List of anime in the United States

These anime series have been shown and have achieved varying levels of popularity in the United States and Canada, this is contributed to the era known as the "anime boom" which lasted from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s. In the United States, most anime can be seen televised on channels, with channels such as Adult Swim's Toonami block, Neon Alley, and Toku airing anime targeted toward young adults to adult audiences, and with channels such as Nicktoons, Disney XD, and Cartoon Network airing anime targeted toward children audiences. Anime can also be viewed online legally on streaming websites such as Anime Network, Funimation 's FunimationNow platform, Crunchyroll, Netflix, Crackle, YouTube and Hulu.

1960s

In the 1960s, Astro Boy, Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion were introduced to the U.S. and received positively.

1970s

1980s

In the early 1980s, CBN Cable aired an English dub of the Christian-themed anime series Superbook and The Flying House.

In the 1970s and 1980s many production companies such as DiC Entertainment, Nelvana, Hasbro, Warner Bros. Animation, MGM, Universal Studios and Walt Disney Television Animation outsourced Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese studios to help animate many original animated series for network syndication such as Transformers, Inspector Gadget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Muppet Babies, DuckTales and Care Bears. TMS Entertainment (known for Lupin III and Detective Conan) would animate the popular animated series Tiny Toon Adventures and Rainbow Brite.

In 1981, Roger Corman wrote an English dub of the first Galaxy Express movie Bonjour Galaxy Express 999, shortened the name to Galaxy Express, and aired it on television. The dub changed some of the original Japanese names into more recognizable American names for example: Tetsuro is now Joey and Harlock is now Warlock. Roger Corman also edited out 30 minutes of footage, and Antonia Levi, the author of "Samurai from Outer Space" said that Roger Corman's dub was "Highly edited and too damaged to watch".

In the mid-1980s super robot and space opera anime was very popular, series such as Voltron, Transformers and Robotech were successful in ratings and also commercial successes through selling merchandise.

In 1989, Harmony Gold dubbed the first 5 episodes of Dragon Ball and dubbed the first movie called, Dragon Ball: The Curse of the Blood Rubies, and dubbed the third movie called, Dragon Ball: The Mystical Adventure, and edited them together as an 80-minute film, and aired them as a special on the channel called, WPSG Philly 57 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but the dub was unsuccessful due to the show or film not finding an actual audience.

In 1988 and 1989, the Bubblegum Crisis OVA series was one of the earliest fan subs and AnimEigo later got the license to the OVA's and dub the series.

In 1988, Streamline Pictures just started and one of the first companies dedicated solely to anime dubs. The first dub of theirs was the 1988 dub of My Neighbor Totoro which was only available on Japan Airlines for people coming from North America to Japan, but was later released in theaters and VHS in 1993. After that they dubbed Kiki's Delivery Service in 1989 for Japan Airlines and was later released on the Ghibli Laserdisc box set. They also made 2 other dubs throughout the late 80s like; Laputa: Castle in the Sky, shortened to Castle in the Sky, which was later re-dubbed by Disney, and Twilight of the Cockroaches, which couldn't be specified by a genre, and wasn't even re-released.

Lensman: Secret of The Lens was first dubbed by Harmony Gold in 1988, and then Streamline Pictures re-dubbed it in 1990, and some of the voice actors voiced in both dubs. The film was based on the Lensman novels by E. E. Smith. Also, the Harmony Gold dub actually used remastered music and some music tracks came out of their previous movies Robotech II: The Sentinels and Robotech The Movie: The Untold Story, while the Streamline Pictures dub used the original Japanese soundtrack.

In 1988, AnimEigo just started after Streamline Pictures and had the slogan "Anime in your way!". Their first anime they dubbed is Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01, which was renamed MADOX-01 for the UK release in 1995, was only released on to VHS in 1989, due to content not suitable for television or theatrical release. They also dubbed the 4 episode OVA Vampire Princess Miyu in the same year, which was later adapted into a 26 episode TV series by Tokyopop, later by Maiden Japan in 1997.

In the mid to late 80s, anime films like: Akira, My Neighbor Totoro, Warriors of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01, etc. Were dubbed by companies like: MGM, Streamline Pictures, Harmony Gold, Fox, New World Pictures, AnimEigo, etc. Even though these films weren't really successful at the time, due to limited release, but they did get positive reviews by critics and Akira even got a cult following, although most of these films they did get higher quality dubs later on.

