Anime discussion thread

Evening all,

I thought it would be a good idea to discuss anime on this forum as it is something I am interested in and would like to speak to others who are also interested in it.

I am interested in finding out the history of anime being broadcast on British TV, such as when it started to be broadcast in the UK?

We could discuss here, what you favorite anime is?, Which one are you watching now?/Where are you watching it?(Crunchyroll/Funimation/Netflix?), What was the first anime you watched?

I got into anime in 1999 with Pokemon, Digimon Adventure and Monster Rancher. After that I dipped into Cardcaptor Sakura, DBZ, Bayblade, Naruto and other Digimon series. I am currently watching Black Clover and My Hero Academia dubbed on Funimation as well as Seven Deadly Sins on Netflix. Code Geass and Digimon are my all time favorites.

I assume you're currently watching the new Digimon Adventure: then?

I remember Fox Kids showing Sailor Moon, Teknoman (Takkaman Blade), and Eagle Riders (Gatchaman II) in the late 90s, as well as Digimon and Monster Rancher. Pokemon and Cardcaptors were both on CITV, along with Digimon.

Mysterious Cities of Gold was probably one of the earliest anime shown in the UK - on Children's BBC in 1986. Feel free to correct me if that's incorrect.

Was i the only one who never got the whole Pokemon and Digimon obsession in the 00's? All the kids in my school were trading cards etc but i just found it boring.

One show I started watching but never got around to finishing was "The Guyver" in 1994/5.

Quick tip, don't watch the movies as they are risible.

There seems to be two main demographic groups for anime, which are children and general audiences, and young adults. Those targeting young adults (including the so-called 'overnight anime') tend to have some 'saucy' scenes as fan-service (and no, I'm not counting the pornographic animations here).

Anime distribution industry in English-speaking countries tend to use "simulcast" to refer a behaviour of releasing an episode from a series on the same day (or within days after) as Japan. While I think it's wrong, I want to hear from perspectives of broadcast technicians about it.

Anime, and I'm probably re-gurgitating what I've said prior in the E4 Adult Swim thread, wasn't really treated well in the UK, not least by the Cartoon Network titan Turner/WarnerMedia and the attempted launch of Animax in the UK. If CNX had took off properly, finding it's audience and Animax launched with the expectation of a Freeview slot I'd imagine anime would be in such a cult status of popularity.

But the companies that be simply must've found no value in such thing, reformatting the Toonami channel in a bid to attract teenagers with live-action programming until merging it with their sister network Cartoon Network Too and Animax just simply never launching due to the fact Sony just couldn't find the space to do so. If they had bought CSC a little earlier in 2007, I'd imagine it'd be a different tale.

I'm not saying that CNX/Toonami was the only places to find anime because Jetix used to air anime such as Shaman King, Dinosaur King, Sonic X, Shin Chan, Naruto and Pokemon when CN couldn't be bothered to show it anymore. I'm pretty sure Jetix did produce anime, at least one in the form of Oban Star Racers with France 3 since most of it was done in Japan, but a lot of the "anime-styled" programming was done in Canada for the most part or dubbed there.

I just think that anime will always be shafted for ones that make more profit (i.e Pokemon) but it's strange to see POP now airing Dragon Ball when it used to air on Toonami as it's flagship until 2006 when Turner execs must've assumed Toonami was targetting a much more older demographic than it's intended young audience. I guess anime will only be well known online through services like Crunchyroll or Funimation and the need to broadcast it linearly is just not there anymore.

I think the only serious attempt to bring anime to public view in the UK outside Pokemon etal was Anime Central which showed such programmes as Bleach as well as the Japanese Transformers Trilogy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnimeCentral

I remember Akira being shown one night on BBC2 in the early 90s. The anime series Mrs Pepperpot was also a mainstay of that post-DJ Kat slot on Sky One back then too:

My first recollection of the anime genre was probably Battle of the Planets which was routinely shown on children’s BBC in the early 80s. As I understand it, we got the heavily re-edited Sandy Frank Entertainment adaption of the original Japanese series, which removed profanity, violence and transgender characters in order to appeal to North American audiences. There was a distinct Star Wars feel to some of the additional characters which always felt a bit like they were cashing in. I remember thinking that it was very stylistically different to the rest of the cartoon fodder on the telly at the time (that was offered largely from the Hanna Barbera stable.).

I’m afraid that’s really where my interest in the genre ended, but I wonder how many fans of the genre were first exposed to it through this series?

I have fond memories of Cartoon Network's Toonami programme block back in the early 2000s. Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing and Tenchi Muyo amongst others. Dragonball Z in particular was big in our household.

The problem in the West is that there's a prevailing attitude that animation is for kids. Things like The Simpsons, South Park etc have chipped at this a little but it's largely still the case. Additionally, Japanese anime has a reputation for being pervey and weird. At lot of this can be attributed to the sort of stuff you'd occasionally find on Channel 4 in the small hours, back in the 80s & 90s. I think the likes of Pokémon have diluted this reputation somewhat, although it reinforces the perception that animation is for kids.

I was the only one at my school who didn't care for it as well, or at least it felt like I was.

Though even now I know loads of people who like Pokemon and I feel like the odd one out at times, so little changes after 20 years.

Each to their own I say. I never quite "got" Pokemon et al either and the only real interest in the entire thing at all from my point of view was the episode that was internationally banned when it generated epileptic fits in the viewers, and the saga was later satirised on The Simpsons and others.