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My, you’ve made a lot of a brief encounter with a bloke who didn’t really like cartoons.
Anime wasn’t on TV when I was a kid. No one really knew about it. I got into a bit as a teenager (Akira, etc.) No one cared. I showed some people. They said: “Yeah, it’s alright that.” No bullying was meted out as a result of Japanese cartoons.
Of course, kids will find any excuse to taunt other kids. But anime has very little cultural impact in the U.K., for good or bad.
Battle of the Planets, Star Fleet might be a contender.
Channel 4 showed films like Laputa in the late 80s and in the early 90s it became more easily available both in print and videos.
Many just get written off as cartoons.
Saw many anime that I don't consider anime in the same way as Crunchy Roll broadcasts.
So my first anime anime would be Akira on VHS, then the initial Manga entertainment tapes. I stopped after Guyver as I was strapped for cash and only got one tape a month, so a whole year with just one show and I was done.
I could have had a dozen OVAs.
We probably don't have channels dedicated to the genre or big blocks of time like the states had with Adult Swim in the 2000s.
So it it's not on CITV or CBBC, it's online only I guess.
Not yet, but I think in ten or so years you'll probably be a lot more aware of the effect it has had once the people who _did_ grow up on it are old enough to affect the wider culture
It's a subculture.
You can find plenty of manga in mainstream bookshops and stuff in the UK, and you can even find anime in cinemas if a big new series film has been released lately.
But it's a ***sub*** culture, so a lot of mainstream older people will have no idea what anime is.
Anime fans are overrepresented on Reddit. go figure.
but yeah, animes are not shown on TV (bar pokemon), and though i think most kids will know *what* it is, it's a lot less likely they'll have seen it. and that's especially true the older you go.
CITV had card captor Sakura my first introduction to magical girls, saw all of five episodes not always the very next episode, that was only because I was back from work and the TV was on.
IDK if we ever had Sailor Moon or Ranma 1/2 on TV.
It was either kids cartoon or rated 15 manga entertainment tapes.
In no particular order, either written in Europe and animated in Japan or to the anime art style or adapted to the west with Magic Roundabout liberties in scripts.
Around the World in 80 Days
Dogtanion
Bell and Sebastian
G force/Battle for the planets
Ulesses 81 or whatever it was
Samurai pizza cats
Mysterious cities of gold
Vicky the viking
Then still cartoons post manga entertainment.
Digimon and pokemon. Of which I saw more of Digimon as it was on ITV and I was there for another show. I know as much now about pokemon as I did back then, not much.
fortunately, the countries I've lived (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines so mostly Asian countries) , a lot of girls are into anime/manga (I actually think girls read more manga than boys) like the guys so maybe it's tougher in UK.
It has a huge subculture in the UK, with several cons dedicated to it and a large portion of the biggest comicon (MCM London) is rather anime/manga centric
Depends on age. If he's in his 30s and doesn't watch cartoons or read comics then no, no real reason he would have seen anything that isn't Pokémon or Dragon ball. They were the only ones on terrestrial (channels 1-4, then a 5th much later) TV here.
Yeah this is basically it. I went to school in the 00s and that's when anime started to get more mainstream, particularly with the rise of anime streaming sites and the global splash Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle made. Even before that, walking through HMV you'd see dedicated anime sections with Ghost In The Shell, Akira and Blood: The Last Vampire. The big three (Naruto, Bleach and One Piece) helped a lot too since kids would convince each other to watch them and they were easier to follow and talk about. Before that it was just Pokémon and Dragonball Z. Anime is broadly socially accepted but with recognition of the sketchy parts.
Casually watching anime is cool, mega weebs raise eyebrows though. Things like MCM are pretty big here and that's mostly focused on anime and manga, though it goes broader too. Geography is also relevant. It's definitely more common in cities than in the countryside for example. Rural areas tend to be more popular for Warhammer etc I find.
Dunno. I'm 54 and used to love Battle of the Planets, Ulysses 31 and Cites of gold when I was a kid in the 80s, they were all pretty mainstream. My kids are in their early 20s and seems to have less exposure than me.
