| ktay95 said: Whats with Japanese culture in France?? Like is there a reason why they seem to have taken to it more than most western countries?? Also totally picking this up day 1, I have an unopened copy of the limited edition for PS4 but now that its on a portable I will have the time to finally play it. |
Manga and especially Anime became really huge in France during the 80's, and even before there where some highly sucessful Anime shows in France (like Captain Future, called Capitaine Flam in France) and Franco-Japanese coproductions (Ulysse 31, Les sept cités d'or, Jayce et les conquérants de la lumière; calles Ulysses 31, Seven cities of gold and Jayce and the wheeled warriors respectively in english-speaking countries).
It really took off in the mid 80's, when Anime shows got imported by the truckloads: Saint Seiya (Les chevaliers du Zodiaque), City Hunter (Nikki Larson), Hokuto no Ken (Ken le survivant), Dragonball, Ufo Robo Grendizer (Goldorak), Cat's Eyes, Captain Tsubabsa (Olive et Tom), Sailor Moon... and that's just a fraction of them all! Did I mention that all of them ran during the morning? Yes, even Hokuto no Ken or Saint Seiya, as the belief back then was that all animation was for kids, but that quickly changed during the nineties. They also ran just shortly after their original screening in japan (Saint Seiya for instance had all in all a three weeks delay to the japanese original showings!). In fact, saint Seiya was so popular in France that not only they gave it the internationally known title (Chevaliers du Zodiaque means Knights of the Zodiac), but the NES Saint Seiya game got ONLY exported to France, with a full translation no less.
One show in France basically ruled them all, that was the Club Dorothée. It started out comparatively small with 2 hours a week (one hour each on sundays and wednesdays) but grew into a 50 hour+ Juggernaught at it's peak which garnered around 80% viewership (Ufo Robo Grendizer even managed to flat out reach the fabled 100% once, meaning every single TV in france was running the show!). The Dubs and anime intros, since they had to be changed to aim at kids, are nowadays full of narm Charm but you can bet your ass that frenchmen who where kids back then will still know a lot of the intro songs by heart. So no wonder Anime, manga and japanese culture caught on very well there
TL;DR: Anime and manga got popularised much earlier and to a massively larger degree compared to the US for instance.
