Ask John: Is Mecha Anime Dead in America?

Question:
Finding a mecha fan is like chasing leprechauns. The closest thing I’ve found was one person who liked Evangelion, and only because it was “deep.” I want someone who likes robots blowing stuff up, not someone who likes a 29-minute play-date with Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung with one minute of robots. So, is mecha really dead in America?

Answer:
Based on my personal limited observations and impressions of the American anime market and fan community, I think that the relative popularity of mecha anime among Americans is a topic which must be described very precisely in order to avoid confusion or misinterpretation. Arguing that American fan interest in robot anime is dead implies that it was formerly “alive.” Stating that American fan interest in robot anime is minimal is a comparison that must be carefully placed in context in order to be informative. I don’t think that the American popularity of robot anime has recently diminished. Rather, I suspect that it’s never been especially strong, and that status is now becoming more evident.

Some of the first anime series imported to America to inspire today’s American fan community were robot anime including Macross (turned into Robotech), Go Lion (localized as Voltron), and Tekkaman Blade (imported as Teknoman). Even now, twenty years later, these shows still retain a lot of cult interest from nostalgic viewers. In the early days of the American anime boom, numerous robot anime were licensed for American release, including Dancougar, Dangaioh, Madox-01, Gunbuster, Ehrgeiz, Detonator Orgun, Orguss, Patlabor, Votoms, Kishin Heidan, Gundam, and Evangelion. Furthermore, this flow of Japanese robot anime into America coincided with the introduction of American mecha role playing games including BattleTech, Mekton, and Heavy Gear.

However, as interest in anime steadily increased in America, and a greater variety of anime genres reached America, interest in giant robot anime seemed to diminish. I think that this may be explained as a natural progression of novelty interest. Especially before anime was as well understood in America as it is now, the common perception among uninformed American consumers was that “anime” consisted of violence, animated pornography, and giant robots. American anime distributors, partially by necessity, exploited and fueled this stereotype by licensing and distributing a lot of robot anime. After all, the entertainment industry survives by providing the products that consumers expect. As America’s anime fan community matured and became aware that anime encompasses more genres than just giant robots, American consumer interest transitioned from what was available – mecha anime – to what could be available. In other words, the American fan community moved from the mecha anime that they watched because they had little other anime available, to genres like romantic comedies and shonen action/adventure anime that had more appeal to Americans than robot anime.

The assertion that robot anime is unpopular in America is only half of a complete comparison. The implication is that mecha anime isn’t as popular in America as it is in Japan, which is true. Influenced by its amazing technological reconstruction and advancement following WWII, Japan raised generations of children surrounded by and nurtured by technology and machines. A sort of culturally indoctrinated inferiority complex further encouraged Japanese children to empathize with the use of technology, and literally encasing oneself inside a machine in order to gain strength and power. Furthermore, Japan’s technological advances naturally predict a future in which mecha and powered machine suits are as common as today’s cranes, forklifts, and bulldozers.

On the other hand, American society of the past hundred years has not been identified by physical technological advancement. Unlike Japan, which adopts a significant part of its cultural identify from metropolitan cities like Tokyo, America still identifies itself as a rural, agricultural nation. America’s heartland is dominated not by high rise buildings and progress, but by farms, fields, and the American middle-class. America simply doesn’t have the instinctual affinity for mecha and robots that Japanese society has. Furthermore, America’s increasing reliance and affinity for digital technology has decreased the American teen’s fascination with machinery. From the 1950s through the 1970s, American teens worked on their cars and built their own engines. But American youth don’t do that anymore. The fascination with how machines work is no longer an inspiration for American youth the way it used to be. As a result, Americans periodically find giant robots novel, but Americans don’t have the ingrained, familial fascination with robots that many Japanese residents have.

That’s not to say that all interest in robot anime has disappeared in America. Shows like Ideon, L-Gaim, and Vifam retain a small American cult following despite not being officially available in America. Gurren Lagann and Code Geass have been especially popular in America’s fan community, although it’s fair to say that much of their popularity is aligned with characteristics apart from their robots. Bandai Entertainment representatives have admitted that the American consumer support for the Gundam franchise has steadily diminished since the Gundam Wing franchise set a benchmark in America. But I don’t think that these situations signify that American interest in robot anime is shrinking. Rather, I think that American interest in robot anime has been relatively consistent for decades, with external influences occasionally creating temporary spikes of interest, such as the emphasis on licensing robot anime in the early 1990s, and the premier of Gundam Wing on nationwide American cable television. Robot anime is a Japanese invention that originated out of Japanese psychology and continues to fascinate Japanese viewers. To the extent that robot anime is anime, it will always sustain some interest within the American fan community, but robot anime, I think, is destined to never be as popular among Americans as it is among Japanese.