About

Western Anime is an umbrella term for ironically assigning Western animation and live action shows to the anime subculture.

Origin

The oldest known use of the term dates back to 2007, from a bait and switch video initially uploaded by Youtube user TheSaltySaltySalt, and titled “TOP 27 ANIME BOOBS.” The video featured an edited version of the Cory in the House opening credits synced to the Mega Man 2 Crashman theme.^[1]

Spread

While initially used to refer to Disney's series Cory in the House the term expanded to also describe a variety of other Western shows, including King of the Hill and Shrek.

On April 17th, 2013, Tumblr user "cyberia-mix" uploaded an anime then and now pic, comparing the anime Free! to Cory in the House. In two years, this post received over 17,500 notes ^[2]

On December 19th 2014, Tumblr user "bloated-toad" uploaded a picture of Shrek DVDs misplaced under an anime section header in a video store. In a year, this post gained just under 150,000 notes.^[3] On January 20th, 2015 Tumblr user "the-doctors-dinobot" uploaded a picture of of misplaced King of the Hill DVDs in a location meant for anime dubbed by the company Funimation. Within four months this post received over 17,500 notes ^[4]

Search Interest

External References