The Indian Anime Community: A Future I Didn't Expect to Be a Part Of

Living in India and being a longtime anime fan has given me front row seats to an amazing journey of growth, one that I feel very lucky to have been—and continue to be—a part of. I hope that this article can convey the magic that anime has brought to India, and what has come out of it.

The evolution of anime and manga in India was never a linear path. It went in all sorts of directions and has many fractals depending on the individual, so let's start with my own path. I started watching anime sometime between 2005-2010. As Sony's Animax was already a part of India's broadcast TV network, I couldn't have picked a better time to dive into what I would later realize is a bottomless pit. I was introduced to many anime during this time; however, my love affair with the channel was short-lived. The availability of the one channel that streamed anime in India was exclusive to set-top box connections in metro city households, and subjected to regional differences within the country. I soon turned to the internet to continue where I left off, and this is where my journey truly began.

Many iconic series like Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z had already taken the country by storm, but these shows were never viewed as “anime.” One reason for this could be that these shows aired on Cartoon Network at the time, alongside many other iconic western cartoons. Therefore, despite their popularity, they did not serve as the proper introduction to anime that India deserved.

However, with the internet, I struck anime gold. After being introduced to anime like InuYasha, Ouran High School Host Club, Kekkaishi, Maid Sama!, and so on, I never looked back. Many others my age fell down the rabbit hole with Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. I was incredibly excited to have found something I loved so ardently, but the relative obscurity of the medium in India contributed to the loneliness most anime fans faced at that time. It left them with the impression that watching anime was a very niche thing. Unfortunately, anime was never taken very seriously and was treated similarly to children's cartoons, and my peers much preferred American TV shows to this. But better times were heading my way!

The rise of social media naturally brought the citizens of the seventh-largest country in the world a whole lot closer. It was also around this time that series like Death Note, One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100, and more started making their way into the mainstream in India. Social media platforms like Facebook allowed online communities to flourish; fandoms and clubs soon began to establish themselves, with many based around universities or specific regions, bringing the once-hidden anime community in India to the forefront. Examples include Uttar Pradesh Anime Club, Bangalore Anime Club, Ranchi Anime Club, and Coimbatore Anime Club, just to name a few.

I found my way into the Chennai Anime Club, aka CAC, soon after its establishment in 2018. CAC is based in the coastal city of Chennai but has over 1,000 members from all over India. CAC was founded by four college students who met through online forums: Suresh Kasipandy, Nikhil Ravikumar, Sameer Kulkarni, and Venkata Ramakrishna Pakakurthi. They passionately wanted to create a community-run club where fun, not profit, was the norm. From hosting weekly events to managing the club's online spaces, everything in CAC is fully run by its members, with additional support from the club admins. Ashwita, a longtime admin over at CAC, tells me that it is not just a hub for anime fans but also a club that supports the various interests of its members, from studying Japanese to gaming, cosplaying, and even chess. CAC holds the mantle for the most active Japanese language study community in India, introducing a new person to the language each week, and hosting daily study sessions at 9 PM.

2018 was truly the beginning of some great things for anime in India, specifically Chennai. The city of Chennai witnessed its first anime convention at Phoenix MarketCity (one of Chennai's largest malls): the Phoenix Anime Gaming Expo. While it was more centered around gaming, the turnout, excitement, and the growth of CAC led to bigger things for the anime community. The convention returned the following year, bigger and better than the last.

Japan Film Festival hosted by The Japan Foundation also found its way to India that year and brought with it the screening of your name. The theaters were packed, and there were not enough seats to accommodate everybody who showed up. This unexpectedly large turnout finally put to rest the idea that anime was a niche interest in this country; Indian anime fans no longer have to feel lonely.

The biggest highlight of CAC events was the screening of Weathering With You in 2019. The screening brought together 70-80 members under one roof. It was organized as a private event with the help of the staff at PVR Cinemas.

Ashwita elaborates that as an admin, one of the main goals is to keep the club a place of constant enjoyment and fruitful interactions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a fresh wave of challenges. Nikhil recalls that one of the problems with online clubs is that they remain in that space and become inactive over time. CAC members were able to remain connected and active through the lockdowns, thanks to the many events hosted online on CAC's Discord channel.

Some of the current weekly events include: Myth Talks hosted by Ali Khan, which educates members on world mythology, Runic Musings hosted by Vikram, which provides a space for self-expression through different themes, Let's Band Together hosted by Dikshith, which serve as a proper introduction to classical music, and Who Dat Animal hosted by Kalyani, which teaches members about wildlife through memes. Borrowing inspiration from Inktober, CAC also started Inkfest52—a year-long event that gives the members weekly prompts to center their illustrations around—and other seasonal events like November LitPunch and CAC Melody Months.

