Attending this comic convention in the UK has left me very optimistic about the global growth of the Japanese and Korean anime industry over the next decade.
One clear indicator of this trend is the age distribution of cosplayers here. Those cosplaying classic Western IPs are mostly over 30, while those cosplaying Japanese IPs—Dragon Ball being an exception—are primarily Gen Z.
I have to say, Western creators are truly lacking in creativity and quality when it comes to merchandise. It’s shocking how bad it is! The standard offerings are limited to keychains, metal pins, T-shirts, and posters—some of which I’m almost certain are pirated, yet the organizers don’t seem to care.
The prices are outrageously high. A plastic kunai from Naruto sells for £10, but its quality is so poor that no one would pay 10 yuan for it in China.
POP figures are priced at 3–5 times what you’d find on Taobao, so many individual sellers here are flipping official and limited-edition merch for profit.
This whole merchandise market feels like it’s stuck in the last century, completely undeveloped.
As I walked around, a puzzling question kept coming to mind: What have the brilliant creators of recent years been up to?
Looking at this convention, there hasn’t been much in the way of significant global hits in the past decade.
The two most popular guests at the event were Sebastian Stan, who rose to fame 10 years ago through Marvel, and Ralph Fiennes, who gained recognition for this group of audience 20 years ago with Harry Potter.
The most represented fandoms are still Star Trek, with multiple stalls selling lightsabers, and Harry Potter. On the manga side, the most recent standout work is Demon Slayer.
As for Western hits, the newest mentions are Stranger Things and Fleabag or Sherlock, and those came out 7–10 years ago.
Even the music on the main stage included Christina Aguilera.
So, what’s going on here?
- Are talented creators unwilling to have their IPs exploited by big corporations, so they just opt out of mainstream projects,?
- Or has the abundance of options diluted attention, making it harder for anything to achieve a breakout hit?
- Perhaps the film and TV industries have sped up their content pipelines too much, burning through commercial value too quickly?
- Or is the economy so bad that people are too exhausted from daily news and arguments to invest energy in cultural consumption?
It’s bizarre that in an entire decade, there hasn’t been a truly influential global masterpiece. It’s even more surreal that kids 10–20 years younger than me are still shipping the same CPs as I did.
Anyway, I have a feeling that when the next big phenomenon does come, it’s going to devour all the pent-up attention from this empty decade. I’m looking forward to it!
