Here's an interesting fact: I lived in Japan for a bit when I was younger, and I sucked up anime and manga like a vacuum cleaner. And if you had told me then that Dragonball Z would be the same cash cow in America that it was at the time in Japan, I would've laughed at you. Well, I guess even a genius can be wrong at times. The "Anime Invasion," as such, is going as strong as it ever has. DBZ has some of the highest ratings of any cable program; Yu-gi-oh (despite my protests) is king of Saturday morning; and even shows that aren't marketed to twelve-year-olds, like Inu Yasha and Cowboy Bebop, are doing well. Considering the state of anime up to only ten years ago, it's enough to make even the most jaded fan stop and take notice. And to be honest, despite the typical fanboy gripes about a cherished medium becoming incredibly popular, I think it's a very good thing. And if you ask me, there has never been a better time to be an anime fan, or even better, to become an anime fan.

Granted, you'll come across super hardcore individuals who were there watching bootleg copies of Akira right after it's theatrical release ( . . . in Japan) in the olden days, who long for the days of close-knit fandom and super obscurity. But to be quite honest, screw those people. That sort of hoarding, "If I have it then no one else should!" attitude is the exact type of thing that can hurt the medium of Japanese animation. People like that are glad that Hayao Miyazaki's universally acclaimed Spirited Away is being kept under remarkably tight lock-and-key by Disney, so they can enjoy their expensive import DVDs and pirated internet copies, secure in the knowledge that little Timmy from Michigan will never get to see it. But for those of us who aren't psychos, things are pretty damned rosy.

More anime is coming to America than ever, and even better, it's coming out faster than ever (so incidents like the six-month wait between volumes of the original Eva American VHS release are few and far between). Even more notably, creators in both Japan and the U.S. are starting to realize the potential of Japanese animation in America, as can be evidenced by Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex being readied for domestic release even before it was actually on the air in Japan.

Things have been very busy. Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Inu Yasha (following in the footsteps of Outlaw Star and Gundam) are airing on US TV, with Trigun and Lupin joining in early next year. Domestic editions of two of the most popular anime/manga-related publications in Japan, Shonen Jump comics anthology and Newtype anime magazine, had their U.S. counterparts come out. The Escaflowne movie was released in theaters to . . . err . . . well no one really knows, but Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away received about equally as limited a release, only to do remarkably well for as few theaters it appeared at and be almost universally critically acclaimed.

And that's not even mentioning the continued flow of new shows, with top-tier shows like His and Her Circumstances, Berserk, FLCL, Excel Saga, and GTO seeing domestic release. I'm not gonna mince words: 2002 was a great year for anime. And hopefully 2003 will continue that trend. The domestic release of the Cowboy Bebop movie, the continued synergy of anime and the Matrix franchise (best exemplified in the Animatrix, which will be out in Spring), a ton of new awesome manga releases from Tokyopop . . . who knows, 2003 might even turn out to be a better year! And if it does, expect to see a sad, penniless Riisuke on the street corner begging for change, because my wallet can't take much more of this!

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