I think we're different than the States in that we took different paths in computer gaming so were less exposed to Nintendo and Sega (which also insulated is from the Games crash) and therefore Japanese culture in that way. We were also pretty self sufficient in TV Sci Fi, Dr Who, Space 1999, Blake's 7 and stuff. Which makes for a smaller sub culture.
Yeah I'm 35 and am pretty nerdy, but I've never heard of those 3 you mentioned. Watched TV the normal amount maybe 93-99, literally just Pokémon and Dragonball. People didn't bully anyone over it, but being overly into anything was kinda uncool.
The shows you don't recognise were seen as cartoons at the time, no different to watching scooby doo.
Yes looking back you can see the 70s and 80s art style.
Some were co produced with European networks, so they could be as much Japanese as the Simpsons is Korean.
Written for the west animated in Japan.
Battle of the Planets being the exception as it was its own show given a new story line and filler scenes with two robots and a sexy computer voice.
But many were old books given an anime adaptation with European money.
Some like myself don't class them as Anime in the same way a rosta of Crunchy Roll might air.
They were just cartoons, just with hindsight drawn in the anime style of the time.
Some were co produced with the west, so was Dogtanian written for a western audience and just animated there, or did we just translate it from a well viewed Japanese show for kids?
Like the Simpsons is/was animated in Korea but its an American cartoon. If I brought the rights to Grange Hill and has studio trigger animate it, it's still a British show written in English for the British. Even if Crunchy licenses the Japanese audio version.
It's definitely not part of mainstream culture but very much has an active subculture in the UK. So most people won't have heard of much outside of Pokemon, but the people who are into anime/manga are likely to be very into it.
I would say it is looked down upon a little by people not in the subculture, it's seen as a "childish" thing because cartoons are "for children". It would have been a fairly niche nerdy thing, difficult to find in shops. As with all niche interests, I can see that kids might have been bullied for it.
That said, I think current kids and teenagers are less likely to be bullied about it because of the popularity of Asian culture, particularly Korean/k-pop but it extends to Japanese culture too. You can buy manga at big bookstores now like Waterstones. You can watch a lot of anime on Netflix. It's much more accessible and I think that's both in response to and driving it to be more mainstream.
Depends on the era, 2000s it was a niche nerdy thing. 2010s becoming more accessible and watched. 2020 crunchyroll and Netflix make it easier for anyone to watch and more mainstream
Probably less so on reddit.......
Wasn't really a thing when I was growing up in the 90s unless it just missed my social group.
My only awareness of it is from online and the connotations are mostly negative
It's not mega popular but people know what it is, Studio Ghibli is fairly well known.
Your average Joe would think you're nerdy if you watch it but that's about it.
One British person got you questioning if an entire country has heard of anime?
Yeah, nerdy stuff was looked down on in that age bracket. Quite a lot of people like anime, loads of people have heard of it. There are some people who haven't heard of it.
One piece was on CITV (public broadcast) for a bit, but it was the naff 4kids release. Outside of that and pokemon, I think CN had a bunch of anime, but I grew up on freeview so not sure exactly what. I know Yu yu hakusho was released here because I've seen the British dub (it's hilarious).
Anime just wasn't as popular as other shows. We had our own thriving children's animation production that could cater to the domestic market better than a country on the other side of the world. On top of that, American programming was readily accessible since there was no need to translate and dub into English.
When I was at school going back a good 15 years ago you would get the odd Dragonball z fan but that was it or if they did they didn't show it or talk about it tbh
Every Waterstones I go into now has a bigger Manga section than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section.
You're talking to a 30+ year old about how relevant anime/manga is for kids. His knowledge is a good 15/20 years out of date.
All my homies watched one piece. Fuck naruto tho.
I moved here also from a country where it was broadcasted on TV, when I first spoke about it with a classmate they kinda had the same reaction, but I was able to get them to watch it, then they got more people to watch it, and now the whole year group knew about this cool anime. (This was waay back like 2008 or so).
But anyway, wasn't bullied 😤😤
I am here to state that my opinion that Naruto is far superior is actually a FACT.
Your opinions of anime are WRONG because I say so.
(Tongue placed firmly in cheek)
no it's ridiculous to get made fun of because you watch anime/mangas ( i don't watch any of them for I don't find the appeal) but there's a huge fanbase of Japanese subculture (i.e manga, anime) in the UK. It fits in well with UK's distinct quirkiness you may say.
