Why Anime is booming?

Due to the content, depiction, realistic approach and storyline, anime is winning over cartoons.

Japanese animated shows or more commonly known as ‘Anime’, started in the 1960s with the release of the first anime movie; Three Tales, and the first anime television series Instant History (1961–64). However, the real spike in popularity came in the 1980s when anime became mainstream in Japan. Legendary series such as Dragonball, Real robot, cyberpunk and later on Naruto started to pop up in the spotlight, this increase in fame not only brought a revolution in the entertainment industry in Japan but also became a global phenomenon catering to all varieties of audiences including those of different age groups.

Japanese Anime doesn’t follow in the footsteps of its cartoonish counterpart produced in the U.S, UK, Arab world and many others, following a simple genre for most of its shows that are on a trend at that particular time, rather risks were taken to produce a variety of content that would be termed into new and attractive categories of genre, thus it’s most popular categories that have been ahead of its time and have aged well. These anime genres include Romcom, action and adventure, drama, tragedy, historical and its opposite futuristic and mecha, supernatural and Isekai. Anime shows are an amalgamation of art and entertainment with a lot of emotional plots, character development, and drama, great and well-planned storylines. Consisting of overall form of great character designs, animation (usually evident in the popular and powerful anime), characters with large eyes and unique art styles to appeal to the audience, there is never a single moment when you would feel bored or tired of it.

Due to plethora of reasons the western animation is deficient in comparison to anime: American animation relies on imaginative characters to appeal to children — their target audience — which excludes the interest of other age groups including older teens and younger adults. There is a hint of nostalgia present in both types of entertainment productions, however, anime does it a bit more smoothly and better overall, thus rising steadily in terms of popularity while cartoons are not in that sense.

Firstly, under the many reasons for why anime is better comes the story content. An anime will never have a repetition of the same genre or storyline, it keeps adapting and changing with many filler episodes to fill in the missing gaps and please the fans. For instance, Crunchy roll has a ton of genre options to choose from with several suggestions waiting on the homepage. Just the intriguing description of the anime draws in many viewers. Genre and story content are of great significance, good storylines and multiple unique genre combinations are what draw the viewers and pique their interests the most thus nowadays you will find many new types of anime being adapted e.g. My Hero Academia with it huge genre combination of action, comedy, school, super power and shounen, which is a role model for how modern-day superhero animated shows should be like, especially the western ones since the quality of their stories and animation has greatly reduced over the period of time as compared to the golden era of cartoons with the likes of Justice League, Ironman, Spiderman, Space Ghost, Voltron, battle of planets (BOP) and Birdman, etc. Other than that there are also several animes based on the realism and issues of human lives, their virtues, values, and beliefs be it inspiration, self-satisfaction, confidence, science, and many others, making them worth exploring and watching.

Secondly, its influential and relatable characters who leave a lasting effect on its audience is something not found in cartoons. The characters on-screen portray such unique yet understandable personalities with a wide range of character designs that seem indistinguishable from its anime brethren adding a new level of realism, that cartoons just can’t recreate thus they lack greatly in this department even the ones like Batman and Spiderman. Even the background of villains is thoroughly explained so that the audience can understand its purpose and hatred against the protagonist, for example. And the development of side characters is also shown alongside the protagonist throughout the plot progression so that the audience can root for them along with the main character.

Anime makes it possible for the audience to connect with the relatable characters because unlike the staff of other entertainment industries, the writing and illustrating departments put their heart and soul in their work and take their feelings into account while designing the characters thus making them match the moods of the viewer e.g happy, sad, comedic, terrified or scary. Anime is highly relatable as it doesn’t exclude the phenomenon that occurs in real life such as democracy, poverty, social inequality, and love, making them a unique masterpiece clearly unlike cartoons. The art style of the anime series also says a lot about the type of plot and character background the series may include and it ranges from dark and gruesome to heroic and comedic.

The fight scenes of anime are also choreographed in detail. The emotional buildup which leads to the fight as well as the clear view that is given to the audience of what the victory or defeat for each participant will mean, what changes will it lead to changing the narrative of the series making us understand the significance and importance of the fight itself and moreover, it’s outcome. Anime also shows the psychological aspect of the fights meaning the audience gets to experience firsthand how the fight affects the characters and how their mind will work during these situations, their schemes, and plans made in the spur of the moment, and how it will play out. The quality of animation is another important factor in a fight scene as different fight scenes would require the appropriate animations style for it to work out. That is exactly why an anime has such good fight scenes that leave the audience at the edge of their seats and why cartoons can’t catch up easily to their level of creativity.

A distinct feature is also its great collection of music tracks since cartoon series never really focus on the music other than its opening song. The background and emotional scenes definitely require a great and matching music track depending on the mood of the scene, for example, you will never witness an action theme being played on a significant character’s death or marriage or a sad song being played while an intense fight is going on, the music is an important aspect of any entertainment production thus it has to be unique and understandable depending on the scene. That is exactly what anime is doing; following the ways of its Japanese culture and by the responses of its audience, it’s definitely doing it right.

Anime has become an important factor of today’s global culture and it’s not because it was great from the start, a lot of hard work and excessive planning is behind its success and fame. Many Japanese entertainment companies suffered yet showed determination and prospered by the methods of trial and error, thus if cartoons also want to walk at the same pace or even move ahead of the anime of today the western industry will have to work harder and instead of trying to copy the Japanese productions they will need to throw in something unique of their own that only the western culture can come up with.