I find the lack of anime merchandising in this country disturbing. In Japan, you have anime stickers, toys, cards, models, rice sprinkles, choco-balls, plastic writing tablets, keychains, watches, shirts...
It was like the 80's. Just like the 80's. It still is. Japan has mastered marketing, and anime companies in the US will suffer by not having their name plastered on everything for kids to see, while regular cartoons take advantage of merchandising instead. We have SpongeBob and cereal.
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Anonymous2005-09-10 20:45
The 80's was all about merchandising, especially Nintendo of America, and any saturday morning cartoon. Today seems to pale in comparison to the amount of random merchandise available back then- it still exists, but it seems like a lot less, or is just focused on a couple things like Pokemon/Yu-gi-oh. Compare all the stuff made for Dragonball/DBZ in Japan to the stuff in the US. There's also a ton more video game merchandise over there.
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Anonymous2005-09-14 13:56
Anime isn't yet Mainstream in the US. But if you look at the anime that has made it into the US Population: Pokemon, Yugioh, Dragonball Z ... shit, look at all THAT merchandising.
Just cause you don't see teddy bear pajamas ala Lain being sold in the states, doesn't mean there exists no merchandising.
The idea behind the post seems to be that Americans have grown fatter n' lazier since the 80's. Not pushing their products enough like they used to, not just the anime imports.
Look at how many GI Joe toys came off the new series...Now, if you're old enough, think back to when it first debuted, how much cool shit they had out the first few days.