Anime and manga fandom
This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (July 2023) |
The anime and manga fandom is a worldwide community of fans of
Otaku
Otaku is a Japanese term for people with obsessive interests, including anime or manga. In its original context, the term otaku is derived from a Japanese term for another's house or family (
However, the term started to be used by anime and manga fans themselves again starting in the 2000s, in a more general and positive way, and today it is often used by those outside of the fandom to refer to fans of anime or manga. However, older generation otaku, like Otaking (King of Otakus) Toshio Okada, in his book Otaku Wa Sude Ni Shindeiru (オタクはすでに死んでいる) said the newer generation of self-proclaimed otakus are not real otakus, as they lack the passion and research sense into a particular sub-culture subject and are only common fans which only overspent in buying products.
History of the community
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Anime and manga fandom traces back to at least the 1970s when fans of the series Space Battleship Yamato banded together to get it back on the air after it stopped airing on Japanese television.[3] In Japan, anime and manga are referred to collectively as the content industry: anime, video games, manga, and other related merchandise are different types of media focused around the same content.[4]
English-language fan communities
The fan community in the English-speaking world began in the 1970s and steadily grew. According to Japanophile Fred Patten, the very first fan club devoted to Japanese animation was the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, which began in Los Angeles in 1977.[5] Its growth characterized by waves that Gilles Poitras as well as Bruce Lewis and Cathy Sterling name as specific "generations", often instigated by a singular work.[6]
In the Philippines,
Poitras identifies the first generation as the "Astro Boy Generation". Despite being the first and most popular animated Japanese television series,
Then in the 1990s, Poitras states that "something new happened in the U.S.", the "Sailor Moon Generation" was born. Previous generations consisted mostly of college age fans, however in 1995 Sailor Moon was adapted into English and caught the attention of people even as young as grade school in age, many of them female. In the span of a few months, the fan demographic changed dramatically and as their interests diversified, so did the titles adapted into English. Poitras, Lewis and Sterling describe current generation of fans as the "Otaku Generation", however not necessarily applying the word otaku to current fans. For this generation, the release of a title onto the television in the past was unusual enough that fans often remember their first anime experience as something special. Poitras remarked that as of the "Otaku Generation", the influx of fans into the fandom is better characterized by a continuous stream than as waves as it was in the past.[6][page needed]
In the United States, the fan community began as an offshoot of
According to Mike Tatsugawa, the founder and CEO of the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, the first milestone for anime in the U.S. was in the 1980s with the advent of the Internet. With the Internet, fans were able to more easily communicate with each other and thus better able to exchange fan-subtitled tapes and higher quality versions of anime.[11] Some experts, such as Susan Napier, a Professor of Japanese Language and Literature, say that Akira marked the first milestone.[12] However, most experts agree that the next milestone was in 1992 when U.S. Renditions, a film importer, released the first English-subtitled anime videotape that year, entitled Gunbuster. According to Tatsugawa, the success of Gunbuster triggered a flurry of releases.[11]
Due to the
Anime streaming outlets in the United States
In the United States there are multiple streaming outlets that fans can use to view anime and manga, while also being able to connect with those communities. One such outlet is Crunchyroll, a streaming service that lets users view popular anime from the past and new anime episodes released to the website. Crunchyroll was created in 2006 as a distribution outlet for anime. Crunchyroll has since evolved into becoming something more for fans in the anime community. They have added an addition to their website that allows anime and manga fans to get news about anime releases, events, and topics related to the community. This has also evolved to the creation of the Crunchyroll Expo. This exposition is a large-scale event in San Jose, CA, that allows anime and manga fans to connect. The streaming service also features a store where you can purchase anime related products such as: figures, Japanese snacks, apparel, posters, video games and manga.
