What's with all the Japan-mania?

[Hypatia]

I wish someone could explain this to me. So many people these days getting obsessed with everything Japanese. Especially manga and anime. I know what it's like to take an interest in another culture, but the levels of Japan-mania these days seem more extreme. For example "I would like a Japanese name once I transition" "Japanese names are so cool" "I love everything about Japan, I will most definitely be moving there permanently when my life is in order" "Are you upto being a shinigami?"

I don't mean to pick on the individuals in that conversation, I've been noticing this sort of thing all over for the past few years, and reading the above just made me decide to ask.

One or two Yanks getting obsessed to this level, I would take no notice, but if Susan's forums are any indication, it's become a mass phenomenon. Half the population here under 25 is using kawaii manga avatars. I guess it's a generational thing.

To the generation before me, Japan was a deadly enemy, notorious for inhumane treatment of prisoners of war. As I was growing up, I kept hearing of veterans from WWII in the Pacific who for many years afterward got very angry if anyone bought a Japanese car, because of their wartime experiences.

To the generation after me, Japan is just the most desirable country in the whole wide world.

But for my generation, it was neither a supervillain nor an earthly paradise. We just didn't have any especial thoughts about it one way or the other, it was just another country, big deal. I did take a Japanese language class years ago, but that was just because I like learning different languages. こんにちは、私は ヒュパティアちゃん である。But for me it was just another language, not a major wannabe obsession. Where did all the wannabes come from?

[tekla]

Post war Japan is perhaps the best or worst example of 'nation building' on record.  They are, in many ways, more American than America, so what they do appeals to us a lot, because what we are looking at is through a mirror and darkly.

[Hypatia]

That's an interesting way to look at it.

Maybe the lingering ill feeling after the war needed a neutral generation (mine) in between before the Japanophilia could majorly blossom.

[Sephirah]

Videogames play a large part, I would guess. And the globalisation of media. Plus, Japan is, in a lot of ways, at the cutting edge of technology. You know young people and technology... it's like a m->-bleeped-<-ie to a piece of tin-foil. "SHINY!! ME WANT!"

I guess it's just the current 'cool' thing.

God, I feel old.

[sarahb]

I guess it's just the other side of the coin since things USA are really popular in Japan as well.

[deviousxen]

The complicated ouroboros between american pop culture and japanese pop culture is often confused for the merely japanese.


Its been around for like... Ever though. Where have you been?

[cindybc]

I kind of lost interest of vidio games after pack man The Merio Brothers. Gee Iremember teaching my kids how to paly that. There was a newer version a few years later when I had a friends three kids in my care. Little Samantha took to it more then the two boys.

Well me I must be a big kid, I love Anims.





Cindy

[Mina_Frostfall]

I've think I've kind of noticed three things going on.

1. The American entertainment industry has been creatively stagnant (The Japanese Media is started to stagnate now though). And I think a lot of younger people's "needs" so to speak were not being met by mainstream sources. American Cartoons have really degenerated over time. So, younger people ended up consuming media that was more creative. The American Media did not initially do a good job of copying over what was good about it (I don't know if they ever suceeded) So now we have a generation that thinks that the Japanese make the best stuff and so they must have a great culture (this happens a lot with exported US media and culture).

2. Another thing is that the style used in anime has changing. The style that we typically see today was not a nearly as common in the past, and was not as easy to differentiate. It is actually rather suprising to see just how much many of the good cartoons from the 80's and such were actually Japanese exports. I remember a few years ago seeing a clip on youtube of a bunch of ads for shows on NickJR from the early 90s, and when I looked up those shows I was suprised that something like half of them were Japanese Exports (I think about a fourth of the cartoons were from places other than Japan or the US). But my point is, today it's easier to tell that these shows are Japanese due to the evolving style, thus people are more likely to associate this stuff with Japan.

3. Then there is a sort of "the grass is greener on the other side" type of thing going on. Due to all of the cultural exports (anime and video games) a lot a people think that Japan must be wonderful. Of course, Japan isn't actually any better than the US is, just different. Anyone who wants to live in Japan needs to take a closer and very serious look. Japan may have good things about it, but it's not a utopia, especially for foreigners.

Wel, that's my imput. I hope it's not to rambling or disorganized. I also hope it made sense.

I think there is a great deal of "the grass is greener on the other side" type of thing among

[cindybc]

Well, they make neat robots. 

Cindy

[bethzerosix]

so... i dont really  know how to help anyone "get it" with anything... i think that for the most part, especially with art, that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

as a kid i loved speed racer and g-force as well as american cartoons. but then robotech came out and i lost it. that was the start for me. the quality, style and story line was miles above anything else i had seen. it was on at 5am where i am and i would wake up, watch it, go back to sleep for a while then get up and go to school.

there were other things growing up that led to my full on japan-a-mania. i like the language like some people did french. i think that they had some of the coolest old world art masters... even their old art was way cool and stylized. the influence of zen-buddhism on their architecture, art and gardens created some of the most beautiful works i have seen...

i dont know... it all just clicks in my head. 
 
watashi no kokoro wa nihonjin desu    */^____^\* 

[je]

watashi no kokoro wa nihonjin desu

Did you say my heart is Japanese?? Forgive me if I translated wrong because my Japanese sucks...

[Hypatia]

Its been around for like... Ever though. Where have you been?

For a youth like yourself, "forever" takes place in a timescale of much shorter duration than for a granny like me. My kids are your age.

