Who's the Mickey Mouse of anime? A character who is synonymous with anime, and known even by people who don't watch anime?
Maybe Goku?
Maybe Goku?
Who's the Mickey Mouse of anime?
- Thread starter CastletonSnob
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Probably Wing Zero? Gundams are a pretty huge segment of the anime community, and Gundam Wing is certainly the most popular in the West, and almost as popular in Japan.
I mean, part of OP's question is that the character is known outside of the anime community. Don't think the Gundam Wing will rank very high in that respect. The RX-78-2 aka the og Gundam probably has the better odds, for certain in Japan. Tho I suppose it doesn't really matter. Most Gundams share the same basic design, and anyone who knows what a Gundam looks like will see one and go "that's a gundam" (as opposed to the gundam or any specific one).
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The creator of Astro was heavily inspired by Disney. Plenty of people knew or what Astro Boy was and is. Maybe not as much as Pikachu, but still plenty. The character's had three different cartoon and one CGI movie, and plenty of expies. Mega Man being one of the first clones of Astro Boy.
See I disagree. Maybe for our parent's generation, but current millennials and gen z have no connection to Astro Boy. There were a few films no one saw, and its been 15 years since MegaMan was a thing. Meanwhile Pokemon and Pikachu are still churning out games.
My parents never even seen Astro Boy, though they're the exception. My mom knows of the character though, and my dad could not give a shit.
The third cartoon series came out in 2003 (I was 13). The first time I was ever aware of Astro Boy was the year 1999 when some stations would air old episodes from the 60s and 80s series. I am sure there are millennials that know or aware of the franchise's existence. The Gen Z, I can't fully speak for, but they will learn of him from someone or the older otaku. It's only a matter of time.
Mega Man 11 came out in September of 2018, and was a success. Still relevant, and so are all of those compilation games that came out in the late 2010s and the Zero/ZX Collection in 2020.
Your point?
I hate to say this, but it's most likely Naruto Uzamaki. If we're going down that route.
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I don't think you can really have a Mikey Mouse of anime. He's been such a pillar of importance to Disney that he kinda lost his character. He's been in the occasional thing but I think hes more like Mario, where he doesn't really have his own personality and now is more of an idea. Of course its totally possible that I just haven't been up on recent Disney animation.
Watch the 2013 shorts. They bring Mickey, and several characters back to their old or older characterizations.
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Those are pretty funny, feels more like its copying loony toons then old micky cartoons though. I did think of one anime character who might be comparable, Hello Kitty. I know that there are some anime cartoons for her but she feels more like a brand then a character.
Honestly the same could be said for Mickey at this point. Started off as a mischievous, impish trickster, became a dull leader type when they paired him with Donald and Goofy (basically two extremes of the self) and by now so much of his personality has been erased he might as well just be a logo.
