Ask John: Where Have the Serious and Violent Anime Gone?

Question:
What happened to quality, plot driven, adult oriented anime like Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, Crying Freeman, Mermaid Scar, etc. Why is there so little adult oriented anime out there. Surely by now there must be a demand for more than just big eyes and fan service. I’ve seen Eva, Paranoia Agent, Appleseed, Death Note and all the other recent favorites, but even they were so reserved/conservative. I understand that TV shows are under more content constraints than OAVs but where have the OAVs of this kind gone? When did this shift happen and why? Where have my ‘adult situations and violence’ gone?

Answer:
I think that there are many American and international anime fans that recollect and long for the days of dark, dystopic, violent, action oriented anime like Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, Battle Angel, Berserk, Hellsing, Genocyber, Angel Cop, and numerous other thematically similar titles. Modern anime seems so dominated by cute anime, romantic sitcoms, children’s adventure shows, and mainstream robot anime that programs emphasizing serious and intense suspense and action seem to have virtually vanished. To some degree I can support this theory. However, at the same time I’m convinced that there are still a significant number of dark and grim anime produced these days, and their absence has more to do with the perspective of American observers than trends in the anime production industry.

It’s vital to remember that anime is primarily made for Japanese audiences, and Japanese viewers tend to gravitate toward genres and styles of anime which aren’t as popular with viewers outside of Japan. American fans bemoan the prominence of “dating simulation” and “moe” anime, but these two genres are the most popular types of anime among the Japanese otaku who support the anime production industry. While Japanese viewers have been interested in dark and suspenseful anime for generations – consider Osamu Tezuka’s sinister and violent supernatural revenge series Dororo to Hyakkimaru from 1969 – this sort of anime has always represented only a small minority of all anime. I suspect that many American fans think of older titles like Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Crying Freeman as a condensed group of anime titles without consciously realizing that these titles were originally released in Japan over a span of nearly fifteen years, and these types of dark and violent anime were periodic anomolies even when they were new.

I must concede that the 1980s and 1990s did produce countless violent, serious anime – the type that Americans would consider “mature” – as OVAs like Violence Jack, Devilman, Karakuri no Kimi, Kujaku-O, MD Geist, Guy, Maryu Senki, and many others. These anime were viable in OVA form because they were supported by fans and collectors buying them on home video. However, these days home video sales are down, and the demand for anime is so great that the limited number of animators at work in Japan spend their time on more profitable and widely distributed TV anime instead of OVAs targeted at niche audiences.

The number of violent and explicit anime produced today may be slightly lower than it was a decade or two ago, but there are still plenty of serious, “adult” anime available to satisfy fans. Just since 2006 there have been at least two dozen anime titles reminiscient of the style of 80s and 90s “dark” anime.

Titles including Witchblade, the first season of Black Lagoon, Ergo Proxy, 009-1, Afro Samurai, Tokyo Majin Gakuen, Tokko, and the first three episodes of the Hellsing OVA series are available in America. Blassreiter, Claymore, Strait Jacket, Kite Liberator, and Darker Than Black will all be available in America soon.

Fans with access to imported anime can track down recent titles like the shockingly explicit Tokyo Tribe 2 and Mnemosyne, or the grim, gory, and strictly adult oriented Shigurui. Baccano! is a great looking supernatural crime drama with moments of startling brutal violence. Skull Man plays like a gothic Japanese take on Batman, except with more moral ambiguity and many more monsters. Like a fairy tale returning to its roots, Hakaba Kitaro depicts the darker and more sinister original version of the popular children’s friendly monster anime Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro. The Persona ~Trinity Soul~ and 2007 Ayakashi television series combine psychological horror with supernatural threats and, in the case of Ayakashi, brutal, graphic gore. And fans interested in serious, suspenseful anime without an exploitive tone or gratuitous violence can turn to titles like Paprika, Seirei no Moribito, and Shion no Ou.

Fans may also be able to look forward to upcoming Japanese productions which may appeal, including Golgo 13, and possibly the Soul Eater Late Show, and Nabari no Ou.