Who's the Mickey Mouse of anime?

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

goku is only a shout for those who are already integrated into the anime community, for everyone else it's a pikachu situation, if you polled 1000 random people in the street with an image of each one and asked them to name them, i would say that 80% would guess pikachu whereas less than 40% would know who goku is.

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just to piggyback on this point, it wasn't until the early 2010's and pretty entirely due to Funimation that the 'west' started to really integrate anime as a mainstream option for dedicated channels on TV and dedicated section on streaming sites that were popping up around that time, if you wanted to watch anime back in the 90's, you had to know somebody who knew somebody who could get VHS tapes imported from japan, and there was never any subtitles in English, nevermind the other major languages of the world, while it's a lot more commonplace today, anime as a general form of media hasn't existed in the form it does today since around 2011/2012, so for sake of arguement you could say that mainstream anime is only around 10 years old at this point.

Depends where, here in Europe (my bias is centered around France and other Francophone countries, AFAIK Italy has had a similar early exposure), we started having japanese anime broadcasted on major television channels as early as 1978.

Things like Goldorak (UFO Robot Grendizer), Albator (Space Pirate Captain Harlock), Dragon Ball, Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seya), Sailor Moon, along with many many children's shows, including numerous adaptations of Western Litterature classics, or various Euro-Japanese collaborations made up a sizeable chunk if not the majority of broadcasted animation at a time, chiefly on kids time slots and/or part of kids shows.

Anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s received a substantial dose of all of that as they grew up, but by the late 90s it more or less stopped as far as major channels and kids slots were concerned, with the notable exception of Pokemon. Classics would see reruns, and we had the likes of Gundam Wing, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop and Visions of Escaflowne, but those were first broadcasted in late afternoon slots (typically on the free slot of a major paid channel, before seeing reruns on cable).

In the 90s manga publication had started, with both major and niche editors gobbling up the catalogue of classics and quickly venturing into novelties, and choice and popularity exploded in the 2000's.

[rogoth]

Depends where, here in Europe (my bias is centered around France and other Francophone countries, AFAIK Italy has had a similar early exposure), we started having japanese anime broadcasted on major television channels as early as 1978.

Things like Goldorak (UFO Robot Grendizer), Albator (Space Pirate Captain Harlock), Dragon Ball, Knights of the Zodiac (Saint Seya), Sailor Moon, along with many many children's shows, including numerous adaptations of Western Litterature classics, or various Euro-Japanese collaborations made up a sizeable chunk if not the majority of broadcasted animation at a time, chiefly on kids time slots and/or part of kids shows.

Anyone who grew up in the 80s and 90s received a substantial dose of all of that as they grew up, but by the late 90s it more or less stopped as far as major channels and kids slots were concerned, with the notable exception of Pokemon. Classics would see reruns, and we had the likes of Gundam Wing, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop and Visions of Escaflowne, but those were first broadcasted in late afternoon slots (typically on the free slot of a major paid channel, before seeing reruns on cable).

In the 90s manga publication had started, with both major and niche editors gobbling up the catalogue of classics and quickly venturing into novelties, and choice and popularity exploded in the 2000's.

from my own experience it's from a UK perspective where 'we' had an already very well established 'kids' sector for general television viewing, and other than a few ultra mainstream shows like sailor moon/DBZ/pokemon and a few others of the time, it was rare to see general anime on TV, if you wanted specific shows, especially those aimed at adults like ghost in the shell as a prime example, you were forced as i said to know a guy who knows a guy who can get the tapes imported, my wording was a bit loose with what i was meaning, but i hope this helps explain what i was trying to say, i grew up in the 90's, and while i did watch the likes of pokemon and sailor moon, it was only because they were available of free tv channels, if you wanted the likes of gundam/evangelion etc, they were on pay per view TV channels and where i lived there was almost no way to get that because the companies that provided that service at the time didn't operate where i lived, so even if my parents were willing to pay for it (they weren't), it wouldn't have mattered anyway, the only way i was able to watch different shows was due to an old childhood friend of mine, his dad would regularly get VHS tapes of shows that had finished airing in japan and get a bulk bye of them, it was thanks to him that i was introduced at the ripe young age of 10 to my first ever Hentai lol, i don't think he knew what it was due to the cover art being very shounen like, but the video was 'the legend of the overfiend'.

overall though the sheer ease of availability today is a night and day comparison to back in 'ye olden days' lol.

