Ask John: Would the American Anime Industry Exist if Fansubbing Had Never Been Invented?

Question:
In your opinion, would the commercial American anime industry exist if all fans had followed the letter of the law and never watched or created fansubs?

Answer:
Fansubs and the activity of the American anime fan community have made a tremendous and undeniable contribution to the existence and present status of America’s anime industry and the availability of anime in America. There’s no way to guess what America would be like today if anime fans had not gathered into clubs beginning in the late 70s and had not begun producing and sharing their own translations of anime. Many of today’s commercial anime distribution companies were founded by members of the amateur fan community, or are staffed by people who grew up in America’s fan community. But fansubs can’t claim all of the credit for the establishment and development of an anime industry.

America’s first anime fan club, the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, began meeting in 1977, and the earliest known anime fansub appeared in 1986, but Hollywood studios and major American television networks had been periodically releasing Japanese animation in America since 1961. In fact, America’s earliest anime fan clubs developed partially because Americans had been exposed to anime through American TV broadcasts of anime including Astro Boy, Gigantor, Speed Racer, 8th Man, and Starblazers. The American fan movement didn’t begin the importation and popularization of anime into America; it only encouraged the increasing popularization of anime in America.

There’s no way to conclusively determine whether or not anime would have caught on in America the way it has if a fan community had not developed around it. It’s possible that if a fan community had not developed, anime would still be released in America as merely foreign produced cartoons. On the other hand, as America has become more critical and sophisticated in its appreciation of cinema, America may have developed a strong demand for anime even without fan activities like amateur translations and music videos. Regardlessly, we have to acknowledge America’s popular culture as it exists now. And America’s contemporary anime industry is clearly a development spawned from both the fan community and the professional retail industry.