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American Anime Fandom
Jul. 21st, 2014 11:03 amOne can divide American anime fandom into four distinct periods between 1997 and 2007. Because the boundaries between these periods are somewhat nebulous and may differ according to individual experience, I am going to divide them not by years but by the popularity of certain series.
Period 1
Evangelion
Sailor Moon
Slayers
Many anime fans during this period were either older veterans of fantasy and sci-fi conventions or elementary and middle school kids who didn't really know anything about anything. Anime series were sold two episodes at a time on expensive VHS tapes. There were separate tapes for the dubbed versions and the subtitled versions of each series. The subtitled versions were more expensive, as just about everyone preferred the dubbed versions. People were still calling anime "Japanimation," which was misleading, as distributors generally did everything they could to erase all "Japanese" elements from their releases; specific references to Japanese culture were generally glossed over or cut out entirely. Pornographic OVAs formed a significant percentage of the anime released in America.
Period 2
Cowboy Bebop
Excel Saga
Trigun
By this point, anime had become popular with high school and college students, and translated manga was now sold at major bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble. Anime clubs were springing up everywhere, and their members had taken to calling themselves "otaku." Many of these self-proclaimed otaku demonstrated a real interest in studying Japanese, and became something of a faux pas to admit to watching a show in its dubbed version. Thankfully, DVD technology had advanced to the point where three or four episodes, with both original Japanese and English dubbed voice tracks, could be put on a single disc. These DVDs were sold individually, and they were still quite expensive. Anime music videos started to become popular around this time. If I had to guess, I would say that this trend is related to American internet culture, specifically the culture of YTMND clips and Flash movies that was in full swing at the time.
Period 3
Azumanga Daioh
Hellsing
Naruto
Before there was much fan art on the internet, there was fan fiction, and there sure was a lot of fan fiction. A great deal of it focused heterosexual romance, of which a sizable percentage was overtly sexual. Because of the growing influence of Livejournal as a hub for fans and fandoms, many anime fans also participated in the Harry Potter fandom. Fan artists were posting their work online, usually to web pages devoted to a certain show, video game, or character. Much of the fan art that tried to imitate an "anime style" was terrible, or at least uncreative and amateurish, and this fan art was resoundingly mocked by more established fan cultures. As anime won a larger and broader audience, more anime series and manga titles began to be released in America. Entire sections of book stores and electronics stores were devoted to anime and manga, and you could now rent anime at Blockbuster. The mass media more or less ignored all of this, as they were too busy discovering Miyazaki and debating whether the Pokémon franchise represented the end of civilization. Regional anime conventions were chartered left and right, attendance soared, and fans started to cosplay in greater numbers. Furry and otherkin cultures occasionally clashed with anime fandom cultures at these conventions, but I'm not going to talk about that.
Period 4
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Full Metal Alchemist
Death Note
Anime fan culture had become very sophisticated by this point. Having mastered words like shōnen and shōjo, fans moved on to words like uke and seme. Yaoi parodies were well known among fans of both sexes, and fan art was much more polished. Individual artists hosted their artwork on their own web pages, although many people were creating accounts on deviantART as well. Since external hard drives have become reliable and relatively inexpensive, many fans downloaded fan-subbed anime series before those series made it to America (if in fact they ever did). Japanese language proficiency was on the rise, and groups of friends would get together to scanlate manga, which they hosted on aggregate sites like MangaFox. Anime conventions such as Otakon and Anime Expo were breaking attendance records for fan conventions, and American publishers and distributors like Tokyopop and ADV films were bending over backwards to meet fan demand. Retailers of imported Japanese goods sprung up all over the internet, and tons of dōjinshi were being imported from Japan and sold on eBay. In many ways, this was a golden age of anime fandom.
Period 1
Evangelion
Sailor Moon
Slayers
Many anime fans during this period were either older veterans of fantasy and sci-fi conventions or elementary and middle school kids who didn't really know anything about anything. Anime series were sold two episodes at a time on expensive VHS tapes. There were separate tapes for the dubbed versions and the subtitled versions of each series. The subtitled versions were more expensive, as just about everyone preferred the dubbed versions. People were still calling anime "Japanimation," which was misleading, as distributors generally did everything they could to erase all "Japanese" elements from their releases; specific references to Japanese culture were generally glossed over or cut out entirely. Pornographic OVAs formed a significant percentage of the anime released in America.
Period 2
Cowboy Bebop
Excel Saga
Trigun
By this point, anime had become popular with high school and college students, and translated manga was now sold at major bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble. Anime clubs were springing up everywhere, and their members had taken to calling themselves "otaku." Many of these self-proclaimed otaku demonstrated a real interest in studying Japanese, and became something of a faux pas to admit to watching a show in its dubbed version. Thankfully, DVD technology had advanced to the point where three or four episodes, with both original Japanese and English dubbed voice tracks, could be put on a single disc. These DVDs were sold individually, and they were still quite expensive. Anime music videos started to become popular around this time. If I had to guess, I would say that this trend is related to American internet culture, specifically the culture of YTMND clips and Flash movies that was in full swing at the time.
Period 3
Azumanga Daioh
Hellsing
Naruto
Before there was much fan art on the internet, there was fan fiction, and there sure was a lot of fan fiction. A great deal of it focused heterosexual romance, of which a sizable percentage was overtly sexual. Because of the growing influence of Livejournal as a hub for fans and fandoms, many anime fans also participated in the Harry Potter fandom. Fan artists were posting their work online, usually to web pages devoted to a certain show, video game, or character. Much of the fan art that tried to imitate an "anime style" was terrible, or at least uncreative and amateurish, and this fan art was resoundingly mocked by more established fan cultures. As anime won a larger and broader audience, more anime series and manga titles began to be released in America. Entire sections of book stores and electronics stores were devoted to anime and manga, and you could now rent anime at Blockbuster. The mass media more or less ignored all of this, as they were too busy discovering Miyazaki and debating whether the Pokémon franchise represented the end of civilization. Regional anime conventions were chartered left and right, attendance soared, and fans started to cosplay in greater numbers. Furry and otherkin cultures occasionally clashed with anime fandom cultures at these conventions, but I'm not going to talk about that.
Period 4
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Full Metal Alchemist
Death Note
Anime fan culture had become very sophisticated by this point. Having mastered words like shōnen and shōjo, fans moved on to words like uke and seme. Yaoi parodies were well known among fans of both sexes, and fan art was much more polished. Individual artists hosted their artwork on their own web pages, although many people were creating accounts on deviantART as well. Since external hard drives have become reliable and relatively inexpensive, many fans downloaded fan-subbed anime series before those series made it to America (if in fact they ever did). Japanese language proficiency was on the rise, and groups of friends would get together to scanlate manga, which they hosted on aggregate sites like MangaFox. Anime conventions such as Otakon and Anime Expo were breaking attendance records for fan conventions, and American publishers and distributors like Tokyopop and ADV films were bending over backwards to meet fan demand. Retailers of imported Japanese goods sprung up all over the internet, and tons of dōjinshi were being imported from Japan and sold on eBay. In many ways, this was a golden age of anime fandom.
