LogFAQs > #911346754

Yomi posted...

ssjevot posted...

Zikten posted...

electricbugs2 posted...

Zikten posted...

anime has been kinda the black sheep for a while in japan. it was never as accepted as people think. culturally, most of the time, the view is that only kids should watch it. by the time your in your 20's people expect you to stop. and those who don't are deemed weird. I think a lot of the anime industry is propped up by shutins who never leave their homes and get money from their family and they spend it on mail ordering anime merchandise to fill the void in their lives

The amount of false things you post is ridiculous.

I've actually been to Japan. have you? anime is not culturally accepted by adults.

I live in Japan. Yes it is. And anime is actually massive popular now and as the article said there are more shows now than ever, but they moved it because advertising isn't important for anime since they make so much money off merchandising.

My town has anime themed buses, trains, and the information center is anime themed as well. My colleagues at work all like anime and all have figures, and other anime merchandise on their desks. Now some obviously like it more than others, but it's a massive part of the culture here. Even at the grocery store there will often be anime characters on something as mundane as fruit.

For some reason I feel like tagging Zikten so he doesn't miss this >_>;

The thing about that is we shouldn't equivicate it as full acceptance of anime culture in public life. There are a couple of important things to note.

First, "anime" in Japan is just a form of cartooning in the broadest sense, so you would expect to see the "anime" style in advertisements and commercials.

Second, and more importantly, anime as an entertainment medium in Japan is almost identical to how superheroes are treated in America. Superheroes as a whole are part of American culture and identity, and so the most popular of them will appear in various ways throughout normal society (such as advertisements and other promotional events). Likewise, certain media will be popular among the general populace, like the current MCU series of movies. In Japan, certain anime become popular as well, such as Kimi no Na wa. In that same vein, merchandise can also be acceptable to a certain degree and perhaps even common.

But, there is a very hard limit. It would be socially odd in America for someone to flaunt how many of the comics they've read, how extensively they know all the characters, how many of the animated superhero films they've seen. It's the same in Japan for anime.