Much of the reason people didn’t bother seeing that movie could have been credited to the vocal backlash towards the movie casting a non-Asian actor in the lead for a story that clearly takes place in a futuristic Japan. Paramount Picturesĭue to that growing popularity, it’s far from surprising that Hollywood continues to try to get into the Anime business even after Paramount’s 2017 Ghost in the Shell movie, starring Scarlett Johansson, tanked in the States.

Kids just eat the stuff up, to the point where burgeoning comic artists look to Japan for influence and inspiration.

If you go to your local library, you’re apt to find a section solely for Manga. Anime conventions have gotten so big they’ve broken off from the main Comic-Cons where Anime was often included almost as an afterthought, leading to well-attended events.

Thirty years ago, Manga was still fairly niche among American readers and the same was true for Anime with American moviegoers, though the popularity of both mediums has grown exponentially over the past few decades as younger people discover it. Almost thirty years since the debut of Yukito Kishiro’s influential Manga series Battle Angel Alita, 20 thCentury Fox is releasing Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel, an adaptation of the series that’s been gestating under the aegis of filmmaker James Cameron for over a decade.

Battle angel anime