The only place to rent anime VHS in Toronto in the 90s was Suspect Video, which specialized in hardcore pornography. Anime and porno. That says it all about anime's cultural cache in those days.
Totally. That said, there was a lot of sex and nudity in direct-to-video anime of the era. The stigma remains today among a certain subset of people who really think "anime" is a synonym for "porn." This reminds me that I interviewed Toshio Maeda, the pioneer of "tentacle porn," at length for Pure Invention, but only a tiny fraction made it into the book. Maybe it's time to run the full conversation...
Very interesting! I was born in 91 and definitely one of those kids sucked into the pokemon franchise. But I have much earlier memories of coming across anime on television. I know I was watching Sailor Moon as early as age 4 or 5 on public TV in the US, that was before Toonami took it. I think I must have also come across children's anime in some other way, because I have a vague but distinct feeling of nostalgia for shows made in the style of azuki-chan.
There was an earlier broadcast run of Sailor Moon in 1995 on the Cartoon Network that didn't do very well ratings wise and was cancelled. A fan letter-writing campaign (remember those?) convinced Toonami to re-air it in 1997 and that's when it really took off. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-19-ca-16327-story.html
Interesting!! Thanks for this! I wonder if my mom was finding it on KCOP-TV channel 13, then. She was a young 25 year old at the time with a waitress job, and had a crush on Tuxedo Mask lol. Though we enjoyed that one together, I don't think she's watched a single anime series since. Sailor Moon really drew a broad audience. I appreciate the bit of history here, it's so cool to know how things were developing behind the scenes.
I discovered this through Animation Obsessive. It's cool that even if you're not in anime industry anymore, you get to do something closely related to it. While I'll admit the current model of distributing anime is more sustainable as provides viewers with more options at their fingertips, there's something that sounds more charming about having to go to a video rental shop or local show to find a curated selection of niche anime. Maybe I'm just saying that because of my bias towards anime movies and overall traditional animation of the time period, but the community seemed more tight-knit rather than dispersed because of limited availability of imports, meaning most fans would be into the same things.
Anyway, before this becomes a ramble, thank you for your insider account!
No question that "the hunt," as in the hurdles you had to overcome to find the content you wanted, shaped fandom in completely different ways than streaming does!
Great piece Matt! My gateway into anime was Fox's VHS release of Totoro, I think from 1994. I seem to remember the dub was slightly grating, but the film blew my socks right off...
What is really sad is not being able to get some of those old translations anymore. I grew up watching old Manga entertainment translations of 3x3 eyes, legend of the four kings and the like on late night Channel 4 (in the UK).
trying to get those now gets you some re dub that might be better but I don't know as I can't get past the fact that they just sound wrong.
Of course the one that burns the most for me is Patlabor Movie 1&2, they were amazing, although I'm not even sure if the original translation made to your shores.
As a translator myself (not of anime, but still) I thank you for thinking of the translators! It's true that many of the older ones must be lost. I did see the Patlabor movies via Manga Entertainment releases, but not sure who translated them.
Rival AnimEigo had a really solid translation team as well: Michael House and Shin Kurokawa.
The brilliance of Manga’s marketing was pushing to record stores and other shops, as well as shaking up the ‘normal’ price for a tape-iirc Manga was doing $19.99 MSRP while the nascent American industry standard was $29.99. Manga offered two ‘pre-pack’ assortments, a 4 pocket counter ‘dump’ and a 12 pocket standalone dump. You didn’t need a dedicated video section to sell Manga tapes in the early days.
Fun fact that has been forgotten, in England an entire generation of fans got to calling ANY anime release a ‘Manga’, so a trip to the shop would be “did you get any new Mangas this week?”
Matt I had no idea you had interned at Manga USA. I think it was good that eventually you weren’t hired on, as it would have been frustrating as all get out for you when the company got sold off. I think you ended up in a much better place. 👍
While Akira gets the tag of being the first of the “wuht wuo! These cartoons are NOT for kids!” titles, Manga surely leaned hard in the ‘boobs and blood’ market. I can’t tell you how many people asked me for something ‘just like’ Ninja Scroll. 🙄
The only place to rent anime VHS in Toronto in the 90s was Suspect Video, which specialized in hardcore pornography. Anime and porno. That says it all about anime's cultural cache in those days.
