Anime Syracuse!

Actually seeing anime and differentiating it from American animation, before the 1980′s had been rare.  There simply wasn’t enough of it to make it its own genre, but during the 1980′s anime became its own genre, finally separating itself from American animation. The 1980′s became know as the “Golden Years.” Many may be surprised at this, expecting the 90′s to be more prosperous, but during the 80′s more anime was released in the US than ever before or since and the reason for this can be traced to three factors.

Factor one was a return to commercially targeting kids.  Advertisers started following Ray Kroc’s and Disney’s model of advertising, targeting to kids to reach their parent’s wallets.  The idea was that kids were easier to convince and when they wanted something, they would be far more convincing to their parents than any ad could be. Advertisers need places to run their ads and so kid friendly content was needed.  For quite a while, in the US, animation was considered to be youth oriented medium (In reality most early American animation was actually targeted toward adults) and therefore a surge was animation was created, redistributed, and imported to create this content. Even anime from earlier decades returned, reintroducing Astro Boy and Speed Racer to a new generation.

The second factor started, in 1977, with Star Wars.  The Star Wars film’s succsess caused producers to become obsessed with capitalizing on the science fiction boom and they found a treasure chest of space opera anime from Japan. In 1978, shows like Battle of the Planets (AKA Science Team Ninja Gatchaman and later G-Force), Space Battleship Yamato, and Mobile Suit Gundam appeared on television.  Their influce continued into the 80′s, as shows like Robotech, Saber Riders and the Star Sheriffs, Tekkaman the Space Knight, Force Five, Voltron, and, the American written and Japanese animated, Transformers earned succsess.

The third and probably most important factor was the availability of the VCR. Anybody could watch what they wanted, when they wanted, inside their own home. For those born after this time, it may be hard to imagine just how limited your viewing options were. The VCR gave people choices and those that were on more of the fringe of entertainment could finally get the movies and shows that they wanted. Companies could also take less of a risk in importing anime, being able to make money off a minority without using much cost. Works by Hayao Miyazaki and series like Dragonball quickly gained a following do to this new technology.

While the most productive time for anime, the genre itself was not a household name. For those that were not film fanatics or anime fans, those that saw the 80′s as a time for John Hughs and Micheal J. Fox, anime was not recognized. That is until 1988. In 1988, the anime film Akira came out in America. The film gained critical praise and suddenly even those that ignored animation, knew what anime was.  Akira’s influence started a new wave of in America bringing forth some of the most memorable animes to come.
Next time: the 90′s and the new legacy of anime.