But wait a minute! Isn't SAILOR MOON sponsored by Bandai? How come they don't do the same thing for Sailor Moon like they did with POWER RANGERS? Well, honestly, I don't know. Maybe Bandai thought that SAILOR MOON didn't need any help and that it could get off the ground even with 5:00 AM time slots. Maybe Bandai thought that they were making enough money everywhere else in the world and they didn't need the American market. Maybe they don't like the dub DIC did for it and they hope it dies in America! Maybe they want to deny Americans the great GIFT of anime!!! I don't know!! But in the case of SAILOR MOON, which wasn't a network show and wasn't supported as strongly by Bandai, you can now see the results of the system in action. It is all too unfortunate.
The marketplace looks pretty bleak, doesn't it? A place where shows don't seem to judged by their quality or merit. Where politics and money grubbing seem to be the rule. How depressing it must be to work in such an industry!
Cheer up! For I've saved the rays of hope for last!
I still believe that anime is in America's television future. The only reason I believe this is for the simple fact that a lot of us have grown up with cartoons, but our cartoons haven't grown up with us and anime fills that void. Until American animation catches up to the level of sophistication and quality of anime (which will take several years to do), anime will continue to gain in awareness, popularity and respect as it serves a specific market need. The respectability of anime is what will prevent it from disappearing like a fad.
Here's the rest of the story about Sailor Moon which I haven't told you until now.
How well does SAILOR MOON do in good time slots, you may rightfully ask? Well, despite all the negative news I've given you about it so far, Naoko Takeuchi's phenomenal creation does very very well when its on at a good time slot. In New York, its airs weekday mornings at around 7:00 AM. For several weeks in '95 it was getting 3.4's! In Los Angeles, it airs at around 8:00 AM. For a long time it was consistently getting 2.8's and 2.9's! These are spectacular ratings for a children's show! and its the #1 cartoon in Canada!
These markets show that SAILOR MOON does have broad (if only urban) appeal. So there is something very right with SAILOR MOON in that it does have a cross-cultural appeal and it somehow captures the fancy of the American viewer. Only if it was getting bad ratings in good time slots would I think there's no hope for anime here in the US.
And what about all that cynical talk about good shows getting good ratings being just a happy coincidence? Well, I really meant what I said about intellectual shows not always getting good ratings. What I neglected to mention is that shows needn't be judged (in fact, shouldn't be judged) on whether or not they appeal to the literacy of the viewer. What needs to happen is a redefinition of the term "good television" to mean something other than "intelligent television". The real measure of a show's success should be in the amount of entertainment value it provides. Who can really say exactly what constitutes "entertainment"? I sure can't! So, if you take a look at all the highly rated shows, it's true that not all of them are "intelligent" and you might consider them junk, but one quality is common to all of them: they all provide a lot of entertainment value. (What each person deems as entertainment value for themselves, is, of course, an individual matter and another subject entirely.)
So if we redefine "good television" to mean "television which provides lots of entertainment value", the bottom line is not cynical anymore! I'm not saying, "Television shows should be made to get the highest ratings," as I implied earlier, rather, I am saying, "Television shows should be made with lots of entertainment value." This way, "good" shows get high ratings and that pushes the overall quality of television up a notch. Anime, because of its maturity and status as an industry in Japan, provides a lot of entertainment value. This is the reason for its cross-cultural appeal. This is another reason anime will just keep growing here.

Conclusion

I hope that by understanding how children's television works it should be clear that anime is not at fault for failing here in America. In fact, I hope it has convinced you even more that anime still has a future here! The case study of SAILOR MOON should show that the actual series itself cannot bear 100% of the blame for not being popular here in America. At worst, it can only be responsible for 50% of its success or failure. Any other cartoon (American or otherwise) would have suffered the same fate if it, too, was released in the same manner. The industry of television is so broad and wide that its impossible for me to cover everything in one article. (Most notable of the topics I've left out are the mechanics of Saturday morning.) Nonetheless, I hope I've cleared up some of the mystery about why you see the stuff you do when you turn on the TV and expect something good to watch.

--David Ho