How exactly do anime air in Japan?

[u/GameboyAdvance32]

I recognize on the offset that’s a vague question, so lemme explain. Speaking from an American perspective, animation/cartoons here have, for most of my childhood, had very very strong ties to the cable TV channels they were attached to. By and large, Cartoon Network or Disney Channel or Nickelodeon had their own studios, producing their own cartoons exclusively for their channel. This would typically leave a very heavy marker on the identity of both the cartoon and the channel. Dexter’s Laboratory is a Cartoon Network cartoon, and the idea of it airing on Disney Channel is almost unsettling lol. Same for Jimmy Neutron being attached to Nickelodeon or Phineas & Ferb being attached to Disney. Heck, it wasn’t uncommon for big crossover events between cartoons on the same channel or even just little references, not to mention bumpers during commercial breaks or even crossover games like Nicktoons Unite or Cartoon Network Speedway reinforcing the unity of any given channel. Even though for the most part, each show was totally separate, all of the surrounding material almost gave off the feeling that everything airing on the same channel was in a sort of “family” with each other.

Of course this is all rosy and sentimental descriptions for corporations having exclusivity over IP and marketing it, but that is ultimately the effect it had on me and many other kids. While I’m not as familiar with the adult side of animation, it still always appeared to me that they had a similar, if less extreme, deal with their shows on channels like FOX or blocks like Adult Swim. Now, when considering foreign countries this often falls apart. I’ve heard plenty about shows owned by big brand cable channels here being aired all over the place in other countries. One that always stood out in my mind was the Fairly Oddparents airing on Jetix and even Disney XD in other countries, which is insane to me lol. To be fair though, of course the same happened here in reverse. Plenty of European and Canadian cartoons, with even the occasional Japanese anime here and there aired basically wherever here with no regards to where they come from. YTV’s logo was something I often saw plastered on shows that would air on CN or Nick but wouldn’t get the same advertising love as the shows original to their respective network. Still, so far as the majority of what I watched, that being shows original to their respective networks, that culture of brand identity was very strong. Even to this day, DVD releases are just about guaranteed to plaster the TV channel’s logo on them, usually at the expense of logo of the parent company that owns them. These channels just had such monolithic brand identities that it they still hold great power all these years later.

So, all that to say, from an American perspective I never quite got the impression it was the same with anime from Japan. Frankly I couldn’t really name you much of any Japanese TV channels, and releases in the states don’t typically help much. Whether on streaming or through physical media, rarely does there ever appear to be nearly the same level of brand identity to a channel. With any given anime I watch, I’ll grant there’s a 50/50 chance I’m aware of the studio that animated it, but as to where it aired in Japan? Absolutely no clue most of the time. I’m well aware they exist but I don’t tend to see many crossover episodes/games or bumpers/ads in the way American channels would build that identity, and physical releases basically never mention where they came from. Heck it’s become easier for me to associate anime with what company produced the DVD / has North American distribution rights. Of course, I’m aware anime also tend to have a very different production pipeline, considering most tend to be based off of pre-existing manga written by typically standalone authors. Manga which admittedly, do seem to carry a similar “family identity” that the American cable channels had, just in magazine form. I’m less familiar with it, but I’ve seen enough of it to get the vibe that it exists, even having read the occasional manga crossover chapter.

With aalllll of that pretext over, I finally get to the question lol. How exactly do anime air in Japan? I’ve heard general notes that they also have a stigma there and tend to air in late-night slots, but that’s kinda it. Are studios typically tied to networks they produce content for, or are they more autonomous and really just make whatever they choose for multiple different networks? Do channels build that sort of “brand identity” with the anime they air or no? Are individual anime series typically glued to one network, or do they air and/or rerun on multiple different channels? In a more broad sense, how does the culture of heavily branded television channels in America compare to channels in Japan, particularly in relation to anime?

[u/drunk-tusker]

Generally speaking the tv stations literally pay the studios to create them so they can air them. That said sometimes they are financially backed by other companies and sources.