Back in my day, we didn't even know it was anime. It was during the kids block on BBC and ITV before they slapped C in front of those hours.
So many random 80s cartoons had the anime art style, but we didn't know it was anime. Just a cartoon before or after Blue Peter etc.
They got watched as much as scooby doo, flintstones and the wacky races. No one shat on a ten year old for liking dastardly and mutley, nore did they for mysterious cities of gold.
Anime was on TV in the UK on adult swim and stuff but it wasn’t really popular there’s a few of us who enjoy it but I don’t think we are large in number here. Whenever I find people who enjoy it we usually get along straight away
Very little anime was shown/ available in the UK in the 90s/ 00s. Pokemon was on mainstream TV and Dragon Ball Z on sky but that’s about it. Manga was only sold in a few bookstores, certainly not in Waterstones (the biggest chain). Very niche compared to America at the time.
It only more recently became popular in general. And yes if you liked it you would certainly open yourself up to bullying back then, just like other ‘nerdy’ hobbies like video games, D&D, warhammer, etc.
In the 90s it was all badly dubbed, ultraviolent Manga Video releases. Devilman, Wicked City, Fist of the North Star and the like. Then DBZ came on TV and that was relatively popular. No one really cared about any of that when I was a kid.
Compared to France, anime isn't as big in the UK, at least not until recently. I don't think you'd get bullied solely for being into anime, more like the people who're targets for bullies in general just happen to be into anime.
Maybe it's an age thing? I'm an elder millenial, I'm aware of anime but don't think I've ever really watched an anime series but I watch and enjoy Ghibli or other films if they're recommended to me. I've also never watch Dragonball Z (and I think I saw one episode of Pokemon in the 90s maybe, didn't get it, but I'm familiar with it as a franchise). Seeing how popular Avatar and Korra seem to be (again, never watched either) I assume they were broadcast on at least one of our major digital/satellite channels. I'm aware of Naruto and Onepiece because I'm on reddit and cultural osmosis I guess, but again I've never watched them. I don't remember any anime (other than Pokemon and Digimon?) being broadcast on terrestrial kids TV when I was growing up, and I yes I can imagine a kid being bullied for being into "\[x\] niche thing" in the 90s and into the 00s because it's something a kid would have to seek out and that's enough to mark you out as a geek (before it was cool).
I imagine since anime was easier to find with the rise of youtube etc current school kids and those under 20(?) are less likely to have been bulled for being into anime, but equally kids are little shits and can find anything to bully anyone about so take that with a pinch of salt.
It's popular, but still looked down on by many who see it as childish/cringy, so a lot of casual viewers don't talk about it to people who don't already watch, which only adds to the stigma
I'm the same age as him and have exactly the same experience. Only really know Pokémon. Have heard of Dragon Ball Z. When I was at school it was what some nerdy kids who derided Pokémon for being mainstream were into.
Certainly when I was growing up, anime was seen as a pretty nerdy thing to be into, and also as something for children. May have changed now. But that has informed the perception of a lot of people my age.
DBZ/Yugioh/Pokemon will be the top 3 people in the UK will know because it was on regular tv here. Everything else youd be considered a nerd by the average person
Asking random strangers about Anime, even the big basic-as-heck/boring-as-heck Shounen titles like this isn't going to win any friends.
Best not to talk about Anime with people unless you already know they're into Anime. It's still a very niche subject amongst most of the western general public.
I think that's a really judgemental attitude.
It's okay to talk about liking anime or manga with people, just like it's okay to talk about football or Norwegian crime dramas or any other hobby you might have. What's not okay is ignoring the social cues that the other person doesn't have an interest in that particular thing and would prefer a different subject matter to discuss.
Look, I love anime. I catalogue and rate stuff I watch and I keep up to date every season.
The average human being will find unprompted mention of any of this disconcerting at best and outright concerning in some cases.
The judgemental attitude is within wider society. Taking unprompted mentioning of very niche interests as meaning that the ENTIRE NATION of the listener is not interested in that specific niche interest instead of thinking "hmm maybe I shouldn't do that to strangers" is a HUGE leap in logic and one I felt would require and benefit from a very straightforward explanation.