In addition, another streaming service within the United States is
Mass streaming services like
European fan communities
In the 1970s, Japanese Animation reached Western Europe mainly with productions aimed at European and Japanese children with the main results being
In Central and Eastern Europe, Polish fandom was one of the first and largest fandoms to develop.[16] The beginning of anime and manga fandom in Poland can be traced to the 1990s, few years after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.[17]
Asian fan communities
Malaysia
Studies of fan behavior focused more on big fan activities or conventions in the past and transitioned toward from fan communities to individual fans. There are four conventions in urban areas of Malaysia: Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; Kuching, Sarawak; Sunway, Petaling Jaya, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. They are held four times annually between December 2012 and August 2013. According to the survey, there are about 585 people who regularly attend these conventions. Half of the respondents were aged 18–22 as of 2013 with equal numbers of both genders. More than half of the respondents were student and all respondents were consumers of Japanese media. Although those four conventions did not officially announce that their event is mainly Japanese popular culture, majority of people were fans of Japanese popular culture. Their main purpose in attending these conventions is to meet new and old friends, to have fun, and to cosplay. They regularly attend these conventions to keep their fan communities active.[18]
Demographics
Age
In a
A 2022 survey held by
An August 2023 survey published in 2024 by Polygon showed that 3% of Boomers, 12% of Gen Xers, 25% of Milennials and 42% of Gen Zs in the United states watch anime weekly.[22]
Gender
In the early days of the fandom, it was predominantly male.[23]: 55
An analytical survey held by
2022 survey data from the Morning Consult showed that the anime fandom is 61% male and 39% female.
Ethnicity
According to Morning Consult's 2022 survey, 47% of American anime fans are
Sexual orientation
2024 survey data from Polygon revealed that 27% of American anime fans identify as
Streaming service usage
2024 survey data from Polygon showed that American Gen Z and Millennial anime fans primarily watch anime on
Appeal of anime and manga
One major appeal of anime is its artwork; some fans claim that its visual quality is superior to that found in most animated series made in the United States[11] and some ignore all non-Japanese animation. One fan described enjoying anime because "there is no dividing line between special effects and what is real...it's just the way somebody imagined it". The content editor of Anime Fringe, Holly Kolodziejczak, described being amazed by anime's depth that was unlike the cartoons she had seen before: "the characters had real personalities, their own feelings and motivations for their actions, strengths and flaws that enhanced their characters. They were more like real people, and thus people could much more readily identify with them."[25] Larry Green of Nausicaa.net agreed and added that anime discusses subjects for both adults and children whereas in the United States animation is traditionally for children. He also stated that any viewer would be able to find something to their liking due to anime's large scale of production.[26]
And A key characteristic of many anime television shows is serialization, where a continuous story arc stretches over multiple episodes or seasons.[27] Traditional American television had an episodic format, with each episode typically consisting of a self-contained story. So it brings excitement to the viewers.
Fan service
Fan service is material in a series which is intentionally added to please the audience. Although fan service usually refers to sexually provocative scenes,
Fan labor
Dōjin
Learning about Japan
Language
Anime and manga have stimulated many young people to learn the
Despite some
Some fans even decide to translate professionally. In fact, fluent English speakers who know sufficient Japanese are often preferred for translating over fluent Japanese speakers who know sufficient English, as the syntax of the latter group tends to be stiff. Del Rey Manga's editor finds much of their talent through conventions.[36]
- Japanese language in Australia
