Sakura’s was the first Japanese voice I ever heard
Last updated: 07/27/10
As we’re heading into the latter half of 2010, I’ve been thinking about how anime, and my relationship with it, has changed over the past decade since I became a fan in 2000. Scamp’s post about the latest generation of anime fans also got me thinking further. I want to see if I can make a descriptive list of the different generations of anime fandom in the U.S…
Since I didn’t get into anime until 2000, my knowledge about the generations of fandom before then is very limited, especially back in the 70s and 80s. And since I didn’t get cable TV or high-speed Internet until 2005, I was late at catching up with parts of the fandom during that time.
I did a quick search for a comprehensible list of generations of anime fandom, but couldn’t find one. Thus, I decided to make one of my own, and I’m asking my more knowledgeable readers if they would help me improve it.
Below is what I’ve done with the list so far, starting from the late 90s/early 2000s when anime really took off in the U.S. I’m not totally satisfied with how I divided the years or how I named the generations, so feel free to offer suggestions. Also, I’d love to add generations of fandom that occurred before then if someone would like to contribute.
If you would like to give feedback or contribute information for the list, leave a comment below.
—–
*UPDATE 07/27/10*: Added more contributed information (thanks Aaron B.!)
*UPDATE 07/26/10*: Added contributed information for earlier generations (thanks wintermuted!)
The Generations of U.S. Anime Fandom
*Credit goes to Michael Olivarez (a.k.a wintermuted) for this part*
Wave One can be called the single longest in these as there were successes floating about, but never any one massive name. Whether it be Maha GoGoGo!, or Tetsujin 28, Atomu, Jungle Taitei, or others, they all had a beloved spot on American television, but often were only shown regionally. But it really didn’t experience a spiritual layup for a score until Yamato (Star Blazers), and Gatchaman (Battle Of The Planets) came around. And within many of these shows grew a curiosity that helped spawn hobbyists, and new fans to seek out third generation tapes with no subs, or even 16mm prints. It was practically the equivalent to sneaking illegal contraband around.
*Credit goes to Michael Olivarez (a.k.a wintermuted) for this part*
Robot shows became a modestly hot property in the mid-80s. And despite the wishes of a few local fans, shows like Gundam, Votoms, and the like were near to impossible to localize at the time. But we did get Mazinger-Z in truncated form, as well as GoLion, but it was Harmony Gold’s Robotech featuring Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada that really helped inspire a strong interest that would take several more years to reach critical mass.
*Credit goes to Michael Olivarez (a.k.a wintermuted) for this part*
The film Akira had a successful art house run, and helped usher in specialized anime conventions that were for once separate from the typical Star Trek/Sci-Fi/Comics convention crowd. The bulk of the fans were elder folks with often backgrounds in the US military, or collegiate, but only pursued as a side hobby. The Streamline Pictures label helped lead the charge in America based anime distribution alongside companies like Central Park Media, Viz, ADV, US Renditions, and others.
*Credit goes to Aaron B. for this part*
This is actually a rather important transition period for anime fandom stateside, because a lot of things were going on that would indicate Japanese animation was physically bringing fans together. For example, during this time-period, the very first U.S. anime conventions began appearing. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, the successful art house release of Urotsukidoji in June 1993 spurred whispering among press that equated anime with not so kid-friendly media – an incomplete and undeserved assessment that remained for some time…as many fans are aware.
*Credit goes to Michael Olivarez (a.k.a wintermuted) for this part*
As Sailor Moon, Ronin Warriors, and others took to the airwaves, and set up a small home for anime on broadcast again, it was the explosion of anime on VHS that had been rising slowly in the years post-Akira. But the one-two-three punch of Ninja Scroll, Ghost In The Shell, and Evangelion was the tipping point that helped interest on the Internet to grow to almost exponential numbers. But little was to prepare fans for a certain electric mouse, and the advent of the DVD.
The generation that I started my fandom with. In 1998, the release of the very first Pokemon games in the U.S. marked the beginning of one of the most successful Japanese international franchises. For many of us from this generation, Pokemon is what started our fandom and was undoubtedly a major contributor to the rise of Western anime fandom that would come in the following years. Anime was virtually non-existent on U.S. TV a few years before, but thanks to Pokemon’s success during this time, dubbed kiddy anime began to pop up on many TV channels – Digimon, Cardcaptors, Monster Rancher, Medabots, etc – most of which tried to emulate the “battling/collecting monsters” theme of Pokemon. Pokemon and other anime fan sites, image galleries, and character shrines were starting to appear online and launch the beginning of the anime online community. Going off the success of this Japanese franchise, Dragonball Z became a hit during Pokemon’s success, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, another “battling/collecting monsters” series, took over as top children’s franchise as Pokemon’s popularity was starting to wane.
