Comments on: On "The Soul of Japan"

By: M-Bone

M-Bone — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:52:54 +0000

The “fading” of Hollywood in Japan was discussed pretty widely from 2007. There has been a simultaneous boom in American TV drama rentals though.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:49:01 +0000

Looks like Kelts got the part about Hollywood’s fading in Japan right on:
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE5861RO20090907

By: M-Bone

M-Bone — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:57:49 +0000

I’m a vet of the wave of anime fandom that popped up around 1995. I was mostly interested in scifi visions like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Nausicaa, etc. There was a proto-moe fandom back then – some fans were most interested in Aa Megami-sama and titles like that and there were debates online around 1996-1997 focusing around the idea that anime fandom might be a form of longing for 1950s ideals of (American) femininity. I never really thought that this debate applied to me as I was not into these titles (and never got into moe) and was a “critical” viewer. What is going on now CAN suck. However, back in the day, anime fandom was a rather simple subculture – there were a half dozen fan “types” that could describe most everyone who was into the medium. Now, I would argue that there are so many types of anime fans in America (and Japan) that we are really talking about dozens, perhaps hundreds of different subcultures within the subculture. We can define fans according to what they consume, their attitude toward Japan, etc. There REALLY are some parts of this fandom that are not worth keeping but others are fantastic – some more critical teens are using anime as their first bridge into subtitled film, for example.

The Venn Diagrams that Marxy mentioned above would be perfect to use for examining these groups.

By: Leonardo Boiko

Leonardo Boiko — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:17:51 +0000

About the gender issues: I might be romanticizing, but I didn’t feel it back in the day. I was a Brazilian “otaku” (we didn’t have the term at the time) of the Saint Seiya age, i.e. about 1994 onwards. The circles I frequented, at least, used to be pretty liberal (as far as political terms mean anything to teenagers). In particular, I didn’t came in contact with any rape manga or game or overt misogyny — our «anime porn» generally involved lewd adult women with oversized breasts, local yaoi zines, and light-hearted sex parodies. There was an unusually high tolerance of sexual diversity in anime clubs and conventions (which was very important to me — anime groups were the first place where I felt I could be open about my sexuality, and it was in that environment that I met my first boyfriend). I wouldn’t classify the culture as properly feminist (exceptions aside (e.g. Utena), most anime is quite sexist); but there was gender tolerance — it was the only place were a male teenager would feel accepted while enjoying «girly» stuff, namely shōjo, and where girls were welcomed to explore «boyish» nerdy things.

Since I was active in a pre-Internet age (for me), I have no idea how Japan and U.S. groups felt at the time. In any case I’d love to read a bit more w.r.t otaku groups and gender politics.

In short, all this culture of moé and macho posturing would feel quite alien to my 15-year-old self. It makes me disappointed enough that I’m kind of happy with the way anime is being absorbed into mainstream — a fandom environment such as the present one isn’t worth keeping.

By: Leonardo Boiko

Leonardo Boiko — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:24:54 +0000

> Hideaki Anno, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Japan’s version of Star Wars […]

wait.

what.

By: W. David MARX

W. David MARX — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:44:56 +0000

Which was?

By: Made in DNA

Made in DNA — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:31:35 +0000

I think you missed the point of the original article.

By: Hlem

Hlem — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:23:43 +0000

Isn’t this feminist-hating, internet surfing poisonous teen with an affinity for anime demographic pretty much synonymous w/ 4chan etc…

By: M-Bone

M-Bone — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:03:58 +0000

“It’s Adbusters; Consider the source”

Doesn’t Kelts always write like that?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:19:06 +0000

“I think that most of the pairings being made in the original article are forced and miss the big picture.”

It’s Adbusters; Consider the source. Just because situationists are aware that so much of modern media is inundated with a twist of agenda pushing doesn’t mean they don’t aggressively push their own agendas via media, quite the contrary.

http://www.newpeopleworld.com/

In a semi-related note, Viz Media just threw a big shebang to celebrate the opening of its somewhat baffling Japanese pop arts-fashion-film-multimedia boutique in San Francisco’s Japantown. The boutique itself, from what I could discern on site, is a celebration of aspects (niches) of Japanese pop culture that have long since atrophied and dropped dead in Japan itself.

Between this spectacle, a new localized science fiction novel label and picking up a slew of very niche manga titles via Ikki magazine, I wonder how much money Shogakukan has been pumping through Shueisha into its puppet Viz. If you want to talk about the view that “Japan cool” continues to be a commercial force in America, you should probably talk to Shogakukan since they’re the ones more or less keeping it afloat via their Shonen Jump America sales.