Remember when anime was a relatively niche/nerd thing?

[Uchiha God]

That Coli breh that made Black Sands could have come-up real big (if he hasn't already) in the coming years

It has been mainstream/pop-culture for at least a decade now, but Japan now considers it one of its economic growth pillars and core cultural exports. Anime/manga is one of the few sectors that kept year-on-year growth even post-covid, and the global market value of the industry is expected to +4x by 2037.

With Sony having somewhat of a first/early positioning advantage by acquiring some of the biggest anime platforms like Funimation and Crunchyroll (and accompanying original content and agreements) - other corporations like Netflix, Amazon et al - are actively in the market to keep up pace with demand.

It is so popular Hollywood stars like Michael B. Jordan speak of their aspirations of adapting their favorite series to live-action. Aldis Hodge just delved into some of his favorites:



Yahoo Finance:
Anime Industry Enters Hypergrowth Phase

The global anime market was valued at USD 30.71 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 129.72 billion by 2037, growing at a CAGR of 12.72% (2026-2037). In 2026, the market size is expected to be USD 34.76 billion. [SOURCE]

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TJT:
Japan to boost aid for video games and anime as new pillar of growth. The government will step up support for the overseas expansion of content industries such as video games and anime, while also investing more in related human resources development.

Overseas sales of Japanese content reached around ¥5.8 trillion ($37.6 billion) in 2023, surpassing Japan's semiconductor exports. In 2025, global box-office revenue for the anime movie "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Infinity Castle — Part 1: Akaza Returns" topped ¥100 billion, marking the first time a Japanese movie has achieved this milestone.

Positioning the content industry as a new pillar of economic growth, the government has set a target of boosting annual overseas sales to ¥20 trillion by 2033. [SOURCE]

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Deadline:
Prime Video Makes Play To Become “Preferred Destination For Anime Globally

Prime Video has set out its stall to become “the preferred destination for anime content globally.” Prime Video’s Vice President, Gaurav Gandhi, highlighted a sample of anime shows from out of Japan coming this year on the Amazon streamer.
As he did so, he called anime “a category truly experiencing explosive growth,” and added: “Given that we are the home for the best anime in Japan, we want to become the preferred destination for anime content globally too.” [SOURCE]

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[O³ (O cubed)]

Jim Lee is the head of DC?

 

[acri1]

It makes sense. DBZ (and to some extent Pokemon) are what caused anime to blow up in the US. Those of us that grew up in the 90s watching those are 30+ now and have access to watch basically any anime, so it's no surprise.

IMO what's "missing" from western comics is serialized stories. Usually with traditional superhero comics most of the stories are self-contained. They don't have any long term story plan and switch authors all the time, and retcon/reset shyt all the time. Compare that to something like One Piece where the same author has been writing it for almost 30 years with a certain ending in mind - that makes people stick with it.

 

[King_Kamala61]

It makes sense. DBZ (and to some extent Pokemon) are what caused anime to blow up in the US. Those of us that grew up in the 90s watching those are 30+ now and have access to watch basically any anime, so it's no surprise.

IMO what's "missing" from western comics is serialized stories. Usually with traditional superhero comics most of the stories are self-contained. They don't have any long term story plan and switch authors all the time, and retcon/reset shyt all the time. Compare that to something like One Piece where the same author has been writing it for almost 30 years with a certain ending in mind - that makes people stick with it.

Yep. We need stories of supes that are longed played out and that the writers stay on or a group of writers are all on board to produce one voice.

But that's what makes comics, comics and manga tho. They each have their own lane.

 

[P90]

It’s great, wider theatre releases now and bigger audiences means bigger budgets means better art and animation. All really fun.

 

[Uchiha God]

It makes sense. DBZ (and to some extent Pokemon) are what caused anime to blow up in the US. Those of us that grew up in the 90s watching those are 30+ now and have access to watch basically any anime, so it's no surprise.

IMO what's "missing" from western comics is serialized stories. Usually with traditional superhero comics most of the stories are self-contained. They don't have any long term story plan and switch authors all the time, and retcon/reset shyt all the time. Compare that to something like One Piece where the same author has been writing it for almost 30 years with a certain ending in mind - that makes people stick with it.

Facts. Comics - for a lot of younger audiences - suffer from “too many chefs in the kitchen” syndrome. Manga stories, generally speaking, tend to have clear entry and end points. Comics change authors, direction, have multiple versions of the same character running concurrently, etc - all that makes for adoption to be cumbersome and confusing for people that might be interested.

Another thing is that traditionally shonen manga usually still follows classic story telling model of a hero doing hero stuff/overcoming obstacles - whereas a lot of comic writers like doing “deconstruction jobs” and putting the protagonist through hell - that might be cool every so often, but people gravitate to these things for escapism so after a while it can get jarring

 

[Dr. Acula]

Yeah pretty much every young person watching anime now. It’s as much in their rotation as stranger things and marvel movies.

When I was a kid it was a niche weirdo thing to be into. Personally got into it after my uncle showed it to me when I was like 7. He let me check out his copy of Ninja Scroll and Akira ( I was 7 I don’t know what he was thinking ) and after that I was hooked.

