Japan is notorious for its draconian copyright laws. While fansubs helped popularize anime globally, the industry historically treated them as piracy. Even today, uploading a 10-second clip of a TV show can lead to arrest. This contrasts sharply with the "fair use" culture of the West. While this protects creators, it also hinders the viral marketing that K-Pop used so successfully. It is only in the last two years that labels have begun embracing memes and reaction videos.
The secret of anime's cultural dominance lies in . An anime is rarely funded by a single studio (which usually operates on razor-thin margins). Instead, a committee is formed of a toy company, a publisher, a music label, and a TV station. This structure de-risks production but also ensures that the anime is essentially a 22-minute commercial for the manga, the toy, or the Blu-ray.