We fans today have so many more resources today than even ten years ago.
STREAMING SITES—‘nuff said. We can have stuff 24 hours after it comes on in
Japan. That’s crazy. In anime’s beginnings, people had to sub their own stuff
or buy it from someone who did. That’s a lot of work. It’s no wonder it didn’t
get popular until they showed in on TV. Since we no longer have to rely on
networks, we can get things without worrying about deodorizing. We’re getting
whatever Japan puts out there. Still, do we care about the culture? If you
don’t, do a lot of other people? Should we? Is that what really draws us to
anime?
Princess
Mononoke is very popular in America and has been analyzed by Antonia Levi to
look for such things. It’s full of Japanese culture like to the Ainu indigenous
people, to the Muromachi Period of industrialization, and to the Shinto Religion.
In Levi’s essay “The Sweet Smell of Japan: Anime, Manga, and Japan in North America”*,
she says that “both the history and references to an ancient mythology that
gives Princess Mononoke so much of
its power are understandably lost on most North Americans” because they thought
of it as “an exotic environment and a battle between industrial polluters and anthropomorphized
nature”.
BUT, where she
says that viewers only see it as fantasy, we have to think about it. This
particular Miyazaki film had a large number of American viewers in part by the
advertisement and hosting in theaters by Disney if any of you remember. So,
when Levi makes these assessments, she is looking at a large group of viewers,
many of which are not dedicated anime viewers. When people don’t stop to think
about what the study is looking at, people can make general statements about an
area such as all of North America without looking towards those who would have
an interest in the subject. So, if this study were to focus more anime FANS,
this result might be different.
Another study that was done with fans of Bleach is by Dana
Fennell, Ana S.Q. Liberato, Bridget Hayden, and Yuko Fujino called “Consuming
Anime”. When they asked the fans about the content, they “considered the
context of the anime’s production, distribution, and exhibition” and were “not
oblivious to the show’s Japanese origins” and “professed to prefer watching subbed
rather than dubbed versions” (which I personally don’t for Bleach because I
think the English voice acting is awesome) but these fans had no problem
identifying anime’s roots and a small interest in the language—subbed version.
This last study is by Susan J. Napier in her book “Anime:
from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation”
(Which is really cool and you should check it out), and she tries to find what
attracts viewers to anime. The study asked this question and the top answers
were its thematic complexity, that it’s outside
the mainstream, that it can be watched by any age group, the “sense of
freedom (of expression) which tends to lack in [the] American counterpart (American
cartoons)” , its ability to create an exotic or utopian world, and the better
quality of the animation. Which I think are all good reasons.
She also asked if “they felt that they learned about
Japanese culture from anime”—86.7 percent said yes. She then asked if it was
one of their main reasons for watching—45 percent said yes. She also collected
that 41 percent were taking a Japanese language course and 10 percent had
visited Japan. I was actually a little surprised by this. These numbers were
higher than I thought it would be. Napier though, concludes that the main draw
wouldn’t be Japanese culture but a new “media culture” that is completely its
own and a fantasy world created by that media—I don’t buy it.
All three of
these studies explain that the reason fans watch is because of other aspects of
the show or a “media culture” that is not distinctly Japanese. What the studies
fail to think about is that even these interests that seem to be unlinked to
Japanese culture, actually could be. Fans in America watch anime because it
presents things that we don’t have in American culture or media. Which I think
is mostly true. I mean, we have good cartoons like Adventure Time and Regular
Show, but the majority of others are like Uncle Grandpa (EW.) and kid’s shows
like Dora. But if you think about it, this desire for something that’s unlike
what we have is in and of itself is at least some interest in Japan and the ideals
that are put forward in its media.
I do believe that there is at
least some influence, even subconsciously, to the allure of Japan in that it
may hold parts of that fantastical world that fans adore. Travel to Japan since
1964 has grown from 352,832 thousand tourists to 8,368,100 tourists in 2012(http://www.tourism.jp/en/statistics/inbound/).
If nothing, this is showing an increased
interest in the country. Whether this has grounds in anime influence is
questionable, but as shown by Napier’s study, at least some of them are anime
fans.
Even if it’s small, I think at least some part of fans do care. I never
really have thought of it as my main reason, but I do enjoy the culture and
think it’s neat and have recognized stuff. Let me know what you think. Do you
think it’s one of your main reasons? You know someone who is like that? You
think that it’s important? You think we have a subconscious draw to it or is it
really just a fantasy world? Let me know! Thanks for reading!
