When Anime Almost Took Over The WORLD!!!!!!

Take a look back at your childhood what do you remember, maybe playgrounds, summer baseball leagues, jumping on a trampoline, playing catch with your dog Skippy until he broke loose from his leash and ran away (oh Skippy please come back). Those are all wrong, our childhood was full of anime, whether you’d like to believe it or not. (Well maybe)

Remember the movie Matrix, it found critical acclaim around the world, and is deemed by many as one of the most influential scifi movies of our generation. Fun fact, the Wachowski brothers who directed the Matrix, note that the Matrix is highly influenced by the Anime Ghost in a Shell.

Whaaaat!?!?!

Yea, true story mate, back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s anime was hot, hotter than Jay Z (not really but go with me). Anime like Yugioh, Pokemon and Beyblade were taking over our youth. Not that these anime had complex storylines or great character development. Their main selling point was catchy phrases, cool character designs and merchandise (toys, trading cards etc) . Kids loved them and school playgrounds became battle arenas for children wanting to battle their friends for glory. I can attest to this, every kid around me had Pokemon, or Yugioh cards. Bathroom breaks were used to play Beyblade, which resulted in us getting in trouble and going back to class with full bladders.

Like every trend, slowly but surely, it died down, but it never completely vanished. Even today Pokemon and Yugioh cards are still extremely popular, not as much as their glory days, but still going strong.

Picture found: http://i.imgur.com/oCdO57z.jpg

The second wave to hit in 2004 was Naruto, Naruto hit western television waves, it gained instant success and quickly took over Cartoon Networks entire Saturday night prime time slots. It became a gate way to other anime, many other individuals say Naruto was the anime to get them into anime. Naruto was an anime that translated well with western audience, the story was thrilling and character design was something that was relatable (Naruto's blue eyes and blond hair). Its success died down after the infamous 80 episode filler run. If you read my early post Things I Hate about anime you will know what I am talking about.

Picture found at: http://www.funnyjunk.com/channel/

feels/To+beyblade+fan+s/xRkgGkE

Now with services like Hulu, Netflix and Crunchyroll anime is becoming more accessible to western audiences. The last huge wave was back in 2013 with Attack on Titan. It gained global critical success faster than any other anime on this post. Marvel even created a one-shot comic which was quite disappointing, but a western adapted movie is in the works for Attack on Titan, how bout that.