Anime on the Way?

By El Indio
24th May 04

Another year passes and another declaration is made of the anime invasion that is set to hit our shores. From, realistically, the late eighties, the cry of the Japanimation fan has been heard, and then has slowly turned into a disgruntled murmur as the revolution has failed to transpire. Wash, rinse, and repeat. But, all indications are this could finally be the year anime and manga fans have been waiting for.

Anime is already a part of our lives in many ways. Children wake up every morning and see programmes such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade, Dragonball Z and Pokemon while chewing their cornflakes. This isn't a new phenomenon. You can go back to the early sixties for examples of animation that was imported from Japan for children's TV, but this really picked up a gear in the eighties with the emergence of shows like Battle of the Planets and Robotech. The problem that has faced anime is an acceptance into the mainstream, not on the level it is in Japan, that would be wildly optimistic, but a higher level than it has achieved is something that has been within its grasp many times, but has then slipped through its fingers.

Looking at the western audience demographics for anime there is a clear tilt towards children, obviously due to the aforementioned shows that are targeted at five to fifteen year olds. At this point there is a slide as these shows are outgrown and few choose to explore other options, but what options are there? There is a vast DVD catalogue available, but if you are going to be forking out £20 you want to be sure you actually enjoy watching anime. TV also offers some variety. There are around sixty anime series running on US television and cable, only problem is the vast majority of these are either on cartoon only channels, or they are the kid's programmes that the viewer wants to get away from. For a person flicking through the channels, it would be rare for them to stop on, say, The Cartoon Network, primarily due to the ingrained notion that cartoons are for kids. It is this gap in availability to the casual viewer that causes some of the audience loss, and also means it is difficult to capture an older audience. In the UK, the television market is so sparse it can be compared to the Gobi, with around five or six series currently showing, if the children's shows are not included.

When looking at the Japan model these gaps are non-existent. Anime is big business. New series are premiered every month and capture large shares of the ratings. For specific examples we can look at One Piece, which had an audience share that hit 13.2% in September 2003, or Detective Conan, which averaged over 12% over the same month. The film industry is also dominated by anime or manga-influenced product. Apart from the theatrical releases of original animation and feature length adaptations of hit TV series, live-action films are most often adapted from anime and manga series. Anime is everywhere and seems to be going through a renaissance.

The initial revolution was supposed to be in 1988, year of Akira. This was supposed to be the great crossover hit, and it was, opening the doors to a flood of anime from the shores of Japan. There was, however, one problem. The majority of anime coming through was mediocre. Anime was going through a crisis period around this time, with a real dearth of ideas, and the films released in the wake of Akira didn't sustain the wave. By the time the next decade came around and some interesting anime started emerging, the opportunity had been lost, and it was back to playing the waiting game.

The nineties saw a period of consolidation and slow expansion. Highly influential films and television shows, such as Ghost in the Shell and Neon Genesis Evangelion were being made. Old production houses like Sunrise Inc were being challenged to improve with newer companies like Production I.G., Gainax and GONZO raising the bar with every new release. As the decade wore on, innovation in both animation design, and storyline, was clearly visible. Japan was getting ready for another assault.

Anime has been slowly seeping into the western psyche. As well as the children who have grown up and kept an interest in the art form that fascinated them in their youth, there is a burgeoning class of filmmakers who openly admit to being influenced by the animated films now hitting our shores on a regular basis. The Wachowski brothers, makers of The Matrix, went so far as to release The Animatrix DVD, a collection of animated shorts based around the universe they had created. It's not just the new generation of directors who have found inspiration from anime. The baby-boomers like George Lucas and James Cameron have also praised anime. Steven Spielberg went so far as to say the beginning of Lupin III: The Castle of Cagilostro has the greatest car chase ever captured on celluloid. The general populous' curiosity is definitely being aroused.

This curiosity currently has the potential of exploding. Hayao Miyazaki has been working at his production house, Studio Ghibli, for many years, churning out gems like Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso and Laputa. His efforts were finally rewarded when the Academy gave him an Oscar for Spirited Away in 2003. The film took a healthy $10 million at the US box office, which is not bad for a limited release. It gave Japanimation a healthy boost, but the best and most controversial anime moment of the year was yet to come. Quentin Tarantino, not feeling comfortable shooting incredibly violent scenes with a small girl, decided to call in Production I.G. to make a five minute sequence to provide the back story on one of the characters in Kill Bill. The move split both the critics and the audience, but a whole new audience had been exposed to anime, and the impact of that will slowly begin to register over the next couple of years.

Looking to the future, it will be interesting to see how anime progresses from here. The most difficult hurdle has always been making a western audience accept mature content, both physical and mental, in what is still essentially viewed as kid material. With Tarantino mulling over another possible collaboration to bring a feature film about a gang war mentioned in Kill Bill to the big screen this could be set to change in a big way. Even if that deal doesn't go through, it seems the quality of animation coming over from Japan will remain high for foreseeable future. A chance was missed in 1988, and they won't let that happen again. After The Ring there was an explosion in far eastern horror. After Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon there was a re-evaluation of the martial arts genre. All of the positive exposure and previous examples point to one thing: 2004 could be the year of Anime.

-- El Indio 24th May 04