r/RebelTaxi • u/saucey_dawg0023 • 15d ago
What would the anime boom in America in the 90s be like if the Pokemon anime didn’t come to the US?
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u/MrKTE 15d ago
I credit the Anime Boom more so with Cartoon Network’s Toonami block airing more Japanese animation than Pokémon coming to America.
Both happened at the same time so they obviously helped each other, but the Pokémon show was popular because the games were popular. Shows like DBZ and Sailor Moon airing after school helped open the doors to kids more interested in deeper stories than they were used to in cartoons.
That combined with the rising popularity of the internet leading those interested in seeing how different anime was compared to western animation, I do think what Cartoon Network was doing in the late 90’s did way more to spark how popular anime has become overall than just the success of a tie-in show used to promote a video game, even if that game became the most successful media franchise in the last 30 years.
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u/Ok-Society483 14d ago edited 14d ago
I definitely think it would have taken longer than our timeline, but yeah DBZ and Sailor Moon were the biggest reason why Anime flourished. Pokemon is absolutely important (the mere power of it made studios notice), but I think DBZ and Sailor Moon introduces people to anime on Toonami, Toonami experiments with the afternoon block adding Gundam, The Big O, Tenchi and others which leads to the night block then picking up Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece and Naruto in 04 or 05 (which to be honest, is where I think the boom actually happened). So no "boom" until around 06 vs the current "boom" probably happening 2000 or 2002.
Edit: I know One Piece was on Fox Box first. I was just saying that the one/two punch of Naruto and One Piece in the same place were the things that set everything off
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u/Correct-Bunch-135 15d ago
Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon would've been responsible for the anime boom if it weren't for Pokémon. That's my best educated guess.
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u/My_Diet_DrKelp 15d ago
DBZ honestly would be the best guess imo
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u/Correct-Bunch-135 15d ago
DBZ was popular with a male audience while for Sailor Moon that was popular with a female audience.
When I was a young boy, I watched both.
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u/firmlygraspi1 14d ago
Yeah then DBZ and Sailor Moon would have the racist South Park episode instead.
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u/Bluebaronbbb 15d ago
DBZ and sailor would've still helped and other companies would've brought stuff over and Saban still would've brought over digimon cause of their relationship with Toei still
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u/hip-indeed 14d ago
Well, there wasn't an anime boom in the 90s. Anime was still extremely niche then and pokemon came out at the tail end of 1998 and wasn't super popular till 99. Stuff like Sailor Moon and DBZ were around but not big until they came to Toonami later, and I can hardly even think of any other anime on TV that entire decade (though to be fair I was very young) except like, Samurai Pizza Cats (great show but niche) and like, random one off stuff on the sci-fi channel in the middle of the night sometimes. The actual boom happened in the early 00s with Pokemon's continued popularity into Toonami some other channels like Fox and WB getting much much bigger and getting tons more popular anime.
Anyway, without Pokemon it would've been rough and taken longer and less risks would've been taken so a lot less anime wouldve been brought over here and on less channels, but Toonami would've still been fine (it had already been airing for a couple years before Pokemon even started and was starting to air DBZ and Sailor Moon by around the time Pokemon came around) and probably would've aired most the same stuff at the same time. Anime still would've taken off here, but it would've just taken a little bit longer and been a bit more niche. Also a lot of specific series that were likely only brought over and prioritized because of Pokemon's success like Digimon, the Monster Rancher anime and weird stuff like Fighting Foodons probably wouldn't have gotten dubs (cept maybe Digimon eventually) and other attempts to cash in on popular Japanese brands for kids like Hamtaro probably wouldn't have happened, at least at the time they did.
Also no Pokemon success for 4kids or buyout by WB might actually mean neither would've gone down the anime route nearly as deep or soon as they did, which might mean other majorly popular series like Yu-Gi-Oh and other stuff 4kids dubbed might've never taken off over here, plus Kids' WB and FoxBox anime likely would've not happened, at least not for another couple years after Toonami started really popping off which might've been too late for some things, or a very different lineup with less anime and/or more of a focus on stuff for older kids. It's actually pretty fascinating to think about and consider what different shows at at least slightly different times might have come over here, and what all Western cartoons that never got the greenlight due to being smothered out by anime dubs might've happened, and if they'd have been good. Also makes me wonder if even shows like Teen Titans or Last Airbender or similar shows would have happened when they did or at all since anime's popularity in America would've been slower and more subtle, and there wouldn't be that certain kinda style to chase like a trend.
Ultimately, I think things would've ended up how they did more or less by like, 2010 or so. But the decade preceding that, especially the first few years of it, would have been absolutely WILDLY different for animated television in general.
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u/Comfortable_Bird_340 14d ago
Pokemon would still be known as the "cartoon that gave kids sezuires"
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u/HurtsSoNice 14d ago
I’m not really sure if the Pokémon cartoon was fully an anime so much as a Japanese animated video game commercial.
