Anime and Local/Global Identity

Abstract

To Westerners it may seem surprising that an artistic form that has been known to them largely as children’s entertainment could encompass so many varieties. To understand the reasons behind this variety, we need to understand something of the history and role of anime in Japanese society. First of all, it is important to appreciate just how significant a force anime is in contemporary Japanese media. In 1988 roughly 40 percent of Japanese studio releases were animated. By 1999, as the previously mentioned article in Time notes, at least half of all releases from Japanese studios were animated.¹ Animation on television is a continuous presence, beginning with children’s shows in the morning, continuing through family viewing hours in the evening, and taking on a significant presence in the late-night market (after 11:00 p.m.), where edgy animated shows aimed at late teens and twenty-somethings are major offerings. From the early 1980s anime also became an important player in the video market, where OVAs constitute a high proportion of video sales and rentals.²