Anime is in the American pop culture mainstream now, and how it got there is a long story. In his new podcast with Crunchyroll, Anime in America, Yedoye Travis chronicles the rise of anime and its journey from Japan to Saturday-morning cartoons in America. Yedoye is a comedian, actor, and writer from Atlanta, GA. A host for Get in the Robot, he is also the creator and host of the Dark Tank podcast, which AV Club called “one of the most deliciously daring shows of the moment.” Named a New Face at the Montreal Just For Laughs festival in 2017, he has appeared as a guest on networks like BET and Comedy Central, and as a writer for Viceland and Netflix.
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In this interview, LaNeysha and Kate talk with Yedoye about his anime origin story, Anime in America, and of course whether or not he thinks Neysha will finish all 1000 episodes of One Piece by December 31, 2020. We also get into a discussion about gatekeepers, and why anime is for all of us.
Over eight episodes, Anime in America will cover a variety of topics with the first two episodes titled “Ep 1: IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS FANSUBS” and “Ep 2: ROBOTS, REAL ESTATE, AND SILVIO BERLUSCONI.” In the first episode, Yedoye explains how before you could go online to watch literally any and every anime…you had to send a letter, a check, and wait a few months for a VHS of maybe 4 episodes. Plus how doing that was also, doing that was a crime. with guest Justin Sevakis. For the second episode, Yeodye takes listeners down the messy world of localization, and how that doesn’t stop Harmony Gold from mashing up a few shows to create the first big anime, Robotech.
Hit play on the audio player above to hear the full interview.
Follow Yedoye Travis on Instagram @ProfessorDoye and on Twitter @YedoyeOT
To listen to Anime in America, check out the links below.