*Credit goes to Aaron B. for this part*
These programs helped drive what would become the first nibble on the DVD market – since anime DVDs began appearing in 1997 – as well as a larger footprint on consumer merchandise altogether. Toys, gadgets, books, dolls, and other cultural derivatives completely exploded with Pokemon, specifically; and although some passersby scratched their heads, most understood that there was at least some money to be made in this field, commercially-speaking. Back to the point, and in terms of Fan Generation, it drove people to the market (or at least, their mothers’ purses), in my experience. When older fans speak about the “bubble,” this is where it may have started.
Most discussed: Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cardcaptor Sakura
Ways to watch: Pokemon and most of the other kiddy anime on TV at this time were also available on VHS. However, they were almost always dubbed only, and some, like Mon Colle Knights, weren’t even successful enough to have a domestic U.S. release. But beyond the kids’ shows, more mature anime was still only available via a few scattered VHS tapes (often with crude dubs) or early fansubs distributed non-digitally on VHS or shown at anime clubs.
Pokemon’s success, followed swiftly by Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh!, showed how successful anime could be in the U.S. During the few short years of this generation, the amount of anime released on U.S. TV was incredible. Cartoon Network was practically defined by anime at this time and showed a variety of series both on its afternoon/late-night block Toonami, and its (mostly) uncut night block, Adult Swim -Tenchi Muyo!, Yu Yu Hakusho, Inuyasha, Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, and Rurouni Kenshin among others. Adult Swim proved that, for the first time, TV anime could be aired with faithful translations for older viewers. Local channels continued to air children’s anime while other channels, like the International Channel, even aired anime such as Fushigi Yuugi and Slayers. More anime was being released on VHS as well as DVD. Some of the first anime DVD box sets both with dubs and subs were released at this time. Fan sites continued to flourish and became more discussion-based and interactive as Web 2.0 began to take over.
Most discussed: Tenchi Muyo!, Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, Love Hina, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam Wing, Rurouni Kenshin
Ways to watch: Anime was all over U.S. TV at this time – kid shows on local channels and more mature shows on Cartoon Network. The release of uncut anime VHS and DVDs was taking off and, with the growing progress of the Internet, fansubs were slowly starting to become digital.
Anime continued to be successful on U.S. TV channels and new hits like Fullmetal Alchemist and Naruto continued to usher in the generation of fans who would get their start with anime via Cartoon Network. However, with the phasing out of VHS and the rise of the prominence of the Internet, the digital fansub era took off. Now anyone with a decent computer and Internet could watch a number of anime series, such as new Japan-only hits like Haruhi and Higurashi, fast and for free, years before they would be released in the U.S. These digital episodes could be burned onto CD or DVD, prompting fans to build collections of fansubs and distribute them amongst each other. Fans who got their start watching Naruto and FMA dubbed on Adult Swim could continue to watch the latest episodes subbed via bittorrent. Fan sites still existed but were starting to phase out as the first blogs began to emerge and discussion forums about the latest fansubs became prominent. Bleach and Death Note, two of Adult Swim’s last successful anime, were also two of the first that had been watched by fans mostly by fansubs first.
*Credit goes to Aaron B. for this part*
It may be worth noting that digital fansubs began appearing years earlier, back in the year 2000 or thereabouts. What may help is an increased focus on why fansubs proliferated so much in these and following years, specifically. There are a lot of competing reasons for this (good luck distilling them all). However, the decline of VHS and rise of the ‘net are only a few pieces of the puzzle. A weakening retail market, lack of broadcast TV support, and so on and so forth…the increasingly rabid nature of fandom (as with many other fields of interest) started developing fans to get involved in a little bit of everything (take a look a the percent attendance increases of anime conventions from, say 2002 to 2006, or thereabouts). Fans want to be involved, get their hands on as much stuff as possible…not because they’re malicious, but because they love their “stuff.” The consequences of this, of course, are largely visible to those only interested in searching for them…
Most discussed: Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, Azumanga Daioh, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Elfen Lied, Death Note, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Ways to watch: Dubbed anime was still on U.S. TV, though it was slowly starting to fade from the success it had the few years before. Downloading fansubs via bittorrent took off like wildfire, and for the first time, fans were watching more anime at one time and at a faster rate than ever before.
