Sagara wrote:Out of curiosity, what did trigger the rise of anime on your side of the pond? If I'm not mistaken it started really late (late 90's?) when compared to markets like France (starting in the early 80's, with the real kick-start in the late 80's).
Then again, it doesn't seem like anime got the same flak it got when it started in France. God, some articles I read when I was a teenager. Then again, some dumbass DID manage to get City Hunter and FREAKING Fist of the North Star on a *kid's show*...
Here it hasn't really risen.
Saint Seya, Dragon Ball (not Z, dammit) and Yu Yu Hakusho were a blast at their time, but the channels lost interest. These days only the reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally big hits like naruto get any screen time, and there is little interest from any company to license these things here.
So we steal. It's a glorious display of bizarreness when just about everyone from 12 to 40 seems to know tons of anime and none of them officially exist here, and no one considers licensing them.
The manga market, in comparison, is actually bustling. Still small in comparison to us and jp, but you'll find just about any manga here officially if you look close enough.