As I was working on the anime guide article, I was surprised to see how sharp anime’s rise was. I’d always heard about anime, and assumed it was very popular since the 1990s, but the information told me that actually, it was in the 2019-2021 period that anime rose to become the titan it is today.
Which begs the question.
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What is so special about this time period that allowed Anime to rise? Exactly why is anime so popular now? And does this have some sort of lesson that writers can learn?
Anime is popular because it has a wide variety of storylines, a diverse roster of characters, exotic worlds, and finally, it has an exploratory element to it due to it’s Japanese origins.
That is a simple explanation for it, but there are more detailed points that can be given. In this article, we will be answering everything with these questions:
Why Anime Is So Popular
Anime is popular because it is attractive, possessing compelling characters, diverse storylines, breath taking worlds, and also being so easily accessible.
To spread out into a more complex explanation, the thing that I’ve noticed is that there are external reasons, and internal reasons why this genre is so popular. External reasons are the reasons that mainly focus on the consumption of this genre.
The internal reasons are the reasons that are focused in the content of the formal. Perhaps it will work better if I were to give a couple of illustrations of what I mean.
- External reasons: These are the the consumptive reasons of the anime. An example of external reasons would be watching this genre on your phone, and laptop, rather than having to watch it on the TV. Another example of external reasons could be location of consumption. You do not have to go all the way to the a different house to watch this genre, as you would have to do with movies in the olden days of cinema. Finally, the most external reason of all; time. Anime has arrived at the right time of technological advancement. Due to the internal reasons of anime, it is best equipped to thrive in the current technological era. What does that mean? Let’s move on so you can see.
- Internal reasons: The internal reasons refer to the content within this genre. These include things like story, so it would be referencing plot lines, characters, themes, and stuff like humor. Or maybe even stuff like fan-service. These things- fan-service, humor, and characters- arrived at the perfect time in technological development. With the arrival of smartphones that possess visual centric apps- things like Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and even things like Twitter- anime is easy to share, and be familiarized with. Everyone by this point has at least seen an anime profile picture, even if they do not recognize anime. Other type of content within anime include things like art style.
8 Reasons Anime Popularity is Exploding
1. Variety of storylines
In the book ‘The Art of Storytelling’ (which you should really check out, because it is amazing), they talk about the ‘Designing Principle’.
In essence, the designing principle is the unique way in which you decide to tell your story. For instance, let’s say you wish to tell a story about a spy, an assassin, and a mind reader. You could tell this story in any ways, and one of those ways is by telling the story as if it is a family-drama, where the 3 must learn to love each other, and live as a family for some reasons.
This is the story’s designing principle.
There are many stories out there in the world, and it is very hard (some would, wrongly, argue impossible) to find a story that no one has ever been able to come up with. You will always find the same myths, monsters, and plot beats in storytelling.
Anime has mastered the idea of the designing principle. They tell the same stories we have seen, accept in ways we’d never seen before.
This lends to their diverse storylines, and thus, the diversity of anime plotting.
2. Attractive Character Designs
This genre by far has the most attractive character designs-both externally, and internally/Externally, anime character’s bodies tend to look extremely attractive.
They tend to have extend body proportions that may look beautiful at times, and at times so beautiful that they are ugly. Other times, they may not look beautiful at all. But the point is, at all times, you cannot easily take your eyes away from an anime character’s body type.
This genre’s characters are drawn in a number of styles-from realistic, and grim, to playful, and bright. Even the color schemes of anime character’s vary.
Internally, anime character’s personalities, and temperament tend to be attractive too. From the brooding, badass, to the playful, funny badass, anime has them all. Even cowards. This variety of character personality type also is quite attractive.
3. Anime Has Shocking settings
This genre’s settings are some of the most breathtaking settings in literature.
Due to the restraints of anime production addressed in this article, this genre has to use certain techniques mentioned in that article. This means that anime spends a lot of time on things like settings in scenes, and it completely pays off.
The stories in which anime takes place are so wild, wacky, and completely unpredictable.
In one anime, you will be following our characters as they live through a dark, dystopic, futuristic Tokyo like in Tokyo ghoul, then the next thing you know, you will be travelling through an island made entirely out of food like in One Piece’s Whole Cake Island, which is exactly what it sounds like.
On top of that, the world building in this niche bizarre places tends to be very detailed.
So much so that there are internal workings in the land that one would come to expect living in such an area. For example, in Tokyo Ghoul, the Tokyo of the place has now been taken over by these police officers who hunt Ghouls.