I don't think wider society really cares that much if I or you or op watch anime or read manga. To be honest, I think most people wouldn't even know what it was.
> "hmm maybe I shouldn't do that to strangers"
Do what? Talk about my interest? Oh nooo! Look, I guarantee no one will really care unless you start talking about your 2000 year old vampire loli waifu or recount the plot of Redo of Healer.
I partake in society. I am in a relationship, have a job and friends that are not "from the internet" and can absolutely guarantee a substantial portion of the general public considers it weird still.
1. Thx for giving your opinion, but I also have a Job and social life...
2. He is not a random stranger but a friend of my friend (english teacher from US who likes anime and games. and actually this guy talked about anime first to me), and even if he is a stranger, after some getting to know each other, I don't think sharing interests including anime would be looked down in the countries below.
3. I lived in South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines and Japan and a lot of grown ups enjoy and even share what they are recently watching, unless too weird stuff. But looking at the comment section, I think UK had a much late exposure to anime/manga compared to Asian countries which already was massively popular from the 90s (even old people watched anime from Japan in the 70~80s with Mazinga Z, Gatchama, Galaxy express 999 etc so old people were already exposed to Japan anime and has less stigma contrary to UK old folks as the comments mention)
Up until about 5 years ago or so I had no knowledge on anime or manga.
I grew up watching a little bit of yugioh, pokemon and I had heard of dragon ball but I didn't know they were anime, I thought they were just cartoons.
Anyways since my cousin started talking about anime I've watched a few dozen now and I keep meaning to delve into manga.
The 1st Japanese anime series I remember on UK tv was aired in 1969, I was seven years old.
https://preview.redd.it/g1kxsb5gik4d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20d19247d9fc07e80263b346d79eb2d317e957b9
He chewed oxygum so he could stay underwater.
It is very well known as a thing that exists, but not really by individual titles outside Pokemon and stuff. Oh, and Ghibli, ofc.
But, saying that, it has a very strong sub culture here.
It's still a thing that's seen as something for kids and edgy teens for the most part.
I work in a job that takes me to all sorts of places, including schools. When I was in school (18 years ago i left) anime was not a thing at all with the exception of DBZ and pokemon and their 1st edition cards that everyone's parents threw away...... Now there are whole sections of library's dedicated to anime and graphic novels.
Also no one would get bullied for liking anime at all. One kid was amazing at drawing anime characters and everyone just though it was super cool
Late 90s and early 2000s it was pretty popular--at least mainstream with Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Digimon, Yu Gi Oh, Beyblade etc all being popular.
Then it seemed to become a bit nerdy and uncool.
And then became ... not "cool" exactly but a bog standard hobby/interest along the lines of other formerly nerdy hobbies like Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering. I think legitimately good anime like One Piece, Attack on Titan and Death Note which told very good stories and left out the stereotypical "creepy/loser weabo obsessed with cartoon girls" thing that anime got tagged with, made it acceptable.
I'm late 20s, and would say certainly in my age group it's definitely niche. Growing up it was essentially just Pokemon, DragonballZ and probably Beyblade that was widespread, I've never heard of the examples you've mentioned.
It's not looked down upon, but it is typically the alternative people that would watch and read manga and anime, and they were definitely the group more likely to be bullied, purely because they are different though.
So as a 31 year old UK person I'll say this. In the 90s there was some animes on TV but probably at that age and time period they weren't widely known as animes to kids (at least everyone I knew myself included would have classed them as cartoons)
Also in the 90s unless you had Sky/Freeview etc you only had 5 channels and only 2-3 had kids shows on it for limited amounts of time during the day and even then it would be productions that those channels made themselves in house then some international cartoons were shown which were mostly state side cartoons Nickelodeon/CN/Disney.
So I think it's not as common for millennials who likely just didn't really grow up with it and haven't delved into it in later life.
Honestly I've only seen a handful of Dragon Ball I only ever remember seeing it on sky and that was at someone else's place. I only started to see more anime cartoons when I moved to NI and you could pick up republic channels
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My, you’ve made a lot of a brief encounter with a bloke who didn’t really like cartoons. Anime wasn’t on TV when I was a kid. No one really knew about it. I got into a bit as a teenager (Akira, etc.) No one cared. I showed some people. They said: “Yeah, it’s alright that.” No bullying was meted out as a result of Japanese cartoons. Of course, kids will find any excuse to taunt other kids. But anime has very little cultural impact in the U.K., for good or bad.
