How Anime Has Inspired Popular Culture Around the World Posted May 24, 2022
There’s that old maxim that “there is nothing new under the sun”, and sometimes when you consider the culture and arts that are being produced these days it’s hard not to nod in agreement.
Even some of the most subversive or unique movies, TV shows, and comic books often take inspiration from elsewhere – there’s surely no doubt that Christopher Nolan’s mind-boggling movie Inception was inspired by anime like Paprika, and the same accusation could perhaps be levelled at other big-screen draws like The Matrix and Avatar. Both blockbusters owe gratitude to anime originals like Ghost In The Shell and Princess Mononoke.
It's always something of a shame when these Hollywood movies, TV shows, and video games essentially take the credit for being innovative or left-field when, in some cases, they have been inspired by source material crafted thousands of miles away in Japan or other parts of Asia. In that spirit, it’s always fun to shine a light on how the different sections of culture and the arts have been directly inspired by anime.
Comic Books
One of the interesting things about anime is that it tends to deal with dark or difficult subjects that, for the most part, you wouldn’t expect to see on the page accentuated by colourful animation and characters. Additionally, it won’t have escaped your attention that even some of the most mainstream superhero comic books have gone down this particular road too. The likes of Arkham Asylum, Watchmen and even some entries into the Spider-Man series have adopted anime features stylistically.
While visually Western comic books and anime might have plenty of differences, tonally there is definitely some crossover that has helped to bring about more psychological, rather than cartoonish, narratives.
Gaming
The globalisation of anime has been massively successful, with Western territories adopting the anime style across entertainment mediums. Specifically in the world of online gaming and gambling, anime has taken off. One of the most successful video game franchises in history, The Legend of Zelda, was inspired heavily by anime visuals and storyline concepts. However, that was just the beginning of the crossover from Japanese art to video games, with Final Fantasy and Pokémon being two more examples.
It’s not just traditional video games that have taken inspiration from anime, though. Fruit machines and Pachinko games, which are very popular in Japan, have used anime characters and designs for decades. However, it's only in more recent years that developers have sought to utilise the anime theme as inspiration for online slot games such as Fortune Girl, Koi Princess and Sakura Fortune. Impressively, those slot titles have been consistently popular with Western audiences across the USA and UK, but also European countries, as evidenced by the fact that some of the best Swiss online casinos stock these games. Appealing to both die-hard anime fans and new players, unfamiliar with the online slot world or anime realm, games like Koi Princess have demonstrated that anime has a clear place among the classic game show and celebrity-inspired slots. Anime is a crucial part of pop culture, and it is here to stay.
Movies & TV
We’ve already mentioned Christopher Nolan, whose love of anime runs so deep he called upon the services of legendary studios such as Madhouse, Production I.G. and Studio 4C to produce Batman: Gotham Knight, a companion piece to his trilogy of movies about the Caped Crusader.
There are so many more examples of Hollywood ‘leaning on’ anime for inspiration. Countless movies have used the concepts explored in Akira, while Vampire Hunter D paved the way for numerous half-human-half-vampire hybrids that would follow (think Van Helsing as well as Blade and Co).
The 2017 release, Ghost In The Shell, was a direct take on Mamoru Oshii’s original 22 years prior – anime that visionary director James Cameron once described as the ‘first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence.’ The list goes on and on: modern cinema is truly indebted to the work of anime pioneers.
Music
It goes without saying that many people in the music industry are true artists, and their inspiration can come from many weird and wonderful avenues. A number of pop stars and alternative acts have mentioned how the power of anime has impacted their work, and such reverence can often be seen in the videos they produce to accompany their songs and albums. For example, pop queen Billie Eilish called upon Takashi Murakami to direct her video for ‘You Should See Me In a Crown’, while the likes of Cardi B and Tyga have also utilised anime-like visuals in their videos.
Further back, Daft Punk’s 2000 masterwork ‘One More Time’ wears its anime inspiration on its sleeve, and their track ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’ was sampled by Kanye West in 2007 on ‘Stronger’, another track with an anime-heavy video.
Whether explicit or more subtle, it’s impossible to deny the impact of anime on modern art and culture around the world.
