From the top: Ping Pong the Animation, Akira, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Evangelion 3.0+1.0.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Funimation, CrunchyRoll, Hulu and Amazon Prime
From the moment Astro Boy was first broadcast on NBC in 1963, anime has been a part of American TV-watching habits, whether audiences knew they were watching anime or thought it was just another cartoon. But we’re long past the times where anime shows were reedited and repackaged into entirely new shows like Robotech and Voltron. And, for the most part, we’ve moved beyond the dark days of groan-inducing censorship and mistranslations, even if the differences still persist.
Nowadays, anime is so accepted and widely available that…
