Anime has become a mainstream source of media entertainment in the U.S. since Goku screamed into his Super Saiyan form in 1996. Before, channels such as Toonami and 4Kids didn’t promote these shows as anime but as simple cartoons for kids to mindlessly watch. The perception of anime being a lesser form of children’s entertainment has slowly disappeared as the medium has integrated itself into pop culture. Anime such as Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and many more helped shape the anime industry to reach its peak in American culture. But what if I said that before anime was considered cool in the U.S., it had already taken root in Latin American countries?
Telenovelas
If Latin America has anything to thank for obtaining Japan’s immense anime collection through distribution, it’s telenovelas. Popular in countries such as Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, telenovelas follow the same story format as an anime series. As a self-contained narrative that takes up many episodes, telenovelas are dramatic soap operas centered around a love story. From love triangles, a poor girl and a rich guy falling in love, evil aunts, to family secrets, an evil twin, violence, and death, these tropes in telenovelas do not shy away from realism with a touch of absurdity. Shows like María la del Barrio (1995), Un Gancho Al Corazón (2008), Betty la Fea (1995), and Al Diablo con los Guapos (2007) would take their time with many subplots for the main leads to become official, dragging out the drama.
Anime has the same dramatic effect in the screaming, crying, and many edit shots of the same scene to provide emphasis. In a YouTube review of a recent episode of Oshi no Ko that showed the character of Aqua screaming in a rage on all fours during a play, Spanish reviewer Teici C commented on what the need was to make Aqua look like an animal as he’s screaming in anguish. Aqua’s pain draws in the message of his inability to have fun acting, but why not let Aqua keep a bit of dignity as he does so instead of being on all fours? Knowing how unnecessarily dramatic anime and telenovelas are, it’s something Latin America has come to appreciate and yearn for.
Limited Resources
Compared to U.S. animation made to sell toys with shows such as the TMNT franchise, He-Man, Batman, and Spider-Man, Latin American production studios didn’t have the money to create original Spanish cartoons. With their low funding, telenovelas had to recycle scenes and assets. This was due to anime and telenovelas being considered for secondary markets — the women and children demographics. With less focus on the target audience but a desperate need to fill many networks’ TV time slots, several countries opted to bring in existing licenses to save money.
This worked out perfectly with Japan, as during the 80’s and 90’s they needed relief from their economic struggles, willing to accept any changes made to their shows. With the U.S.’s minimal interest in anime and video games from Japan at the time, most anime production companies found success targeting smaller Latin American countries instead, thus bringing a wave of anime to hungry consumers.
Cultural Difference
As new shows came in, this brought about an anime following that differed from those in the U.S. and Canada. While Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop, and Pokémon were fan-favorites across nations, there were others that were especially favored in Latin American countries. During their run time, anime such as Saint Seiya, Heidi, Candy Candy, The Princess Knight, and Speed Racer were popular. Unlike in the U.S., Latin America had no issue accepting many titles without making significant edits during the dubbing process. Moreover, translating the opening and ending songs of these shows to Spanish, caused anime music to become cemented in Latin American culture. In fact, a contestant on Peru’s La Voz sang the opening song of Saint Seiya in 2015, which is a testament to the anime’s ongoing popularity.
Censorship
Anime fans might wonder what makes Saint Seiya a fan-favorite in Latin America when it isn’t one of the classics in the U.S. The reason for this was the heavy censorship in its English version. With only 32 watered down episodes released, American viewers didn’t get the whole story of Seiya and his harrowing journey in the cosmos. The most notable change was the color of the blood shown in the anime. It was changed to blue, signifying the characters’ loss of powers instead of them bleeding to death.
Because Latin American audiences were used to telenovelas, Spanish-speaking countries were not afraid of showing blood, violence, and sex scenes. This was also due to some of these countries having recently come out of dictatorships. As a result, they didn’t feel the need to censor when distributing anime to TV channels. In the Spanish dub, all 114 episodes of Saint Seiya were released along with the series’ OVAs and movies. Moreover, same-sex relationships in other shows, such as Haruka and Michiru from Sailor Moon and Yukito and Toya from Cardcaptor Sakura, were also kept intact in their respective dubs.
Name Changes
Though there were typically no changes made to the dialogue and editing of Spanish-dubbed anime, there was the occasional name change. For Sailor Moon, Latin American countries followed the name changes of DiC Entertainment’s English version. Usagi was kept as Serena, Mamoru as Darien, and so on. Another example is the name change of Kagome from Inuyasha — for a funny reason. The “Kago” in Kagome when pronounced in Spanish, sounds like cago, or to defecate. Instead of hearing Inuyasha scream out Kagome multiple times an episode, it was changed to Aome.
Anime Now
Anime has only grown in popularity since the 70’s, widely accepted in Latin American culture. From Mexican channels like Canal 5 and TV Azteca, there were recent airings of Attack on Titan Season 3, My Hero Academia Season 1, and the start of Yashahime: Half-Blood Princess. However, like in the U.S., there’s still judgment towards those who watch anime. Just like the terms otaku and weeb are used in reference to anime fans, Hispanics use the term friki, derived from the English word “freak.” There’s even an anime store called Friki Plaza in Mexico City, embracing the term with its many floors of anime merch. This store is a dream come true for otakus, selling everything from game consoles to cosplay outfits and accessories.
I didn’t know friki was used for anime fans when I first visited Friki Plaza. Good to know when I go next time. I hope you, too, learned a lot from this week’s Trivia! I’m sorry if you can’t hear Kagome’s name the same again. Such a fact just had to be shared!
For more Trivia, click here to read the long history of every bookworm’s favorite location: the library!
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