But I also understand that people did not want to pay for stuff, and free stuff is always appealing, But you have to give them a competitive price that is a low price, so people will be drawn to that competitiveness.

9

I find that in tech- and gaming-related communities, anime is something that pretty much everyone knows about, large chunk of people watch it regularly, and there are almost no haters.

It's significantly better than when I started, which was 7 years ago.

10

Well it surely does sound like the anime community has gotten better over the years. Thanks everyone for volunteering information. It really helps.

11

Now I have to find some Robotech to watch. 

12

i don't know anyone who watches Anime, but most of my friends watch cartoons (mostly the 3D Pixar variety), some are well into their 30s. I never got into it.

i don't think i've seen an actual "anime" show or film. i have a DVD of Spirited Away, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I think its seen as socially acceptable, but will be seen as geeking out a bit. People don't immediately assume it is porn anymore.

13

Before I was into anime , I was into PS one . A played a lot of RPG games from Japan. I got into some of those before I started watching anime.

I watched Robotech at a very young age. Nowadays I know that Robotech is based off of Macross.

So far as robot anime. I say something like blue gender from funiamation. It kind of has a mix of robots and giant bugs.

14

I saw Akira on Sci Fi Saturday Anime at 6 in the morning when I was 8 years old and I was hooked from that point on. Granted Akira has an R rating, but I didn't know that at the time. lol This was back in 1993 btw to be clear.

15

I really don't know how it is accepted today..My mom has watched Bebop and took her to the movie on mothers day, way back when..Because that is what she wanted to do, which is cool..So I consider this a step forward..Most of my real world friends do not watch anime..So I don't get to discuss anime with them but oh well no big deal..I have watched anime for a long time..I like it, and I would guess my first anime was Lion Force Voltron (Voltron of the Far Universe)..I think this ingrained the love on anime in my head..I kid I kid..I just like the stuff..Also when people on forums asked what my first anime were I would put down Voltron and Thundercats..Man the fight that could erupt from the mention of Thundercats being called an anime was insane even though it was animated by Japanese animation studio..

Man kinda rambled there..How I view anime is it is some good stuff..

And as always when I leave a comment in the anime section..HERE is my list link it hasn't been updated in a while..Dig through it you may find something you like..

 

16

I watch a lot of anime. It's entertaining and fun. That's it.

Personally, I couldn't care less if watching anime is socially acceptable. I know my parents call it "porn" since my brother in law decided watching High School of The Dead in front of them was a great idea....(facepalm).

http://myanimelist.net/animelist/vampire5003

That link above shows the anime I've watched and remembered to add to the list. I've probably seen over a hundred anime tv series, and some OVA's. 

Cheers,

-Thomas