I don't buy it. For better or worse Japanese studios have proved time and time again to not really care about the west. Just look at how expensive and hard it is to import their (usually not localized) stuff.
Japan lives in its own isolation bubble and western values are of no concern to most Japanese people.
That seems rather out of touch? The vast majority of TV broadcast anime series every season are licensed for simulcast by streaming services in North America and that has been the case for several years now. At a casual glance at the TV tab of https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2022/spring , I think at least 2/3 are licensed by western streaming services. There's enough revenue that they can't afford not to care.
To date I've only seen smaller budget, little fish studios churn out woke propaganda that performs poorly. In the past, they were the same small-time studios that produced knock-off Gundam, 3d render shounen, unremarkable isekai anime #59, etc.
I live in Japan and one of the most refreshing things about it is that I have never encountered anything that represents even a faint understanding of what "wokeness" is, so I'm curious who these woke studios could possibly be marketing to, if they exist at all.
Woke propaganda? I haven’t seen an absolute ton of anime, but I’ve got nearly 200 items on my list, and I don’t think I’ve watched anything that could qualify. What are you coming across that I’m not?
I don't think "woke propaganda" is a thing in Japan, so it would surprise me if smaller anime studios (which, presumably, have less margin for taking risks) would be "churning out" anything of the sort, as opposed to whatever was most profitable in the domestic market for the least cost. Can you give examples?
Netflix and other streaming platforms have made inroads into anime production committees, but you are correct in that so far very little overall impact is seen in the industry. The Japanese domestic market is still the chief driver of demand for new anime, and success overseas doesn't seem to really inspire a response from most of the anime industry. I wouldn't say they're "isolated", since the market has been penetrated by the west, it's more like they're indifferent to western money.
I think Aniplex is in a position to change this, but the difficulty is going to be luring the studios since money doesn't seem to have as big an impact as one would expect.
