Anime and manga

• 1. Introduction

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  Anime and manga, together called animanga, had built a $19.2 billion global market by 2021, according to the Association of Japanese Animations. Anime is the animated form, recognized for vivid graphics and expressive character design; manga is its printed, comic-style counterpart. Their global reach developed ahead of any formal marketing effort. Understanding who helped it spread, and why governments eventually took notice, is the animanga story. In Japan, the word for this fan community translates roughly as "subculture," though it lacks the rebellious connotation the English term usually carries.

• 2. Fansubs and Scanlations

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  In Japan, most works begin as manga. The titles that build an audience earn animated adaptations. Overseas fans typically first encounter animanga through broadcast anime rather than the original printed source. When a title has not yet been officially translated, fan communities step in. They produce what the culture calls fansubs for animated episodes and scanlations for printed comics: unauthorized translations distributed without charge. Works reach audiences first in English, French, and Chinese. Those three versions then serve as starting points from which fans translate the material into further languages.

  Many of those who produce fansubs and scanlations refuse to profit from the work. They destroy their own copies once officially licensed versions become available. The ethics and legality of the practice have been hotly debated. Some industry participants in both Japan and the United States have expressed tacit acceptance of the practice. They see it as a trial run for the American market.

  Light novels and video games are considered part of the same subculture alongside anime and manga. Kadokawa Corporation responded to overseas interest by formally adopting an "Overseas first" policy for its releases.

• 3. Japan's Export Strategy

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  In the 1970s, Japan changed from a net importer of information to a net exporter. Video games formed Japan's primary content export through the late 1990s. Starting in 2000, the government turned its attention to anime and manga. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology formally recognized both as traditional Japanese culture. The state then began promoting them through a national initiative called Cool Japan. A law formalizing that initiative passed in June 2004. By 2008, the industry's estimated worth had reached US$5 billion.

  Anime and manga had almost no presence on American network television before the mid-1990s, with only a handful of titles reaching broadcast audiences. Their subsequent growth was so rapid that some commentators began calling the genre an American import rather than a Japanese export.

  Precedence Research projected that the anime market would grow from $24.5 billion to $47.14 billion by 2028. In April 2023, the Japan Business Federation laid out a broader plan. The federation called for quadrupling the overseas sales of Japanese content within a decade. Among the measures proposed was recruiting industry experts from overseas to work in Japan. The plan also called for linking Japan's tourism sector with fan communities drawn to locations depicted in particular stories. In China, the genre had already acquired its own umbrella name, erciyuan, meaning "two-dimensional space."

• 4. New Vocabulary

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  Dongman, the Chinese umbrella term for animation and comics, is a portmanteau combining donghua (animation) and manhua (comics). The word is frequently misapplied to refer only to the animated form, though its full scope includes both. When video games are included, the label shifts to ACG, short for "animation, comics, and games." A further extension adds light novels, producing ACGN, covering "animation, comics, games, and novels." Bilibili is one of the most popular websites for ACGN content, serving all four of the categories the acronym names.