Indian Anime Movement – IAM for the first time in quite a while made it workable for India and it’s crowd to have the option to see Japan’s romantic drama Weathering with You, which is a huge hit in Japan earning nearly $100 million. The movie is from Makoto Shinkai, the director of Your Name, which is Japan’s highest-grossing animated movie ever with $235 million.
The petition was created in April 2019 around animated movie picture screening in India. The Indian Anime Movement is an activity led by Team IAM founder Shubham Sharma alongside his team of anime Youtubers and creative makers. Team Indian Anime Movement was formed right after the petition (April 2019) in order to spread the petition to each anime fan in India, the team had no idea the petition will cross over 50,000 signatures. IAM shares the vision where one can watch anime legally in India without getting region blocked.
Remarking on the appeal achievement Sharma and Team IAM co-founder Sarthak Kumar said, “It feels incredible that a movement started by us is fruitful and now as a result of our unlimited endeavours, we have the romantic animation drama, Weathering With You accessible for Indian group of spectators. The fundamental purpose behind making the initiative isn’t simply to carry the film to India but bring the whole anime culture to India, legitimately. By the term legitimately, I mean, much the same as Netflix is a website for TV shows and Crunchyroll is a website for anime. The greater part of the anime Crunchyroll is not accessible in our nation and hence the viewers watch it for free on illicit streaming sites, which are then indirectly promoted.”
He further added, “It was a sigh of relief and triumph when Makoto Shinkai saw the campaign effort and answered in a tweet saying, they are talking to the Indian film industry regarding the distribution rights. And recently, it has been revealed that the movie will go on-air in India on 11 October 2019, in its original voice with English subtitles across PVR cinemas through Vkaao. Our vision is to bring animated movies and series throughout the globe to come to India without signing any more petitions. So, instead of signing petitions for each movie or series, we came up with one last petition to bring anime to India. Also, we are extremely thankful to each anime fan from India who signed the petition and made it possible.”
It was only possible when Team IAM did their best to spread awareness, by using the hashtags #indiawantsanime campaign, getting the posters printed and reaching out to a tee shirt printing company, Comic Sense for getting their tees with the hashtag printed and then distributing the them in Delhi to spread awareness.