Also in One Piece’s Whole Cake Island, the mayors of each snack town and master chefs of their special town. This is precisely what you’d expect since they’d have to keep constructing parts of their land because of people eating it senselessly.
4. Cultural osmosis
This genre is popular due to cultural osmosis.
As previously mentioned, anime has the edge over other forms of media in the modern technological lend scape. By today, all people should have seen an anime profile picture at some point in their lives.
This means they then heard someone mentioning this genre. Even if they have not watched it, no doubt they’ve already heard of it.
Also, if someone has not watched anime, they have no doubt seen this genre’s fans, and as covered in this post, anime fans are here, and they are probably going to be growing. This means that no doubt they’ve already formed an opinion of this genre from seeing its fans, whether negative or positive.
This, through memes, word of mouth, and fans, anime has spread like a wild fire.
5. Easily acquirable
Anime is also popular because it is easily acquirable.
As mentioned in the previous post, Netflix has seen an up rise of people signing up to watch their anime. Also, in Crunchyroll, they report that at least half of their world viewers watch anime.
This is good.
This shows that this genre is easily accessible to people all over the world. They do not need to go to the cinema and watch movies, though here is the irony. Because of how popular anime has gotten, now people are willing to go to the cinemas to watch anime movies.
This example is best seen in the popularity of new anime movies such as One Piece Film Red.
6. Anime Is Easily consumable
Anime is easy to consume.
Again, as easily touched upon, it is easy to watch anime. You do not have to walk to the living room, and watch it on TV. You can just remain on your bed, and watch many episodes of anime, and finish the season.
This simplicity in consumption has lent us to a situation where anime is easy to watch an enjoy.
7. Easily habitable
Anime is easy to build a habit around.
When saying this genre is easily habit-able, I am not saying you can easily live inside an anime. That is physically impossible. I am rather saying that it is easy to build a habit around this genre.
As covered in the book, ‘Atomic Habits’ (another read you should check out), there are certain steps one needs to take to build a habit till it is at that point of being instinctual, and you begin feeling cravings to do the habit.
The first step is the cue, then the craving, then the routine, and finally, the reward. It would be very hard to explain in detail what each of these means, and I advise you watch a video by Improvement Pill which best explains it.
So in the context of this genre, it is easy to form a habit around watching anime. it could be that every time you sit on your bed, that is your cue. Instantly, you will feel a craving to watch a few minutes of anime.
Then you begin your routine, which could be something like getting your snack, or sitting in a certain way. Then the next thing you know, you have watched an entire season of anime, and you have about 3 more you wish to check out for next time.
And so the cycle begins anew.
8. Anime is Addictive
Anime is easy to get addicted too.
On one of the first articles on this genre, I went through the details of how addictive this genre can be, and on another article we touched on the concerning correlation between this genre and depression. Check those out for a more detailed touch on this point.
But to this article, the anime addiction article gives the final dark reason why this medium is so popular.
What Can Writers Learn on Why Anime Is So Popular Now
Have fun with whatever you write.
In all the other what writers can learn segments, every time I write, I have a negging thought at the back of my mind. The thought in essence is just how self aware I am about how I am making writing seem like… work.
The truth is it is.
A lot of writers, and artist make the mistake of thinking writing is all about fun, and doing what you imagine is the most fun thing to do. This leads to the artist living at the side of the street, coked out.
Its a hard thing to process but it is true. I have a family member who is a doctor that I lived with in my childhood, and so I saw all sorts of people coming into the hospital. The ones who disturbed me the most were the druggies with calloused fingers.
Former guitarists. I always knew I wanted to do art, but I also knew the consequences of failure to achieve financial stability. So, I was always conscious of making financially wise decisions.
But that does not mean I do not do it for fun.
I could still have studied to be a doctor, lawyer or some “real” and “respectable” job. But I chose writing, drawing and music. Because of the fun I can have.
This article, especially at the anime storyline diversity part, reminded me of just how fun writing is. Anime always does that for me. It always feels like the story is fun for you, because it is fun for the writer too.
So, as you go out there to work on your stories, yes, make wise decisions. But as you do that, make sure that you are having fun. Otherwise there is no point. When you have mastered that balance, then you will have began mastering mastery. Let your imagination go. Your story must be enjoyed by everyone, but most importantly by you. You must have fun writing it.
Once you understand what makes anime popular, you will be that much closer to mastering mastery.