Anime is definitely something that interests a wide range of fans but it’s also an acquired taste for many people since others might be interested but don’t know enough about it yet, while others don’t fully enjoy the manner in which stories are told or aren’t on board with the animation that goes into each project. Like anything in show business, anime is a commodity that some people like and other people avoid for their own reasons, but as Tommy Williams of GeekTyrant has established, Netflix is taking their dealings with Japanese anime very seriously at this point as their menu of anime has been steadily growing throughout the past couple of years. Many fans see this is as a positive move since it inspires the network to be more inclusive and allows new stories to emerge on the site for fans of anime and those that might be interested but aren’t quite sure what they want to watch just yet. While I can personally state that I’m not the biggest fan of anime I can also state that as a storyteller it is something that has caught on and become a trend, or movement perhaps, that has been growing for years now and is still building as more and more people come into the fold. Despite not being enamored of the style it’s still easy for me to say that yes, there is a great deal of value in anime, especially since it is so widely accepted by such a vast and diverse number of people.
The stories can be as grounded and confined to reality as possible or as far out and amazing as one can imagine, but usually they tend to be able to cater to a fairly wide group of people that happen to hold interest in various different genres that anime is great at representing. From one story to the next people are able to find what they like and perhaps even interest themselves in something that they had little to no knowledge of beforehand and might enjoy if they just sit for a while and see what it’s all about. One thing about anime is that it is vibrant, colorful in many ways, and the stories are well-written, so it’s easy to think that a lot of people are going to be pulled in whether they were expecting it or not. It might be a wonder as to how anyone could resist a good anime story and while there’s a simple answer the best way to say it at this moment is that not all of us enjoy the style of storytelling, no matter that it’s not nearly enough to say that it’s not worth the effort. Anime has proven to be a well-established and loved style that a legion of fans have decided is worthwhile and should stick around, and throughout the decades now it’s been on the rise in a way that hasn’t always been as apparent but is at this point hard to ignore. When Netflix first came out anime was still building to what it could possibly be one day, but now that it’s been given a platform on the popular streaming site it’s experiencing another big rise that should help with publishing as well and in other areas where the continued appreciation for anime will help it to become something even more impressive than it’s already been.
There might come a day when I’ll sit down to watch an entire anime series and think to myself what I was missing, but at this moment it’s enough to think that people know what they like, or at least what draws them to anime, and are satisfied with the way things are going and the continued list of titles that Netflix is working to bring them. The reaction of the fans thus far has been quite positive so it’s easy to think that Netflix will continue to develop its relationship with anime in a very profound manner and will continue to bring on more and more titles as time goes on. Whether the quality will always be just as good is hard to say since such a thing is typically subjective and doesn’t necessarily reflect the opinions of every fan in an accurate manner. The point is that anime is, for the most part, here to stay and will only continue to get bigger if more and more people continue to watch and, of course, if streaming networks such as Netflix continue to partner with storytellers that are willing and ready to bring people new material and ideas that will keep them watching and wanting more. Like I said, one day I might find the time to sit down and watch an anime series, but for now it’s enough to realize that it’s not going anywhere.
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