What Happened to Anime In India

If you are on this page, you probably know that India has become a country where foreign animes being AIRED has become quite a rarity. So, in this blog I would be taling about why it happened and whether or not not will they be revived in the future.

1.) What is the problem found specifically in the Indian audience?

The major problem found in Indian audience is that a majority of the parents in our country exercise too much control over their kids. They not only want to control them but also control what they want to pursue in their future, what they want to do in the present and make sure that they don't repeat the mistakes they made in their past. This prevents the kid from learning from his/her own mistakes thereby hampering his/her growth. Most Indian Parents want their children to watch shows which have Indian characters as the protagonist and it just keeps their child amused rather than teaching him some specific values or enhancing their emotional traits. Japanese Anime, on the other hand, are made to target people of every age group. So, they have bloodshed, emotional scenes, rage scenes or even some NSFW scenes. This is especially not encouraged by Indian parents which had also led to the ban of Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, Inazuma 11 and Idaten Jump in the past.

2.) Why is dubbing of animes an issue in India?

The Indian audience is the most diverse in the entire world as it has no national language and no national religion. This has led to the formation of 22 different languages which are spoken by different people of different states but of one country, i.e., India. Due to these circumstances, one question arises- "How many languages does one particular anime need to be dubbed in, in order to amass a large audience?" The cost of dubbing the entire series in all the different languages adds up, leading to scraping the idea of dubbing. If the show is not available in your language, it is bound to make you feel discouraged to try it, especially in a country like India, where anime is watched by kids who don't even understand any language other than their mother tongue. Same goes for anime as well. You can’t force someone who doesn't understand English well or faces problem in reading moving text to read the subtitles for each and every dialogue. Animated cartoons like 'Shinchan', 'Doraemon' and 'Pokemon' have been successful in the Indian market only because of their successful 4 language(Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English) availability.

3.) Why did anime channels die in India?

1. Animax -Animax was an Indian television channel owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. It was operated and broadcasted from Singapore by Animax Asia and distributed by Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd. It started Hindi dubbing of anime for some time and its target audience age was 7 to 14 years. Then it started shows with English dubbing and later Japanese with English subtitles. It was the first animation channel targeting the 15-25 year old audience and was the only channel in India to stream anime simultaneously in the same week and on same day as Japan. Animax stopped broadcasting in India on regular television and was replaced by Sony Yay on April 18, 2017 because the parents considered the anime too strong and violent. Sony Pictures Networks then made Animax Asia HD available as a live channel on its Indian digital platform, Sony LIV. On May 8, 2020, the Animax Asia HD live channel became unavailable for viewing on Sony LIV because of the acquisition of Animax in Vietnam by KC Global Media.
2. Toonami -Toonami was launched as a block on Cartoon Network, India’s oldest children’s channel, on September 8, 2001. After being unsuccessful for quite some time Turner International India launched Toonami again on February 26, 2015. On July 1, 2017, Toonami India was recast as a classic animation channel and all-action animation programming was removed except for some shows. The channel aired programs from the Cartoon Network Studios, Hanna-Barbera, and Warner Bros. Animation libraries and the last few anime series of the decade like Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Kai. Toonami India stopped broadcasting at the end of May, 2018 because of the lack of audience which it faced in India.

4.) What is the Present and Future condition of anime in India?

Just like 'every cloud has a silver lining.' The dark clouds of the past are gradually giving way to sunshine as we have new hope of watching anime in India. Netflix, an OTT platform which has gained millions of new viewers all across the globe due to COVID-19, is becoming hyperactive in acquiring more and more anime licenses, especially in India. Now shows like Naruto, Asssassination Classroom, Death Note, Haikyu!!, Attack on Titan and much more are available on Netflix India. Other anime streaming platforms like Wakanim, Funimation are researching the Indian market for the audience in hope of possible future expansion. Crunchyroll, a popular name in the anime streaming platform community is already available in India where you can find almost all of your favourite animes.

Stephen William Hawking

Stephen William Hawking (full name of Stephen hawking) [born: 8 January, 1942] [death: 14 March 2018] was a British scientist and physicist who came up with the theory of the origin of the universe and the very renowned theory of the black hole. He was the person who formulated that the universe began with the big bang and would end with a super massive black hole. The forecast by Stephen Hawking on the origin of the universe and likely the end was truly sensational. Most physicists found much wisdom in his words and that was something which pushed him into the limelight. Till then very few had seen Hawking and fewer knew about the difficulties he had to face in the past. The fact was that Hawking was totally incapable of moving on his own because he had been devastated by a rare and incurable nerves affecting disease called AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS or ALS for short. Encased in the spinal cord nerves run from the brain centers to various parts of the body. They are the communication channels of the body. So, as long as they are healthy, every limb, every organ functions well. ALS just hampers that and Stephen Hawking was a victim of this malady.
Born on Jan 8, 1942, in oxford, England, Stephen Hawking was a normal child. Of course, while he was at school, there were hints of future trouble. Stephen Hawking often found it hard to coordinate his movements. He could not throw a ball at a target; he missed even simple catches or direct sloppy. His teachers tried their best to improve his handwriting but gave up in despair. They did not know what made his coordination so poor. Nobody knew of the silent, steady spread of ALS. Stephen Hawking only realized that all was not well when he was in the 3rd year at Oxford. In 1962, he moved to Cambridge to work for a Ph.D. By then his movements were often weird. His father noticed his abnormality and had Stephen Hawking examined by a specialist. He was subjected to several tests. A team of doctors looked at the results and concluded that he was affected by ALS. They said that he would survive for maybe 3 to 4 years but not more than that. Stephen Hawking bit his lips through his hand clumsily around. It took him quite some effort to regain his calmness. Then he compared his fate with that of a boy who was in the hospital with him. The boy was suffering from Leukemia and died soon. Thinking of something, he smiled and said to himself “So long as there is life, there is hope!” Hope sustained Hawking and this infused courage into him. He returned to Cambridge and resumed his research work. ‘MUSIC’ lifted his spirits and he resolved. In Cambridge, Stephen Hawking did a lot of research work and found that he was enjoying himself. Where the doctors were surprised that how was he able to survive, Stephen Hawking was enjoying the music and research. When Stephen Hawking was young, he fell in love with Jane Wild who also responded to his love. Stephen Hawking also got a research fellowship at Cambridge due to which he got a steady income. After that Stephen Hawking and Jane Wild got married and they had 3 children. By then, Stephen Hawking had been given the post of Professor of Mathematics. He kept working hard in the field of theoretical physics and kept on achieving higher and higher heights. But due to hard work his health deteriorated. By that time, Stephen Hawking became to be known all over the world and he was regarded among the leading physicists of that time. If one name was to be mentioned after Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton it would be of Stephen Hawking. His book ‘A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME’ became the international bestseller and so did his later 3 books: ‘BLACK HOLES & BABY UNIVERSE’, ‘THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING’ and ‘THE UNIVERSE IN A NUTSHELL’.
Till 1974, Stephen Hawking was able to feed himself and also to get in and out of bed. Then came the dark years of gradual slip into reduced mental ability and management of his own body. In 1985, he caught pneumonia and underwent a throat operation. Due to this operation Stephen Hawking lost his voice. That was a severe blow in his life but he refused to put down. He felt he was equal to any man. His attitude towards life is best reflected in his observations. “It is very important that disabled children should be helped to blend with others of the same age. How can one feel a member of the human race if one is set apart from it at an early age?” And now the most tragic and sad part of this story, the world’s greatest physicist Stephen William Hawking is not with us any more in this world. He said goodbye to this world on 14 March 2018.