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August 12, 2004
Anime's Success
It's interesting to contrast articles like this on the success of anime with other articles that are more pessimistic. (The latter article focuses on the toils the average Japanese animator must endure and laments the farming out of animation overseas.)
The wording in the first article can be rather vague, but it makes it sound like Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will be providing economic support to the comics/animation industries. The article says "the ministry intends to support human resource development, research and development of new technologies, and the industry's overseas operations."
This isn't the first time I've heard such sentiments expressed and it brings up a question I've been wondering for a little while now -- by supporting anime, are we in some way toeing the Japanese government's official economic/cultural line?
Posted by brianruh at August 12, 2004 12:15 AM
Comments
If the government itself were making anime, maybe supporting anime would be toeing their line. Even with subsidies, to support an industry isn't necessarily the same as supporting their home government. That's using similar logic of Americans who were pro-Iraq War and anti-French government advocating everyone should "boycott France". Were French wine and cheese makers witholding UN support for the invasion, even if they received government subsidies?
One of the parts that gave me pause was yet another academic's assertion that anime travels worldwide because it "tells good stories". That begs the question of what a "good story" is, or whether or not some anime shows/films travel better than others. My unsubstantiated idea at this point is that Pokemon and others shows aimed for children travel more easily.
Children who have access to equipment that can show anime probably live in a (post)industrial area, so they are likely attending school or will be soon. School is a place where one learns skills to be used later on in life rather than the farm where skills are learned quickly so that chores can be done. So while a child is in school, they aren't picking up skills that can be readily applied to their daily lives, and therefore are placed in a position of greater inferiority. So what appeals to them? Shows where kids their age are doing extraordinary things, like competing in tournaments, using awesome powers, saving the world, etc.
When kids get older, not only do they gain more readily useable skills, but their cultural logics become much more complex and centered on the "naturalness" of their own daily world, especially now that they're more integrated in the life of their community. So when kids hit their teens and upwards, they want entertainment that speaks more to their experiences, which they now have a lot more of in more narrowly-defined cultural settings. Therefore, anime aimed at older people outside of Japan tends to be consumed by adolescent and adult subcultures alienated from the mainstream to some degree rather than most of the kids on the playground.
I'm sure there are examples of adult-oriented anime (Cowby Bebop, Oshii's stuff) that do have a broader cultural reach, though it would be interesting to find the degree of penetration and who in each country is watching them (and how often).
Posted by: Brent Allison at August 12, 2004 09:01 AM