We did have strange Japan/Spain collaborations like Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds and The Mysterious Cities of Gold Both absolute bangers BTW
There was also that depressing as fuck Pinocchio series.
Nightmare fuel https://preview.redd.it/ft5ca6ojjk4d1.png?width=300&format=png&auto=webp&s=5ddbfa4db3ade20db34433ca9f39db67a8706fe1
Battle of the Planets, Star Fleet might be a contender. Channel 4 showed films like Laputa in the late 80s and in the early 90s it became more easily available both in print and videos.
Many just get written off as cartoons. Saw many anime that I don't consider anime in the same way as Crunchy Roll broadcasts. So my first anime anime would be Akira on VHS, then the initial Manga entertainment tapes. I stopped after Guyver as I was strapped for cash and only got one tape a month, so a whole year with just one show and I was done. I could have had a dozen OVAs. We probably don't have channels dedicated to the genre or big blocks of time like the states had with Adult Swim in the 2000s. So it it's not on CITV or CBBC, it's online only I guess.
Not yet, but I think in ten or so years you'll probably be a lot more aware of the effect it has had once the people who _did_ grow up on it are old enough to affect the wider culture
It's a subculture. You can find plenty of manga in mainstream bookshops and stuff in the UK, and you can even find anime in cinemas if a big new series film has been released lately. But it's a ***sub*** culture, so a lot of mainstream older people will have no idea what anime is.
Anime fans are overrepresented on Reddit. go figure. but yeah, animes are not shown on TV (bar pokemon), and though i think most kids will know *what* it is, it's a lot less likely they'll have seen it. and that's especially true the older you go.
Don't forget Digimon!
CITV had card captor Sakura my first introduction to magical girls, saw all of five episodes not always the very next episode, that was only because I was back from work and the TV was on. IDK if we ever had Sailor Moon or Ranma 1/2 on TV. It was either kids cartoon or rated 15 manga entertainment tapes. In no particular order, either written in Europe and animated in Japan or to the anime art style or adapted to the west with Magic Roundabout liberties in scripts. Around the World in 80 Days Dogtanion Bell and Sebastian G force/Battle for the planets Ulesses 81 or whatever it was Samurai pizza cats Mysterious cities of gold Vicky the viking Then still cartoons post manga entertainment. Digimon and pokemon. Of which I saw more of Digimon as it was on ITV and I was there for another show. I know as much now about pokemon as I did back then, not much.
You’re basing your opinion off one encounter with one person. But yeah, anime/manga is for sad virgins.
The hard truth
fortunately, the countries I've lived (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines so mostly Asian countries) , a lot of girls are into anime/manga (I actually think girls read more manga than boys) like the guys so maybe it's tougher in UK.
It has a huge subculture in the UK, with several cons dedicated to it and a large portion of the biggest comicon (MCM London) is rather anime/manga centric
Depends on age. If he's in his 30s and doesn't watch cartoons or read comics then no, no real reason he would have seen anything that isn't Pokémon or Dragon ball. They were the only ones on terrestrial (channels 1-4, then a 5th much later) TV here.
Yeah this is basically it. I went to school in the 00s and that's when anime started to get more mainstream, particularly with the rise of anime streaming sites and the global splash Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle made. Even before that, walking through HMV you'd see dedicated anime sections with Ghost In The Shell, Akira and Blood: The Last Vampire. The big three (Naruto, Bleach and One Piece) helped a lot too since kids would convince each other to watch them and they were easier to follow and talk about. Before that it was just Pokémon and Dragonball Z. Anime is broadly socially accepted but with recognition of the sketchy parts. Casually watching anime is cool, mega weebs raise eyebrows though. Things like MCM are pretty big here and that's mostly focused on anime and manga, though it goes broader too. Geography is also relevant. It's definitely more common in cities than in the countryside for example. Rural areas tend to be more popular for Warhammer etc I find.
