Western Otaku usually still have a limited perspective on Anime

Last October, when the Pluto Anime went up on Netflix was the first time I ever watched any Anime of the Atom or Astro Boy franchise. I liked it a lot.  So it’s interesting to think about why that is.

I’ve been considering myself enough into Anime to call myself an Otaku since late 2016.  This followed an increasing interest in Anime that went back to at least 2014.  But I’ve kind of had some limited interest in Anime most of my life since I first caught DiC dubbed episodes of Sailor Moon on Sunday mornings in 1996.  Yet it wasn’t till late 2023 I finally watched something featuring the character who arguably started it all.

Imagine being into American Animation and Comics for 7 to 27 years without watching or reading anything with Superman in it?  Because that is the equivalent.  Yet I don’t think that’s at all unique to me for a Western Otaku.  We all know of the importance of Astro Boy but are frequently not too motivated to actually watch it.

And it’s the same with Mazinger Z and other Super Robot shows of the 70s, or Sally The Witch or Detective Conan.  All shows we know of and some of us sometimes actually watch but not always.  I know some people complain that not enough American Anime fans watch Lupin III or Gundam or Macross but those shows are damn near ubiquitous compared to the shows I’m talking about.

Thing is this isn’t an issue I’m even at all motivated to fix in myself.  My ability to enjoy Animation that predates my own birth on either side of the Pacific is limited.  I can respect and appreciate the groundwork they laid, but it’s nor what I’m personally into, what I mean when I say I’m into Anime is mostly specific kinds of Anime, trends and styles that started in the 80s but really took off in the 90s.  So Detective Conan I was able to get into since it started in the 90s, but for most stuff pre-1985 it would be a disservice to them for me to be the one finally making Video Essays about them, I’m not qualified to explain their appeal.

There are exceptions, I’ve watched and loved The Rose of Versailles and both animated Lupin III movies from the 70s.  But the 70s Anime I want to watch the most is one still not even subbed, La Seine No Hoshi.

But it’s not just with older Anime that Western Otaku aren’t watching as much as they think.  Even with current seasonal Anime, what we even talk about is a small percentage of what’s actually airing on TV in Japan. I don't just mean the shows all of us are watching, I mean even the seasonal shows with only a small group of evangelists.  Even the people making YouTube videos predicated on claiming they’re watching literally everything aren’t actually watching most of it.

I’ve seen more Anime from 2017 than any other single year, and the Winter season I’ve possibly seen the most of within that year.  Yet when I go to the MAL page for that season and filter it to show only shows I haven’t seen even one episode of, sorted by most members, there are still 2 or three that are well known even though I didn’t watch them (Konosuba season 2 and Gintama mainly).  Yet even them combined with what I did watch are still dwarfed by the number of shows I don’t recall ever hearing anyone talk about at all.  And that’s just going off TV Anime that started that season with at least 12 episodes and at least 20 minutes per episode runtimes.  When you go down to what’s continuing from prior seasons it’s not just the two cour shows from fall 2016 and the three long runners everyone makes fun of, there’s dozens of shows that started in the 80s and 70s still airing that have never even remotely been on our radar.

It’s important to remember that even those of us who seek to present ourselves as knowing more and going deeper than most are still barely paddling out of the kiddie pool.  It’s like how the Roman Empire referred to itself as ruling the world when in fact most of the earth’s surface they’d never even visited and a good chuck they didn’t even know existed.