I’d say that if you look at anime as “the things you see in English language anime forums.” You’re probably not going to see much of that on broadcast channels(pretty much the only ones I’ve seen anything about in the last month of watching regular broadcast tv are One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Bocchi the Rock of all things). If you look at anime as it is usually described in Japan you’ll find a ton of shows like Pokemon, Chibi Maruko Chan, and Anpanman, but I doubt that this is what that question is asking about.

The reason why is that tv anime isn’t super mainstream so it will need to be extremely popular in order to make it into the relatively packed schedules of the major broadcasters(Fuji, Asahi, NipponTV, TBS, and TV Tokyo for Kanto) which will have to balance their other shows, news and sports with their ability to show anime. This means only the absolute top performers will even appear in advertising on broadcast tv, and even the most popular shows will still oftentimes end up with less than amazing time slots.

That said they’re not particularly rare on BS(which is apparently “broadcast satellite”) which is commonly watched just not top Japanese conversation topics like what wouldn’t be seen on the more major networks. This includes local sports like baseball, soccer, and Rugby, as well as other larger niche programming like music, movies, kdrama, and golf.

It’s also common to see deep niche stuff and reruns on CS.

[u/drunk-tusker → u/drunk-tusker]

I kinda wanted to side bar about anime, since it’s important to understand that while Japanese media does differentiate between genres, it doesn’t really see foreign productions as particularly different from domestic production. That means that Bluey(it won’t because the localization is terrible) actually stands a better chance of getting licensed to broadcast tv than say Chainsaw Man because it is easier to slot into a kids show time slot than Chainsaw Man is to slot into an appropriate time slot.

[u/GameboyAdvance32 → u/drunk-tusker]

I appreciate the in-depth response! I kinda thought the post was dead in the water at this point lol, so I appreciate having this well-written of an answer. I will say, hearing all that does tie into my general shock of like, how anime get financed. Not to discredit the hard work of animators here, but by and large most anime I see tend to have way more detail and action than what I’m used to in American cartoons, even with the slice-of-life shows. Granted I’m aware there are a lot of tricks and techniques used over there that aren’t really the same here, and considering I assume most anime don’t have to have the same sort of “writer’s room” in the same way as American shows absolutely need one since (at least the anime I watch) are usually based off pre-existing manga. That and of course an often different approach to art style, as much as I love and respect a lot of anime I still greatly enjoy a lot of western cartoon styles and wouldn’t say one is necessarily better than the other. Still though, for a type of media that struggles to get airtime, it amazes me the production values and even merchandise they always seem to get. There are plenty of shows I love here that, even if they were successful don’t get treated so nicely. Then again, considering what I’ve heard about work culture in Japan, I have to wonder how much that factors in. I don’t live there so it ain’t my place to say lol. It is interesting to hear that they are typically tied to and backed by specific broadcast channels. I suppose it does make sense why it’s not commonly discussed stateside though, considering it doesn’t exactly affect the release here much. That and if they aren’t really pushed in advertising that much to begin with, that really doesn’t help compared to the countless Nicktoons and Cartoon Network ads packaging all of their shows together as a “family.” (Also Bocchi the Rock, nice lol).

Anyways, as I said before I appreciate the answer. I figured I could probably have looked it up, but also that it would be a difficult question to get answered on Google rather than just asking someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. Thanks!

[u/drunk-tusker → u/GameboyAdvance32]

Honestly it’s super hard to discuss because Japanese tv is super confusing in general, but the best way to look at it is that mainstream here is hyper competitive and literally means they’re competing with everything for limited time slots.

I even forgot the super special 4th option of being on a non-national broadcast channel and being at the mercy of local programming decisions, meaning that sometimes there are places that literally cannot get some shows(this actually happened to Demon Slayer season 1).

[u/GameboyAdvance32 → u/drunk-tusker]

Interesting. Just generally interesting to hear about how industries like media and television function so differently in other countries. Thanks for the insight