Why Are Anime Not Popular In India?




Anime has been trying to make its way to India ever since Jungle book and even Legend of prince Rama. But why does anime failed over and over to get inside India? does Indian community hate anime?

No, Indian community always loved anime and welcomed child friendly anime such as Crayon shin-chan, Doraemon, Per-man, Kitretsu, etc.. whole heartedly. But main problem in anime entering India is adults view on it. Most of the people in India thinks anime as a cartoon for kids and only kids should watch cartoons.

In July 4, 2004, Animax, an exclusively anime broadcasting T.V channel was launched in India to promote anime in India. However, the attempt failed because adults mistook anime for children friendly content. Animax faced a huge amount of loss due to this reason. Animax did made a come back in 2010 by simulcasting anime in India, but people started binging negatively about animax through the net. Later, In 2017 the Animax was taken over by the Sony Yay.

Even though after the downfall of Animax, some T.V channels like Cartoon Network India, Jetix, Hungama, etc.. broadcasted old school anime such as Dragon ball Z, Cowboy bebop, Doraemon, Crayon Shin-chan, etc., with dubs in multiple languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, etc.. The Dubbed version of anime was very much liked by the Indian audience.

Online anime broadcasting websites like kissanime, gogoanime, torrents and VPN and many more are used by millions of Indians. They give you free anime but the views and revenue goes to anonymous source. Anime studios never get TRP from India. Because of this reason Anime studious never considered India as a potential market for Anime.

There are several Indian anime fans club such as Chennai anime fans club and Mumbai anime fans club, and Indian anime community such as Otakunadu, Know_senpai and Anime_talks. They introduced #Indiawantsanime hashtag to bring anime to India. Their attempt was success and as a result, first anime movie Tenki no ko (weathering with you) was released in Indian theaters on October 11, 2019. The Anime movie was a huge success in India and the Anime studios took an interest in Indian market.

I, personally think that Anime needs more recognition and it deserves it. Since anime industry is growing in India, there will be better form of entertainment and it could provide a better platform for animators, voice actors, artists and many more who’ve been always passionate about anime to work from India.