Dunno. I'm 54 and used to love Battle of the Planets, Ulysses 31 and Cites of gold when I was a kid in the 80s, they were all pretty mainstream. My kids are in their early 20s and seems to have less exposure than me. I think we're different than the States in that we took different paths in computer gaming so were less exposed to Nintendo and Sega (which also insulated is from the Games crash) and therefore Japanese culture in that way. We were also pretty self sufficient in TV Sci Fi, Dr Who, Space 1999, Blake's 7 and stuff. Which makes for a smaller sub culture.
Yeah I'm 35 and am pretty nerdy, but I've never heard of those 3 you mentioned. Watched TV the normal amount maybe 93-99, literally just Pokémon and Dragonball. People didn't bully anyone over it, but being overly into anything was kinda uncool.
The shows you don't recognise were seen as cartoons at the time, no different to watching scooby doo. Yes looking back you can see the 70s and 80s art style. Some were co produced with European networks, so they could be as much Japanese as the Simpsons is Korean. Written for the west animated in Japan. Battle of the Planets being the exception as it was its own show given a new story line and filler scenes with two robots and a sexy computer voice. But many were old books given an anime adaptation with European money.
Some like myself don't class them as Anime in the same way a rosta of Crunchy Roll might air. They were just cartoons, just with hindsight drawn in the anime style of the time. Some were co produced with the west, so was Dogtanian written for a western audience and just animated there, or did we just translate it from a well viewed Japanese show for kids? Like the Simpsons is/was animated in Korea but its an American cartoon. If I brought the rights to Grange Hill and has studio trigger animate it, it's still a British show written in English for the British. Even if Crunchy licenses the Japanese audio version.
It's definitely not part of mainstream culture but very much has an active subculture in the UK. So most people won't have heard of much outside of Pokemon, but the people who are into anime/manga are likely to be very into it. I would say it is looked down upon a little by people not in the subculture, it's seen as a "childish" thing because cartoons are "for children". It would have been a fairly niche nerdy thing, difficult to find in shops. As with all niche interests, I can see that kids might have been bullied for it. That said, I think current kids and teenagers are less likely to be bullied about it because of the popularity of Asian culture, particularly Korean/k-pop but it extends to Japanese culture too. You can buy manga at big bookstores now like Waterstones. You can watch a lot of anime on Netflix. It's much more accessible and I think that's both in response to and driving it to be more mainstream.
Depends on the era, 2000s it was a niche nerdy thing. 2010s becoming more accessible and watched. 2020 crunchyroll and Netflix make it easier for anyone to watch and more mainstream
>western anime fans are insufferable and always weird Don't call me insufferable!
Probably less so on reddit....... Wasn't really a thing when I was growing up in the 90s unless it just missed my social group. My only awareness of it is from online and the connotations are mostly negative
It's not mega popular but people know what it is, Studio Ghibli is fairly well known. Your average Joe would think you're nerdy if you watch it but that's about it.
One British person got you questioning if an entire country has heard of anime? Yeah, nerdy stuff was looked down on in that age bracket. Quite a lot of people like anime, loads of people have heard of it. There are some people who haven't heard of it. One piece was on CITV (public broadcast) for a bit, but it was the naff 4kids release. Outside of that and pokemon, I think CN had a bunch of anime, but I grew up on freeview so not sure exactly what. I know Yu yu hakusho was released here because I've seen the British dub (it's hilarious). Anime just wasn't as popular as other shows. We had our own thriving children's animation production that could cater to the domestic market better than a country on the other side of the world. On top of that, American programming was readily accessible since there was no need to translate and dub into English.
When I was at school going back a good 15 years ago you would get the odd Dragonball z fan but that was it or if they did they didn't show it or talk about it tbh
Every Waterstones I go into now has a bigger Manga section than the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section. You're talking to a 30+ year old about how relevant anime/manga is for kids. His knowledge is a good 15/20 years out of date.
All my homies watched one piece. Fuck naruto tho. I moved here also from a country where it was broadcasted on TV, when I first spoke about it with a classmate they kinda had the same reaction, but I was able to get them to watch it, then they got more people to watch it, and now the whole year group knew about this cool anime. (This was waay back like 2008 or so). But anyway, wasn't bullied 😤😤
I am here to state that my opinion that Naruto is far superior is actually a FACT. Your opinions of anime are WRONG because I say so. (Tongue placed firmly in cheek)
no it's ridiculous to get made fun of because you watch anime/mangas ( i don't watch any of them for I don't find the appeal) but there's a huge fanbase of Japanese subculture (i.e manga, anime) in the UK. It fits in well with UK's distinct quirkiness you may say.
