Ask John: Will Anime Ever be as Popular in America as it is in Japan?

Question:
Do you think that anime will ever become as popular in the United States as it is in Japan?

Answer:
Actually the total sales of anime video in America is already nearly as profitable as anime home video sales in Japan. But on a per capita basis, roughly 125 million Japanese citizens spend as much on anime DVDs as roughly 294 million Americans. Put in another way, a country the size of California spends roughly as much money on collecting anime DVDs as the entire United States does. So while the total dollar value of the respective markets are similar, obviously the mainstream penetration of anime in Japan and the United States is very different.

No one can guess for certain where the anime market will go in America, but as much of an anime fan as I am, I still can’t predict that Japanese animation will ever be as successful, popular or respected in America as it is in Japan. I think there are too many cultural differences between Japanese and American culture to allow two dimensional animation to ever become a natural element of American culture. Anime has roots in the stylized Japanese art, and the native Japanese religions and folklore that dates back a thousand years. American culture is little more than 200 years old and has no native visual art that permeates the country. Original American artistic movements including the gothic and modern abstract are isolated and regional. Unlike Japanese ukiyo-e, which universally characterizes Japanese culture, American artistic periods and styles reflect only that: periods, styles, and locales.

Comic books can arguably be called a native American art form, because even if sequential comic book style art didn’t originate in America, the iconic comic book super hero is recognized worldwide as an American invention. However, ironically, while the American comic book hero has become part of American collective consciousness, the comic book itself has not. The comic book is mainstream, but has never been respected or valued as a medium for adult literature. Certainly there are examples of literate, artistic comic books, but such examples aren’t mainstream. In fact, for the past 60 years American mainstream culture, through the educational system, the Comics Code, and the efforts of the Walt Disney company, have created a deeply entrenched opposition to the theory of popular culture fantastic visual art as a respectable artistic movement or medium. Even now that fully digital animated films like Shrek 2 set box office records, such films are still aimed squarely at children and family audiences, and American thought erects a vast distinction between 2D and 3D animation.

Japanese society has recognized and encouraged the development and appreciation of hand drawn commercial art for centuries. American culture has always fostered a provincial, narrow-minded tolerance of hand drawn commercial pop art as a shameful but necessary product. Cartoon art has never been accepted in American culture as anything more than a disposable, second class substitute for true fine art. Anime franchises such as Totoro, Astro Boy, Hello Kitty, and Pocket Monsters have become an enmeshed aspect of contemporary Japanese society and culture. Japanese society accepts animation and comic art as an extension of ancient, traditional forms of native visual symbology. The opposite is true of American society. The American animation industry is rapidly and intentionally moving away from 2D animation to 3D. Ironically, even the American anime fan community seems to be partially encouraging the marginalization of Japanese animation. While more younger Americans than ever before are developing a greater interest in Japanese culture and language, we continue to insist upon dubbed anime that removes Japanese language and culture from Japanese animation. And our eager lust for more anime results in an increasing number of American co-creations such as the announced Japanese produced G.I. Joe and Highlander “anime” which are arguably not Japanese animation but rather animation produced in Japan. (There is a difference, but explicating that difference is not my point in this discussion. In brief analogy, a diamond and cubic zirconium may look the same.)

I really can’t imagine exactly how popular Japanese animation will ever become in America. For that matter, I also can’t predict how prolific or popular Japanese style contemporary art will become in the United States. But in my personal opinion, I don’t envision Japanese animation and manga ever becoming remotely as respected, or even nearly as culturally established in America as they are in Japan. While I don’t want to imply that anime and manga are idolized by mainstream Japanese society, I think that modern Japan has adopted animation and comics as an integral element of Japanese culture. On the other hand, I can’t foresee American society ever accepting Japanese animation into the mainstream instead of merely tolerating it as cultish children’s kitsch. To hedge my bets, I can’t predict that an American appropriation of contemporary Japanese artistic style, as we’ve already seen in titles like Teen Titans, may not someday become an established artistic style in America. But relative to its origins as the contemporary version of traditional Japanese art, such an American adaptation isn’t really anime anymore.