Over the past few years the Western audience has been widely influenced by anime. Examples of this are popular cartoon channels such as Cartoon network and Nickelodeon both of which regularly air anime such as ‘Bakugan Brawlers’ and the very popular anime series ‘Naruto’. These two channels access a wide global audience which means that more and more people are exposed to anime. So what is it that makes Japanese anime so appealing? Roland Kelts, author of “Japanamerica: How Japanese pop culture has invaded the US” has said that “anime and manga were both designed to be cheap to make, cheap to literally make and inexpensive to consume, they’re post war media that were distributed on the streets”.
Anime represents Japan itself. Whether it's culture, legends, traditions or just everyday life in Japan, anime re-creates all of it. The fact that it brings Japanese manga to life is amazing because sometimes the themes they explore in these 'cartoons' are serious. For example, 'yaoi' is an anime genre which focuses on male homosexuality and how the characters learn to live with their secual preferences. They also have a genre called 'slice of life' in which they explore everyday problems teenagers, young mums and general people face from teenage pregnancies all the way to being cheated on and finding a way to survive on your own.
The beauty of anime lies in how the characters are drawn. Every anime or every company has their own style. Some anime are drawn to look realistic whereas others are made to look like cartoons. The one other praise I have for anime is that most of them explore or have morales behind them.
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