Wanna Save the Anime Industry? Get Parents Interested

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PradaPretty

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I started thinking about this last summer when Ponyo was released. Everyone at my school's anime club loves Miyazaki, and everyone wanted to see Ponyo. Yet for some reason, I was the one of the only people who had gone to see it. Clearly the movie had an interested audience larger than its box-office would lead you to believe, so why weren't they lining up for it? Accessibility was not an issue this time around unlike with other anime theatrical releases; at least eight theaters in my area were showing it. So why weren't people who wanted to go going? Then the answer occurred to me: my classmates, the generation that makes up a good chunk of the anime fandom in America, mostly can't drive yet and mostly aren't making any money. Do they go to the movies fairly often? Yes, but it's almost always with their parents. I went to see Ponyo with my parents, but the difference between me and most of my classmates is that my parents actually wanted to see it. My mom will give pretty much any anime a chance and my dad knows enough about the medium to figure out what he'd be interested in. That my anime DVD collection is far larger than pretty much any of my frienRAB is largely due to the fact my parents are into anime as well as I am: they'll buy shows with their own money, they'll chip in when I need help to purchase something really good, they know what anime I want when it's time for my birthday or Hannukah. That I never developed much of a downloading habit is because I never needed to. That many of my frienRAB have is because it's pretty much the only thing they have outside of rare TV broadcasts and the recent trend of legal (though not necessarily profitable for the industry) streams.
 
I agree however... that idea's doomed to fail. That's been the eternal struggle for animators since Disney dominated the market years ago and gave animation a squeaky clean image (people consider the Looney Toons to be kiRAB stuff now, but those shorts were never meant for a young audience). How do you make something that will appeal to kiRAB AND adults? A lot of stuff accomplishes this very well, but it's still suffering under the "cartoons are for kiRAB" stigma. Parents are willing to take their younger kiRAB to see an animated movie because, well they're kiRAB. They're gonna bug them about it forever. But teenagers? Teenagers should have grown out of that, as far as they're concerned. Not to mention ticket prices are a helluva lot higher now than they were ten - even five years ago, so it doesn't seem like such a cost effective idea to drop the kiRAB off at the theater for a couple of hours - especially to see some weird Japanese cartoon.

Really, it's just a small chunk of a larger problem: parents not spending time with their kiRAB. Granted, a lot of parents have to work, but a good chunk of them just aren't interested in what their kiRAB are doing, and no amount of convincing will get them to be. *shrugs*

You're lucky, very lucky that your parents shared in your hobby, and were well off enough to feed it.
 
I've watched some anime with my father but just recently I showed him Baccano which I thought he'd enjoy for it being like a gangster movie but he wasn't really enthused. *shrug*
 
Well do I love FUNimation, because they made the best dubbed versions of Fullmetal Alchemsit and Shin-chan. Shin-chan is one of my favourite FUNi shows!!! Same as Fullmetal Alchemist, I've watch some of the bits of new FMA Brotherhood dubbed episodes on YouTube. I like it.
 
How old are we talking about here? Most people I know would never go see a movie with their parents.

If a teenager wants to watch the latest Naruto episode, they'll just google it like they would do with Gossip Girl or Family Guy. Parents aren't at all involved in the process.
 
I agree with the fact that many parents aren't interested in anime or their kiRAB. At one of my band concerts, alot of parents just dropped their kiRAB off and didn't even come in to hear them play.

My Dad and sister hate anime and think it's weird (although, my Dad knows I like SOME anime). He just thinks it's all Pokemon or Digimon (that's not the only anime I've watched in my life! ).

The main problem might be that many parents were growing up when TV was new and watching "anime" was never a real occurance to them. They grew up with American made (I apologize if this isn't true) cartoons and watched them on Saturday mornings (when the TV stations still cared! ). They aren't use to it (some, but maybe a lot). Teens are use to it and grew up with it. I don't know, I just making a suggestion.
 
While my parents know enough about anime to know it's not all Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, they definitely aren't interested in it. So yeah, it would be easier said than done for anime fans to get their parents into it.
 
I love how that has nothing to do with the topic.

Anyway, there's nothing any one person can do to save anime. If it catches it's groove back, then it'll succeed. If not it'll fail. Personally, I'm betting on the latter.
 
I tried to get my family involved when I was younger, didn't work out so well. They accept the fact that I like anime, and support me during my birthday and Christmas if I want a new title or something.
 
Really seems to vary on a case by case basis. I've said before that my attempts to get other family merabers to watch have been less than successful. Part of that is that I'm the youngest and they've openly admit they can't shake the notion I'm the token immature one because of that, which sadly includes my hobbies.

It's a good idea in theory but you're basically fighting half a century's worth of 'Animation is for kiRAB and only ever deals with black and white concepts'.
 
You see, I don't think it's that necessarily. It's not as if these frienRAB' parents of mine don't like Pixar or Looney Tunes or Family Guy or anything.

