How JRPGs Made Anime Mainstream in the West
Japanese roleplaying games and anime share a symbiotic relationship. And that symbiosis transformed global entertainment.While anime gave Japanese media the potential to capture international audiences, JRPGs provided the crucial delivery system for popularizing anime aesthetics and storytelling conventions in the West. Together, they established a cross-cultural phenomenon that continues to thrive today. Let's take a look at how JRPGs made anime mainstream in the West.
Unlike Western RPGs, which were overwhelmingly inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, JRPGs evolved with inspiration from Japanese manga and anime. Yuji Horii, the creator of Dragon Quest, was a writer for Weekly Shonen Jump. The game's character designs were created by Dragon Ball artist Akira Toriyama, and its composer, Koichi Sugiyama, was a celebrated anime soundtrack artist.This trend was not unique to Dragon Quest. Early Japanese RPG developers often drew from manga and anime for their art, stories, and mechanics. Even as the genre expanded, JRPGs maintained an anime-inspired style that distinguished them from their Western counterparts. Games like Wild Arms showcased richly animated sequences created by prominent studios such as Madhouse, reinforcing their connection to anime culture.Related: Beloved Cartoonist Akira Toriyama Dead at 68The pivotal moment for JRPGs—and anime aesthetics—in the West came with the release of Final Fantasy VII. While earlier titles like FF VI and Super Mario RPG had seen modest success, FF VII was a juggernaut. It sold over 10 million copies worldwide, including a staggering 2 million in the United States during the PlayStation 1 era.This success was not just about the game itself. Final Fantasy VII was heavily marketed with anime style visuals, cinematic cutscenes, and an epic storyline featuring spiky-haired protagonists and larger-than-life antagonists: all hallmarks of shonen manga. These elements drew a new audience to the genre, many of whom unknowingly discovered anime through itws visuals and themes.
JRPGs served as an anime gateway drug for countless Western players, particularly in the 1990s and early 2000s. Many iconic JRPGs included anime-style opening sequences, cutscenes, and character designs that mirrored the shonen and shojo genres.As JRPGs gained popularity, so did their anime counterparts. Titles like Dragon Quest inspired manga and anime adaptations, and the crossover between media became seamless. This synergy laid the groundwork for the explosion of isekai, a genre of anime and light novels that often involves protagonists transported to worlds inspired by JRPGs.Related: The Rise and Fall of the Western Anime SceneThe ascendancy of JRPGs coincided with anime’s increasing global reach, as seen with shows like Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Pokémon. These franchises were deeply tied to gaming, with each spawning RPGs, among other game genres, that reinforced their popularity. By the early 2000s, the once-niche appeal of anime had turned mainstream, thanks in no small part to JRPGs introducing millions of players to its art style and tropes.For a deep, deep, deep dive into JRPG history, check out this video by NeverKnowsBest, which provided much of the historical data for this post:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhQamvbfDxc Today, JRPGs maintain their anime inspiration. That is a mixed blessing, since it has subjected Japanese media to the lowest-common-demoninator focus of Cultural Ground Zero. In one of life's great ironies, it seems that the quality of an art form must decrease as mainstream exposure increases. Skim any list of the best video games–not just RPGs, but games as a whole–and you'll find a striking preponderance of SNES-era JRPGs. Chrono Trigger in particular, which earns several mentions in the video above, is widely considered the single best video game of all time. Similarly, Toriyama's work on Dragon Quest gets its rightful credit. Now compare genre-defining 90s anime like Dragon Ball Z with post-Ground Zero fare like Dragon Ball Super. See what I mean?Still. JRPGs did more than popularize a genre of games. They served as cultural ambassadors, bringing anime aesthetics and storytelling to the forefront of Western entertainment. As the global appetite for Japanese media grows, it’s worth remembering that the worlds of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and many others were instrumental in making anime a household name.
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