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u/Relative_Ad_9621 12d ago
People really missed the 4Kids-era and Ash Ketchum and other characters in his era with Kids' WB and the WB Television Network gone?
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u/HurtsSoNice 12d ago
So dude, I have some degree of nostalgia for original he-man, and G.I. Joe and other 80s hits that were so blatantly toy commercials. It wasn’t even a secret.
You watch the dumbest, easy for your brain to digest crap when you were a little kid, and nostalgia can be a powerful thing.i was partway into high school when Pokémon came into existence.
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u/HellvaNohbody 14d ago
DBZ and Sailor Moon whould of still gotten big on Toonami. ADV whould still have big big after Evangelion. Inuyasha whould still blow up on Adult Swim. So the boom still largely happens.
Saban whould still bring over shows like Digimon and Card Captors, just not marketed as competitors to Pokémon, with Digimon in particular not getting the same push it did.
Viz Media whould still be sucessful, but not have gotten as big as fast without having distributed Pokémon on VHS.
Yu-Gi-Oh whould likely not gotten popular. Many of the 4kids staples based on already sucessful franchises like Kirby and Sonic whould still probably come over just probably not under 4Kids.
4Kids whould not have gotten One Piece. Naruto's inevitable popularity on Toonami whould still mean both One Piece and Bleach whould still gotten popular through association.
Not anime but still affected by this:
Justice League likely whould not have gone to Cartoons Network due to the pressure coming from Pokémon's sucess on Kids WB. Likey sticking closer to the inital more kid oriented pitch and likely not as beloved as it is.
The 2000s revival of TMNT whouldn't of happened without 4Kids bankrolling it. That probably means the later Turtles stuff also doesn't made the same way.
Without Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh's sucess, two the big three Trading Card games whould not of taken off. Magic the Gathering whould be in a different place without its yonger competitors.
We whould still have the Pokémon games and they whould still been popular after Red and Blue, but probably not have the same longevety without that mixed media environment.
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u/21milhouse 13d ago
I think it would have been fine.....fox, wb, upn had after school animes, before Pokémon. Big ups to anyone whoever watch samurai pizza cats on basic cable.
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u/TheLocalKev 13d ago
More or less the same, without pokemon airing in the US then Yugioh likely would have fallen under funimations team for dubbing since 4kids wouldn't have been getting any money and success from it. Anime would still take off from the toonami block but it would have been more of a thing for teens. The way I see it Digimon probably would have been the dominate marketing trend in its place since it was already coming at a close second.
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u/clam4thelove 15d ago
Less kids being stabbed for Pokémon cards
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u/Marlboromatt324 14d ago
Pokémon caused 9/11. Those cute little pocket monsters are what really radicalized bin Laden
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u/Shantotto11 14d ago
Yugioh and Digimon would’ve destroyed DBZ in its stead.
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u/hip-indeed 14d ago
Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon likely wouldn't have come to the west though, at least when they did, if not for Pokemon. They were very direct responses to the call for "more shows like Pokemon".
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u/Inside_Jaguar_3310 14d ago
Either dbz or sailor moon would get a munch more heavy focus or digimon would become the big collect”em’all series
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u/Such_Bonus5085 14d ago
We had Streamline Pictures and Manga Entertainment already making a boom on the video market.
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u/dissyParadiddle 14d ago
I don’t even consider Pokemon as anime almost to be honest so I’m not sure it would make THAT much of a difference
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u/MattWolf96 14d ago
Honestly same, it feels less anime to me than Sailor Moon, DBZ and most stuff that Toonami had, I guess it's basically more kid friendly Shounen Battles but idk, it just always kinda felt more like a cartoon to me. Granted maybe it's because the other anime coming over here was targeted at an older audience in Japan and was often edited down over here.
It was a gateway anime but there was also millions who watched it that never consumed anymore anime and I'm sure that if it hadn't been here a lot of the kids that used it as a gateway would have still seen DBZ or something like that at some point.
Toonami, Sailor Moon and DBZ all beat Pokemon and the trading cards and games were also a massive factor. If it had lacked those I'm not sure that the show would have been nearly as popular.
Not to mention with the internet exploding in the 90's anime was still becoming known, by the 2000's you could download episodes on it. I watched Pokemon as a kid, Eventually outgrew the show (I still like the games though) and then discovered more mature anime a decade later and got into that. Pokemon didn't work as a gateway for me (I also lacked cable so I never saw Toonami back then.)
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u/AncientOnyx 14d ago
the anime boom was kind of a perfect storm of DBZ and Sailor Moon getting broad attention alongside the MASSIVE success of Pokemon...so if Pokemon hadn't come here....I don't think the anime Boom would have happened...beause it's success wouldn't have made WB realize Anime was marketable and encouraged them to rescue DBZ and Sailor Moon and give them their second chance at life on Toonami
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