1990s

The 1990s, was the period in which anime became successful in the U.S. market and the terms "anime" and "manga" became commonly well known (ultimately replacing the former majorly known term "Japanimation"). Companies such as FUNimation Productions, Bandai Entertainment, 4Kids Entertainment, Central Park Media, Media Blasters, Saban Entertainment, Viz Video, Pioneer LDC and ADV Films began licensing anime in the United States.

The first anime in the US in the 1990s, was Dragon Quest or Dragon Warrior, based on the video game series with the same name, aired in 1989 in Japan and 1990 in the US by Saban Entertainment. The show was created by Akira Toriyama, the same person who made the Dragon Ball series. The show didn't do too well in the US and didn't get a release to home video.

Saban Entertainment later dubbed the 1990 anime Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, changed the name to Samurai Pizza Cats, and aired it on ABC in 1991. In 2002, Saban Entertainment rights to the show expired, then Discotek Media obtained the rights and still owns the rights to the series to this day.

Viz which was already successful with its manga translation of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½, bought the rights to the anime and released it via direct-to-video starting in 1994. Ranma ½ enjoyed success in the VHS market and was the first anime title in the 1990s to have this level of success and one of the first titles to be recognized as an "anime". Viz also began publishing a magazine called Animerica in the 1990s which featured manga as well as articles on Japanese culture, fashion, manga, anime and video games, this helped spread the otaku subculture to Americans. Fansubs were also popular during this period.

DiC (then-owned by Disney) and Funimation (with the help of Saban and Ocean Studios) licensed Sailor Moon (1995) and Dragon Ball Z (1996) respectively and both were televised in the U.S. through early morning syndication. Since the two anime were very successful internationally, they were purchased to capitalize on the success of superhero shows like Power Rangers (The very popular Americanized version of the tokusatsu series Super Sentai) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Power Rangers ratings overthrew both Anime and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Power Rangers is the most popular and longest running boys action series.

In the summer of 1998, Cartoon Network which had an action-themed evening block named Toonami began airing Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z both became overwhelmingly successful with younger audiences (being that they were aired in the evening hours which children were home) and as a result both got revived: receiving new dubs with significantly less editing being that these episodes were on cable television and with the recent inception of television rating system (both were rated TV-Y7-FV), the standards were relaxed. Voltron, Robotech and Ronin Warriors also enjoyed renewed success on Toonami. Toonami would still continue to air anime and is credited with beginning the era of anime boom in the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

In 1997, the very popular yet controversial series Neon Genesis Evangelion was released on VHS uncut by ADV Films and in 2002, both the films End of Evangelion and Evangelion: Death and Rebirth were both released in the U.S. by Manga Entertainment. Evangelion grew to have a large fan base in the United States and is famed for its combining of the mecha genre with various aspects of philosophy, psychology, religious imagery, mental illnesses and shock horror elements.

In 1998, Pokémon was introduced to U.S. and it became a ratings hit, a pop culture phenomenon and monumental commercial success through its merchandising (trading cards, VHS, toys, video games etc.). Digimon was introduced in 1999; although it was a success, it did not reach the same level of popularity as Pokémon.

Sci Fi Channel also aired many experimental, avant-garde, action, horror and science fiction anime films and series during the 1990s during the late night and early morning hours and still continued to do so up until 2011. Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, Akira, Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, and Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer are among the films that have aired. Series such as Gurren Lagann, Gundam 00, Casshan: Robot Hunter, Record of Lodoss War, Iria: Zeiram the Animation, Rave Master, Tokko, Chrono Crusade and Fist of the North Star have also aired.

In 1998, Disney's Miramax released the anime film Princess Mononoke in the U.S. theatrically, though it was not a great success at the box office (it did much better on DVD releases) it began the relationship between Disney and Studio Ghibli to distribute the latter's films in the U.S.

2000s

In 2002, Spirited Away was released through Disney theatrically and was successful enough to be the first anime film to be nominated for and win an Academy Award.

In the 2000s even after the popular series Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon ended their runs, Toonami still continued to air popular anime such as Gundam Wing, which is credited for single-handedly popularizing the Gundam franchise in the west, Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball GT, Rurouni Kenshin,Yu Yu Hakusho, .hack, Cardcaptors, Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo, The 08th MS Team, One Piece, Gundam SEED, Astro Boy, SD Gundam, Cyborg 009, IGPX, Bobobo-Bobo-Bobo, Outlaw Star, Hamtaro and Naruto. Naruto was very successful on Toonami and remains of the most popular anime titles in U.S. In 2008, Toonami was discontinued and anime began airing exclusively on Adult Swim, the late night counterpart to Cartoon Network.