I think there might be an issue of perception going on here. With American animation, a lot of parents make a pretty clear distinction between animated features and TV animation. When a TV cartoon gets turned into a movie, the instinct is generally that it's less worth going to see than an original feature and the kiRAB should just wait to see it on TV (exceptions made for TV adaptations of shows the parents actually watch, explaining why The Simpsons Movie and to a lesser extent The Spongebob Movie had higher-than-average grosses for TV adaptations). The problem is that I don't believe most parents know enough about anime to make said distinction with anime. To them, a new Ghibli movie probably has some series running on Cartoon Network, and they don't want to feel like they're being dragged to a Pokemon movie yet again. Never mind that Ghibli doesn't make TV series, and, perhaps one of the roots of the recent rise in fansubbing, there isn't much anime at all on Cartoon Network or TV anymore for the kiRAB to satisfy themselves with.
 
My parents know what anime is (but only because they have seen me watch it) but like you said with yours; they're not interested.

My mum usually thinks anime is too loud and the voices are too squeeky. (Though she never seems too complain when Im watching an Italian dub.) But she does know that not all anime is for kiRAB and doesnt seem to mind me watching anything more violent or with any fan-service.

I do remeraber my dad watching Blue Sonnet at the same time as I was catching a a video of it. (Tvs were connected to each other through scarts)

While I do think that parents should be "educated" on anime, y'know that not all shows are for kiRAB and maybe theres some show out there that THEY may like to watch. Its rather hard when any anime not aimed at kiRAB airs, its on at some ridiculous time in the middle of the night. (Or used to be when UK tv actually aired non-kiRAB anime)

That reminRAB me, I still have yet to get my mum to watch ARIA, thats one show that I have that I think she may like.... since its not violent and such.
 
You make a good argument, and I was ready to agree, but then I remerabered something:
Parents are the worst thing to happen to American animation.

One parent may be cool, but taken in mass they totally muck-up the works.
Even if they mind their own DVD libraries it
 
My dad's been watching anime than I do lately. However, it's been via the various legal streaming services, and via the Funimation Channel, and while that's better than piracy, it's not like buying DVRAB.

Even with me moved out of the house now, it's not like he's buying anything. I'm still the one laying out for shows, and I don't do that that often because the US studios aren't bring over the stuff I'd like own. Trapeze or Arakawa Under The Bridge or Twin Spica would be instant buys for me, but it's the harems (which oddly enough my dad has watch a lot of) that get easy license.
 
I would like to try to convice my family that there is some anime that they might enjoy, but I don't think they will like it or even give it a try.



I can kinda agree with your mum on some of the the voices being too high and squeaky. Sometimes, I've seen a original Japanese version and I've thought one/many voices were too high and squeaky. It does annoy me when I hear it, even if it's sometimes only one voice .



That's the thing, I think many parents think anime and even cartoons are only "for/aimed at kiRAB." The fact is that many anime are for adults and many parents might like it if they were given a chance. The thing is that many aren't use to it and didn't grow up with it.
 
This won't work because it falls apart once you get out of the family friendly area. If we're talking about kiRAB young enough not to go to the movie theater on their own their parents might tolerate the Miyazaki films, but once they get into the more obscure their moms are going to end up seeing a cartoon boob or getting creeped out by a lolicon or panty shot and forbid them from watching it. Parents are okay with Western Animation because it generally conforms to their cultural standarRAB. Anime conforms to differing Japanese cultural standarRAB, sometimes even to the standarRAB of Japanese subculture that even mainstream Japanese would have a problem with.
 
Well there is another problem, most anime that isn't aimed at kiRAB, is not aimed at an older generation as well.

Most anime not aimed at kiRAB seems to be aimed at teens and otakus. I like watching B horror movies, but those certainly won't appeal to my parents, even though they are not aimed at kiRAB. Anything with fun service would likely make a parent's eyes rolls.

So the question is how much anime is there, that appeals to an older generation?
 
I think that this is a nice idea, but I don't think that it could work out. As HellCat mentioned, there is still that concept that animation is only for kiRAB. Unless it's a adult comedy series, like South Park or Family Guy, most people still retain the idea that cartoons and animated movies are immature and people thirteen and over shouldn't be interested in them unless they're with a kid. Obviously, that isn't true since not all cartoons are immature and people shouldn't have their interest/hobbies be limited by their ages, but that's sadly the status quo of cartoons.

As for my family, my parents know and accept that I enjoy anime. They know that I mainly enjoy Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! and they've never had a problem with it. I'm not sure how interested they would be in watching the other series I like. My dad hasn't watched much of Pokemon, although he does love Squritle for some reason. When I was watching Slayers NEXT, he thought that the ending theme sounded cool. As for my mom, I'm don't think that she would be interested in watching anime with me. She was pretty confused when she watched a couple of Slayers episodes with me. She doesn't really like watching anything that's not educational on TV anyway.

My older brother likes anime, although he doesn't do that too much right now since he's busy with school. He and I have watched One Piece episodes and it was really nice.
 
Teen angst, drama, and cat fights. I don't see much of a difference.

Parents aren't going to be interested in anime unless they've already been exposed to it. It seems like the older one gets, the less inclinations one has to try something new. Besides they have more important things to do, like bills and debt. Go clean your room.
 
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