How Anime Is Becoming Mainstream

<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">For a very long time&comma; anime has been a niche medium amongst other popular media&period; One that started with an especially small following in the west&period; At the start&comma; only those who followed similar forms of media such as comic books&comma; video games&comma; and graphic novels participated in the medium&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Now&comma; however&comma; that has changed considerably&period; According to Wikipedia&comma; while the 1960s brought anime to television and in America&comma; the growth of anime in the west began around the 1990s&comma; where anime such as <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;pokemon-indigo-league-season-1-blu-ray-review&sol;">Pokémon<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;digimon-heroes-review-addicting-but-lacking-in-depth&sol;">Digimon<&sol;a><&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&comma; and even some <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;studio-ghiblis-future-and-miyazakis-possible-return&sol;">Studio Ghibli<&sol;a> films started to see a lot of attention&period; At the time&comma; most wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t think of those types of shows as anime and only regarded them as childhood cartoons since they were usually dubbed&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-159123 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;06&sol;04195922&sol;Big-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"How Anime Is Becoming Mainstream- Big 3" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Some Important Anime<&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">This began to change over time however&comma; as more and more anime came into the limelight&comma; such as the OG <&sol;span><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;ultra-instinct-goku-releases-may-22nd-in-dragon-ball-fighterz&sol;"><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Dragonball<&sol;span><&sol;a><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&comma; along with shows like <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Sailor Moon<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"> and <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Yu Yu Hakusho<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&period; The anime fandom began to increase in numbers&comma; albeit slowly&period; We then saw an even greater increase of fans when the so-called &&num;8220&semi;Big Three&&num;8221&semi; came into existence&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">These three anime &lpar;<&sol;span><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;why-i-hate-shonen-anime&sol;"><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">One Piece&comma; Naruto<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&comma; and<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"> Bleach<&sol;span><&sol;a><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&rpar; contributed significantly in amassing the number of anime fans we have today&comma; as a large number of people once asked will tell you how one of these were their first&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Now&comma; even more&comma; modern anime has joined the fray in popularizing the medium&period; An example of this would be the incredibly popular anime&comma; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Attack on Titan<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&period; Which&comma; according to Wikipedia&comma; is among one of the best selling anime and manga series&period; It is an anime that is highly successful in both Japan and the west&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also an anime that has enough charm and appeal to draw in the casual viewer&comma; while also having enough depth to satisfy the avid anime enthusiast&period; You&&num;8217&semi;d be surprised how many people you&&num;8217&semi;d think weren&&num;8217&semi;t into anime&comma; know of <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Attack on Titan<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&period; Which is a testament to how much the medium is growing&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-159121 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;06&sol;04195855&sol;crunchyroll-funimation&period;jpg" alt&equals;"How Anime Is Becoming Mainstream - Streaming" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Anime as a Globally Recognized Medium<&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Today we now have simulcasts and streaming services for anime&comma; such as <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;funimation&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">Funimation<&sol;a> and&comma; more importantly&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;crunchyroll-reveals-its-first-slate-of-originals&sol;">Crunchyroll<&sol;a>&comma; which started in 2006 and has been streaming anime both new and old with great success&period; So much so&comma; it was bought seven years later for &dollar;100 million&period; The demand and appeal became so much it got the attention of larger corporations&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">An example of this would be Netflix&comma; the popular streaming service which also took an interest in anime and started out by licensing <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Knights of Sidonia<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"> as their first Netflix Original Anime&period; After that&comma; it went on to license other popular anime such as <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Seven Deadly Sins&comma; Glitter Force<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&comma; and the fan-favorite&comma; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Devilman Crybaby<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">And finally&comma; we have Amazon &lpar;with Amazon Video&rpar;&comma; which has steadily been creeping its way into the market and started by having the exclusive streaming rights to the action anime&comma; <&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">&period; While it isn’t as active as the other streaming services&comma; it still shows quite the intention of licensing even more anime&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-159122 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;06&sol;04195907&sol;Hot-Topic-Anime&period;jpg" alt&equals;"How Anime Is Becoming Mainstream" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">The Current State of the Industry<&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Not only did anime see a boost in support by way of streaming services&comma; but places like Hot Topic and other retail outlets are catering to the demands of the growing fanbase&period; In fact&comma; in some places&comma; you could go to the cinema and watch an anime film currently screening if you wanted to&period; You can find anime in Walmart&comma; you can find anime on eBay&comma; Amazon&comma; and heck if you&&num;8217&semi;re lucky&comma; you can even find anime at your local &dollar;1 store&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">We also have anime conventions such as the ever-popular Comiket and Anime Expo&period; These are Conventions that thousands look forward to attending every year&period; Where previously&comma; these gatherings garnered very little attention in the west and were only ever attended by the aforementioned niche audience&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">And while anime isn&&num;8217&semi;t on the same level as the TV or movie industry&comma; &lpar;and quite frankly may never be&rpar; today&comma; anime is a billion-dollar industry in Japan and a multimillion industry overseas&period; Not too shabby for a medium previously thought to be &&num;8220&semi;foreign&comma;&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8220&semi;weird&comma;&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;gross&&num;8221&semi; by most of the mainstream&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-159124 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;06&sol;04201552&sol;Nami&period;jpg" alt&equals;"How Anime Is Becoming Mainstream- Censorship" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">For Better or Worse<&sol;span><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">However&comma; this brings us to the question of whether anime being mainstream is a good thing&period; This point can definitely be argued due to the many influences the west can impose on the anime industry&comma; such as censorship and all-round political correctness&comma; among other things&period; These are general aspects that are worrisome as it would change the whole dynamic in general&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400">Nevertheless&comma; the growth of the industry can only be a good thing for the community as it would&comma; in turn&comma; lead to our growth as well&period; In the earlier days of anime&comma; finding a community or even people who shared your hobby was quite an ordeal due to how stigmatized fans were for enjoying it&period; Things have changed entirely however&comma; as finding friends who share your passion and opinions on anime is pretty much a given nowadays&period;<&sol;span><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400"> <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Are you an anime fan&quest; Do you agree or disagree with me&quest; Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;