Star Wars: Visions (Star Wars has become anime)

[Mayhem]

Speak for yourself, I was into anime in the early 1980s (albeit I didn't realise stuff such as Battle of the Planets was anime at the time) and then Akira came along in 1989 and that's when it really exploded in the UK.

[CyberCubed]

Anime hatred was huge among western fans in the 90's, especially people who were already over 20 by the time it hit big. I was there, there was the whole cartoons vs. anime war in the early 2000's where people who grew up with Cartoon Network, KidsWB or Nickleodeon from the 90's didn't want to watch anime. Or people thought anime was just, "Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z" or porn.

[sdp]

An outlier doesn't mean it isn't true in general, there was nothing more nerdy and outcast thing you could do than like anime in the states in the 90s. Europe and LatinAmerica had plenty of anime exports for decades so it was synonymous with cartoons there. Now that geek culture is mainstream people are having revisionist history of how things used to be, there's a reason there's a movie called revenge of the nerds.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Speak for yourself, I was into anime in the early 1980s (albeit I didn't realise stuff such as Battle of the Planets was anime at the time) and then Akira came along in 1989 and that's when it really exploded in the UK.

I saw anime like "Voltron" as a kid, but didn't understand it. It wasn't until I got roped into watching "Fist of the North Star" in High School that I developed an appreciation for it.

I still love that movie too.....

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by Mayhem

Speak for yourself, I was into anime in the early 1980s (albeit I didn't realise stuff such as Battle of the Planets was anime at the time) and then Akira came along in 1989 and that's when it really exploded in the UK.

So, anime hit mainstream in the UK before the USA?

[sdp]

I'm not sure about the UK but Spain and France were flooded with anime in the 80s and 90s.

[Andrew NDB]

I grew into anime probably because of playing a lot of Final Fantasy games and such. I grew out of it because it all kind of started to seem a little "samish" at a certain point to me. A lot of the same tropes and whiny, feminine men and such.