Why Brands and Entertainment Should NOT Ignore Anime

Peter Salinas
Nov 4 · 6 min read
Photo by Bruce Tang on Unsplash

In case you didn’t already notice it, Geek Culture dominates the internet. You could have been exposed to it through Video Games, Cosplay, Manga, or Anime in itself. Certainly, it could all be seen as “Weird” or “Nerdy”, but its an undeniable thing that today, “Pop Culture Nerds” do, and will continue to dominate the world in one way or another.

Today, Anime comes in many flavors, from the playful and adorable, to the unspeakably taboo. But it's undeniable that it all is a painfully intuitive understanding of human nature that will continue to connect with the masses that we overlook. Factually, that same idea of forgetting the importance of being human is what had a major hand in sparking the growth of Anime today.

Anime as a Culture

You cannot run across many teens today who do not consume Anime in some form. 20 years ago in countries outside of Japan, it was a more “Underground” counterculture which was on an inevitable path to dominate the market. Today its a normal thing in life with even the most “normal” kids today. The pains and opportunities between storytellers in Japan and a Growing passionate fanaticism across the globe would create a culture that was bred of the most painfully pure topics of society itself.

As influential as Tolkien was with his own works today with conventional Nerd Fandom of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit fame and its impact on globally recognizable brands like Dungeons & Dragons, Magic the Gathering and the decade running World of Warcraft, Anime today has spawned a SLEW of amazing shows, subcultures, brands, music, games, shows, and still growing social movements today. You’ll likely run across a few new movies that are coming to the market soon as reboots of what were once considered “Cult Classics”.

And while the most “Traditional” nerds may have scoffed at Anime a decade ago, now even their own creations are being heavily influenced by the Story Telling, Art, World Building, and Cultural practices of Anime. It's an impossible thing to overlook today looking at the bright colors, playful characters, and very unabashedly human interpretations of the most extreme things people aspire to be.

Understanding Anime is Understanding Entertainment

If you have a snapshot perspective of Anime from playful films like Totoro, of the Miyazaki fame, which also greatly inspired Pixar's Story Telling, or the more recently known Naruto or Even Pokemon, you’ll instantly understand the known opportunities. However, what things are often overlooked are the LITERAL thousands of AMAZING stories that come from Anime that define mastery of storytelling and screaming connection to society in ways that are so obvious they are too easily overlooked.

Much of this is a result of the nature of Japanese culture from its traditions and discipline. The friction and drive to perfection led to an inevitable explosion of a counter-culture refusing to grow up, which of course led to the capitalization of it into business and much of that industry being very… business. However even with this relapse to discipline and structure its spawned a gorgeous convergence of narrative that is undeniable.

While many of those who create these stories may not be aware of, they have intuitively dissected facets of human emotions only a few fields in Academia and Business have today. Even without any one of them being aware of it, it crept in to influence nearly everything they create today. It’s done this because the people they create for and the new minds they hire to lead new things have been influenced by that culture as well.

The very fanaticism that surrounds Anime and the things it directly take influence from it come from something of a “phenomenon” called “Otaku Culture”. In short, it was a point in Japanese Culture where adults stopped caring about being what Japan wanted them to be and exploded into a culture of adults exploring child-like creativity again. As expected some of those things resulted in topics that were a bit… odd for the times. But all of that adoption led to a new way of creating worlds that will impact even our grandchildren in the farthest reaches of the globe.

Genuine Potential

Today many of the same practices for the development of Anime still exist, which are heartbreaking for those passionate minds who devote thankless hours to feed the emotional needs of the world. This same culture is also one of the facets of genuine passion and desire which lead to such amazing creation, however I feel strongly now is a great time to break those chains. While its only something I have only just begun to really explore the depths of as a “Business”, it's clear it's ripe with opportunities to empower in honest and powerful ways.

In Japan, there are layers upon layers of control over funding these creators, publishing these creators, distributing these works, and even getting recognition for their creations. No matter how difficult the work gets, or how much it impacts the emotional health of those who create, there is so much pride in their work that it will continue to evolve under significant pains. Today even its entry into the states is a sort of monopoly among a few distributors.

Even in countries outside of Japan, capitalization to localize and redistributed great work has resulted in new platforms emerging such as Crunchy Roll or Funimation with offer localization services and some licensing rights on merchandise. Not surprisingly a SIGNIFICANT majority of fans will still try and find ways of going right to the source for the consumption of all things. You’ll get more hardcore fans who would rather pirate than pay for these kinds of things. And admittedly, while the businesses tend to try and fight it, the few creators of amazing stories I have met don’t seem to mind it at all.

Truly Social

Today you will often hear statements made from Story Tellers, Artists, Evangelists, Gurus, Spiritual Leaders, or Marketers, Genuine Content Sells. I am conflicted even denoting this because in business we have this REALLY bad habit of just sucking the life out of opportunities, but at this point, something has to give. If nothing else could be said about Anime, is that there is nothing I have been exposed to that is more genuine than what exists. I also feel this says a lot about how afraid some adults are afraid to adopt it or see beyond the idea of it being just a “Cartoon”.

While platforms for Anime are often… well… hard to use or behind a paywall, fans of these brilliant worlds and characters are more social than we were back in the creepy basement nerd counter culture decades ago. This love is shared, discussed, debated, and turned into brilliant cosplay that you can see taking over every social platform that lets Videos or Images be shared. And this genuine connection and these genuine stories result in so much more than a “show”, they result in BRILLIANT global brands and IPs that have some of the most brilliant writers I have been exposed to.

If anyone is out there that wants to fundamentally understand what is worth sharing or talking about, you should be paying attention to Anime. The shows will not only directly interpret who society was, or is today, but who society inevitably will be. And it's not just about making nerd stuff, it's about how those things will translate to fashion and consumer culture as a whole. It's not only an unstoppable thing, but it's also an inevitable thing.

You Should be a Nerd Too

If you’re someone in branding, merchandise, marketing, content development, or just a curious passerby who is also exploring a pending midlife crisis (oh hi), I strongly suggest you take a chance to sit down and try and give Anime a chance to appreciate. It has changed people's lives, almost always for the better. The stories that are told and characters they create don’t care about our perception of Gender, Sexuality, or Social Class. Even the villains are given a chance to be human, and it's painfully obvious how the creators of those shows are interpreting a powerful understanding of people.

Peter Salinas

Written by

Hoodlum, turned Engineer, turned Dad, turned Brain Scientist, turned Game Dev, turned Entreprenerd, apparently turned Blogger.

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