So What's Changed?

[Satoshi]

Yesterday, while walking around in Target, I noticed that they had the Cowboy Bebop movie DVD on the wall display with all the other "mainstream" American action films. I'd seen Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky for sale in Target before, but they had always been in their own little section; here was an animé - albiet a popular one - on display with other, more "popular" movies like LotR, etc.

Rewind to a year ago. Would one have been able to walk into a chain store, go over to the action film display, pick up an animé like Cowboy Bebop - that, to those not savy to the animé world, would appear not unlike a Warner Bros. "cartoon"?

My question is this; has anyone else noticed this kind of thing happening? Namely, animés besides the horribly overhyped three - DBZ, Pokemon, YuGiOh - getting recognition by places other than specialty stores? Tis a great thing, but I'm just wondering why it seems to happening all of a sudden. Some people might argue that it's because of Spirited Away's academy award or Cartoon Network's continued attention to playing some of the best animé, but I'm not sure.

Thoughts?

~Tash

 

[Android17a]

I'll tell you when DBZ and YuGiOh appear on shop shelves. All I know of is the anime section in HMV, they have stuff like Excel Saga. The UK is pretty slim on anime, unless you go to an importer who gets stuff from the US.

 

[Marril]

All I've ever seen is the Big Three mainstream movies (Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away) in stores like Wal-Mart and Target. HMV and Future Shop have some stuff, but not much. Something called Black Magic, End of Evangelion (which rocks), Yu-Gi-Oh, like two Tenchis, and some Macross. Oh, and Akira. Bad selection all around, really.

Did manage to get the boxed set of the entire Evangelion series from Future Shop, though.

 

[djcati]

Well, around this time last year, I remember seeing Ninja Scroll in a Woolworth's.. 0.o And Eva and Nadesico in HMV.
But apart from Eva, you don't really see anime in mainstream stores here.. (apart from Beyblade, Pokemon and Digimon, which are just with the regular kids' cartoons)

 

[Android17a]

Well, around this time last year, I remember seeing Ninja Scroll in a Woolworth's.. 0.o And Eva and Nadesico in HMV.
But apart from Eva, you don't really see anime in mainstream stores here.. (apart from Beyblade, Pokemon and Digimon, which are just with the regular kids' cartoons)

Indeed, totally. Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away... I've never seen those anywhere. I've seen Castle of Cagliostro and Princess Mononoke around a bit, though.

 

[TRCassidy]

The way I see it, Anime and Manga are being recognized as a general art form that's here to stay instead of the sort of novelty it used to be when anime selection in all video stores was slim to nil.

I mean, recently, Marvel comics has picked up a bunch of artists inspired by Japanese manga for their new "tsunami" block of comics. Dark Horse has been publishing manga for a while (The Akira novels, Blue Monday, etc ) and of course all the channels picking up animes now (Cartoon Network, Fox, the WB, Action Channel, and others I can't recall off the top of my head as I don't have cable).

My theory is that the people who are in control now are the same people who grew up watching classics animes as Speed Racer, Astro Boy, and the godly Akira. So these people know that anime is pretty cool, and that there's a market here obviously with today's youth, as proven with the successes of DBZ, Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, and Hayao Miyazaki's films.

Now, when OUR generation takes control of the entertainment industry, it'd be interesting to see how integrated anime becomes with our culture as WE will be the ones who were raised with anime as a good block of our saturday morning cartoons

~TRC

 

[Tego]

Cowboy Bepop is actually going a bit "mainstream" right now. And that's great, because it's a very good anime. High above Pokemon, Digimon and DBZ. Hey, they even showed "Cowboy Bepop the Movie" on Norwegian Cinemas. And that's Norway we're talking about, where people think MIBII and Charlie's Angels are good movies and Anime is "japanese porn-cartoons or something" (I'm quoting real people here)

 

[Marril]

and Anime is "japanese porn-cartoons or something" (I'm quoting real people here)

I've seen people who think that, actually. Had to do a free-form website for a comp studies class once. Chose to do an animé one and, quoth the teacher: "I've seen a TV special about it, you know, animé is animated Japanese tentacle porn."

Bah. Went ahead and did it anyways, wound up surprising (not to mention proving wrong) said teacher, for those who care.