It can not be stressed how far anime has come in America. What used to be a niche medium that was primarily viewed by teenagers loaning VHS tapes to one another is now amulti-billion dollar businesswith various streaming apps dedicated resources to the business, and anime fans have more choices for what they can watch then they ever have before. We have many companies to thank for helping make anime mainstream: Streamline Pictures, who brought some of the first anime to the video market. Cartoon Network and their popular Toonami block. Tokyopop, for helping make manga affordable and mainstream.
One company that does not get much credit for their role in helping make anime mainstream is Warner Bros. More specifically theKids WB blockon the now defunct WB channel. While Kids WB is remembered fondly by animation fans in general, they may have played one of the biggest roles in making anime mainstream, and they don’t seem to get the credit they deserve for their efforts in doing so. So let’s take a moment to look back at this kids block and see how they helped open the door for more mainstream anime adoption.
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What Was Kids WB?
Kids WB stood for Kids Warner Brothers. As the name implies, it was a programing block primarily geared towards children. Before the foundation of Kids WB, most of the shows Warner Bros. Animation produced went to rival Fox Kids. Shows likeTiny Toon Adventures,Animaniacs,andBatman: The Animated Serieswere all shows that Warner Bros. made that were huge hits on Fox Kids. At one point Warner Bros. realized they had the content to make their own programming block, and when parent company Time Warner decided to create a fifth television network called The WB, Warner Bros. Animation was tasked with being the primary producers of the content on that channel.
Animaniacsmoved to Kids WB while Batman was given a soft reboot inThe New Batman/Superman Adventures. As the years went on more original programming like Static Shock and The Jackie Chan Adventures would also premier on the channel, and Kids WB was a favorite morning ritual for many American children. Around 1999 Warner Bros. heard of this new show in syndication that was taking the world by storm:Pokemon. It was an animated series from Japan, and while it was in syndication in America it had very good ratings for not having a “home network.” Warner Bros. decided they wanted to be in thePokemonbusiness, and made an offer to bring the series to Kids WB.
Acquisition of Pokemon
When Kids WB announced that the second season ofPokemonwas coming to the channel it was major news. Many journalists predicted that ‘PokeMania’ (which is what the craze was nicknamed) was about to become an even bigger thing, and parents were warned about all the Pikachu doll that would be bought as a result of the series being on a major network. WhenPokemondid air on Kids WB the ratings were HUGE! PokeMania had entered a second wave that was bigger than the first, and Kids WB was reaping the rewards!
This one show made Kids WB the most watched children’s block on TV (cable TV included), and considering the cost of the acquisition was relatively inexpensive at the time, it was considered an even bigger win for the network. Even if parents didn’t get it, there was no denying thatPokemonwas here to stay, and whoever was in business with the yellow electric rat stood to make a lot of money in the long run.
How this Helped Make Anime More Mainstream
While all this sounds great, how exactly did this help anime in general? For starters, with all the articles being written aboutPokemon, virtually all of them made it a point to mention that the series was a Japanese anime, breaking the stereotype that all anime was giant robots and big boobs. It also showed that anime could garner huge ratings and even appear on the cover of Time Magazine. Desperate to compete with Kids WB, Fox Kids acquired the rights toDigimon: Digital Monsters, which ended up doing very well for them. Fox decided to double down on anime by airingEscaflowne, Flint the Time Detective, andMonster Rancher.
Other cable networks started look at airing their own anime as well, and Nickelodeon and Disney Channel started acquiring their own anime to air. Cartoon Network expanded their Toonami block by a whole hour so that they could air more programs. Of course, Kids WB themselves tripled down on anime, and would air shows such asCardcaptors, Atstro Boy, Viewtiful Joe, andMegaman NT Warrior. What’s more, when they decided to airYu-Gi-Oh!it was another smash hit that took the world by storm, proving that success with anime didn’t begin and end withPokemon. Ironically, while this would all be good for anime, it was bad for American animation. That’s a story for another day though.
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