- Research about Japanese language in Northwood and Thomson 2012, The Japan Foundation 2011 and 2013 tells us that many people are motivated to learn the Japanese language due to interest in Japanese popular culture. People who are not formally studying Japanese but identify themselves as Japanese popular culture are ignored. However, the report in East Asian Journal of Popular Culture by Sumiko lida and William S. Armour suggest the opposite. Their 2016 study results show that people's interest and motivation to consume Japanese popular culture products does not lead them to get formal Japanese language education. Their goal was to discover the correlation of Australian fans of anime and manga with the Japanese popular culture products. The results were 47.7 (n=118) percent of the people who had some sort of Japanese education indicated that they got the motivation to learn through anime and manga. But 66.3 (132 out of 199) percent of people who said they had no prior education in Japanese also showed motivation to learn Japanese in the future. While there are still optimism about Japanese popular culture fans' would increase the number of people who wants to learn Japanese language, the actual data seems to contradict.[37]
- Manga and anime in the Secondary English classroom
- Teaching anime text in an English classroom setting is something to be experimented to see how it shapes the relationship between teachers and students. Manga and anime texts are new in Western education. Australian state of New South Wales implemented manga and anime texts in their secondary English class and the results were different depending on how much students are interested in manga and anime. Students who were interested in manga and anime and called themselves 'big fans" showed very very high level of enthusiasm in class. Students showed significant and emotive level of engagement in class. Students were able to share their thoughts in manga and anime texts in their English classroom. Difference arose when a student was not interested in manga and anime texts. Frank in the experiment argued that it did not capture the majority of students to be interest in manga and anime texts. Having few students who are interested in manga and anime out of 30 students which is the average class sizes is not a majority. This results shows that implementing manga and anime texts would be different depending on the student.[38]
Culture
Anime and manga have also inspired many young people to learn about
Technology and the Internet
This section needs to be updated.(January 2022) |
Developments on the Internet have had profound effects on the anime fan community and the way in which anime is consumed. Additionally, fan interest in anime has inspired many developments in technology.[4] Roughly 68% of fans obtain anime through downloading from the Internet or through their friends, a much larger proportion than in any other medium.[4] As a result, anime fans have made some of the most sophisticated advances in peer-to-peer software in order to make searching for and downloading anime online faster.[4] Other fans have created websites that uses a custom server to search the Internet for video mirrors and new episodes, similar to search engines on how they crawl each website and saves the information gathered to the database. The search engine keeps every episodes up to date.[39] VirtualDub, a video capture and processing utility, was first created for use on an anime film adaptation of Sailor Moon.[40] The desire to simulate all forms of media that anime and manga comes in has caused PyTom to create Ren'Py, an open-source software engine that allows for the creation of visual novels without the need for a programming background.[41] Anime fans have also developed image upscaling tools, some using Artificial intelligence. Examples of such tools are waifu2x, Bigjpg and Anime4K. The Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP, a play on the initials of the former Soviet Union) was originally created for the playback of anime fansubs.
Fansub practices have rapidly declined since the early-2010s due to the advent of legal streaming services such as
Several online communities have been formed where fans can come together to share and interact. Sites that offer file sharing services are popular and influential where people can gain easy access to anime and manga. Fandom has also resulted in the creation of anime and manga fan communities on sites where people can share fan art, one of the most common ways for fans to express their love of anime.[41] These communities tend to do more than just share files. Like most forums on the Internet, they discuss topics that they are interested in and want to know more about. These anime forums are becoming places for people to discuss the plot, characters, and styles of anime and manga.[45] Since the 2010s, many anime fans have begun widely using social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Reddit[46] and Twitter (which has added an entire "anime and manga" category of topics)[47][48] to discuss and follow the latest news of their favorite anime and manga series.
In Japan, anime discussion forums were popular in the 2000s and, in 2009, fans of the anime adaptation of Haruhi Suzumiya popularized them with the Japanese-speaking side of the internet-using part of that community.[49]
Sightseeing in Japan
Many anime fans dream of one day visiting Japan.