[Milchshake]

Speed Racer or Astro Boy ....

[Dhrizzle]

goku is only a shout for those who are already integrated into the anime community, for everyone else it's a pikachu situation, if you polled 1000 random people in the street with an image of each one and asked them to name them, i would say that 80% would guess pikachu whereas less than 40% would know who goku is.

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just to piggyback on this point, it wasn't until the early 2010's and pretty entirely due to Funimation that the 'west' started to really integrate anime as a mainstream option for dedicated channels on TV and dedicated section on streaming sites that were popping up around that time, if you wanted to watch anime back in the 90's, you had to know somebody who knew somebody who could get VHS tapes imported from japan, and there was never any subtitles in English, nevermind the other major languages of the world, while it's a lot more commonplace today, anime as a general form of media hasn't existed in the form it does today since around 2011/2012, so for sake of arguement you could say that mainstream anime is only around 10 years old at this point.

There was a huge anime push in the UK around the mid-to-late 90s. Channel 4 showed quite a few series like 3x3 Eyes, Legend of the Four Kings and Fist of the North Star. Shops like HMV and Virgin Stores also had pretty big anime sections where you could even find the early hentai hit Urutsukidoji. Then it was early 2000s that mainstream anime took over with series like DBZ and Gundam Wing being shown on Sky.

[Lodreh]

Gen X didn't grow up with anime?...

We did have Anime but it was called Japanimation... I recall Astro Boy, Speed Racer, and Fist of the North Star... but for widespread recognition I would probably go with Pikachu. Nintendo marketed the hell out of that one.

[Kokolums]

Gen X didn't grow up with anime? So no, never heard of goku, or whomever

But I do know who Pikachu is, because of all the memes

Gen X's most popular anime was either Battle of the Planets / Science Ninja Team Gatchman (1972) or Robotech / Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982). I'd say Rick Hunter is the most popular anime character from that era.

[Jigga93]

Nina Tucker

[Zmagoslav]

Pikachu for sure.
When i was younger i would go with Goku, but looking at it from franchise-presence in Europe over the last 20 years there's really no competition here.

Nina Tucker

Oh no, you didn't...

[Khain]

Definitely Goku, Pokemon is way more popular as a game than an anime.

[Jastall]

Pikachu and I don't think it's even close. My mom and her sisters would have no idea who Luffy, Goku or Doreamon are. But they all know who Pikachu is. Every gamer knows Pikachu. Everyone who's even casually watched animated shows (Western or Japanese) knows Pikachu.

[Advent]

Yeah it's 100% Pikachu. I don't think anyone can reasonably argue otherwise, unless they're biased. You'd have to go to some remote corner of the world to find someone who didn't know who the furry yellow rodent was, but I know of many people who have 0 idea what dragonball or Goku even is. Nintendo did a superb job marketing Pokémon. Hell, I'm a millennial and my first anime wasn't dragonball, it was either Sailor Moon or Ronin Warriors, can't recall which. I didn't watch DBZ until I was a teenager.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I've been giving this a lot of thought...and I gotta say...I don't think there is any one character that is synomymous with anime in the same way Mickey Mouse is with Western Cartoons. And here's my reasoning:

All of us here...no matter the differences in our ages...we pretty much all grew up with Mickey Mouse. Maybe he wasn't our favourite...but we saw plenty of Mickey & Friends. Disney cartoons are part of all our formative memories. There's just no one character in anime that applies in that way. I mean, I understand how popular pikachu is...but I was already in my 20's when Pokemon came out...I got no connection to that. My connection is to earlier anime.... Akira, Battle Angel, Vampire Hunter D. More "adult" oriented anime.

Anime just doesn't have that one character that's stood the test of time that Mickey has yet.

[Dhrizzle]

Gen X's most popular anime was either Battle of the Planets / Science Ninja Team Gatchman (1972) or Robotech / Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982). I'd say Rick Hunter is the most popular anime character from that era.

I'd add Voltron to that mix, he even got a fairly recent Lego set for the nostalgia crowd.

Robotech gets some mild hostility from a section of gamers due to some crazy snafu over licensing holding back some of the Mechwarrior games.

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Definitely Goku, Pokemon is way more popular as a game than an anime.

The Pokemon cartoon is massively popular, it's been running for 25 years straight now.