As fansubs became more prominent and easier to obtain, anime on U.S. TV started to fade – Adult Swim went from being mostly anime series to little to no anime, and Toonami disappeared completely. In the meantime, YouTube’s success skyrocketed and introduced the technology of streaming videos, something that would change the face of anime distribution. As fansubs were uploaded onto YouTube, fans no longer had to wait for torrent files to download, but could watch the same variety of anime in much less time. Fan sites virtually died out and the age of blogs, IRC, and other means of fast and current anime discussion became the defining factor of the online community. Other streaming sites followed YouTube, and unofficial anime-only streaming sites also cropped up. Eventually, official streaming releases of anime via Funimation, ANN, Hulu, and Crunchyroll took off.
Most discussed: Lucky Star, Code Geass, Clannad, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Toradora!, K-ON!
Ways to watch: Anime on TV was practically gone by this time. With the collapse of Geneon and other players in the U.S. anime industry, official releases slowed down. DVD releases became fewer, with box set releases rather than individual discs, as streaming releases increased.
I can’t say much about our current generation yet. So far it seems to be going along with the previous generation, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll wrap things up by saying that, as Scamp mentioned on his post, the earlier years of the decade where we would savor just a few anime titles at a time, regardless of their age, has been replaced with mass consumption of anime – watching as much as you can at a time and placing the most emphasis on the newest shows. This is reflected in how fan sites have been replaced by blogs and TV replaced by streaming. However, discussion about this topic will be a post for another time. I’ll just leave you with that thought as we continue to follow U.S. anime fandom into the next generation =)
Once again, if you’d like to contribute to the list or if you want to correct errors you think I made, leave a comment below. I’ll continually update this post as I get feedback.
this post makes me feel old in a good way. because there ought to be more people from the pokemon era writing about anime!
@ omo
Heh, yeah I never thought I’d feel “old” as an anime fan, but I am starting to. When I hear that fans nowadays have never seen Tenchi, Cardcaptor Sakura, Cowboy Bebop, or any of the other hits from my day, it kinda makes me sad. But there are still many old classics that I’ve never seen, so I can’t really talk =P
I feel old too… The first Japanese Anime I was shown was My Neighbor Totoro in my childhood. Few years later, I was introduced to Pokemon (which I watched until 2007), Sailor Moon, Card Captors and DragonballZ, neither were completed. In the early 2000s, I hardly watched any new titles except Yugioh, but I stopped along the line when I got bored of it. It’s not until I got into my freshman year of college that I started to watch Anime again.
I still own VHS tapes of Pokemon episodes and movies along with two of Miyasaki’s movies, but that is all… I can say that I have been a long time fan and that the newer fans got it easy…
@ chikorita157
Hmm, sounds like you started in my generation (Battling Monsters), but took a break during subsequent generations before coming back. Like you, I got my first look at anime some years before I actually became a fan (mine was Sailor Moon in 1995).
I still have some subbed and dubbed VHS tapes of Sailor Moon, Slayers, Jubei-chan, and a few others. I also have a drawer full of VHS tapes of Pokemon episodes that I recorded from TV =P
The fansub generations can very well be split into two eras. The first one taking place in the mid-90s, amidst the Fourth Wave as VHS fansubs were prevalent, and distributed via snail mail. Thousands of fans participated via postal mail “friendship groups”, pen-palling circles whom participated in trading tapes, as well as sold rare anime merchandise via mail trading and ordering. This was a big alternative for those yet to get wired.
Then came the Bittorrents…But access has always been the crux. Back then, we REALLY had no real access. let alone the bandwidth to make any of this happen, but they did. Oh, so many did.
@ Michael
Thanks for all your contributed info! I actually took your long comment and added it within the post itself. Of course I credited you, and feel free to let me know if you’d like to add more ^.^ I tweaked the years you had a bit to better match my chronology, but I can change them back if you feel they were more accurate. Since I wasn’t part of the fandom until the late 90s, I wanted to know what was going on before then XD
Ah yes, fansubbing itself can be broken down into generations too. I guess I got into it during the middle of the bittorrent generation =) Perhaps streaming could be considered the next one.
Reminds me of the early days watching subbed anime starting with a smattering of Eva around the time Pokemon really took off, mostly because I was annoyed of what Pokemon had to offer. So when a friend showed me the medium could be so much more, it got me hooked and I haven’t looked back.
