Anime and the 90's Generation

[StarTrinity009]

Hi all. I'm doing a survey for my COM 321 class. Completing this survey would be greatly appreciated.

Please answer the following:
1. Do you believe the 90’s generation has had an impact on what anime is popular in the U.S.? Explain yes or no.
2. Do you believe the 90’s generation has influenced the way in which anime is now viewed in the U.S.? Explain yes or no.
3. Do you believe the 90’s generation has helped spread “otaku” culture within the U.S.? Explain yes or no.
4. In general, within the context of the United States, how would you describe the relationship between the 90’s kids and anime? During the 1990’s and/or today?

[Kireblue]

1. I don't think that the 90's have impacted what particular series are popular today, but it have impacted the popularity of anime in general. The 90's were the the first time in America where anime started becoming mainstream. In the 90's, everybody had heard of Pokemon, and most children were a fan of Pokemon. And unlike Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon, Pokemon proved that anime could be a very popular business. If all 3 of these series had failed in America, the American anime industry would only be a fraction of what it is today. And I should point out that the anime boom of the 2000's was greatly influenced by the internet boom, but it is no coincidence that it happened during the teenage years of the kids that grew up with Pokemon, Digimon, Sailor Moon, and Dragon Ball Z. Those series laid the groundwork in the minds of an entire generation. Unlike other generations, the kids that grew up in the 90's aren't intimidated or turned off by characters that live in a foreign land, have unfamiliar names, and huge saucer eyes.

2. I don't think that the 90's have influenced how anime is viewed. Today, most anime is watched on a computer via some kind of streaming. The changes in the way that anime is viewed is directly related to the changes in the way that mainstream television is viewed. Although, its important to mention that Anime fans are usually really early adapters. Anime fans were really the first group of people to abandon television and switch to watching streams. Also, according to survey information gathered by Funimation, a much larger percentage of anime fans own a blu-ray player than the average percentage of Americans in general.

3. Definitely yes. Since kids from the 90's are now adults, they can now spend money on anime merchandise and not only keep the industry alive, but also mold it for future generations. Many kids in the 90's didn't have parents or older siblings that supported or understood the anime craze. Now, the 90's generation are the parents and older siblings. I work at a daycare, so I occasionally overhear conversations about what is popular among kids today. But I was so surprised when I heard a 7 year old singing Nyan-Cat last week. And I actually try to spread the culture by occasionally bringing in a anime move for them to watch (usually a studio ghibli film).

4. The relationship between the 90's kids and anime is much more accepting than any previous generation. In my own case, I never even saw the big eyes of anime characters as odd or unusual. Not only were Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z my very first anime series, they were also one of my first animated series in general. The fact that they had huge eyes seemed normal to me since I hadn't yet been exposed to anything else.

[Kireblue]

If you are writing a paper or a report on anime, JapanAmerica is a really good book to read. Coincidentally, Crunchyroll just started a sale on it http://www.crunchyroll.com/deals/book-japanamerica-969

[BasharOfTheAges]

Define "90's Generation" - one would assume you mean people born in the 90s (who wouldn't have been old enough to really "get into" anything until at least the early 2000s), which kinda invalidates most of the points kireblue here just said, but without any concrete definition to go on, you're not going to get precise feedback.

[CodeZTM]

1. Do you believe the 90’s generation has had an impact on what anime is popular in the U.S.? Explain yes or no. :
I don't think so. To me, the world of popular anime in the United States is reflective of the more popular series in Japan. Business deals with Adult Swim are also a big part of this, since they're the ones that are most noted for anime on the air.

2. Do you believe the 90’s generation has influenced the way in which anime is now viewed in the U.S.? Explain yes or no.: Not really. To me, the varying anime that are now airing in the US show how they're targeting a variety of audiences to try and fit all kinds of different personality. Like any generation, the people of the 90's are wildly different from each other. The few similarities that we might have mostly affect our tastes in what we viewed as children, which anime really didn't hit for the majority of us.