We had Japanese media becoming popular in America since at least 1963 when "を向いて歩こう" (Ue o muite arukō) by Kyū Sakamoto became a number one hit. But the American record company figured that Yanks could never be bothered to pronounce the title, and they couldn't understand a word of it anyway, so they renamed the song "Sukiyaki" on the theory that at least it was one Japanese word Yanks could recognize. The song actually had nothing at all to do with any culinary dishes.

Growing up in the '60s, we all had Godzilla and his friends on the screen and Speed Racer, Astro Boy, and Ultraman on the TV. Karate was the most popular martial art in those days. Highbrows went for Kurosawa movies.

But with all that, none of the kids back when I was a kid ever became obsessed with identifying themselves with anime characters, or gave themselves Japanese names, or pined for the shores of Kawasaki. That's why I'm saying this is something new. I've noticed it grown huge only in recent years.

[Chrissty]

I have to admit that I have never been to Japan, but I have had several Japanese work colleagues and have always been fascinated by the culture.

What is interesting is that the ones that brought their families to the West, found it very difficult to leave. The wives in particular said that they saw more of their husbands in the 2 years of secondment, than they had in most of their lives.

They all seemed to think that there was an obsession with virtual reality within the youth culture, to escape the claustrophobic stress of their society (certainly in the cities).

One thing that is clear is that the freedom of the individual is not what it might seem out there. The corporations have a very strong hold on employees, although it is intended for this to appear invisible to western visitors.

..So no, while I still want to visit someday soon, I would not like to live in Japan I'm way too old for that sort of pressure.... but all that focussed imagination does generate some astonishing imagery and technology.

Chrissty

PS ...One word of hope... A good friend who was a Director in a Tokyo Corporation (now retired) took me aside one day, and told me that he believed that while the Japanese culture would beat the West for developing a technology, the Western Cultures still had the ability for greater creativity and original "out of the box" thought......

[Hypatia]

watashi no kokoro wa nihonjin desu

Did you say my heart is Japanese?? Forgive me if I translated wrong because my Japanese sucks...

Pretty close. That actually means 'My heart is a Japanese person'. There is no word that means "Japanese" as a plain predicate adjective; the adjective is always expressed as "Japan-(something)." I think to express your meaning, use a phrase something like 私の中心は日本にある watakushi no kokoro wa Nihon ni aru, literally 'my heart is in Japan', or 私の中心は日本のです watakushi no kokoro wa Nihon no desu, 'My heart is of Japan/belongs to Japan'. (Note: I'm saying "watakushi" because I'm a girl.)

[Lisbeth]

One or two Yanks getting obsessed to this level, I would take no notice, but if Susan's forums are any indication, it's become a mass phenomenon. Half the population here under 25 is using kawaii manga avatars. I guess it's a generational thing.

Generational? I'm more than twice 25, and my avatar is standing around in a neko skin. I think there are a number of concepts that are attractive about Japanese culture, but that would take hours to write about. Why is our country obsessed with Japan? I think the pervasiveness of aname and manga has something to do with it. You can't turn on a TV or computer and not see it. Sure, things like Pokemon and Mew Mew Powers are inane, but much of the programming goes into deep concepts of what it means to be a person and part of the world.

[lady amarant]

I grew up on Japanese cartoons: Robotech, Samurai Pizza-Cats, Sabre-Rider ... etc.

Mine is an animation generation, and as we've grown up, we've looked for more adult animation. The only place to find that really, is in Japan, and to some extent South Korea.

Anime storylines tend to be much more complex and willing to deal with more adult or difficult themes, whereas American and British stuff, and most of the translated stuff I've seen from mainland Europe (Asterix, for example) really are just for kids.

My love-affair with the East doesn't end there though. My mom started me off in a very traditional form of Okinawan Karate when I was five, and I've very much grown up in that tradition.

Another appeal, I think, is the whole "cyberpunk" feel places like Japan, Hong-Kong, Korea and the like have. They are literally decades ahead of the rest of us in many ways, and that appeals to young people who grew up on sci-fi and are always looking for the next cool thing.

~Simone.

[Lisbeth]

Then sometime around 2004 i think it was, Tech TV aired the entire anime called Serial Experiments Lain. Lain has many of the same shortcomings as lots of other Japanese stories (namely, obsession with violence and suicide) but it also runs very deep in several different directions. most importantly, for me at least, is the way it deals with the idea of lies told perpetrated against society. Aside from Lain, i do not watch any other anime.

As I have said before, I want to watch Lain with you, and I want you to watch Ghost in The Shell with me.

[Alyx.]

Hmm... I don't really know.

I like Japanese art, manga, and anime, because it's pretty to look at and they have interesting storylines... And that kinda blossomed into a liking of everything Japanese.

It's sorta like the french for me, all those great french house songs... Now I kinda love the french! ^^

The anime and manga thing just sorta speaks to me and gives me an outlet for self expression, I guess.

[lisagurl]

America has very little culture of its own. We are just consumers not artists or poets. Rather then be focused on a passion we work for the man to buy toys. Marketing has sold you out.

[Shana A]

America has very little culture of its own. We are just consumers not artists or poets. Rather then be focused on a passion we work for the man to buy toys. Marketing has sold you out.

America has a rich culture, other people in the world are much more aware of it than we are. The corporations sell us dreck, and we stand in line for more.

Z