But yeah, I remember having to look for legit direct download sites. Those closed down pretty fast and from there, it was to IRC to go on the fileservers and hoping that some of them would have anime worth watching.
@ zzeroparticle
Watching subbed anime didn’t even cross my mind until I saw a subtitled VHS tape of Cardcaptor Sakura at a local anime store sometime in 2000. Since I was only a high school kid back then and wasn’t very savvy with computers or social networking, I didn’t even know about early fansubs and didn’t watch Evangelion until I got the DVD box set for Christmas of 2002. And I wouldn’t actually direct-download myself until a few years later. So yeah, I was kind of late with some parts of the fandom, but better late than never =P
I guess I’m from the fansub generation, although I did grow up with Pokemon. Didn’t really consider it anime at the time though. In fact, I don’t think I knew exactly what anime was.
Not sure what the future generations hold.
@ Yi
I was the same with Sailor Moon – it was my first anime but I didn’t know what anime was until years later. Getting into Pokemon is when I first learned about anime but I wouldn’t say I “grew up” with Pokemon since I was already in late middle school/early high school when it was at the peak of its popularity.
What will future generations hold indeed.
I started watching anime (dubbed in Mandarin Chinese) back in the 1980s in my home country, then was on hiatus until sometime 2003, which would put me in the Fansub Generation on your timescale. I can’t sum this up in a word or a phrase (i.e. The “So-and-so” Generation), but I’m beginning to sense in the most recent generation of fans that as anime becomes more popular here in the U.S. there’s an increasingly greater gap between the “casual” fans who see “anime as cool!” and the “intense” fans who seem more thoughtful or dedicated to the medium or one or two of its genres. And yet both groups would still identify themselves as anime fans, and both groups would obtain their anime from similar streaming sources. I speak from personal experience — I recently met a group of self-professed anime fans who feel that talking character designs or development, or buying artbooks by a mangaka, or discussing how an OP or ED brings more flavor to the series is *too* geeky or nerdy. Perhaps it’s a kind anti-elitism at work, a backlash by the most current generation of American fans against the stereotypical image of the detailed-obsessed otaku?
@ f0calizer
Very interesting. I know what you’re talking about in terms of the two kinds of fans (wrote a similar post about it actually). I think the division has always been around in the fandom, but it’s just more noticeable now because there are more fans and the Internet has made it much easier for them to discuss their different views. But it is something to think about as we go into this new generation =)
I’m the only one that doesn’t feel old getting into anime during the Pokemon era. lol Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that Pokemon got me into anime. More like Dragon Ball Z (Japanese and English) and Cardcaptor Sakura (Japanese… English one didn’t spark any anime interest in me at all).
Wouldn’t call 2004-2006 the “fansub” generation, per se, since VHS fansubs were scattered everywhere back in the day. I would call it the “Online era”. lol
@ Mikoto
If I recall correctly, Dragonball Z’s popularity occurred roughly around the same time as Pokemon. At least, I was in middle school when they were both popular. I probably would have gotten into DBZ if I had cable TV at the time.
I called those years the “Fansub Generation” because I remember that’s when I really started to take note of fansubs and how they were the new, hip way to watch anime. VHS were still around of course, but they weren’t making as many. I actually think “Online Generation” would be better for this current generation where anime is now almost exclusively online – no more anime on TV, fewer DVD releases, and tons of streaming and fansubs, not to mention blogs, Twitter, and other things.
How weird to think of myself as a “post-Evangelion” fan.
It’s interesting, though, looking back and remembering how important the push was to put more anime on TV. Almost seems naive now.
@ 2DT
If you’re from the Post-Evangelion Generation, then you’ve been into anime longer than I have XD (unless you’re one of those people who took a break from it during certain years). I think a few things hindered me from getting into anime sooner: no cable TV or high-speed Internet until 2005, and I didn’t travel much or get together with groups of friends or family where I could find out about things like that. But better late than never =P
I wish that I had a couple of books with me that I know would help with this breakdown, but alas, I’m writing from work, so I’ll do what I can from memory. Hopefully this rambling will help…
1995-1997: Post-Evangelion Generation;
1998-2000: Battling Monster Generation;
I might be alone on this one, but you can probably merge these two categories, because the kicker for both of them is a regard for expanding access to anime… getting to the medium quickly and reliably. Or at least, this was my experience. The first, guided by Toonami (rest in peace), and the second guided by the Invisible Hand. Rather, Toonami was an evolution of the previous generation’s instinct to congregate and get to talking about anime in the U.S. It provided fans with a single, reliable source to go to on cable. The Sci-Fi Channel’s Saturday morning block, by this time, had been inconsistent for four or five years.
