VHS
1977-1984
Dallos - 1983
With the introduction of video, it created a while new market for the growth of the Anime business. It had always been possible for private individuals to own their own copies of the film, if they had the money available, although the average consumer did not have their own VHS player until the late 1970s. The advent of video allowed the general public to own their own copy. However, the ‘ownership’ for the consumer isn’t completely true as the possession of a cassette brings with no rights to the property it contains. It just gives the right to watch that copy as much as they desire in a private home.
By the late 1970s televisions had largely been populated by Japanese cartoon film, with sequels and spinoffs from preexisting shows, as well as having many anime films screened in theaters. There was apparent increase in original works from 1983 onwards. Many of these shows had an original basing in older commercials, or even books. The series Dallos released in the final days of 1983, was almost obscured due to an accidental distribution of the second episode first. It would be the first anime that would be released straight to video. It did lead to the transformation of the structure of the animation industry. It took the hands of distribution from studios and broadcasters into the hands of cornerstones, rental libraries and mail-order firms. Anime produced straight the video would double the number of anime titles released into the market by the year 1986.
With the VCR recorder, it allowed for the consumer of television programs to record their favorite programs, although at first it was hard for the average consumer to buy until the late 1970s. It allowed the viewer to have an archive of their favorite series like collecting manga, or novels. Video recorders also allowed it so that young animators to study the work of other predecessors, which was previously only available to actual apprentices of the trade.
Animage Cover Featuring Nausicaä - 1984
The children that became teens during the late 1970s became the first generation that used some of their income to buy the first anime magazines and rent the first videos. As a result, the idea to have animated shows geared toward this teenage audience started to appear as well as magazines about Japanese Animation beginning with OUT (1977-1995) as well as Animage (1978), and Animec (1978-1987) as well as a few others. The number of anime available to the general public has increasingly grown since the arrival of video. Arguably it can be stated that in 1977 it was the first year in which anime and the fandom could assert a sense of culture.
Just as cinema theaters were sites that created a demand for more content the anime magazines did the same. Companies sought to use these magazines as venues for new product, such as with Miyazaki Hayao’s Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä and the Valley of the Wind) which was originally published as a manga in the Animage Magazine starting in 1982, which would be later made into a film during its run in 1984.
Magazines also used their influence to exploit the distribution and exhibition of anime, and they often used their power to alert readers to video releases that might have otherwise escaped notice. The magazines also helped in keeping a degree of longevity to several anime shows and movies. Such as in Animage magazine in which it not only was the origin of Nausicaä but also helped keep it falling into obscurity with the main heroin continuing to be featured on the cover, as well as keeping the ongoing manga serial in their magazine.
While it wasn’t known at the time Dallos was not originally intended to be the first anime to be released straight to video. It was a failed television project and dumped on video in order to recoup development costs. Video was originally shrugged off as little more then something with a lower budget then a movie, but as the 1980s drove on it became apparent that the animation industry began to appreciate the niche appeal of video.
During this time, there was a new class of video known as after-mono, or sequels. These animations were made to age with their original audience to allow them to have a visitation of their childhood interest, but could have more mature themes then the original. The other is known as the midquel, which was the continuation of an ongoing franchise of another medium, such as a book. However most of these were related to untranslated novels and were often meaningless in foreign territories was the book was unavailable.
The pornographic sector of anime also flourished with the advent of video, as it capitalized on animation’s facility in being able to depict scenes that would normally be prohibited or illegal to stage with real people. This, however, often places anime fans on continuum with those connected with those of murders and molesters, such as with the case with the 1989 arrest of Miyazaki Tsumou, a pedophile serial killer, whose home had many works of violent pornography that included anime. It damned anime by association.
As animation rose again in the 1950s it was reestablished as a children’s medium, although there were some precious animations that were clearly meant for an adult audience. As anime moves toward an older audience it makes an argument about a wider application for this art style, but people also argue that these people who enjoy watching these ‘cartoons’ are rejecting or postponing the adult world.
The advent of video helped to create an availability to experiment in new areas of material meant for adult audiences, it also helped create an archive of anime as well as the creation and fostering of fandoms. While most of the anime from this period are now mostly forgotten, mostly due the quality not standing up to the prolonged scrutiny of artistic heritage.