3. Do you believe the 90’s generation has helped spread “otaku” culture within the U.S.? Explain yes or no.:
I don't believe so. "otaku" means overly obsessed individuals with anime. That kind of behavior is caused generally by addictive personalities and doesn't have much to do with a generational pattern. Granted, US Otaku are perceived a lot different than Japanese Otaku, so i may be wrong here.


4. In general, within the context of the United States, how would you describe the relationship between the 90’s kids and anime? During the 1990’s and/or today?

If anything, the people that grew up in the 90's are probably a lot more tolerable with anime than those before. This may be a regional thing for me, but anime is generally known as "those violent porn cartoons". But people that grew up in the 90's and watched DBZ/Pokemon/Digimon/Beyblade know differently. They realize that only a small percentage of the total world of anime. I think that anime, as time passes, will be more open to the US audiences.

[JaddziaDax]

I'm with Bashar on this, since I was a teenager in the 90s I would see it vastly different than kids born in the 90s..

[BasharOfTheAges]

Another example of the ambiguity of this concept: http://www.xkcd.com/973/

To explain:

Spoiler :

The concept of "MTV Generation" in the linked comic makes reference to the 80s, but people of the "MTV Generation" were born in the 70s. The concept of a "Generation" in this sense, is the group of people coming of age (i.e. the 10-20 year old demographic) during a defined period of time. The MTV generation is in their 40s now.

The people born in the 90s were the primary market this huge dubbing boom has sought to monetize at conventions and other fan gatherings, while people of the "generation" of the 90s (teens at the time), helped create the demand that got the dubbing industry going, and the generation of the 80s, really took most of today's conventions and fan gatherings from the college basements and holiday inn back rooms the generation of the 70s founded them at to the massive convention centers of today.

[StarTrinity009]

Actually, I already have that book. I have that one, Japanification, Otaku, and Japanese Visual Culture. ^-^" They're my textbooks for my Japanese Popular Culture class. I'm using them for the COM 321 class.

If you are writing a paper or a report on anime, JapanAmerica is a really good book to read. Coincidentally, Crunchyroll just started a sale on it http://www.crunchyroll.com/deals/book-japanamerica-969

[SatoshiSakura]

1. I don't think that the generation had any impact on what's popular today. I'm going with the assumption that you mean children born in the 90's, not the ones that were already teenagers at the time. At that time, the big anime was mainly Pokemon, but Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon had a good number of fans. So based on that, and the anime in the US today, Bleach, DRRR, FMA, Bakugan, etc, you see completely different kinds of anime.

2. Not at all. Like kireblue said, anime viewing changed the same way that regular tv viewing has changed, though I think we tend to use it more than the average person. An anime fan is more likely to watch on the computer than tv in general, so one generation wouldn't have made an impact. You had the generation that watched on video, then the generation that watched on tv, now it's online, it just goes with the times.

3. Yes! It's easy enough to see an example of this by going to any con. The demographic will for the most part be high school kids and up, the group that got exposed to anime in the 90's. I think as a group, they're the ones that contribute most positively to the otaku culture, what with the merchandise and manga sales, not to mention anime movies that get into theaters, Ponyo, Pokemon, The Secret World of Arrietty...I feel like the 90's group is who those are primarily aimed at.

4. I think that 90's kids see anime as anime, whereas the kids from today just think it's another kind of cartoon. ( I know from personal experience with a cousin who think Dragon Ball Z Kai is American) For today, I think we see anime as more than anime, more of a cultural experience, because once you get past the story lines, you see actual Japanese culture, and I think that's part of the relatioship between 90's kids and anime.

[StarTrinity009]

I actually let the concept of generation be open on purpose. Generation is not clearly defined, so stating that can very well be a part of your response. In my analysis, I'm focusing more on kids who were watching anime on WBkids, not knowing it was anime. However, this survey is just asking anime fans in general what they think. Honestly, it's not really a survey. I just called it a survey, so not too many people would bother to respond. xP It's more like interviews really. I'm looking for qualitative data. ^^"

Define "90's Generation" - one would assume you mean people born in the 90s (who wouldn't have been old enough to really "get into" anything until at least the early 2000s), which kinda invalidates most of the points kireblue here just said, but without any concrete definition to go on, you're not going to get precise feedback.