American awards ceremonies have a hard time honouring anime’s legacy within the animation world. Despite the fact that the Japanese medium has inspired countless writers, artists and creators throughout the world, the 74th Annual Golden Globes have once again passed on the opportunity to nominate any films from the medium, as Anime News Network reports.
This isn’t the first time that the anime industry has been snubbed in the West by major award ceremonies. In fact, it follows a long legacy. Listings on Box Office Mojo reveal some of the most commercially successful releases in the United States. The top 25 ranking is as follows:
1) Pokémon: The First Movie
2) Pokémon: The Movie 2000
3) Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie
4) The Secret World of Arrietty
5) Pokémon 3: The Movie
6) Ponyo
7) Spirited Away
8) Digimon: The Movie
9) Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’
10) The Wind Rises
11) Howl’s Moving Castle
12) Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods
13) Princess Mononoke
14) Pokémon 4Ever
15) Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
16) From Up on Poppy Hill
17) Cowboy Bebop
18) Boruto: Naruto the Movie
19) Paprika
20) Pokémon Heroes
21) Metropolis (2002)
22) The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
23) When Marnie Was There
24) Akira
25) The Last – Naurto the Movie
Within that list, only one anime film has ever won an Oscar: Spirited Away in 2002. As for nominations, there have been only four for Best Animated Film at the Academy Awards: Howl’s Moving Castle, The Wind Rises, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There. All but two of these were directly from Hayao Miyazaki, and all five films are from Studio Ghibli. Meaning when anime movies are considered at the Oscars, they are only considered from one specific studio. No other creators have been nominated.
The Golden Globes fare no better. The ceremony has only nominated an anime film once: The Wind Rises for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie lost to The Great Beauty. As Anime News Network reports, the Golden Globes recently stated in 2014 that foreign animated films will compete in Best Animated Feature category, but as of yet, no nomination has been given to an anime film. Which suggests that, despite the Academy Awards and Golden Globes considering films across international borders, the awards ceremony tends to show a bias against anime films as a whole.
Granted, Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name was officially sent in as a consideration for an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature at next year’s 89th Academy Awards. But that nomination is partly because of the film’s enormous success in Japan, toppling both domestic and foreign releases, including those of Hayao Miyazaki. And with no official word yet, fans are left wondering whether one of the biggest anime releases of the year will, in fact, even reach the Academy’s consideration.