Ask John: Why Is Anime So Popular In Japan?

Question:
Why did anime become so popular in Japan?

Answer:
What I offer here is my own amateur theory founded on only my own speculation, not on any degree of researched documentation. I suspect that anime and manga are popular in Japan because they are rooted in a centuries old tradition of appreciation for visual art. During the formative and influential period of Japan’s feudal era, value was placed on the creation and appreciation of art and literature over science. Weapons and arms, clothing, architecture and the creative arts all displayed a marked emphasis on visual and artistic appeal. In the creative arts, samurai spent their free time writing poetry to master their emotions. Woodblock artists advanced the famous ukiyo-e art form that we now associate with traditional Japanese art. Noh and Kabuki stage performances became art. Even writing itself, caligraphy, became a specialized art form. The development of Japan’s culture seems to have branched opposite of the West’s, which made tremendous advances in science and industry rather than the arts.

Much has been made of the influence of WWII on the necessity of manga as a replacement for demolished movie theaters, but I think this ignores prior century’s worth of development and appreciation of Japanese drawn art. While this is likely a stretch, I think there may be some degree of truth in the development of anime from ancient Japanese bunraku (puppet) theater and the more modern “kamishibai” method of storytelling. In both culturally ingrained forms of literature, fictional, “drawn” characters (either puppets or literal colored illustrations) tell a story to an audience. Anime can be said to be the technically advanced evolution of these two older forms of Japanese art.

So I think manga and anime have become so accepted and popular in Japan because they are simply the latest evolution of the type of creative art that has been popular, and culturally treasured in Japan for virtually as long as Japanese culture itself has existed.