Introduction
Hi my name is evan and today im am going to be exploring the anime fandom and some of the things that come with being part of it. Firstly I will begin by explaining what anime is. Anime is a Japanese word for animation but what separates anime from any other animation is the fact that anime focuses more on the design of the setting, characters and their clothes whereas animation focuses more on how realistic the motion and movements of the characters and objects are. Anime is also mainly made in japan whereas other animations are made all over the world.
It is not confirmed when anime was first created due to the fact that most of the footage has broken as film was made on a tape but the first anime that we know of today originated in 1917 it was made for propaganda and was commissioned by the Japanese navy. Since then anime has slowly evolved from being not only an animated story but a community and world for people to be a part of.
Before talking about the fandom let’s talking about some of the icons and biggest shows in the anime world one of the biggest directors known is named Hayao Miyazaki who is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist who made iconic animes such as howl’s moving castle and spirited away. Also some iconic anime series go by the names of Fullmetal Alchemist, naruto and dragon ball z.
One of the first shows that ever created a fandom inside the world of anime was named astro boy and was created in 1952 and ran on, up until 1968 and it is so iconic that a reincarnation was made of it recently.
Soon after in the 1970s the first kind of official merchandise came through for an anime comic book named shogun warriors the merchandise was a figure toy but known as rare collectables now. As anime got bigger more communities began to form and rise and more countries started to be interested in anime so the first ever known anime convention hosted in the US was created and it was called Yamatocon and ran in 1983 around this time in 1980 the first games based on anime was created for arcades this was big for anime in general as it attracted more fans.
A decade later in 1990 anime began to lose a bit of popularity as both usa and japan made a change to their economics causing prices to rise for anime merchandise and tapes, because of this people became less passionate of anime but this didn’t last long as anime started to rocket in popularity in 1995 due to the fact that more modern anime series were being created and the internet was introduced which gave people and anime franchises a platform to advertise anime series and films. Due to this more anime conventions and role plays etc began to rise and anime had more of a fandom than it ever did and had one of the biggest fandom communities in the world.
It was only uphill from here as in the 2000s anime became more and more popular as more anime franchises began to create more merchandise and products to sell causing anime cosplay to be better than it had ever been.
Then came the internet in the 2010s which allowed anime to rocket in popularity through anime creators on youtube etc and in 2018 tik tok was introduced to the anime community allowing anime fans to showcase their cosplay without having to go to a convention it also introduced anime to people who were foreingn to it. to this day anime is one of the biggest fandom communities in the world and continues to grow and expand.
evans media 