The block Adult Swim began airing on Cartoon Network in 2001, its first anime title aired was Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop was very successful and remains the longest aired anime series on Adult Swim. Adult Swim also aired series including uncut episodes of Gundam Wing, Fullmetal Alchemist, InuYasha, Outlaw Star, Pilot Candidate, Paranoia Agent, Samurai Champloo, Death Note, s-CRY-ed, Eureka Seven, Ghost in the Shell, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Case Closed, Lupin III, Blue Gender, Code Geass, Bleach, Blood+, Trinity Blood, Shin Chan, Wolf's Rain, Moribito and Trigun. Adult Swim mostly airs anime under the title "Action" even though Shin Chan and Super Milk Chan are comedies. Adult Swim became so successful over the years that Turner Broadcasting split it from Cartoon Network & is now ranked as an independent network.

Due to the popularity of Dragon Ball Z, Funimation would continue to dominate the anime distribution in the United States and continued licensing several popular titles such as Yu Yu Hakusho, Case Closed, Blue Gender, Fruits Basket, Black Cat, Ouran High School Host Club, Kodocha, One Piece, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Trinity Blood, Fullmetal Alchemist, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and Shin Chan and launched its own channel Funimation Channel to exclusively carry most of its titles. Funimation would also rescue rights to titles when if its licensor discontinued, such the case with ADV Films (which closed in 2008) and Geneon (which closed in 2007).

After the success of Pokémon in the late 1990s, 4Kids Entertainment continue to license anime titles and target them towards children such as the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, Sonic X, Magical DoReMi, Mew Mew Power, Shaman King, Kirby Right Back At Ya!, Dinosaur King and Ultimate Muscle. However 4Kids was met with much controversy for its use of "Americanization" and heavy editing of content, particularly with its dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! and One Piece.

2010s

In 2010, Dragon Ball Z Kai premiered on Nicktoons and became a hit success for the network, Nicktoons also aired the original Dragon Ball Z films and Dragon Ball GT. Starting on March 2013, Yu-Gi-Oh! and one of its continuing series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal started to air on the network. Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 also started to air on the network starting June 2013 and one of its continuing series, Digimon Fusion moved to the network on October 13, 2013 from Nickelodeon just after three episodes, mostly due to Nickelodeon's failed attempt at marketing the anime before it premiered September 7, 2013.

Fansub sites of popular anime have been popular yet controversial in the U.S. Many are criticized for losing anime licencors revenue and have been blamed for the cause of many companies going out of business. Section23, Bandai, Viz, TV Tokyo and Funimation have tried to limit these efforts by sending cease and decease letters or blocking out content on many sites. Also the production of English dubs of anime in general has decreased and many distributors are switching to the subtitle-only market such as Sentai Filmworks, Aniplex Of America and NIS America.

In 2012, Bandai folded its Bandai Entertainment anime licensing department in the United States, and eventually studio Sunrise (owned by Bandai Visual) made deals with Funimation and Sentai Filmworks to license and republish Sunrise titles formerly licensed by Bandai Entertainment. In 2012, 4Kids Entertainment filed for bankruptcy protection and sold off the rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise back to Konami and the remaining licenses went to Saban Brands.

In early 2012, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos was released in over 100 theaters throughout North America.

Disney released The Secret World of Arrietty theatrically and it grew to become a huge box office success and is one of the highest grossing films of 2012 (Number 50 in the Worldwide box office).

In 2012, due to popular request on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook: the Toonami block was revived and began airing on Adult Swim, replacing Adult Swim Action. Similar to Midnight Run, it is now targeted to the young adult demographic with little to no editing of content. On May 16, 2014, Viz Media acquired the license for the original Sailor Moon series (formerly owned by DiC/Cloverway, Inc in the 1990s and early 2000s) and the new 2014 anime series, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Crystal, which it was premiered on July 5, 2014. In May 2014, Disney acquired the broadcasting rights for the 2005 series based on the Fujiko Fujio manga Doraemon, and began airing the program on Disney XD on July 7 of that year, marking the first ever release of the Doraemon franchise in the United States.

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