| Go to an anime convention, head to the dealers' room, look at the tables
covered with anime - and the booths stuffed with anime merchandise - and
you get the feeling that each and every anime series is represented in
that room. Nowhere close, said an anime expert at an Otakon panel. There's
so much anime in Japan that it's hard to have a chance to see it all. America
gets more anime than ever before, but there's far more in Japan that never
heads this way. |
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| Translator Neil Nadelman said these are great times for anime on Japanese
television, the source of most of the anime that comes to the U.S.
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Martian Successor Nadesico, Vision of Escaflowne
and Fushigi Yuugi are among the TV series from recent years that have generated
big fan followings in the U.S. Evangelion, with its flood of merchandise,
is seen as the hot series that spurred producers to try to develop the
"next Eva." Titles such as Cowboy Be-Bop and Brain Powerd are among those
vying for audiences in Japan. |
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| Yet, Nadelman reminds us that Theodore Sturgeon's law applies ("ninety
percent of everything is crap"). For all of the hot series coming to the
U.S., there are plenty of Japan-only mediocrities. "It still takes good
artists to make good animation series. The TV series vary wildly in quality.
Some - like Escaflowne - are like OVA quality in a TV series. Others aren't
as good as TV anime from the 1980's." American fans who enjoyed the two
Silent Moebius movies would be disappointed in the Silent Moebius TV series,
Nadelman said, saying "It looked like it had the bare minimum of funding
to get going." |
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