2001-2003: Cartoon Network Generation;
I was going to recommend moving this back a couple of years, but after re-reading how many different anime licensors and manga publishers were established in 2001 and 2002 alone, it’s certainly fitting. A slight correction though, Toonami’s late night block was called Toonami: Midnight Run, and first started programming in 1999, later largely with uncut episodes of GUNDAM W. Adult Swim, separately programmed from Toonami, wouldn’t launch until autumn 2001.
The phrase “cartoon network generation” is good, because it speaks a lot to the mindset the TV market’s proliferation of getting anime on-air. Programming directors knew anime could bring in the cash, however, most weren’t really sure how. A lot of the could have been said, at this time, for bookstores and their relationship with manga. Manga sales were absolutely booming roughly between 2002 and 2004/5, frighteningly so. But as with the presence of anime on cable television, professional ignorance to the medium’s origin and uniqueness didn’t bear as fair a treatment as most fans in-the-know would have liked. For some, Mike Lazzo is the ideal case study here.
I’d fetch a guess we’re still in the streaming generation. The day somebody somewhere — inside or outside of the anime business — successfully monetizes online content, we’ll see an abrupt change in how people consume media (which, I believe, will be different even from how things are now).
Great article/post, by the way. It’s a great subject for discussion.
@ Aaron B.
Thanks so much for all the additional info! I went ahead and cropped a few of your paragraphs from the comments section and added them to the post =) The post is getting kinda longer than I had planned, so I didn’t want to add too much more.
I feel that Pokemon’s success, starting with the first game release in 1998, is a very important point in anime history on its own, so I wanted to separate it from “post-Evangelion,” or whatever else was going on with anime a few years before. Pokemon started a generation, at least to me since I was very much a part of it =)
Once again, thanks for all the additional info about Cartoon Network, fansubs, and the like~ ^^
Going by this list I come in at the tail end of the Akira Generation. I was a big fan of Voltron when I was a little kid, but I was like 5 or 6 at the time and had no idea it and Robotech and similar series weren’t the same as GI Joe and He-Man, so I didn’t realize that there was any sort of difference until I was in high school. That was when I started reading articles about anime-related games in Electronic Gaming Monthly, heard about series like Ranma 1/2 that sounded like the coolest thing ever at the time, and did my best to track down this stuff. But as a high school kid with little money, no access to the then-limited internet, and living in a city that wasn’t on the east or west coast, my options were limited. I remember Akira getting a week run at the local arthouse theater, but I couldn’t convince the parents to let me go (I must have been 14 or 15 at the time? Something like that.). I finally got to see it on VHS some time after video stores finally started carrying anime.
By the time Ninja Scroll and the like hit VHS I was already headlong into anime and was doing my best to get all of my friends to check out these ultraviolent, supercool movies and series. I never looked back.
@ Landon
I was actually about 10 years old at the end of the Akira Generation, but like I told 2DT above, I probably would have gotten familiar with anime sooner if I had cable TV and could watch stuff like Voltron. Regrettably, I wasn’t much into reading when I was a kid, so that’s probably why I don’t recall reading any anime-related magazines back then. The only anime I saw pre-Pokemon were Sailor Moon and Samurai Pizza Cats in 1995/6, but like you were with Robotech, etc, I couldn’t distinguish them from other cartoons at the time.
Incidentally, my first (and only) viewing of Akira was when I borrowed a VHS tape of it from a classmate during my senior year of high school in late 2003. It’s not really my cup of tea, but I can appreciate how amazing it must have been for its time.
I would have to place kids who watched Star Blazers in a different generation from the kids who started on Astro Boy, since I always hear stories about the Astro Boy folks being the ones who started the local anime clubs that would later become hotspots for Star Blazers fandom.
Speaking as someone who grew up with Astro Boy, Marine Boy, Kimba the White Lion, Speed Racer, Gigantor & Tobor the 8th man (sorry – decieded to use the U.S. release names) I totally feel that there’s a different generation between that and the Star Blazers/Robotech crew (used to be shown back-to-back on my local channel 20).
Those stories are rather true in my experience.
Also the ‘Fansub’ generation I would put much earlier than what’s listed. I actually got hooked on Ranma 1/2 because a friend gave me some fan subs on VHS…and that was the 90s. I’d put fan sub at least in the late 80s if not earlier…but that’s just my experience.