Ask John: What Would Convince Contemporary Fans to Watch Vintage Anime?

Question:
What would it take for the modern generation of [American] anime fans to get interested in older anime and possibly even want on DVD?

Answer:
There are two different philosophical approaches to the question of generating interest in vintage anime among contemporary American anime fans. On one hand, time and experience will create a small increase of interest in vintage anime. At the same time, there’s probably nothing that will convince most contemporary fans to want vintage anime. I think that the vast majority of American fans interested in classic anime, and willing to purchase vintage anime, are fans that grew up with older anime. Many of America’s fans of anime from the 1970s, 80s, and even 90s are fans that started watching anime in these decades. Based on my personal observations of, and involvement in, America’s anime fan community, I think that the majority of contemporary American anime viewers are attracted to the cultish novelty of anime, and its distinction from conventional American entertainment. By extension, the majority of American anime viewers are not especially interested in the art or history of Japanese animation itself. The majority of American viewers want to watch contemporary anime because their interest in anime is rooted in the superficial appearance of anime. Older anime don’t have the refined, modern look of contemporary anime, which makes older anime seem dated, old-fashioned, and unappealing to most modern American fans.

There’s certain to be a small minority of American anime fans that develop an interest in learning about the history of anime and experiencing the evolution of anime by watching vintage titles. I can cite myself as an example. During my early years as an anime fan I was primarily interested in current and new titles. However, in recent years I’ve sought out and watched early anime like 1966’s Rainbow Sentai Robin, 1967’s Ribbon no Kishi, 1969’s Dororo, 1972’s Mahou Tsukai Chappy, and 1974’s Majokko Meg-chan, which I would never have considered watching when I was a novice fan. With age and experience, I’ve developed an interest in learning about how anime developed and how early titles influenced later productions. I’m sure I’m neither the first nor the last American fan to undergo this transformative evolution.

However, I do suspect that fans who develop a greater appreciation for vintage anime over time are a minority exception among American fans. There are signs that vintage anime will never be highly appealing or attractive to the majority of America’s anime viewers. ImaginAsian and DiscoTek concentrate on distributing vintage anime in America. ImaginAsian charges less than ten dollars a disc for its releases, yet perceives so little consumer demand that manufacturing DVDs on demand is a wiser distribution strategy than customary nationwide retail distribution. DiscoTek has been forced to cancel the planned release of its second Lupin the Third movie due to weak sales and diminishing demand. I can also point out that vintage anime in the fansub community seems to have minimal interest. If even America’s most hardcore anime fans express little interest in watching vintage anime even when it’s available for free, there’s little reason to expect a larger number of Americans to eagerly purchase and demand vintage anime.

In future years we may see popular contemporary titles respected as beloved vintage shows by the fans growing up with them now. But to my own dismay, I’m not confident that today’s American fans will ever have much interest in the classic anime of yesterday.