The United States and Japan have dominated the adult animation market since the early 1970s, later varied to countries, such as the United Kingdom, China, France, Spain, South Korea, Russia and the Philippines.
Americas
Canada Adult animation has slowly moved forward in Canada. From 2002 to 2003, Clone High, a Canadian–American adult animated sitcom, a parody of teen dramas such as Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills, 90210, first aired in its entirety on Canadian cable network Teletoon at Night between 2002 and 2003, later debuting on MTV. After controversy regarding its depiction of Mahatma Gandhi, which prompted hundreds in India to mount a hunger strike in response, MTV pulled the series, which had been receiving low ratings. Additionally, Clone High attracted mixed reviews from television critics upon its premiere, but it has since received critical acclaim and a cult following. Some critics described it as having a "silly premise" and noted that it was short-lived.
From 2004 to 2007 Tripping the Rift, an American/Canadian adult animated science fiction comedy television series, which aired in Syfy, then airing on channels of other North American and International broadcasters, aired on Space and Teletoon at Night. It also aired in France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, and Central Europe. In 2008, Anchor Bay released the 75-minute unrated Tripping the Rift: The Movie on DVD on 25 March 2008. The series was described as "strange riff on Star Trek", with one reviewer saying that while the show has "some out-of-date CGI animation," it mixes spoof of sci-fi with political satire and social commentary.
From 2007 to 2008 an American animated television program by Adam de la Peña, titled Code Monkeys, which follows the adventures of fictional video game company GameaVision, ran for two seasons, from 2007 to 2008, on G4 and G4 Canada. The series was described as being an "arcade-themed comedy," while having a style of "lude [sic], stoner humour" while having visuals of a distinct flavour.
In 2005 a British–Canadian adult animated series about a British high school in South London, titled Bromwell High, aired on Teletoon at Night in Canada first, then had an incomplete run on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. It was a co-production between Hat Trick Productions in the UK and Decode Entertainment in Canada. It was originally to be entitled Streatham Hill, but was renamed Bromwell High in January 2005. Streatham Hill is a real London suburb, while Bromwell is fictional. Reviewers stated that it made fun of living in a London suburb while "delivering a surreal and outlandish viewing experience", parodying British culture itself, having simplistic but edgy humour while staying a "wholly original" animation.
In 2016 Secret Path was released, a multimedia storytelling project principally developed by singer-songwriter and writer Gord Downie. Secret Path told the story of Chanie Wenjack, who died at age 12 in 1966 after escaping an Indian residential school in Northern Ontario. The project included an animated television film on the CBC written and directed by Downie, a concept album and concert tour, a graphic novel, and instructional material.
In March 2019 Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series, a spinoff of the Trailer Park Boys series, began streaming on Netflix. CBR would describe it as "the animated successor to beloved Canadian comedy icons" and stated that any continuation of "this Nova Scotian raunchiness is always appreciated." Later, in July 2020, it was announced that a reboot of the series is in the works at MTV Studios with the original creators Lord, Miller, and Lawrence returning. Specifically, the Adult Animation Unit of ViacomCBS was said to be at work on rebooting shows like Clone High and Beavis and Butt-Head.
In November 2020 Chris Robinson of Cartoon Brew wrote an article about the animation scene in Toronto, Ontario. Within the article, he argued that while Canada has put out fine animation on TV for years, it has "never produced a series" which is just as "timeless and popular" as Family Guy and The Simpsons. He also stated that adult animations tend to be "very Canada-specific" like Corner Gas Animated. However, Robinson quoted George Elliott, president of Elliott Animation, who stated that outside of adult animation, "many Canadian shows have found global success."
Chile In 2018 The Wolf House, also known as La Casa Lobo, by filmmakers Cristobal León & Joaquín Cociña, who both work in Santiago de Chile, Chile. premiered. It was described as "a stop-motion tour de force, staged as a single sequence" while having a strong "allegory about Chile's inglorious ties with German."
United States
In the United States, before the enforcement of the Hays Code, some cartoon shorts contained humour that was aimed at adult audience members rather than children. Following the introduction of the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system, independent animation producers like Ralph Bakshi (known for the 1972 adaptation of Robert Crumb's creation Fritz the Cat) attempted to establish an alternative to mainstream animation.8-Minute Video Boils Down the Essence of Animation Legend Ralph Bakshi – VICE Initially, few animation studios in the United States attempted to produce animation for adult audiences, but later examples of animation produced for adults would gain mainstream attention and success. Adult animation in the United States includes shows with superheroes, sci-fi, and fantasy elements. Some of the most prominent animations with these mature themes include The Simpsons, BoJack Horseman, Futurama, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Beavis and Butt-Head, Robot Chicken, South Park, Big Mouth, Rick and Morty, Family Guy, American Dad!, Invincible, Smiling friends (American-australian), and Archer, along with other adult animated television series, feature films, and animation in other forms which helped the genre expand over the years.