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I've been giving this a lot of thought...and I gotta say...I don't think there is any one character that is synomymous with anime in the same way Mickey Mouse is with Western Cartoons. And here's my reasoning:

All of us here...no matter the differences in our ages...we pretty much all grew up with Mickey Mouse. Maybe he wasn't our favourite...but we saw plenty of Mickey & Friends. Disney cartoons are part of all our formative memories. There's just no one character in anime that applies in that way. I mean, I understand how popular pikachu is...but I was already in my 20's when Pokemon came out...I got no connection to that. My connection is to earlier anime.... Akira, Battle Angel, Vampire Hunter D. More "adult" oriented anime.

Anime just doesn't have that one character that's stood the test of time that Mickey has yet.

The thing that stands out about Mickey is he was a big face in the early days of animation, in that sense the closest parallel would be Astroboy if he hadn't faded to obscurity. Pikachu doesn't have the vintage but he has reached similar levels of cultural saturation to Mickey.

[Hitei]

I've been giving this a lot of thought...and I gotta say...I don't think there is any one character that is synomymous with anime in the same way Mickey Mouse is with Western Cartoons. And here's my reasoning:

All of us here...no matter the differences in our ages...we pretty much all grew up with Mickey Mouse. Maybe he wasn't our favourite...but we saw plenty of Mickey & Friends. Disney cartoons are part of all our formative memories. There's just no one character in anime that applies in that way. I mean, I understand how popular pikachu is...but I was already in my 20's when Pokemon came out...I got no connection to that. My connection is to earlier anime.... Akira, Battle Angel, Vampire Hunter D. More "adult" oriented anime.

Anime just doesn't have that one character that's stood the test of time that Mickey has yet.

This is all totally baseless. The only thing I saw with Mickey in it growing up was Fantasia. I just knew him as Disney's mascot, and the character associated with their brand/parks/etc. And I guess as a tertiary character in Kingdom Hearts.

As far as I know, there wasn't even anything to watch Mickey in when I was a kid. Micky Mouse Club ended when I was basically a toddler and Clubhouse didn't start until I was entering High School.

You're just assuming what you grew up watching is what every generation/group must have also watched.

[klogaroth]

It's super dependant on TV scheduling and other factors where you grew up. Growing up in the UK in the 90s I can tell you that Pokemon was orders of magnitude more popular and more influential that Dragonball.

DBZ was something you'd watch if you liked anime, Pokemon was fully mainstream. Made even more the case by a good decision in terms of distribution rights. Pokemon aired on basic TV. Every kid with access to a TV set could watch it. DBZ was on the subscription based Sky TV, which not every household could afford. Plus the whole explosion of Pokemon everything. That just didn't happen with DBZ here. There was no big wave of games and TV and films and toys and cards and other merch all planned to boost each other.

That sort of multiple angles approach is what really makes me say that Disney and Pokemon are comparable, with Pikachu taking up the role of mouse mascot. Whether Dragonball did that elsewhere I don't know, but they certainly didn't do it here.

[Maximus Testiculos]

This x1000. Full stop.

No other anime has transcended Western Pop Culture over the last 25 years more than Pokemon. Demon Slayer, Naruto and My Hero Academia don't come close.

The only Anime more iconically known prior to Pokemon were Akira, Gundam Wing, Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon. Maybe also Tenchi Muyo and Inyuyasha as well as the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime.

Not just west. It is the biggest franchise in the entire world. Much bigger than Disney or Mickey mouse.

[Aurabolt]

Not just west. It is the biggest franchise in the entire world. Much bigger than Disney or Mickey mouse.

...True. Mickey Mouse is known globally as an icon of American Pop Culture.

Pokemon transcends Japan and the West. Thanks to the mobile game Pokemon Go, almost everyone in the world has at least heard of Pokemon by now.

[Itisamuh]

As much as I prefer Dragonball, it is definitely Pikachu. People who like anime might be more familiar with Dragonball, but everyone knows about Pokemon.

Also, I would argue Bugs Bunny is at least as universally recognized and mainstream as Mickey Mouse, in America anyway. Not sure how it is elsewhere but everyone I knew grew up watching Looney Tunes way more than Disney cartoons.

[Axxil]

Goku or Pikachu are really the only two options.

[enigma77]

definitely pikachu I mean it's literally a rodent