Differences Between Anime and American Animation

In order to figure out why anime is so popular in the U.S., we must figure out what makes anime and American cartoons different. What niche does anime fill that can't be found in American cartoons?

I found some really interesting information on the history of anime in Gilles Poitras essay "Contemporary Anime in Japanese Pop Culture", which gave much insight on how the development of Japanese animation over the decades was really different from that of American animation. His essay could be found in the book Japanese Visual Culture.

According to Poitras, anime is usually made up of a single story rather than a series of disconnected episodes, and even anime that have separate stories in each episode usually have some sort of subplot for the entire season.
Many examples of this can be seen in anime, such as Gundam Wing. On the contrary, anime like Kaasan – Mom’s Life do not seem to contain a single storyline, since the anime is about the daily life of a mom. Yet each episode does relate to the rest, where a single event in one episode will have a lasting effect on the rest of the episodes. 

Anime normally last for three months to a year. Multiyear programs are unusual, and these programs are regularly based on manga that are very long, such as Naruto or Gintama. 

In comparison, American cartoons, such as the Simpsons or the Grimm Adventures of Billy and Mandy, tend to last over a year, and episodes do not relate to one another.
I think that since anime is made up of a continuous storyline, the shorter length may help hold the audience's attention for the entire series. 

Poitras also points out that anime has emotional content, where it contain elements of suffering, death, love, adventure, pain, and joy. Much emphasis is placed on the characters' feelings, in order to move the audience. This relates to how animation qualities between anime and American cartoons are different. The visual qualities in anime enhance the emotional effect. "Shadows exist and move on faces, bodies, and objects. Vehicles may move under the shade of trees and out into the sunlight, and clouds may case shadows on a field or even a cityscape. Hair movement is noticeable, unlike many animated works, where hair is more like a helmet; at the right dramatic moment a lock may fall or a hand will move to push hair back from the face" (Poitras, 62).

 

Time of Eve Trailer

Lastly, the anime industry has a large number of genres that are age, gender, and niche-specific.  In the 1980's the OVA (Original Video Animation) format of straight-to-video anime allowed for companies to target specialized markets, since the anime did not have to be released on TV or in theaters. This allowed innovation into new concepts, as OVA titles that proved to be popular could made into TV or movie versions.New genres also came out of this.

Tsubasa Chronicles (Fantasy, mostly aimed at young female audience)

One Piece (Adventure, mostly aimed at young male audience)

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Science Fiction)

Eyeshield 21 (Sports)

20th Century Boys (Mystery, Drama)

In the end, anime is very different from American animation. The vast variety of genres that engage audiences of different age groups and interests, as well as the complex visual quality of anime, anime may be appealing to a large number of people in the U.S.

Anime Culture Explained in 10 minutes

Here is a website that gives a brief explanation of 'anime culture':
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~jleek/anime/culture.html

I do not know if all the explanations are true, though, as I do not have a very thorough knowledge of Japanese culture. For example, I do not know if the statement, "The Japanese view of the universe is that it is inherently amoral, unlike the American view, which is that the universe should be fair", is true, as that seems to be a strong statement. Yet if the writer knows a lot about Japanese culture, it may be true.

Anyway, I believe the website to gives pretty good explanations on most things, except that "super-deformed style" is usually called 'chibi style'. I also believe that anime is made for all audiences, rather than just teenagers and adults, as there are many many children anime.

Interestingly enough, this website makes me realize that I learn a lot about Japanese culture from reading manga. I know the types of food Japanese people eat, the types of vacations they take, even the TV channels they watch, and a little bit of the religion and the history. When I went to Japan, I was really excited about all the familiar things I got to see. The trip was like watching Disney movies and then finally being able to go to Disney World and experience everything in the movies... but even better!

Why is anime so popular in the U.S.?

Japanese anime is very much a Japanese thing. It is full of Japanese cultural references, and thus created solely for Japanese audiences. Heck, when I went to Osaka one summer, I felt like I was thrown into an anime.

Gantz

Street in Osaka

Osaka

In many animes, the setting is in Japan, explaining the familiarity I felt in Osaka. In animes, there are many cultural references made (from Japanese history, traditions, geography), and certain jokes that use puns. These references and jokes cannot be translated into English, yet American anime fans try to understand these references and jokes. People even spend free time scanning manga into their computers, translating and editing the scanlations, and then posting them up on a website or making them available for download. There are even websites dedicated to hosting manga, such as Manga Reader, so that fans can read them. Why do American fans put in all this effort in order to obtain something that is not from their culture? There aren't groups and websites dedicated to the translation of Japanese books (though there are groups that spend time translating Japanese/Korean/Taiwanese TV shows). What gives anime/manga an irresistibly not found in American cartoons?

I grew up with the increasing popularity of anime. My first introduction to anime was in 3rd grade (in 1998) when Sailor Moon first aired on Cartoon Network. My friends and I loved it, and we would pretend we were the sailor scouts. We wanted to know everything about the Sailor Moon world, but the movies extending the Sailor Moon storyline were not available; therefore, we read the synopses of all the movies on the Internet. After the popularity of Sailor Moon, Cartoon Network began to air other anime, such as Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing, in their afternoon programming block called Toonami.

However, the number of anime released were still limited, so my friends and I read the synopses of different anime online.

Nowadays, with the extensive use of the Internet, obtaining anime and manga is much easier. Websites are dedicated to stream anime with English subtitles, usually for free (Crunchyroll). Different groups translate and post manga online, even before the American publishing companies translate and print the manga for American bookstores. These groups that post translated manga online have posted hundreds of titles on different websites, such as Mangareader.

I am constantly surprised with the number of newly translated anime/manga titles that are coming out all the time. For the massive amount of translated anime and manga available online, as well as in bookstores and the occasional anime merchandise store, there must be a demand in the U.S.

Therefore, this leads back to the original question of why Japanese anime/manga, a media form made specifically for Japanese audiences, full of Japanese cultural references, is so popular in the U.S.