Pay-TV channels also aired anime occasionally: HBO broadcast numerous anime television series based on Western literature, including Gisaburō Sugii's Jack and the Beanstalk and the World Masterpiece Theater versions of Little Women and Tom Sawyer, and Osamu Tezuka's Unico features aired on the Disney Channel.
In 1983, Stern Electronics released a Dragon's Lair clone known as Cliff Hanger, which contained footage from the Lupin III films The Castle of Cagliostro and The Mystery of Mamo.
Harmony Gold produced a partial dub of the first five TV episodes and two movies (The Curse of the Blood Rubies and The Mystical Adventure), which were edited into an 80-minute film.
The dubs were syndicated across America to independent television stations such as WPSG Philly 57 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and WGPR-TV in Detroit, Michigan, but failed to find an audience.
In 1988, Streamline Pictures became one of the first companies dedicated solely to anime dubs, most notably dubbed versions of Twilight of the Cockroaches and three more Miyazaki films: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, both released initially as in-flight entertainment for Japan Airlines passengers traveling from North America to Japan, and Castle in the Sky.
The company also dubbed the 4-episode OVA Vampire Princess Miyu that same year, which was later adapted into a 26-episode TV series by Tokyopop (and later by Maiden Japan in 1997).
In the mid- to late 1980s, anime films such as Akira, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service, and MADOX-01 were dubbed by companies including MGM, Fox, New World Pictures, and AnimEigo.
Even though these films were not very successful at the time, due in part to limited release, critical reception was positive, and Akira found a cult following.
Viz Media, which was already successful with its manga translation of Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma ½, bought the rights to the anime and released it via direct-to-video starting in 1993.
In 1995, the original Dragon Ball, now assisted by Funimation and other collaborators,[15][16][17][18] finally managed to air to an American audience for one season in early morning syndication.
Anime saw greater success among American audiences when DiC (then owned by Disney) and Funimation (via Saban Entertainment and Canada-based Ocean Studios) licensed Sailor Moon (1995) and Dragon Ball Z (1996) respectively, and both were televised in the U.S. through early morning syndication.
In Summer 1998, Cartoon Network, which had an action-themed evening block named Toonami, began airing Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z.
As a result, both series were revived, receiving new dubs with significantly less editing amid the recent inception of the TV Parental Guidelines (both were rated TV-Y7-FV).
In 1998, Pokémon was introduced to America because of The WB (now as CW), becoming a commercial success through its merchandising (trading cards, VHS, toys, video games, etc.).
In Northern California, KTEH-TV in San Jose became well known locally for being one of the few PBS outlets to air anime, in both dubbed and subtitled versions.
Although it was not a great success at the box office, performing much better on DVD releases, it began the relationship between Disney and Studio Ghibli to distribute the latter's films in the U.S.
Adult Swim also aired series including uncut episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist, Inuyasha, Samurai Champloo, Death Note, Durarara!
!, FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Case Closed, Lupin III, Code Geass, Bleach, Shin Chan, and Trigun.
Due to the popularity of Dragon Ball Z, Funimation would continue to dominate anime distribution in the United States and continued licensing several popular titles such as Fruits Basket, Black Cat, Ouran High School Host Club, Kodocha, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and launched its own Funimation Channel to exclusively air most of its titles.
The Secret World of Arrietty was released theatrically in 2012, and was only a moderate box office success in the United States, despite being one of the highest-grossing films in the U.S. in 2012 (and #50 worldwide).
Similar to Toonami's prior Midnight Run block, it is now targeted towards a young adult demographic with little to no editing of content.
This is largely due to the nationwide lockdown during the pandemic, and popularity of anime edits and fan discourse on the social media app TikTok.