Manga and anime in Finland

The history of manga and anime in Finland is a long but a slim one. The first anime productions seen here were the adaptations of famous Western childrens' books that were popular in TV in 1970's. Such series as Little Heidi, Maya The Bee and Nils Holgersson were very well received. However, it wasn't until 1990's when it was realised that those series were actually anime. In the case of manga, the start was even slower. The first book was the sole Finnish edition of any manga work in 1980's, Kenji Miyazawa's Barefoot Gen, and only the first volume of the work was published. In 1990's the first real hobbyists began to emerge, mostly impressed by the Rumiko Takahashi's works, that were becoming screened and printed increasingly in major European languages, above all in English. Very soon first unofficial video clubs began trading VHS tapes, and the essential anime masterpieces became known in the circles of old school fans. It didn't matter to watch Kimagure Orange Road on a grainy 7th generation video copy with poor English amateurish subtitles, because it was the only way. The most important video release in Finland during those years was Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, "Hopeanuoli". The story of brave dog with a silvery fur, who fights against a monster bear. It became an immediate childrens' favourite, and has a loyal herd of followers even today.

Auli Nuolivaara: Paimen, piika ja emäntä / Makiba no shoujo Katori

In the end of 1990's Finland saw the landing of Pokemon and Digimon on the national TV networks. In the same time two very first Miyazaki movies were shown on TV, Kurenai no buta and Tonari no Totoro, which were immediately critically acclaimed and inspired a huge interest in anime and manga. Finally, Dragon Ball and Ranma 1/2 were printed as Finnish editions, causing a clash among certain people, who had no previous experience of seeing nudity in comics - maybe not in real life either. Incredibly, even such a TV series as Makiba no shoujo Katori, based on the novels of a Finnish author, has been never seen in Finnish TV so far. Moomin is naturally extremely well known, but it has never been regarded as an anime. It is simply our own, never mind where it has been produced. All this means Finland is one of those countries where both highly commercial anime productions and productions with high production values remain equally unseen.

The exception are the anime clubs and individual hobbyists around the country who don't hesitate to claim that they are otakus - or wannabe-otakus, at least. The anime clubs are active in the university towns, where there are plenty of potential members among the students. An active anime club naturally concentrates in private showings of anime once a month, usually in the communal youth centre or another suitable venue like that. In Oulu the local club organises manga reading class, where the participants once a week study pages of Japanese language manga and try to translate it into some language that would remotely remind of Finnish. In Tampere there are plenty of non-anime activities too, like shopping journeys to Estonia and elaborate live meetings. In Turku cosplay is particularly popular and many members enjoy the hobby by planning and sewing the costumes. The typical anime club movie night might include a couple of episodes of Nadesico, Rurouni Kenshin, and Excel Saga. When the organizers feel they must boost the attendance they typically set an all-Miyazaki night. Everyone will arrive.

Message Board based virtual communities gather even larger number of members, even in remote places where clubs wouldn't survive. As the anime clubs, also the virtual communities are 100% fan-based organisations, without connections to any certain TV or video company. Most popular series Pokemon and Digimon have their own web pages with forums, regular real life meetings, and a plenty of discussion of other animations and comics too. These fan pages of series are founded, planned, maintained and moderated by the 14-17 years old fans themselves. Large virtual communities as Animeunioni (www.animeunioni.org) is an essential tool of co-operation between the clubs and individuals. Active members there are not youngsters anymore, the oldest are well over 40's and the youngest ones are barely teenagers. The forums offer a wide variety of discussion concerning all the appropriate sense and nonsense.

The annual highlight is Animecon, a meeting that began as a one-day meeting in the end of 1990's and has grown up into a festival of all weekend with foreign guest stars, discussion panels, karaoke and cosplay contests and fan art exhibitions from pencil drawings up to oil colour paintings and figurines. Animecon used to be a small part of annual Finnish scifi-con, but it has expanded and swallowed its parent.

As usual, experimental non-commercial animation is seldom seen, whether it originates from Japan or Europe. A Tough Eye movie festival in Turku in 2003, organised by the Turku animation school (led by famed Estonian artist and animator Priit Pärn) offered an unique view to the anime that isn't distributed commercially. The vintage works of Yoji Kuri, for example, underlined the idea of animation as an art form. There is no reason why the experimental art animation couldn't be seen more in TV, but then again, even the commercial anime in Finland is often a delicacy for selected people only.

Nevertheless, manga and anime are rising stars in Finnish sky. The best days are still yet to come. A very promising signal of times to come has been the premiere of Miyazaki's Sen to Chihiro in movie theaters around the country, and the start of two first real manga series published in Finland. Will the popularity be big enough to encourage publishers to print a larger variety of works, will be seen.