Anime and the rest of the Western world

I was always wondering how anime is doing in the UK and parts of Europe like Germany and Austria.

Is Interstella 5555 our only knowledge of Japan/Euro collaborations? I've heard there were plenty more, just not publicisized due to US's limited exposure.

Also, how does the rest of the Western world (minus America) view anime? It seems people tend to throw out the term "Western" alot without even thinking that Japan is technically part of the 'Western' world. (Quite frankly, it's quite an outdated term)

There were a couple of previous French-Japanese collaborations that I know of. "Mysterious Cities of Gold" and "Ulysses 33" on Children's BBC were the cartoon cornerstones of my childhood, man!

Anime is ticking over reasonably well in the UK - we had the big crash after everyone got tired of Manga Video's non-stop catalogue of mediocrity with only the occasional stellar release (Akira, GitS, Caglistro), and soon the likes of Kiseki, AnimEigo and Pioneer pulled out or folded altogether. These days things are back on track a bit; we've got ADV and MVM putting out a few new titles a month, and recent stuff too. We get a bit of a raw deal from Disney and their treatment of the Ghibli catalogue (yes, even worse than the 'States) - long delayed releases, minuscule cinema releases (if at all) and in some cases no proper subtitles (just dubtitles).

I remember Ulysses 33/(3000?). Definately some overlooked stuff. From what I know, they also worked on alot of classical English tales and stuff like animated adaptations of Oliver Twist and such.

I remember Ulysses 33/(3000?). Definately some overlooked stuff. From what I know, they also worked on alot of classical English tales and stuff like animated adaptations of Oliver Twist and such.