Optical_Illusion
Banned
Hmm... Well, in the strictest sense a "Japanese produced animation " boom (or boomlet) already happened in the 1980s right? Samurai Pizza Cats, Robotech, Transformers, Mysterious Cities of Gold etc.
But when you say "anime boom", what I think of is what happened in the mid-late 90s, which is when movies like Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion etc get popular in the West and, its really about the idea that anime movies and series are meaningful entertainment to young adults. I would happen to think that's probably because people in the 80s kind of weren't ready for it yet, and not that much of it was being made. And when I say "ready for it", this is partly because people who grew up with the former "Japanese animation" in the '80s and videogames in the same decade in the '80s to '90s are aging into different stuff.
And then when they stopped making so many movies and series that were aimed at being mature entertainment for adults, because it wasn't profitable or whatever, anime kind of changes its form towards more commercially viable stuff. And that's kind of the end of what we perceive to be the "anime boom" - in the sense of "being at its most culturally relevant and influential" phase - even though they're perhaps actually selling increasing amount of actual copies and more people are Miyazaki films or Shinkai films or whatever.
So I'm not sure you could make it too much earlier really. As well as being dependent on a receptive public, the boom in the relatively mature anime in the '90s is kind of dependent on a confluence of Bubble Economy money and young, driven talent that's still about in Japan, interested in making some sci-fi and fantasy with some relatively mature themes, and frustrated from going down the live action route by Japan's minimal studio capacity for blockbusters. (I'm always amazed that Wings of Honneamise was basically made by a bunch of bunch of folks in their 20s).
But when you say "anime boom", what I think of is what happened in the mid-late 90s, which is when movies like Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion etc get popular in the West and, its really about the idea that anime movies and series are meaningful entertainment to young adults. I would happen to think that's probably because people in the 80s kind of weren't ready for it yet, and not that much of it was being made. And when I say "ready for it", this is partly because people who grew up with the former "Japanese animation" in the '80s and videogames in the same decade in the '80s to '90s are aging into different stuff.
And then when they stopped making so many movies and series that were aimed at being mature entertainment for adults, because it wasn't profitable or whatever, anime kind of changes its form towards more commercially viable stuff. And that's kind of the end of what we perceive to be the "anime boom" - in the sense of "being at its most culturally relevant and influential" phase - even though they're perhaps actually selling increasing amount of actual copies and more people are Miyazaki films or Shinkai films or whatever.
So I'm not sure you could make it too much earlier really. As well as being dependent on a receptive public, the boom in the relatively mature anime in the '90s is kind of dependent on a confluence of Bubble Economy money and young, driven talent that's still about in Japan, interested in making some sci-fi and fantasy with some relatively mature themes, and frustrated from going down the live action route by Japan's minimal studio capacity for blockbusters. (I'm always amazed that Wings of Honneamise was basically made by a bunch of bunch of folks in their 20s).