Despite having come such a long way with regards to establishing an active and thriving community, it is still too early to say that anime has become part of the mainstream in India. Ashwita tells me that Indian audiences have a certain reluctance and resistance when it comes to trying out anime, whereas famous western franchises are enthusiastically welcomed. Keeping this in mind, CAC formed its long-term goal: to normalize anime and anime culture in India. The closely-knit CAC, which enables and encourages learning and sharing of skills for the sake of individual development, is one of Ashwita's favorite things about the club.

“It's great that they were all brought together because of anime”, she says, and hopes for a future filled with community growth, bigger anime-centric events, and recognition of the huge fanbase in India by the international community. If you'd like to check CAC out, they have a growing presence on Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

One of the major hurdles that Indian anime fans have had ever since the early days is the lack of legal avenues to consume anime. Piracy was rampant back then, with many fans storing tons of anime on hard drives and distributing it to friends who ask for it. The shutdown of Animax only escalated the situation, and many anime fans turned to illegal streaming sites to continue where they had left off. Since then, the inclusion of anime on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has contributed to the increase in popularity and consumption of anime. However, the anime libraries of these streaming platforms are not exactly comprehensive, and more obscure anime are often overlooked. Sameer Kulkarni's solution to this is anistream.in, a website that guides people to legal sources of streaming specific anime titles.

The other major hurdle is the availability of quality manga and merchandise. Official merchandise has never properly made its way into India, and there are very few physical stores set up across the country. The few bookstores that sell manga have incomplete collections, and Amazon is not always the best option because manga often sells out all too quickly. This is where PopCircuit comes in.

PopCircuit is an online marketplace for anime and pop-culture merchandise and a space for local artists to sell their merch. It was founded originally in 2016-17 by Nikhil Ravikumar and Sameer Kulkarni, who wanted to do something in the anime space after recognizing the rapidly-growing market in India. They spent the first few years selling only merchandise—mainly figurines—and figuring out what they wanted the company to be. Today, they have expanded their product line to t-shirts and stickers as well.

Talking about his vision for the company, Nikhil brings up the infrastructure in Tokyo that allows for the recognition and growth of stories and storytellers. Nikhil recognizes that Japan celebrates creativity even at the schooling level: story writers and illustrators are given awards and encouragement, and many companies are invested in growing creative talent. “This kind of infrastructure is completely lacking in India's comics industry, and this is the infrastructure that PopCircuit seeks to create. Ultimately, the focus of PopCircuit is to make anime happen in India; to organically create anime in India,” says the young founder of India's largest merchandise distributor.

Although the road to achieving that goal may be a long one, Nikhil and Sameer had already begun their first steps. PopCircuit's first booth was at the Phoenix MarketCity Anime Expo in 2018, where they laid the foundations for both the company and the Chennai Anime Club simultaneously. Today, the company sponsors events conducted by clubs like CAC across various cities in India. They also organized “Switch Fest'' in August 2021, which hosted a glittering range of events from cosplay, photography, music and t-shirt design contests to storytelling and manga workshops, just to name a few. You can keep up with PopCircuit's events by checking out their website, Discord, Instagram, and Facebook.

One of the main motivations behind SwitchFest is to facilitate the growth of various anime clubs across the country. PopCircuit also supports Indian artists by turning their website into a platform where they can sell their merchandise through the help of print-on-demand services.

When asked about what the biggest challenge PopCircuit currently faces, Nikhil tells me that it is the Indian anime community itself. The community is very fragmented, and their varied interests makes it a challenge to bring them all together. “It's not a monolithic fanbase,” he says. Nevertheless, Nikhil rejoices in how the internet has made anime so much more accessible in India, and how it has contributed to the normalization and consumption of anime.

Writing this article has allowed me to reflect on my journey as a fan of anime in India. Purchasing manga and merchandise are things that I once thought were impossible in this country, and yet it's happening. Anime is now at the center of a massive and ever-growing community in India, and a future that I didn't dare expect to be a part of. On a personal level, the anime community here has given me a sense of belonging, has led to the addition of many new skills to my repertoire, and has put me on new paths to explore. I'd love to be able to share this sentiment with more people. The possibilities I see now for my country's future in this domain are endless and I cannot wait to see how they will unravel.

Neera Gopakumar aka 'brainscratch' is a blogger who runs the website Peak Weebing