[Jotaku]

Original manga/anime otakus from mostly eastern countries would have already been wary of this trend, but we've recently seen Western companies gradually incorporating anime graphics into their games starting in the 2020s. Of course, while there exists an unrivaled western company that doesn't make use of hybrid graphics involving both realistic and anime but truly pure anime like Odyssey Interactive, understanding true weebism, but it is interesting to see how many recent trends of western games that were once-originally-realistic graphic proceed with the integration of anime graphics into their games under the name of “anime collaboration”. It is witnessed from some western video games like Fortnite. Among them, especially Hi-Rez Studios, whose best video game title is known as "Smite", is the unmatched western company which is carving out their own path toward a virtual world where Japanese anime art and realistic graphics coexist by converting their Gods into anime (???). They even change their video game banner on Twitch to the anime version of the game too frequently.

Figure 1. Smite's latest Twitch Banner, as of Jan 13th 2024.

From the inspection above, indeed, it is witnessed that some companies in the Western world can be observed making continuous efforts to integrate anime into Western culture by allowing the hybrid of anime art and realistic art in their games. Although such endeavors may appear peculiar from the perspective of purists, like Pythagoras or Plato, who strictly adhere to the full anime experience, it can be understood if this is considered the only effective way for anime to be widely accepted in the West, frankly speaking.

In East Asia, especially Japan, where there are many orthodox believers in anime, many developers there are likely to create full anime games designed entirely with anime art, insisting on the purity of the anime world through their games, regardless of whether their anime games sell well or not. However, observing the evolution of the anime as a byproduct through the anime & real hybrid from a third-party perspective is quite intriguing.

So why is this trend happening?

Figure 2. Biggest Reason Why Anime Art is incorporated into non-anime Western games.

Right here lies the point of incorporating anime in the Western context – the fact that "anime makes money." The reasons for consistently incorporating anime graphics in the Smite community can be seen next. Of course, in my opinion, probably it seems to target Asians residing in the Western countries, or to make games for export in east asia region?

The act of blending anime and realistic graphics may fundamentally face a higher risk of failure in places where original anime otaku are prevalent, typically in locations where anime has been ingrained in the culture for several decades, such as Japan and East Asia. However, in cultures where anime has been wholly embraced in a third-party cultural context, there is also the potential for success using such a method of convergence.

So, are people in the West indeed cautious about the influx of Japanese anime into Western culture? Naturally, I think they are. In fact, several anime are banned in the west as well. Looking at the following picture, you can see that about half of them are aware and cautious (If you calculate that half of the people who answered “I don’t care” are positive and half are negative, you can see that overall, about 42% are cautious, indicating a more significant figure than one might think.). But please keep in mind that it is just public polling so that it can be different in the real world.

Figure 3. Polling result about more anime integration in the non-anime game.

Honestly, the concept of "integrating anime with real simply because it makes money" is quite painful for anime purists like us who appreciate anime in its pure form. However, considering that anime culture is spreading more widely through such means, perhaps we need to quietly accept it.

Lastly, will such hybrid trends have a negative impact on anime purists? It doesn't seem so. Since they beware of the line between real and anime, anime purists can adhere strictly to their anime principles with a samurai spirit. Many Japanese know this principle as you already see they rather SEPARATELY create games by art style such as full-anime games like Ace Attorney by Camcom and non-anime games like Street Fighter by the same Capcom. We haven't seen much of anime and real mixtures in Japanese games only except Final Fantasy Online (among big titles). However, in places where anime is not a native culture, it is expected to have a certain amount of impact by opening the eyes of people who were not familiar with anime or anime art.

Therefore, we will continue to quietly observe these phenomena in the future.

Also, if you happen to live in the west, why not share your thought to convey the reality of anime integration in the western culture through what ways? Like what other industries the anime is getting integrated with? One thing I witnessed

HEY THEY PRESENT "MILITARY DISCOUNT" ON ANIME DRINKS!

[Laffey wanting Siren observer]

I mean, that's the same side of the world that gave you things like Superman and Marvel and Comic heroes. Different cultures just tended to approach it from different art styles, Besides. Anime has this stigma of being girly or 'manchild' in the west, And in turn comic art has that same issue of being 'too manly' on that other side of the world.

[Jotaku]

Sorry for my wrong answer before. But then I guess in the west nowadays 60% likes "too manly" and 40% like "too girly" then, according to your answer. Probably it was "100% manly" in the west before the import of anime long time ago, I guess. So using both art style in one entity means either "too manly" or "too girly" together. That seems very extreme. lol.