Well it's definitely an issue or it wouldn't come up as a topic on this board so often, and there wouldn't be hashtags like #BringBackGatekeeping being thrown around on Twitter. I've argued with people about this issue a shit ton so I'm a little tired of it, but I want to comment in this thread just to give a voice to the side that is against both mainstream-ification and westernization of anime.
To go just briefly in to the reasons, I think the best argument against mainstream-ification is how big money tends consolidate exposure and investment within an industry. Big money companies invest in to safe, popular-appeal content that lacks innovation or any kind of niche appeal, as well as lacking the artistic purity of work produced without the influence of people trying to make as much money as possible. The argument against this is that small, niche anime will still get made, so diversity would be preserved. But but there will be no middle ground. The "middle class" of anime will die. Gaming is a great example. There is only AAA titles and indie games. Diversity doesn't get preserved because the although some niche anime will be made, they will be squeezed by the overbearing presence of the big popular stuff. So not only is there less diversity, but those diverse anime has less funding.
The other problem with anime becoming more mainstream in the west is the cultural influence. This topic gets really touchy as people get super defensive about western media culture. But I'll say it flat out: I don't like western media culture. It tends to be narrow-minded about what counts as art [EDIT: To expand on that, anime is so good because it takes things seriously where western media doesn't, most notably it's treatment of "kids" entertainment], it is very sex-negative, and it is filled with people trying to comment on real-world social agendas instead of just making art to create new fantastical experiences.
For these reasons and more, I and many others do not want Japanese otaku media to become beholden to toxic western media culture because the west becomes where all the money is. This affect has already taken shape insidiously through Steam's censorship of visual novels. Steam is a huge revenue stream for the companies out of Japan looking to make money off their VNs. But Steam has not only been overly censorious, but extremely inconsistent with their application of their policies.
You can't have even slightly sexual themes with girls wearing school uniforms, even if those girls look over 18. Not that it should matter for a number of reasons. It doesn't matter what your opinion on the issue is, these games break no laws, and Steam is not only directly harming Japanese companies, but actually changing the content. Only a few years ago, VNs were much more likely to contain high school settings and girls with petite figures. Now, largely because of western influence, there are a lot less of those settings, and the girls are noticably older in appearance. Again, it doesn't matter what your opinion is. Japanese culture has no problem with presenting high school age characters in sexual situations. Hell, it's a highly sexual time of life. It's interesting. But I don't want to get in to the debate around the rights and wrongs right now. I've made my point about the affect of western influence.
Lastly, there are people that say it's good for industry. It's the best sounding argument, but it's a bad argument when you really look at it. The industry will grow, sure. But that only means more people working in it. The animators will still get paid fuck all, the only individuals who will benefit will be the company execs and CEOs. The people at the top are always the ones who benefit when people about "muh industry" or "muh economy". A bigger industry does not mean a better industry, it doesn't mean better pay for the little man, it doesn't mean more anime, it doesn't mean higher quality anime (unless you think the budget of the most generic popular stuff defines the quality of anime overall). |