Ask John: Why Doesn’t America Make Its Own Mature Anime?

Question:
What would it take for the West to make their own serious animation? I ask this because I’m so fed up with people saying, “Why hasn’t there been more anime like Cowboy Bebop?” and “Redline is going to revitalize anime fandom in the West.” I’m not bemoaning anime such as these but I feel like 1) people need to look around more because there’s been quite a bit of serious anime and still, in fact, is being made, 2) accept the fact that type of anime isn’t as big in Japan as in the West and finally 3) rather than waiting for Japan to make another show like Cowboy Bebop, instead gather the talent to create animation such as that here in the West.

Answer:
Rather than address “The West,” I think the actual point of focus in America. The incisive questions is why doesn’t America produce series, adult-oriented 2D animation for mainstream audiences. After all, the Western world does, in fact, continue to produce mature mainstream animation. France last year delivered L’Illusionniste, and just last month The Prodigies. Russia has an animated adaptation of The Master And Margarita preparing for release. So it’s really the United States in particular that seems home to viewers that wish for provocative, adult animation yet don’t get any. The simple and straightforward cluprit, I think, is an absence of significant demand. I have no doubt that America has artists willing and interested in crafting entertaining 2D animation for young adult and adult viewers. But there’s not enough appreciable American viewer demand to encourage or support the production of such works.

In recent years I’ve watched American animated features including G.I. Joe: Resolute and Batman: Under the Red Hood. While neither film had quite the challenging intelligence nor daring of a Baccano, Ghost in the Shell, or Darker Than Black, and certainly not the intensity and violence of a Shigurui or Basilisk, by relative American standards, both films exhibited an admirable narrative integrity. However, neither production has managed to break open the floodgates to a torrent of similar American animation for mature viewers. The continued development and success of American animated films like Cars 2, Tangled, and Kung Fu Panda 2, and Paramount’s decision to withdraw from funding a tentative Heavy Metal 2 clearly demonstrate that the American market for animation lies in family-friendly 3D CG, not provocative 2D animation. America has periodically sustained adult oriented 2D animation including Heavy Metal (1981), Aeon Flux (1991), Todd McFarlane’s Spawn (1997), The Boondocks (2005), and Archer (2010). And Adult Swim is now developing an animated TV series based on the 2009 live-action film Black Dynamite. But the lengthy intervals between these productions and the scarcity of such productions demonstrates that American viewers are only inclined to support such programs infrequently.

Cowboy Bebop is now 13 years old. Fans still clamoring for something like Cowboy Bebop are a minority of viewers stuck in the past. Redline is highly unlikely to “revitalize anime fandom” in America, regardless of the film’s great acclaim, because the film visually resembles works like Trava: Fist Planet, Dead Leaves, and Aeon Flux which have failed to capture much mainstream American interest. What seems like tremendous demand for more challenging, provocative, adult animation is actually only the outspoken sentiment of a very small minority of America’s film consumers. America has the talent to create the sort of animation that anime fans want to watch. However, without a sizable audience willing to pay for such animation, American animators have little opportunity to envision their ideas.