How Streaming and Covid-19 Entrenched Anime’s Global Popularity Posted Jul 13, 2021
In the past years, the world has seen the unexpected rise of new trends in the entertainment industry. When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, the entire world had to adapt and turn to the available sources of entertainment, which, for most people, included online or video games, and streaming services.
One of these global trends that people became very interested in is anime. Even though the Japanese animated movies gained a lot of fame and popularity in 1963 with “Astro Boy”, it wasn’t until the 70s that they reached western coasts. In the beginning, only a small number of people in the West showed an interest in anime. However, as time went by and streaming services like Netflix became available, anime was able to reach a greater portion of the western audience who were simply fascinated by the genre.
But Netflix isn't the only streaming service that is fighting for the best anime on the market. All streaming TV giants are looking for a way to get the top-rated anime shows on their platforms.
As the world premiere of “Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train” showed that anime is at the peak of its popularity, we will now take a look at how this genre made such an incredible breakthrough on the global scene.
The Initial Boost From The Streaming Services
As we’ve already mentioned, streaming services have already recognized the true value of anime, so now we have access to all kinds of anime shows and movies on different platforms. In the beginning, streaming services wanted to play it safe so they added only the most popular titles like “Death Note”, “Attack on Titan”, “Fullmetal Alchemist” and other globally acknowledged movies and shows.
Fast forward a couple of years, we are now living in an era where Netflix is investing money in the production of anime that will be exclusive for that platform. Some of the anime titles that the fans will be able to enjoy on Netflix are “High-Rise Invasion”, “Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure”, “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan”, and others. Moreover, companies like Sony’s Funimation are acquiring anime streaming services which is a significant step towards the expansion of the anime industry.
The Pandemic Lockdown and Shift Towards In-House Entertainment
The world has seen great changes in the entertainment industry after the Covid-19 lockdown began. As more and more people spent all of their free time inside their homes, the need to look for online entertainment started to grow.
More than ever before people tuned to playing online games of different genres. Playing online slots on the best gambling platform seemed like a perfect way to try out online casino games that aren’t very complicated to play. Moreover, this type of entertainment offered a unique opportunity to possibly earn some money while having fun at the same time.
Additionally, the popularity of streaming services was at its peak during this period as people were left with a lot of time to spare. And what better way to use that free time than to catch up with all of the shows that they have been missing or to discover new ones that they’ve never watched before. This is how the people in the West turned to anime, as a new and refreshing genre that offered a lot of great shows and movies. Furthermore, all of these “pandemic trends” found a way to boost each other’s popularity even more. For example, the same people that looked for the ultimate $1 deposit casino were also able to spot anime-themed casino games. These games were aimed at gambling fans that also liked anime, but it doesn’t mean that they haven’t attracted a great number of other visitors as well. This was a great way for both anime and online casino entertainment to promote each other while the hype lasts.
The Future of Anime on a Global Scale
Everything seems to point out that the anime trend is here to stay. If we take a look at the world’s charts we can see that Japanese anime is breaking world records when it comes to foreign-language films. And as this industry moves forward, we can only expect to see more amazing anime shows and movies that we’ll gladly put on our must-watch list.