Anime didn’t change after 9/11, but 9/11 changed how I watched anime.

A still from “TekkonKinkreet” shows Kiddy Kastle after a terrorist attack, its smoke-shrouded towers evoking the devastation of the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001. | ©︎ ANIPLEX, ASMIK ACE ENTERTAINMENT, SHOGAKUKAN, BEYOND C., DENTSU, TOKYO MX

Sep 11, 2026

The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States took place 25 years ago today, but here in Japan, with a 13-hour time difference, they unfolded throughout the night. After both towers had fallen, the sunrise outside my Tokyo apartment on Sept. 12 brought with it the chill of feeling forever destabilized.

For many Americans of my generation, New York City was only half-jokingly considered “the center of the world,” with pride tinged by sarcasm. But now its skyline was just another target that could be disfigured.

A few years later, I was back in New York with a new job writing about anime. My coffee table disappeared beneath stacks of DVDs and manga paperbacks: “Akira,” “Grave of the Fireflies,” “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and others. I’d seen some of them before as a fan, but now I had reason to look again.  

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