In the current media landscape, the popularity of shows like One Piece and Urusei Yatsura reveal the mainstream’s love of anime.
As detailed by Japan Times, the isolating conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic revealed anime’s impressive ability to resonate with audiences. From 2020 to 2021, manga sales dramatically increased in North America by an astonishing 171% percent, while the anime industry earned 13.3% more in total revenue than in 2020, according to the Association of Japanese Animations. Even as theater turnout dwindled overall in 2022, anime films like Suzume and One Piece Film: Red made impressive box office earnings, with the latter film earning over $9.3 million in the United States during its first three days in theaters alone. Noting anime’s success, Disney is even teaming up with Kodansha to produce original anime content for its main streaming platform, Disney+.
Anime’s Successful Year
2022 saw major success for several anime series, including Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man, Lycoris Recoil and the recent reboot of Rumiko Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura. A-1 Pictures’ Lycoris Recoil sold over 23,000 copies in Blu-ray/DVD formats in Japan. While the popularity of reboots and continuations like Urusei Yatsura and Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War demonstrated a persisting love of older franchises, creators like Director Masaaki Yuasa and Makoto Shinkai also found success with fresh concepts.
Adapted from a novel by Hideo Furukawa, Yuasa’s historical musical film, Inu-Oh takes place in 14th Century Japan and revolves around the friendship between a dancer and a blind musician. Despite not being based on a popular manga or light novel, the film earned $97,062 during its first day in U.S. theaters and netted a Golden Globe nomination for Best (Animated) Motion Picture. Director Makoto Shinkai’s original film, Suzume, is currently making big waves in Japan. Released on Nov. 11, the film has earned 11.35 billion yen (roughly $86 million) at the Japanese box office as of Jan. 4. English-speaking audiences are also turning up to see anime in theaters, as Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and Jujutsu Kaisen 0 both earned over $30 million in North American box office earnings last year.
The Reasons for Anime’s U.S. Success
There are several attributed reasons for anime’s mainstream success. As Japan Times writer Roland Kelts notes, while a famous actor or actress may only attract audience attention in one country, an “eye-catching illustration” has the potential to “excite” audiences regardless of who is playing the character. Kelts also pointed out that anime has lower production costs than “U.S.-made” live-action and animated productions, which increases the chance of a work’s profitability. John McCallum, an anime market researcher at Interpret LLC, also stated that “anime can achieve profitability among smaller, niche audiences rather than needing to swing for the fences with broad-appeal, blockbuster-style projects.”
One Piece is available to stream in its entirety on Crunchyroll. Urusei Yatsura is available on HIDIVE.
Source: Japan Times
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