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Anime on Television

© Catherine Ramos

At this point, I realize that most of the anime involved in previous articles must be bought or rented in order to be seen. However, most anime watchers get the bulk of their anime not from a video store, but from television. In recent years the only anime to be seen on either network TV or even cable was Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Voltron and the Sci-Fi Channel's Saturday Anime - which consisted of several different anime movies. Yet, in the last year there's been a sudden break out of different anime series. The older shows are still there for fans to enjoy, but networks are suddenly realizing the anime goldmine.

One of the first series to begin the wave of TV anime, and one of the best known is Pokemon or Pocket Monsters in Japan. The videogame/toy/anime craze hit kids in the states almost as hard as it did in Japan. Toy shelves were flooded with everything from Pokemon plush toys to card games and it seems kids couldn't get enough. The plot of the show was simple enough. In Pokemon, 10-year old Ash Ketchum aspires to be a great Pocket Monster trainer and sets out on a world wide quest to "Catch 'em all". Pokemon is a little different from most anime series in that it didn't begin as a manga. While now you can find the translated comics everywhere from bookstores to airports, the entire phenomenon came from one very popular Nintendo gameboy game. Pokemon is slowly fading, much to some parents relief. Like toy manias of the past, it only lasts as long as the attention span of the children who adore it.

A second wildly popular series similar to Pokemon is Digimon. While the names and character designs may seem like carbon copies, it takes only a short time to see that Digimon is an entertaining show in it's own right. In fact, the basis for Digimon is several years older than the Pokemon video game. Digimon is the story of eight children and their adventures in a bizzare digital world. There they meet several digital monsters with unique abilities. I've heard Digimon described as "Pokemon - with plot", which I believe is true to some extent. Digimon requires a little more maturity from the viewer as it has nastier villans and a little more complex plotline.

One of the latest breaking animes is Gundam Wing, released by Cartoon Network last March. Gundam is a mecha anime, which has broad appeal. Boys are generally drawn to the fantastic robot designs and political warfare. Girls seem to enjoy the character designs, especially those of the five main pilots and personal story lines. Since it's release in March, Gundam Wing has enjoyed an instant success, leaping to the second most popular series on the Anime Web Turnpike's Top Ten list.