Redressing the Balance
Other companies, such as Kiseki, have tried to redress the balance by releasing softer material, but one unfortunate side effect of the massive spending power of Manga Video is that most shops are still to this day displaying their anime titles beneath Manga's point-of-sale displays. Journalists outside the anime press made (and still) make no distinction between what is on the shelf, tending to reinforce the idea that anime = sex and violence; and in my opinion few of those buying Manga titles in the early days were especially interested in the fact that the films originated in Japan, as long as there was plenty of the aforementioned sex and violence.

Of course, most continental viewers started out in much the same state of ignorance. It can't have helped, for instance, that Kei And Yuri of the Dirty Pair TV series became Kate and Julie in Italy and Maison Ikkoku's Kyoko became Juliette in France.

I had rather hoped that, as with other European countries, we in Britain might next see a manga explosion, which in turn would stimulate interest in a broader range of anime. However, despite the success of one publisher with a manga project called Iron Fist Chinmi aimed at children (100,000 sold) there is no sign yet that this has opened the floodgates. Meanwhile, just as happened in Japan during the 1980s, films made directly for video is going where television fears to tread; rather than pushing the bounds of storytelling, the trend is somewhat more basic in intent, with Manga Video launching an "adult" label in Spain and erotic anime are selling very well in France.

On a more positive note, anime is expanding elsewhere in Europe, with Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso and My Neighbor Totoro getting television premieres in Finland and at least 50 titles made available on video. Porco Rosso, considered a masterpiece by many, has also been dubbed and shown on Polish TV.

The Winds of Honneamise © Manga Entertainment

In the last year, the first tentative signs of interest from British television have appeared, with Channel 4, a broadcaster with a broad alternative mandate, running several late night anime seasons--though completely dominated by Manga product. Rather more hopeful for a balanced approach is the news that the BBC has purchased both Patlabor and Wings Of Honneamise. Nevertheless, Britain remains rather the odd man out in Europe, as it does in most things, so no one is expecting to see something like the delightful love story, Kimagure Orange Road in the BBC children's broadcast slot for a long time to come.

John Gosling is a freelance writer living in England. His major credits include numerous anime video reviews for the magazine MangaMania and an article on the use of factual space concepts in anime for Spaceflight, the journal of the British Interplanetary Society.