maybe the current popularity of anime is because anime is not infused with the moral campaigning that Los Angeles media is?
maybe the current popularity of anime is because anime is not infused with the moral campaigning that Los Angeles media is?
Maybe, but unclear how much of a change that would be from “maybe the ‘90s popularly of anime is because anime was more infused with schoolgirl panties and tentacle rape than Los Angeles media was?”, anyway.
Tbf the anime industry in the US is exponentially larger today than it was in the 90′s or even the start of the 2010′s, though I’ll admit “actual number of new watchers” is hard to quantify over “increasing financialization of existing consumption streams & assets”. I think its decent odds that some dynamic beyond a rehash of the 90′s dynamic is required for that growth to make sense.
One of the big pluses for anime (for me) is that it doesn’t have the vague infusion of progressive politics made mandatory in western media since Trump got elected. Escapism from the 24/7 stalemate culture war is nice.
Yeah its definitely a plus for me, just on the sheer tiredness of the political tropes you can’t bang your head against anymore - though Anime certainly has its own repeated concepts! I think its even more prevalent in Manga sales, which are now the plurality of all comic sales in the US as their native compatriots have had a far more striking cultural shift in their content.
Still, how much of the growth is stemming from that? I still have no real pulse on, could be a tiny fraction or a legitimate part of the story, or this idea is entirely misdirected and its all legitimate streaming finally competing with piracy for eyeballs while the eyeball pile remains the same size.
I do think it’s a good sign that while YA is trying to calibrate their Queer Representation just right manga is pandering to its audience like “yaoi boys are hot 😅”
im gonna…presume that this isn’t sarcasm since that seems to the case with posts like this atm.
considering the fact that mainstream anime and Japanese society in general is very conservative with a largely apolitical population, it makes sense that anime has become popular as kind of like the monster trucks of the art world: cool explosions and scantily dressed jailbait. two of the biggest conservative values in anime are objectifying women and girls and pedophilia in general… So it makes sense that many weird incels find respite in a disconnected portrayal of women (I don’t need your political correctness! Things were better BEFORE the SJW movement!).
also, the anime industry is largely supported by exports and literally cannot subsist on the monetization of their indigenous otaku… they just could never have enough money to compensate for the sales overseas. at this point anime is largely created for the international coomer audience who needs the next Fantasy Female trope of the season to fap to. i always wondered why that in order to find liberal and subversive content in an anime or manga i have to really dig for a unique series or keep a really careful eye during the regular season. it just hit me reading this post. anime is for conservatives now and probably has been for a while.
to further illustrate this idea: yaoi is largely illustrated by hetero cis women who are expressing the taboo of viewing men as emotionally sensitive, among other things. just as a lot of mahou is produced by adult men who very badly want to see the panties of a 12 year old. repressed idiots aren’t being allowed to walk through why their shit is wrong and now its a movement… why fight for the right to know more and do better, let us fight for the right to conserve our horny stupid brains instead. in its own way that is very classic conservatism: enacting the destruction of others in order to maintain the status quo.
I honestly only know the plot or characterizations of practically anything after like KareKano by reverse engineering h-doujins