English-language Fan communities

The fan community in the English-speaking world began in the 1970s and steadily grew. According to Jpananophile Fred Patten, the very first fan club devoted to Japanese animation was the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, which began in Los Angeles in 1977.[8] Its growth characterized by waves that Gilles Poitras as well as Bruce Lewis and Cathy Sterling name as specific "generations", often instigated by a singular work.[9]

In the Philippines, GMA-7 began airing Voltes V in 1978. It was the first exposure of Filipinos to Japanese animation. Voltes V soon became very popular between children all around the Philippines which led to the sudden popularity of other anime series' related to the Super Robot genre in the Philippines. It was soon banned in 1979 by then president Ferdinand Marcos, 5 episodes before the end of the series, along with the other anime series' airing at the time, for its violence and warlike themes. This however, didn't hinder the Filipinos' growing liking to anime, leading to the large popularity of anime and manga throughout the Philippines.[10]

Poitras identifies the first generation as the "Astro Boy Generation". Despite being the first and most popular animated Japanese television series, Astro Boy did not create many hardcore fans, but it exposed viewers to the medium and increased their receptivity towards it later on. The "Early Fans" or "Old Timers" generation that consumed titles like Speed Racer, Eighth Man, Battle of the Planets as staples. These fans were much more aware that what they were consuming was Japanese and took the initiative to search for more. The "Yamato" or "Star Blazers" generation originating from the series Space Battleship Yamato that originally aired in 1979–80. Poitras states that this generation was so loyal because Star Blazer's strong narration required viewers to never miss an episode. The Poitras dubs the next generation the "Robotech Generation", after the 1985 television series Robotech, is the earliest major generation in the USA and is distinguished by fans clearly recognizing anime as a Japanese product with siginficant differences from American animation. Fans from this generation and the Yamato Generation were to make up the significant portion of organized fandom throughout the 1980s. The film Akira, which played in art theaters in December 1989, produced a cult following that Poitras names the "Akira Generation". Akira inspired some to move on to other works but stalled many becoming an isolated work in their eyes, overshadowing the creative context of anime and manga it represted.[9]

Then in 1990s, Poitras states that "something new happened in the U.S.", the "Sailor Moon Generation" was born. Previous generations consisted mostly of college age fans, however in 1995 Sailor Moon was adapated into English and caught the attention of people even as young as grade school in age, many of them female. In the span of a few months, the fan demographic changed dramatically and as their interests diversified, so did the titles adapted into English. Poitras, Lewis and Sterling describe current generation of fans as the "Otaku Generation", however not necessarily applying the word "otaku" to current fans. For this generation, the release of a title onto the television in the past was unusual enough that fans often remember their first anime experience as something special. Poitras remarked that as of the "Otaku Generation", the influx of fans into the fandom is better characterized by a continuous stream than as waves as it was in the past.[9]

In the United States, the fan community began as an offshoot of science fiction fan community, with fans bringing imported copies of Japanese manga to conventions.[11][sumber tidak boleh dipercayai?] Before anime began to be licensed in the U.S., fans who wanted to get a hold of anime would leak copies of anime movies and subtitle them, thus marking the start of fansubs. By 1994, anime had become more common in the U.S., and had begun being translated into English and shown on television, most commonly shōnen series such as Pokemon and Astro Boy.[9]

According to Mike Tatsugawa, the founder and CEO of the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, the first milestone for anime in the U.S. was in the 1980s with the advent of the Internet. With the Internet, fans were able to more easily communicate with each other and thus better able to exchange fan-subtitled tapes and higher quality versions of anime.[12] Some experts, such as Susan Napier, a Professor of Japanese Language and Literature, say that Akira marked the first milestone.[13] However, most experts agree that the next milestone was in 1992 when U.S. Renditions, a film importer, released the first English-subtitled anime videotape that year, entitled Gunbuster. According to Tatsugawa, the success of Gunbuster triggered a flurry of releases.[12]

Due to the localization process, many people who grew up watching anime did so not realizing that it originated in Japan. After the success of Power Rangers (which first aired in 1993), U.S. television companies began broadcasting Sailor Moon and Dragonball Z in 1995 and 1996 respectively. However, due to the relative failure of the latter two (both shows brought success when aired at a later time on Cartoon Network), anime did not seem like it would become mainstream.[4] However, the anime boom in the U.S. began with the airing of the anime series Pokémon[4] in syndication in 1998, which served as proof to U.S. broadcasters and distributors that Japanese media could succeed in the U.S. market. It was only after Pokémon and Power Rangers left the mainstream that U.S. audiences became aware of anime's Japanese origins.[4]