Totally. That said, there was a lot of sex and nudity in direct-to-video anime of the era. The stigma remains today among a certain subset of people who really think "anime" is a synonym for "porn." This reminds me that I interviewed Toshio Maeda, the pioneer of "tentacle porn," at length for Pure Invention, but only a tiny fraction made it into the book. Maybe it's time to run the full conversation...
Very interesting! I was born in 91 and definitely one of those kids sucked into the pokemon franchise. But I have much earlier memories of coming across anime on television. I know I was watching Sailor Moon as early as age 4 or 5 on public TV in the US, that was before Toonami took it. I think I must have also come across children's anime in some other way, because I have a vague but distinct feeling of nostalgia for shows made in the style of azuki-chan.
There was an earlier broadcast run of Sailor Moon in 1995 on the Cartoon Network that didn't do very well ratings wise and was cancelled. A fan letter-writing campaign (remember those?) convinced Toonami to re-air it in 1997 and that's when it really took off. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-19-ca-16327-story.html
Interesting!! Thanks for this! I wonder if my mom was finding it on KCOP-TV channel 13, then. She was a young 25 year old at the time with a waitress job, and had a crush on Tuxedo Mask lol. Though we enjoyed that one together, I don't think she's watched a single anime series since. Sailor Moon really drew a broad audience. I appreciate the bit of history here, it's so cool to know how things were developing behind the scenes.
I discovered this through Animation Obsessive. It's cool that even if you're not in anime industry anymore, you get to do something closely related to it. While I'll admit the current model of distributing anime is more sustainable as provides viewers with more options at their fingertips, there's something that sounds more charming about having to go to a video rental shop or local show to find a curated selection of niche anime. Maybe I'm just saying that because of my bias towards anime movies and overall traditional animation of the time period, but the community seemed more tight-knit rather than dispersed because of limited availability of imports, meaning most fans would be into the same things.
Anyway, before this becomes a ramble, thank you for your insider account!
No question that "the hunt," as in the hurdles you had to overcome to find the content you wanted, shaped fandom in completely different ways than streaming does!
Great piece Matt! My gateway into anime was Fox's VHS release of Totoro, I think from 1994. I seem to remember the dub was slightly grating, but the film blew my socks right off...
What is really sad is not being able to get some of those old translations anymore. I grew up watching old Manga entertainment translations of 3x3 eyes, legend of the four kings and the like on late night Channel 4 (in the UK).
trying to get those now gets you some re dub that might be better but I don't know as I can't get past the fact that they just sound wrong.
Of course the one that burns the most for me is Patlabor Movie 1&2, they were amazing, although I'm not even sure if the original translation made to your shores.
As a translator myself (not of anime, but still) I thank you for thinking of the translators! It's true that many of the older ones must be lost. I did see the Patlabor movies via Manga Entertainment releases, but not sure who translated them.
Rival AnimEigo had a really solid translation team as well: Michael House and Shin Kurokawa.
Imagine if One Piece was around in the VHS era, most japanese apartments wouldn't be large enough for the whole series :-)
It was even worse for Laserdisc collectors! Those sets were huge.
The brilliance of Manga’s marketing was pushing to record stores and other shops, as well as shaking up the ‘normal’ price for a tape-iirc Manga was doing $19.99 MSRP while the nascent American industry standard was $29.99. Manga offered two ‘pre-pack’ assortments, a 4 pocket counter ‘dump’ and a 12 pocket standalone dump. You didn’t need a dedicated video section to sell Manga tapes in the early days.
Fun fact that has been forgotten, in England an entire generation of fans got to calling ANY anime release a ‘Manga’, so a trip to the shop would be “did you get any new Mangas this week?”
Matt I had no idea you had interned at Manga USA. I think it was good that eventually you weren’t hired on, as it would have been frustrating as all get out for you when the company got sold off. I think you ended up in a much better place. 👍
While Akira gets the tag of being the first of the “wuht wuo! These cartoons are NOT for kids!” titles, Manga surely leaned hard in the ‘boobs and blood’ market. I can’t tell you how many people asked me for something ‘just like’ Ninja Scroll. 🙄