I recently posted an image on the J-List Facebook page and my Twitter feed listing “famous” actors and other personalities who like anime. The list included people like Will Smith (who likes Gatchaman and the films of Hayao Miyazaki), Daniel Radcliffe (a fan of Initial D and Lupin III), and Hulk Hogan (who is a Pokemon fan). The Japanese staff of J-List was rather pleased to learn that Keanu Reeves loved Ghost in the Shell and Death Note, but I wasn’t surprised at all. Anime has gone far beyond it’s days of being a fringe hobby a few visionary nerds embraced once a month in an anime club held on a university campus, and has become a major pillar of our shared popular culture, just as Star Trek and Star Wars transcend their original genres. It’d be harder to go through life without developing at least a basic appreciation for a few anime series, it seems to me.
Know any other famous anime fans? Taratino is one, Brad Pitt is another.