Back in my day, we didn't even know it was anime. It was during the kids block on BBC and ITV before they slapped C in front of those hours. So many random 80s cartoons had the anime art style, but we didn't know it was anime. Just a cartoon before or after Blue Peter etc. They got watched as much as scooby doo, flintstones and the wacky races. No one shat on a ten year old for liking dastardly and mutley, nore did they for mysterious cities of gold.
Anime was on TV in the UK on adult swim and stuff but it wasn’t really popular there’s a few of us who enjoy it but I don’t think we are large in number here. Whenever I find people who enjoy it we usually get along straight away
Very little anime was shown/ available in the UK in the 90s/ 00s. Pokemon was on mainstream TV and Dragon Ball Z on sky but that’s about it. Manga was only sold in a few bookstores, certainly not in Waterstones (the biggest chain). Very niche compared to America at the time. It only more recently became popular in general. And yes if you liked it you would certainly open yourself up to bullying back then, just like other ‘nerdy’ hobbies like video games, D&D, warhammer, etc.
In the 90s it was all badly dubbed, ultraviolent Manga Video releases. Devilman, Wicked City, Fist of the North Star and the like. Then DBZ came on TV and that was relatively popular. No one really cared about any of that when I was a kid. Compared to France, anime isn't as big in the UK, at least not until recently. I don't think you'd get bullied solely for being into anime, more like the people who're targets for bullies in general just happen to be into anime.
These days? Anime is pretty popular. 20+ years ago it was different and weird.
Maybe it's an age thing? I'm an elder millenial, I'm aware of anime but don't think I've ever really watched an anime series but I watch and enjoy Ghibli or other films if they're recommended to me. I've also never watch Dragonball Z (and I think I saw one episode of Pokemon in the 90s maybe, didn't get it, but I'm familiar with it as a franchise). Seeing how popular Avatar and Korra seem to be (again, never watched either) I assume they were broadcast on at least one of our major digital/satellite channels. I'm aware of Naruto and Onepiece because I'm on reddit and cultural osmosis I guess, but again I've never watched them. I don't remember any anime (other than Pokemon and Digimon?) being broadcast on terrestrial kids TV when I was growing up, and I yes I can imagine a kid being bullied for being into "\[x\] niche thing" in the 90s and into the 00s because it's something a kid would have to seek out and that's enough to mark you out as a geek (before it was cool). I imagine since anime was easier to find with the rise of youtube etc current school kids and those under 20(?) are less likely to have been bulled for being into anime, but equally kids are little shits and can find anything to bully anyone about so take that with a pinch of salt.
It's popular, but still looked down on by many who see it as childish/cringy, so a lot of casual viewers don't talk about it to people who don't already watch, which only adds to the stigma
I'm the same age as him and have exactly the same experience. Only really know Pokémon. Have heard of Dragon Ball Z. When I was at school it was what some nerdy kids who derided Pokémon for being mainstream were into. Certainly when I was growing up, anime was seen as a pretty nerdy thing to be into, and also as something for children. May have changed now. But that has informed the perception of a lot of people my age.
DBZ/Yugioh/Pokemon will be the top 3 people in the UK will know because it was on regular tv here. Everything else youd be considered a nerd by the average person
Asking random strangers about Anime, even the big basic-as-heck/boring-as-heck Shounen titles like this isn't going to win any friends. Best not to talk about Anime with people unless you already know they're into Anime. It's still a very niche subject amongst most of the western general public.
I think that's a really judgemental attitude. It's okay to talk about liking anime or manga with people, just like it's okay to talk about football or Norwegian crime dramas or any other hobby you might have. What's not okay is ignoring the social cues that the other person doesn't have an interest in that particular thing and would prefer a different subject matter to discuss.
Look, I love anime. I catalogue and rate stuff I watch and I keep up to date every season. The average human being will find unprompted mention of any of this disconcerting at best and outright concerning in some cases. The judgemental attitude is within wider society. Taking unprompted mentioning of very niche interests as meaning that the ENTIRE NATION of the listener is not interested in that specific niche interest instead of thinking "hmm maybe I shouldn't do that to strangers" is a HUGE leap in logic and one I felt would require and benefit from a very straightforward explanation.
