Japanese Animation Catching on in U.S.

AP via Yahoo ^ | Thu Dec 9, 3:30 PM ET | By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer

[supercat]

I think Spirited Away is my favorite.

[KneelBeforeZod]

oh I think US animation at the top of its game

[B-Chan]

Wow, I sure never expected to see that book on FR. I co-wrote and -drew that book (and the other Star Blazers comics) for Voyager ten years ago. It's nice to know there are fans of the good old Yamato (and of my old work) here on FreeRepublic!

[martin_fierro]

[Future Snake Eater]

Just a small sample of my faves!

BTW, someone said it earlier, but this is NOT news. Anime has been big for a while now.

[RacerX1128]

some people don't know but Speed Racer was/is one of the Godfathers of Japanese animation that made it's way to US television in 1967 and still lives today in one form or another. Go Speed Racer Go!

[Simmy2.5]

Well I knew that the anime phenomenon started a while ago. Just interesting that the MSM FINALLY caught on to the obvious.

As for Akira...haven't seen it yet. While I'm seeing many of the recent animes, I never get to see some of the ones that are touted as the ones that started it all.

Though yes, Speed Racer and Robotech were here before then I believe.

Interesting fact about Robotech's three season...they are actually THREE COMPLETELY different series, made into one by an American company. Given that Japanese anime series don't go beyond 26 episodes, and many times less (with exceptions of course [cough]Dragonball[cough]), in order to have the typical 60 episodes, they combined three similar series into one (the original first season of Robotech, known as Macross, did have sequel series/movies after it, but not at the time the American company showed it here [and, well, needed something else to hook it up then). It would be like someone taking Star Trek, and hooking it up with Babylon 5, and some how connecting the two (of course, it did sort of work for Robotech given that the similarities and, well, dubbing animation is obviously easier then live action series). Still, what a way to sell a series in the states.

Unfortunately, because of what the American company did to this series, we now have a pretty messy situation if anyone else tried to bring over the Macross series that is NOT Robotech. Way to go!

[baseballfanjm]

Watch Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies, and Millennium Actress, then report back to me on the intelligence of anime.

[AZLiberty]

Both my kids (14 and 17) are now in taking third-year college Japanese, thanks to an interest in anime.

[baseballfanjm]

Personally, I think it's wrong to pidegon-hole animation to comedy. The films of Hayao Miyazaki can be mind-blowing in their imagination, and can really make one re-think what animation is capable of.

But hey, to each their own. :-)

[Redcloak]

It would have been old news in 12/99. Did this guy just now crawl out from under a rock?!

[Future Snake Eater]

Oh man, you haven't seen Akira yet? What are you waiting for? Just be sure to get the DVD version. They did an excellent job re-dubbing it and getting the original print cleaned up digitally. Then, if it interests/confuses you, check out the full 6-part manga series just released a couple of years ago. The movie barely scratches the surface of the original story. They are both excellent.

I never really watched Robotech. I have seen one of the newer Macross Plus movies, and it was pretty wild. I enjoyed "Ghost in the Shell," though it was a lot more metaphysical than I had anticipated. "Dragonball Z" has been one of my guilty pleasures since college, but I haven't seen it in a long time, although it really started to go downhill towards the end.

If you haven't seen "Cowboy Bebop" yet, then also do yourself that favor. It's a 24-episode series (with one recently-released movie, too) that is just superb. "Akira," while very good, has somewhat dated animation, but "Cowboy Bebop" is top-notch, and the English dub is actually, in my opinion, far superior to the original Japanese.

[Redcloak]

That is just wrong.

[Porterville]

Christ, it has been catching on for 20 years. Akira is the sh!+ but my favorite is "Grave Yard of The Fireflies" ...

[GretchenM]

Although American animation releases, such as "Toy Story," "Shrek" and "The Incredibles," continue to wow audiences, they are largely aimed at children.

An adult friend and I saw "The Incredibles" yesterday. No children were in our entourage. Loved it and will see it again.

For me, a large part of the enjoyment was observing the intricacies of the artistry.

[Porterville]

I haven't seen Star Blazers or even a refrence to Star Blazers since I was knee high to a b!_ch liberal... man thank you for helping me find it. I use to watch it everyday religously befor GI JOE.

[Simmy2.5]

I saw "Graveyard of the Fireflies", simply an amazing movie. Certainly A heck of a lot better then the stuff Hollywood pushes on us recently. Gripping and powerful.

[baseballfanjm]

I love both those films, but my favorite anime (and favorite movie, period) is:

These pictures make it look like an action film though, which it isn't.

[Porterville]

Seriously? I thought it was too cartoonish... I must be missing something. I enjoyed the vampire movies, but most of all I enjoyed "Grave Yard."

What I find really interesting is how cartoons like batman and the superfriends has taken on many of the aspect of Japanese cartoos.

[Porterville]

Grave Yard of the Fireflies is like "It's a Wonderful Life" No other movies make me as crazy as those two... except when Audry Hepburn is tossed in the mix.