So I’ve done a series of posts on this blog trying to debunk the notion that Anime is Mainstream now, and this recent hype over “The Vatican has Embraced Anime” has helped me realize part of the problem is how a vague understanding of the Anime Style is somewhat Mainstream.
Luce is not proof that anyone in the Vatican has seen any Anime just as someone throwing around the term “Big Brother” isn’t proof they’ve read 1984. It’s just proof that everyone now knows how to draw the basic concept of an Anime Girl.
I realize this kind of distinction sounds to some like it’s related to the rhetoric of GateKeepers. I don’t think you need to have seen all the Anime I’ve seen to at all qualify as being into Anime, I haven’t seen a lot of things others consider essential viewing like Gurren Lagan or any Satoshi Kon stuff. I considered myself into Anime when I’d only seen a fraction of what I’ve seen now. But my point has never been about how well versed in Anime culture any individual is.
In order for Anime as a whole to truly be mainstream the pool of specific shows and movies that are well known even to people who aren’t particularly into Anime needs to be much wider.
Feral Historian is a YouTube channel I stumbled upon recently, they are fairly conservative and so someone I disagree with a lot, but unlike a lot of Conservative who talk about Nerdy stuff on YouTube he has actually insightful and interesting things to say rather than raving about Wokeness every time a protagonist isn’t a White Male. He largely talks about Sci-Fi and some Fantasy stories often with a focus on War, Dystopia and Alternate History. He’s covered some very mainstream well known franchises and some fairly niche books and forgotten movies and tv shows.
So anyone who is very into Anime reading all that can probably quickly come with a long list of Anime right up his alley, but in fact the only Anime he’s covered is Cowboy Bebop a very mainstream show that feels barely relevant to the general themes of his channel. For me 86 pops into my mind as the first thing I’m curious to hear his take on, but I’m sure others more quickly jumped to Gundam, Macross, Gunbuster, Evangelion, Code Geass, Psycho Pass, Attack on Titan maybe Darling in The FranXX. But other niche even within the world of Anime options would include Muv-Luv/Schwarzesmarken, Rahxephon, Aldnoah Zero, Kado the Right Answer,Babylon and the Sekaikei trilogy.
If Anime actually had the mainstream pervasiveness of Star Wars or Star Trek or Marvel and DC Superheroes there’s no way none of those Anime would have been covered by now especially since Bebop proves he doesn’t have an innate bias against Anime.
Update: Feral Historian's interest in Bebop stems form an interest in Western tropes translated to a fantastical setting. And I have a prior post on the other Anime that cna appeal to that.
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