Why is anime so popular?

[damn_ese]

as someone that has never gotten into anime, im interested in knowing why dragon ball z, naruto etc are so popular?

to be clear im not asking in a negative/hatin way, im genuinely curious

and yes, i've seen a bit of these shows , but i guess not enough to figure it out

 

[UncleTomFord15]

Even if your not into anime most American males under 30 watched DBZ or Naruto growing up. It was always on Cartoon Network, so it grew on young men.

Interest in other animes spiked due to the popularity of these shows.

 

[Neuromancer]

Escapism

 

[010101]

all the colors & all that look wild.beautiful when you're high*

 

[Dont@Me]

Why are you not?

 

[Iceson Beckford]

Don’t watch it and never will but I’m often assumed to watch it

Id assume because It’s memorable programming often accompanied by a moral message and lesson

 

[Doomsday]

My sole reason for watching it was that it was funny. More consistently funny than american television. I rarely paid attention to the serious stuff.

I barely watch anime nowadays though.

 

[New Username]

Its entertainment

 

[twan83]

It's a way of life

 

[8WON6]

The action anime is cool here and there and is basically an action-cartoon, but i'll never understand why some of that teeny-bopper anime is popular. DBZ was just good and it's basically known outside of anime, if that makes sense. It's like mainstream. But yeah I get it, when you see large groups of anime fans its full cringe.

edit: DBZ and ninja scroll back in the day are about the fullest extent of my anime knowledge. Only shyt I've seen recently was that Batman Ninja shyt that just came out.

 

[Uitomy]

Because there isn’t much animation besides 80’s-90’s American action cartoons that compare to it
Think about it like this
As far as animation goes anime consistently has the best antomically human looking characters while also incorporating typical cartoon tropes and animation (think chibis for example) also its the fact a lot of cartoons just really aren’t that serious, most western cartoons are just comedy shows, anime deals with every genre cause in Japan it’s basic television.

 

[KingDanz]

Toriyama the God

 

[Kingshango]

The nonsensical action scenes that you can't get anywhere else.

Case in point.

 

[Gold]

The same reason anything becomes popular, it occupied a space that nothing else did.

What american cartoon was comparable to DBZ when it first aired?

There was literally nothing like it

 

[Hungerpain]

I used to at nikkas that watch mad Anime(besides DBZ) but now i realize that its bascically just a new age version of Kung Fu flicks.
Mad of of my uncles was kung Fu flick junkies.
Some nikkas just fall in love wit that type of shyt i guess word to the WU.