But now most of the teens and adults are children of parents like me who probably got them into it and it’ has spread.

 

[Jaguar93]

 

[Supa]

I used to hit up the big comic stores in Manhattan and they'd have one box of manga. It was so under the radar there were no translations. I copped for the artwork. There were a few shows like Robotech that came on TV but it was still niche. When the Internet got bigger fans would translate and upload the pages. Once Toonami hit that put everyone on.

American cartoons dieing left a void that anime filled. Kids don't even have Saturday morning cartoons.

Manga doesn't run into the same problem as American comics. They have a beginning and end. They drop weekly instead of monthly. They don't change writers and retcon everything.

They have so many genres it's easy to find something to like. My nephew is into sports so I got him a Crunchyroll subscription and had him watching basketball and soccer anime. Then he watched every episode One Piece

 

[Uchiha God]

I used to hit up the big comic stores in Manhattan and they'd one box of manga. It was so under the radar there were no translations. I copped for the artwork. There were a few shows like Robotech that came on TV but it was still niche. When the Internet got bigger fans would translate and upload the pages. Once Toonami hit that put everyone on.

American cartoons dieing left a void that anime filled. Kids don't even have Saturday morning cartoons.

Manga doesn't run into the same problem as American comics. They have a beginning and end. They drop weekly instead of monthly. They don't change writers and retcon everything.

They have so many genres it's easy to find something to like. My nephew is into sports so I got him a Crunchyroll subscription and had him watching basketball and soccer anime. Then he watched every episode One Piece

I remember reading fan "scanlations" of a lot of mangas because official/licensed releases for them didn't exist. nikkas was in the trenches reading the same chapter multiple times from different fan "scanlations" groups because there would be slight differences in the translations that could add an entirely different context to a scene/chapter Ironically, the internet felt "better" then. People were just sharing stuff. Putting in hard work to get hold of the chapters, scanning it, translating and sharing stuff just for the love - no thoughts to monetization or anything. There were also so many pirate anime websites with big libraries that you could just go to and watch shyt.

Funny that you mention watching sports anime with your nephew. My nephew got into soccer because of Blue Lock

 

[ba'al]

Yeah but i think even back in the early 2000s cats would try to say anime was some nerd stuff but everyone watched Dragonball and all the other animes that would come on TV back in the day. Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Big O, etc.

I remember pokemon having the gospel intro.

I don't really care for it too much these days but anime is definitely mainstream and not niche.

 

[boogers]

i remember when the old white lady librarian at our middle school harangued us for using all the ink to print out our "japanimation" lol

does anyone still use that word? i feel like i havent heard 'japanimation' in years

 

[CopiousX]

Facts. Comics - for a lot of younger audiences - suffer from “too many chefs in the kitchen” syndrome. Manga stories, generally speaking, tend to have clear entry and end points. Comics change authors, direction, have multiple versions of the same character running concurrently, etc - all that makes for adoption to be cumbersome and confusing for people that might be interested.

Another thing is that traditionally shonen manga usually still follows classic story telling model of a hero doing hero stuff/overcoming obstacles - whereas a lot of comic writers like doing “deconstruction jobs” and putting the protagonist through hell - that might be cool every so often, but people gravitate to these things for escapism so after a while it can get jarring

May I also add that instead of taking risks with new dynamic characters or situations, both DC and marvel have over relied on re-writing the same characters? They're missing an opportunity to iteratively get better. And they refuse to let their Pantheon die.


If you're serious then you have to actually make a new character that people want and put him in a new situation . What I like about Japanese media is that it's very iterative. They will make the next series have all the good parts of the current series, make it have none of the bad parts of the current series, and they will add a little bit of spice to make it unique.



This is radically different than having a new Deadpool or having a new Batman or having new Superboy. It's also very different than creating a new character and then stapling him on to Spider-Man story. This iterative process of destruction is how you have a show based on the simple concept "fantasy isekai protagonist in a jumpsuit" and transition it from no game no life, to konosuba , to re:zero from the same general concept but tweaked slightly so that each successive series is better than the last one. Even now when we have the concept of demons being used in jujutsu Kaisen its just a tweaked version of what they had in Tokyo ghoul. In fact I would argue that chainsaw man was an even more refined version of JuJutsu Kaisen. This iteration allows them to get better with each new series, without being tied to the baggage of an old character.


If the East had ran manga the same way that the West runs comics, then we would have never had demon Slayer or Tanjiro because Japan would still be stuck on Inayusha. I know this is controversial but DC would get radically better if they killed off the legacy characters entirely. It would force them to write better media instead of leaning on a crutch. For example, DC is so hell-bent on keeping Superman alive that they will never invent an "invincible".

 

[Jaguar93]

My take on the Manga vs Comics conversation

• Manga is cheaper.
• Has faithful, good-quality animated adaptations for non-readers in the form of anime.
• Has a low entry point for newcomers getting into a series.
• Has one writer and a beginning/end.
• Has better drawn and animated action/fight scenes than their western counterpart.
• A consistent release schedule.
• Manga/Anime is taken more seriously in the East than comics/cartoons in the West.
• More genres outside of the action genre. Gets attention and a chance at an animated adaptation.

 

[010101]

more big budget animation feature films*