Tuned in to Retro Anime / Manga!

There's a bunch of minor series, but I guess you mean popular in Japan, but unknown outside of it?

Detective Conan - it's so long lasting it bridges the /cel/ and /digi/ eras. Possibly because it has so many episodes it never got a footing in America. But it also lacks a marketing angle like say Yugioh or Pokemon has.

>>4616
>>4616
yes, there's also The Kindaichi Case Files. For some reason they must have never thought it had much of an angel in USA-Europe as I've never heard anyone talk about it.

Localizers probably didn't want the murder mystery genre since it doesn't fit nicely in a demographic. Kids shouldn't watch murder mysteries, and adults aren't going to watch animation.

148 episodes, 2 films. Both films are very high budget and well made for what they are with needless artistry.

English forums are bad for anime recs simply because they have such massive blind spots like this. If no one localized it in the 80s or 90s it is almost invisible to them.

Sazae-san is another obvious one, an institution in Japan but not really a known on English forums. Osomatsu-kun probably wasn't considered suitable for children while Kitaro was probably too folklore heavy, although I think people would have loved it.. Oshinbo probably wasn't appealing to localizers because its an adult orientated cooking series and there isn't a market for that in the West. I think age plays a role too because fewer 60s and 70s series seemed to get official localizations compared to stuff from the late 80s.

>>4616
People know about Detective Conan even if its not that popular. I'm sure there's tons of great anime out there we know nothing about. I'm sure Japanese fans have their own hidden gems and cult classics that were never well known at a national level that we've sadly never even heard of.

>>4618
Nerds on anime forums hear of Conan, but never watch it themselves. The vast majority of "anime fans" in the west have never heard of it though since it's never localized. Since it never gained a foothold, and there's no obvious merchandizing angle, it never got any kind of popularity. There's also just too many episodes, movies, and specials, and chapters, so it's just feels overwhelming to someone who hears about it.

Contrast that to Japan where it's one of the highest grossing animated film series of all time there.

For example: Iv'e never actually watched Conan once despite having heard about it for about 15 years now.

>>4615
> Crayon Shin-chan
> Sazae-san
> Touch

If an old series didn't get any kind of localization it's invisible to Americans and Brits. Then when the opportunity is missed, it's impossible to build up hype, since there's new anime series and media competing for attention so they don't both trying to localize some ancient series. So it remains hidden and forgotten about. A fan 30 years later in America may create a translation of the anime and put it on a torrent site, but lacking any reason to most will not check it out.

lol this forum's dead.

Captain Tsubasa was hugely popular in Japan and in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, but for some reason it never got an English release. I know its not /cel/ but the period drama Oshin was also hugely popular in Asia and the Middle East, probably the most recognizable Japanese export in those countries, but its virtually unknown in the English speaking world. Ashita no Joe only got an official English release a few years ago, although I have seen posters of Yabuki in boxing clubs in Europe and Asia before that date, its still somewhat unknown and overlooked despite its popularity in Japan. Again, it probably had to do with age since that series came out in the 70s and boxing has since become very unpopular. I really do not see why Captain Tsubasa was not picked up. Maybe localizers figured an association football manga would not be a hit in America? But its the most popular sport in England so that does not make much sense. Sports and drama are not popular topics on anime forums so I guess that contributes to it.

>>4619

In regards of localization in the middle east Conan is even popular upon non anime-manga consumers due to the Arabic dub of "Spacetoon" or "Al Zahraa" so I beleive it may go the same for some other languages at least in regions with some similarities in culture and limited budgets which applies also to some other retro titles that gained a tremendous amount of popularity in my region being watched and talked about on social media by millions till our current day
That being said it actually peeks my interest to learn of similar cases in other countries but it may lack the proper coverage in all the places I know unfortunately

Anpanman wasn't localized because the main character is an anpan who feeds hungry people by ripping chunks off his own body which led to fears about cannibalism.

It did get a release in Saudi but scenes of Melonpanna (a female) interacting with boys were cut because they show inappropriate gender mixing. Saudi also banned Pokemon because it apparently promotes Zionism and freemasonry which is pretty hilarious.