Y: I have a question for you. Recently, I've been hearing that there's been an increase in the number of Japanese animation fans in the US. Did something change here? Because Japanese animation hasn't really changed all that much.

X: Yes, I would like to get a personal opinion.

Well, with the explosion of cable television, and then the internet, all of a sudden everything standard and cliché about American storytelling becomes content. Nostalgia exploded, TV Land brought old shows, the Cartoon Network brought old cartoons. In a mad dash for content, American entertainment banks were tapped dry. This sparked a precipitous desperation for other types of story telling. And since everywhere else in the world -- Europe, Australia, etc. -- had already adopted the American style, the only avenue left for a new way of telling stories was Japan. Now, there definitely were plenty of anime fans before hand, but I think the overexposure of Western entertainment drove people to seek out something different and good.

X: You're talking about why it happened. So what was it that interested them about anime once people discovered it?

Japanese animation tends to not be inhibited about tackling topics like the supernatural, religion, sex and violence, death, pain, love -- things that our own culture, no matter how much we pretend to be free thinking, tends to find taboo. The Japanese treat these topics in a very matter of fact manner, opening a dialogue in the viewer rather preaching to the viewer. I think that this ideal can be expanded to the Japanese perception of history. I know that culturally there's an effort to mask Japan's past atrocities, but in animation and film, artists aren't afraid to face a wicked past. Americans still aren't ready to face their past, at least in the mainstream. Mainstream American movies keep getting made that cast American soldiers as infallible freedom fighters for American ideals. Japanese filmmakers don't eschew showing the ugly parts of the street. So there is a liberating feeling, a kind of catharsis that takes place, when watching Japanese animation that you don't get watching a very regimented American body of work. Now, this is just a generalization, but I believe it speaks to a kind of truth.

X: I believe it has everything to do with the demographic. When we produce anime in Japan we don't necessarily concern ourselves with trying to corner a kids market with a certain formula. A 40-year-old person sitting on a train is used to reading manga; manga has a huge market in Japan. And manga and animation go hand in hand. People are raised being able to understand a story through pictures rather than dialogue. Therefore we can produce things that are marketed more towards older people rather than little children. That is what is being embraced here in the United States, now. People are realizing that animation isn't just for kids. Why specifically is that happening?

If we only knew. When anime came to the United States in the fifties and sixties in the form of Tezuka's work, the style was familiar because it was emulating the Disney style. Around 1979/80 the anime that arrived in the US was definitely different, and kept on getting more different. The principal shows responsible for sparking anime popularity throughout the 1980s were "Gundam," "Voltron," "Gatcha-Man," and "Robotech," the latter presumably being the most influential. That's when I started watching anime. So, now I'm 26 years old, and I can afford to buy DVDs and videos and I'm attracted to material to which I was introduced way back then. I think what happened is that the American demographic that would make anime popular as adults wasn't bred before my generation. Now my generation is old enough to buy this stuff, and we've been exposed to it and we appreciate it for being something more than a simple kids' distraction.

X: So watching "Gatcha-man" as a kid was fun for you?

Yes, as a child. I don't necessarily find it as thrilling or compelling now. But that got me used to the style so as an adult I'd be more open to animation as a legitimate form of entertainment rather than something I needed to grow out of.

X: You know, recently, whenever we meet with industry people, they say the same thing. "When I was a child, I used to watch anime, and now I want to produce something a little more than a Saturday morning cartoon." I think that the reason why there is a rise in people saying, "I now want to do Japanese-animation-like projects" is due to people like you. And it's funny that you are attracted to how different it is because in Japan many of the animators like me enjoy American comics. Some of the biggest anime directors I know are American comics fans and mimic the style. And I think that the basis of modern Japanese animation is American comics. So what do anime fans think of American comics?

Well, comics aren't as pervasive here as in Japan. It's really a niche market. People read manga in Japan as part of their culture. In America, it's a hobby, and a fringe hobby at that. Most of the comics produced before the 1980s were directed at kids -- super hero stories about good vs. evil. However, sometime in the mid '80s this style just wasn't good enough. Marvel started changing the tone of the "X-Men," accentuating their alienation and heartache. Superman started getting darker. Batman started getting darker. In a sense, they started approaching what manga and anime had accomplished. The kids that started buying that new style of comics are now adults and now buying anime.

X: So I'm thinking maybe comics fans in the US are thinking the same way I am. For example Tim Burton's "Batman" was great, but the ones that followed were horrible. I get the impression that's what most people here think as well. What do you think?