Ask John: Why Don’t Americans Like Detective Anime?

Question:
Why do you think Detective anime doesn’t succeed in America? Kindaichi, Conan, Detective Academy Q, Puppet Master Sakon, Poirot and Maple… none of them have had much success in America. Anime-wise, only Conan is licensed and its TV broadcast has been a failure. Kindaichi’s manga (but not the anime) has been effectively put on haitus by Tokyopop at the rate of one volume per six months and a Tokyopop rep on the Tokyopop forums said Kindaichi would have to sell 4,000 more copies per volume to merit bumping up its production schedule. Although there are fans in America of the above-mentioned titles, the shows are barely fansubbed or even watched for free by American anime fans. So why are American fans so disinterested in the detective genre?

Answer:
There’s little doubt that mystery and detective genre anime is more popular and successful in Japan than in America. Detective Conan is approaching 500 television episodes and a dozen theatrical films. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo has 148 TV episodes. Tantei Gakuen Q had 45 episodes. Agatha Christie no Meitantei Poirot to Marple had 39 episodes. Kindaichi, Conan, and Detective Academy Q all have live action adaptations. But relatively few detective anime have reached America, and those which are in America haven’t achieved spectacular success. The problem isn’t that American anime fans dislike detective anime. In my experience, average American anime fans don’t watch detective anime and dislike what they see; American anime fans largely seem uninterested in even sampling detective anime.

In my experience, having watched at least a few episodes of every aforementioned series and several titles, most detective anime are engaging, interesting, and entertaining. If the problem is not that American viewers lose interest in detective anime, but rather don’t watch it at all, there must be one or more reasons why American anime fans have no interest in detective anime. After some consideration, I’ve developed some inter-related theories.

In practical effect, the image of detective anime is intellectually stimulating, real life drama. That image may contribute to the disinterest of American anime fans. Anime dealing with moral ambiguities or philosophical debates like Ghost in the Shell, Mushishi, and Evangelion tend to be quite popular among American viewers, but detective anime don’t typically deal with philosophy or ethical dilemmas. Detective anime deal in absolute right and wrong, legal and illegal, moral and immoral. American viewers are interested in anime that poses provocative quandaries, but not necessarily anime that feels or gives the impression of strict academia. American viewers want to watch anime that’s intelligent, fantastic, and exciting. The immediate impression of detective anime is scholarly, mundane, and staid – more like work than entertainment. Even if that impression doesn’t actually accurately reflect many detective anime, the impression itself is inextricably connected to the genre of detective anime in the minds of American viewers. American anime fans, I think, love the idea of anime that encourages interpretation and intellectual analyzation, but recoil from anime that encourages rigorous analytical examination.

Furthermore, I suspect that American fans prefer anime which they can relate to. Suspenseful series with mystery elements like Monster and Death Note are appealing to American anime fans because viewers can imagine themselves in the narratives and wonder what they’d do in similar situations. These sort of tense, suspenseful series make viewers empathize with characters and involve viewers in the fate of the characters. However, typical detective anime like Detective Conan and Kindaichi are depicted from an objective perspective. Viewers don’t imagine themselves as the brilliant detective protagonists of these series, and these detective protagonists are often trying to unravel an event after it’s occurred, so they’re not in dire personal jeopardy. In actuality, characters like Conan and Kindaichi do often find themselves in mortal jeopardy, but that’s irrelevant in the face of the stereotype that detectives are aloof geniuses who survey murders from a safe, objective perspective after they’ve occurred. With the conventional detective anime, viewers passively watch events unfold from a distanced position. Detective anime stereotypically don’t offer the fantasy or excitement of fantasy anime.

Romantic comedies and dramatic anime don’t necessarily engender pulse-pounding excitement either, but viewers can personally relate to and empathize with the teen protagonists of school dramas or fantasy epics. Average viewers can’t imagine themselves as either brilliant detectives, or direct witnesses to murders. So detective anime don’t feel as involving and immersive to American viewers as other anime genres do. If my theory is accurate, the stereotype of detective anime being dry, academic, intellectual exercises may discourage American viewers from even approaching detective anime. Even if many detective anime aren’t especially dry and objective, the stereotype may be enough to scare off potential viewers anyway. Then, when viewers do actually watch detective anime, most detective anime doesn’t engender the same degree of empathy and involvement from viewers that many other anime genres create. So typical American viewers who do try out detective anime may find themselves struggling to stay involved and interested in it because their expectations and demands of anime are for emotionally affecting shows. My theory may be mistaken, and I can’t possibly speak for every American anime fan, but I can’t think of any other explanation that adequately addresses the peculiarities of this mystery.