The way anime was advertised in the '90s was particularly interesting compared to any time before or after it. For starters, it was actually advertised as anime to begin with! From the '60s on through the '80s, anime was presented as nothing more than just another cartoon. "Hey kids! Do you like android boys having adventures? Boy controlled giant robots? Adventurous race car drivers? Tales of white lions that totally won't get ripped off by Disney in 40 years? Teams of multicolored superhero ninjas? Monster fighting super giant robots? Fighter jets that turn into giant robots? Giant robot lions that connect to form a even larger robot?! Well here's some freakin cartoons for yous on Saturday morning!"
State of the art Japanese animation
Then the 1990s came. Now, believe it or not, there's been a fandom since at least the late '70s. The '80s had cons, fanzines, and tape trading, so there were many in the know long before us in the '90s. But as far as what was being brought over to the States, despite decades of programs airing, it wasn't until the '90s that it was widely advertised as what it was, Japanese animation. With the critical acclaim of Akira, distributors began to make a push to sell the American public on "Japanimation". But how? Well, basically by telling us how damn cool it is. When your available back catalog consists of movies like Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, and Fist of the North Star, you play up how "not for kids" they are.
It's animation grown up and gone wild!
No longer presented as just another kids show, but as violent adult themed animation that was too strong for Saturday mornings. This was "anime", and it had a wild and compelling art style the likes of which you've never seen. They proposed that while the wussies were watching their after school cartoon blocks, you could be immersed in a world of blood, gore, nudity, and foul language that's simply "too hot for tv". Fun way of marketing anime, most promotional videos certainly got you pumped, but it had a down side. As cool as those boisterous ads were, it created a stigma towards anime that took until the 2000s to wear off. Many people thought of anime as violent spectacles that ruined the wholesomeness of good cartoons, or that it was nothing more than animated porn (while amusingly being unaware of the existence of hentai). Looking at most ads of the day, it's really not hard to see why so many viewed anime, as Crow T. Robot of MST3K so eloquently put it, "violent porn cartoons."
High powered action that will blow you away!
But as the '90s wore on, the exuberant and kinetic ads highlighting the splendor and ferocity of anime from distributors like Streamline Pictures and US Manga Corps, or promos for the Sci-Fi Channel's annual anime festivals (more on those another time) began to wane. The rise in popularity of Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and other programs (many, like the latter two aforementioned shows, rose to prominence on Cartoon Network's Toonami) showed distributors and tv stations that there was in fact more to anime than half naked cat girls, giant robots, and exploding heads. Leading to less extreme marketing tactics. All for the better ultimately, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the ludicrous anime advertisements of old.
Selection of action packed titles
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