(Week 5) Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006), discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West, or somewhere else?

I have always theorised that, Anime through both books and visuals is not only something for young children in (not only) Asia to look up to but also symbolises many aspects of Asian society in both historical and modern times. It “clearly builds on previous high cultural traditions”. These are evident in stories about rulers, heroes and even love stories. Because of this, people of all ages are attracted to Anime, not just children and young people. We know of Anime’s symbolism with Manga and this may be so because some of Anime’s productions are “based on stories that first appeared in Manga”, which were predominantly historical. It is thanks to Anime itself that “Japan has become an increasingly significant player in the global cultural economy” and it functions both as a “commercial and cultural force”.

Anime’s role in handling complex stories in an intellectually stimulating style by using “characters and settings that are neither clearly western nor clearly Japanese” made them popular with global audiences. It is mainly this feature that has to do with its “participation in Global Culture”, including the introduction of the word into American vocabulary. Even though Anime has “been enormously influenced by global culture, it remains an original product of the concatenation of circumstances that created the culture of modern Japan”. Many Anime works like those by Director Hayao Miyazaki appeal not just to Japanese audiences, but also to audiences worldwide.

In Japan, Anime is clearly a mainstream form of popular culture and is followed by audiences across all age groups.  In the Western World however, Anime is seen as a subcultural genre. This may be because Japan is where Anime originated and thus deals with themes which are familiar to the local audiences. Anime contains far more proactive themes and complicated storylines than does the American media and this case may support the hypothesis as to the integration of Anime into the Western World as well as its view as a Subcultural genre there. Anime’s influence appears to be increasing over American popular culture, an example being Disney’s The Lion King which appears to be heavily borrowed from Tezuka Osamu’s Kimba, The White Lion.

Most of all, Anime occupies a very important part in the culture of modern Japan due to its wide-ranging themes covering social, religious, cultural and historical aspects along with the use of technologically-sophisticated picturisations of characters and settings which appeal to audiences across the society.

References

Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14).
Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan

Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving

Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of HayaoMiyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.