Asia
China For years education in adult animation within China fostered "practical talents" in the country's animation industry. In 2017, the Chinese animated dark comedy film directed by Liu Jian, Have a Nice Day premiered. It was first shown in the main competition for the Golden Bear at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2017. It is Liu Jian's second feature film, following his debut Piercing I. The film, mostly done by Liu himself, took three years to complete.专访│总投资不足1000万，《大世界》凭啥斩获金马奖最佳动画长片？. 每日经济新闻. 27 November 2017. The film was withdrawn from the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2017 at its producer's demand as it did not have proper governmental clearance to be screened internationally. Strand Releasing distributed the film in US while Memento Films International handled additional territories including the UK, Mexico, Spain, Benelux, Switzerland, Greece, Turkey and Eastern Europe. The film has been licensed to screen in more than 30 countries. In China, the premiere of the film took place at the Pingyao International Film Festival in early November 2017, with a guest appearance by Chinese film director Jia Zhangke, who praised the film as a milestone in Chinese animation. The film won Best Animation Feature at the 54th Golden Horse Awards. The film was later described as revealing a "dark side of China's modernization" and called subversive.
Hong Kong, like the rest of China, has been involved in adult animation for years. One of these animations is the recent film, No.7 Cherry Lane, which has been described as "dense with literary and classic cinema references" and called the first venture by Yonfan into adult animation itself.
Iran The French and Iranian film, Persepolis, based on comics of the same name has been described as an "adult-oriented story." The film features various LGBTQ characters. At one point in the film, Marjane Satrapi lives for some time in a communal apartment with eight gay men in Vienna, Austria. Additionally, Marjane's boyfriend Fernando (named Enrique in the comic) reveals to her that he is gay.
Japan
Adult animation is known in Japan as . Anime and manga targeted to young men are called seinen, whereas those targeted to young women are called josei.
Studio Ghibli cofounder Toshio Suzuki remembered that until the end of the 1970s, animation was primarily considered as a medium for families and children. Suzuki said that this changed with the release of Space Battleship Yamato, opening up the range of audiences for anime. Ghibli's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was produced with a more mature audience in mind, and many fellow studios were doing the same thing in the early 1980s. Akira is seen as a pivotal film in the Japanese cyberpunk genre and inspired many adult-oriented cyberpunk anime. James Cameron cited Ghost in the Shell as a source of inspiration for Avatar, and called it "the first truly adult animation film to reach a level of literary and visual excellence." Ghibli movies were spread to a U.S. audience with distributors like GKids. Others stated that anime changed by the "increasing importation of Japanese animated adult erotic fare" beginning in the 1990s.
Animated works of an erotic nature have come to be described in western fandom as hentai, the Japanese word for "perverted", while in Japan they are more likely to be referred to as or . Although some associate all anime with sexual content, hentai only makes up a very small portion of the Japanese animation industry. As the result of the misconceptions about Japanese animation, some video stores outside Japan have classified children's anime as for adults only. While the adult animation market exists primarily through direct sales, like mail-orders to customers, and wholesale to speciality shops which cater to animation and comic-book fans, the legal framework in Japan and the United States regarding the regulation of obscene and pornographic material is overall rather similar.US and Japan pornography regulation traditions and trends by Dan Kanemitsu (2002/3 revision)
Many video stores have also categorized all adult-oriented animation as "anime", including the works of Bakshi, the French animated film Fantastic Planet, the Canadian animated film Heavy Metal and the HBO television series Todd McFarlane's Spawn. In the case of Spawn, Todd McFarlane directly listed anime as an influence, particularly Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, and stated his hope that the show would help encourage the rise of adult animation on North American networks. This in part led to the involvement of the Japanese studio Madhouse in the production, in an attempt to "combine" the Eastern and Western styles.
Some of the earliest manga magazines were aimed at adults, and this provided a prime source as the basis for adult anime works. Manga marketed towards adult men are known as seinen, while those marketed towards adult women are known as josei. Weekly Manga Times began publication in 1956, and would be followed by Weekly Manga Goraku (1964), and Manga Action (1967). Anime works based on seinen manga include Berserk, Golden Boy and Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari. In the case of Golden Boy, while it has been positively received by English-language reviewers, it is widely known for its mature content, as the OVA features instances of partial female nudity, orgasms, and female masturbation, and the manga becomes almost pornographic starting in the second volume. On the other hand, reviewers predicted that Tokyo Daigaku Monogatari, otherwise known as Tokyo University Story, would have "sexually-oriented material" but would not be pornographic.