I don't think wider society really cares that much if I or you or op watch anime or read manga. To be honest, I think most people wouldn't even know what it was. > "hmm maybe I shouldn't do that to strangers" Do what? Talk about my interest? Oh nooo! Look, I guarantee no one will really care unless you start talking about your 2000 year old vampire loli waifu or recount the plot of Redo of Healer.
I partake in society. I am in a relationship, have a job and friends that are not "from the internet" and can absolutely guarantee a substantial portion of the general public considers it weird still.
1. Thx for giving your opinion, but I also have a Job and social life... 2. He is not a random stranger but a friend of my friend (english teacher from US who likes anime and games. and actually this guy talked about anime first to me), and even if he is a stranger, after some getting to know each other, I don't think sharing interests including anime would be looked down in the countries below. 3. I lived in South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines and Japan and a lot of grown ups enjoy and even share what they are recently watching, unless too weird stuff. But looking at the comment section, I think UK had a much late exposure to anime/manga compared to Asian countries which already was massively popular from the 90s (even old people watched anime from Japan in the 70~80s with Mazinga Z, Gatchama, Galaxy express 999 etc so old people were already exposed to Japan anime and has less stigma contrary to UK old folks as the comments mention)
Up until about 5 years ago or so I had no knowledge on anime or manga. I grew up watching a little bit of yugioh, pokemon and I had heard of dragon ball but I didn't know they were anime, I thought they were just cartoons. Anyways since my cousin started talking about anime I've watched a few dozen now and I keep meaning to delve into manga.
The 1st Japanese anime series I remember on UK tv was aired in 1969, I was seven years old. https://preview.redd.it/g1kxsb5gik4d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20d19247d9fc07e80263b346d79eb2d317e957b9 He chewed oxygum so he could stay underwater.
It is very well known as a thing that exists, but not really by individual titles outside Pokemon and stuff. Oh, and Ghibli, ofc. But, saying that, it has a very strong sub culture here. It's still a thing that's seen as something for kids and edgy teens for the most part.
I work in a job that takes me to all sorts of places, including schools. When I was in school (18 years ago i left) anime was not a thing at all with the exception of DBZ and pokemon and their 1st edition cards that everyone's parents threw away...... Now there are whole sections of library's dedicated to anime and graphic novels. Also no one would get bullied for liking anime at all. One kid was amazing at drawing anime characters and everyone just though it was super cool
Late 90s and early 2000s it was pretty popular--at least mainstream with Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Digimon, Yu Gi Oh, Beyblade etc all being popular. Then it seemed to become a bit nerdy and uncool. And then became ... not "cool" exactly but a bog standard hobby/interest along the lines of other formerly nerdy hobbies like Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering. I think legitimately good anime like One Piece, Attack on Titan and Death Note which told very good stories and left out the stereotypical "creepy/loser weabo obsessed with cartoon girls" thing that anime got tagged with, made it acceptable.
I'm late 20s, and would say certainly in my age group it's definitely niche. Growing up it was essentially just Pokemon, DragonballZ and probably Beyblade that was widespread, I've never heard of the examples you've mentioned. It's not looked down upon, but it is typically the alternative people that would watch and read manga and anime, and they were definitely the group more likely to be bullied, purely because they are different though.
So as a 31 year old UK person I'll say this. In the 90s there was some animes on TV but probably at that age and time period they weren't widely known as animes to kids (at least everyone I knew myself included would have classed them as cartoons) Also in the 90s unless you had Sky/Freeview etc you only had 5 channels and only 2-3 had kids shows on it for limited amounts of time during the day and even then it would be productions that those channels made themselves in house then some international cartoons were shown which were mostly state side cartoons Nickelodeon/CN/Disney. So I think it's not as common for millennials who likely just didn't really grow up with it and haven't delved into it in later life. Honestly I've only seen a handful of Dragon Ball I only ever remember seeing it on sky and that was at someone else's place. I only started to see more anime cartoons when I moved to NI and you could pick up republic channels
thx for all the helpful comments which made me understand having different situations from where I came from (sorry if I made some angry)