Other popular locations include places where people can enjoy anime-related activities, such as shopping for related merchandise or singing anime
- Places to visit for anime and manga fans
- Akihabara: A popular location for anime fans to visit is Akihabara, located in Tokyo. Known as the Electric Town, it is a major shopping area where people can buy manga, anime, and other assorted otaku merchandise.[55] The Tokyo Anime Center is one of the most popular spots in Akihabara, where a diverse set of events take place, such as the display of new anime films, related exhibitions, talk shows featuring voice actors, and public recordings of radio programs.[53]
- The Gundam Base Tokyo: A store themed after the Gundam franchise. It opened on August 19, 2017, replacing Gundam Front Tokyo at Diver City Tokyo Plaza in Odaiba. There is Life-Sized Unicorn Gundam Statue(RX-0) which transforms every hour from Unicorn Mode to Destroy Mode.[citation needed]
- fine arts museum. In addition to that, it includes replica of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro (1988), a café, bookstore, rooftop garden, and a theater for exclusive short films produced by Studio Ghibli.[citation needed]
- Kyoto International Manga Museum: Located in Kyoto, Japan, the museum includes approximately 250,000 pieces in its collection which includes Edo period prints, pre-war magazines, classic post-war manga, and popular modern series. The museum regularly hosts events throughout the week that includes letting visitors watch manga artists work, pay for a consultation on their own drawing skills, and have their portrait drawn.[citation needed]
- Otome Road: Otome Road is a major shopping and cultural center for anime and manga aimed at women and girls in Tokyo. Companies hold cosplay events around the area and retailers stock manga and anime that has a heavy focus on the Yaoi genre.[citation needed]
- Universal Studios Japan: Universal Studios Japan holds events as collaborations with the companies behind popular anime series like Attack on Titan, as part of the Cool Japan anime campaign.[citation needed]
See also
- ACG (subculture)
- Anime club
- Anime convention
- Cosplay
- Editing of anime in American distribution
- Japanese pop culture in the United States
- Japanophilia
- Science fiction fandom
References
- ^ May 2006 issue of EX Taishuu magazine
- ^ ISBN 978-986-124-768-7
- ^ "An Overview of Yamato Fan History, Part 1". Voyager Entertainment. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Manion, Annie (2005). "Discovering Japan: Anime and Learning Japanese Culture" (PDF). East Asian Studies Center, USC. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2009.
- ^ Deppey, Dirk (July 13, 2005). "Scanlation Nation: Amateur Manga Translators Tell". The Comics Journal. 269. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006. Retrieved September 30, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 1-880656-53-1.
- ^ Mann, William (September 24, 1979). "Filipinos short-circuit 'Voltes V'". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved May 24, 2013.
- ^ Bennett, Jason H. "A Preliminary History of American Anime Fandom" (PDF). University of Texas at Arlington. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4696-3448-7. Archivedfrom the original on October 17, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
- ^ a b Plunkett, Luke (November 22, 2016). "Early Anime Fans Were Tough Pioneers". Kotaku. Archived from the original on September 22, 2020. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
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- ^ "Inside Anime's Rise to the Top of American Pop Culture". Morning Consult. October 11, 2022.
- ^ "Anime is huge — and here are the numbers to prove it". Polygon. January 22, 2024.
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- ^ "Half Of North American Anime Convention Attendees Are Women". Forbes. September 11, 2015.
- ^ Kolodziejczak, Holly (December 2005). "So, this is Point B? - Looking Back, Going Forward". Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
- ^ Green, Larry (March 2006). "Japanese Animation Page (Theatrical & TV)". Nausicaa.net. Archived from the original on October 20, 2009. Retrieved May 21, 2009.
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- ^ a b c O'Connell, Margaret. "San Diego Comic Con: The Manga Tsunami Multiplies". Sequential Tart. Archived from the original on July 12, 2006. Retrieved April 29, 2009.
- ^ Harcoff, Pete (May 23, 2003). "Anime Glossary". The Anime Critic. Archived from the original on February 19, 2009. Retrieved May 1, 2009.
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- ^ Anime Eater: We Eat Anime Archived 2011-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, an example of an index of anime episodes online.
- ^ "VirtualDub history". Archived from the original on July 20, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
- ^ a b Lin, Maria (December 2005). "Returning the Love: Three Fans Taking the Next Step". Anime Fringe. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2009.
- ^ Ho, Soleil (January 9, 2019). "The future of anime fansubs in a simulcast world". Polygon. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
- ^ "Decades of Growth, Rise of VOD and Streaming Trigger Anime Avalanche". vfxvoice.
- ^ "Streamers want in on anime's growing global audience". eMarketer. April 5, 2022.
- ^ Aboxcafe: Your Entertainment Forum Archived 2021-01-21 at the Wayback Machine, an example forum that does more than share files.
- ^ "/r/Anime". Reddit.
- ^ "Twitter trending topics: How they work and how to use them". Sprout Social. March 15, 2021.
- ^ "Jujutsu Kaisen Tops Squid Game, Wandavision in Social Media's 2021 Discussions". CBR. December 9, 2021.
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