MANGA AND ANIME AN ARTFORM
In this essay I shall be discussing the artform from Japan, called Anime and its evolution from being a manga. The essay will further look into how it has evolved and what it is currently like in today’s form, how it has been appropriated and also appreciated by other cultures. Anime in brief is an animation artform, with a variety of genres it being created in, usually adapted from manga’s, which are hand drawn series showing the artists individuality in the art style, and are like comics in a book form and currently can be found on digital platforms as well. The image below shows the manga adapted anime strip as an example from Junji Ito’s collection.
Origin
According to Okhua website, manga as an art has been around since 1140 AD, and is seen in the Choju-Jinbutsu-giga scrolls or animal scrolls by artist monks, which were animals depicted as humans, personification of animals basically.
The term manga was given by Hokusai, a Japanese artist and creator of the woodblock picture of The Great Wave. The word manga can be broken as “man” meaning in spite of oneself, and “ga” meaning pictures.
During the Meiji period (1868–1912), the country was struggling for recognition of its achievements and for equality with western nations. Hence with the introduction to the west style of art and paintings, Japan started to create a magazine called punch, which had cartoonish features to it.
With the introduction of western comics, Japanese comic artists took turns making strips about Japan’s enemy ( affected by world war), family strips showing daily home life and propaganda for which many artists and editors were threatened, intimidated and shut down or converted into stop making such strips.
After the world war, cartoon strips started to become popularized, some of that famous manga’s being, Mighty Atom or Astro Boy, an anime based around a robot that wished to be a young boy also popular in the US. This began the wave of weekly magazines such as shounen magazines which had young boys mainly as heroes in the genre of action adventure comics. And eventually the manga anime industry started to settle in japan for what it looks like today.
Evolution to Anime
Anime, as a word originated from France and was adopted in the Japanese language meaning alive and was referred to as a cartoon on televisions and now is used to refer to Japanese cartoons.
Just after World War II, anime as an art form started to boom with televisions being accessible to households and animation studios were founded like Toei Animation, the studio which animated Astro Boy the first anime of Japan in 1963. Many popular anime started in the 70s like Doraemon, which gained popularity even in India later on. One of well known studio came in the 80s that is Studio Ghibli founded by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takashata, and Toshio Suzuki which has produced the Oscar winning films “ Spirited Away”, those were the golden years of anime with more popular film like “ castle in the sky”, Nausicaa of the valley of the wind”, etc. 90s saw the globalization of anime and its fandom outreached the globe with busting popularity of anime series like Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk, One Piece, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Pokemon etc. with the international boom it had started to being dubbed in English and other languages as well.
There was a big transition noticed initially when manga’s and comic strips were made for criticizing the government and showing individual judgments to it, moving on to become more cartoon based and for public pleasure and leisure. The art style also saw a drastic change from traditional form of art to westernized to west induced Japanese art work which is anime, an example to this is Hunter X Hunter animation style in 1999 compared to 2011 and compared to manga art style in the sense of censorship and overall style.
Today’s well known anime are Pokemon, Naruto, Chainsaw man, Demon Slayer, Haikyuu and famous films like Your Name, weathering with you booming in the anime industry. There has been changes not just in the art style of anime, but also the animation process in the recent anime Chainsaw Man the studio used both 2D drawing added with 3D CG giving the audience a more realistic movement style and every detail feelin more real even though it is only an animation piece. Anime as an art form has been produced with various genres like, “ Shoujo, Shonen, Seinen , Josei , Kodomomuke etc.”
There have been cross-culture anime also created to give it a more global artform and is evident in anime like ‘ Attack On Titan’, ‘Ergo Proxy’, ‘Afro Samurai’ etc.
Appropriation of Japanese culture through Anime aka Wee - boos
The huge fandom that anime gained, were from the Japanese population and internationally known as Otakus, however there is certain population within the community known as ‘Wee — boos’, it is a derogatory term used for people who are non-Japanese person, who is obsessed with the romanticized version of the Japanese culture as they leave behind their cultural background, through acculturation and ‘xenocentrism’. There is a fine line between appreciating the culture and appropriating it. Overall liking anime and cosplaying for the fun of it won’t be equivalent to appropriating the culture, but “Weebs” go to far extents of wanting to be seen and talk like a Japanese person and change their lifestyle to the other culture, look like them based on the fantasy they’ve created about Japan only by watching anime. They romanticize the language by appropriately using the words like ‘Kawaii’ for cute, attaching ‘Chan’ behind a person’s name they find cute or characters they like.
There has been a history of otakus in Japan, nerds who like 2d animated figures, and decide to dissocialize themselves and be alone with the fantasy created, not just that there have been instances in Japan of otakus, with a recent 2020 arson attack in Kyoto Animation because the accused believed the studio stole a novel from him. Not the best impression of otakus that is.
Appreciation of Anime
Contrasting to the above notion, there are also those people who get genuinely interested in the culture because of anime, as they respect the Japanese culture while still being respectful to their own. Irrespective of the economic boost the otaku community gives to Japan and soft power through comic cons, consumer goods produced as merch for anime, one gets to know a lot about Japanese culture through it like folk tales by the anime ‘Toilet bound Hanako-kun’, about their daily lifestyle through fruit basket, Toradora etc.
There are people who want anime to be a source through which Japanese culture can mobility and be known worldwide, hence don’t feel their culture being appropriated. As it portrays its language, religious ceremonies, food, clothing, art, customs and mythology to daily interaction.
In my opinion, who also happens to enjoy anime for fun. Understanding the culture of Japan is fine until one doesn’t get extremely obsessed with the idea that just because I like anime and know more about it, makes me a better person and also Japanese, that is fetishizing the community ya’ll. Enjoying anime as a hobby is better compared to making it your personality.
Conclusion
Anime has been a part of Japanese culture for many years, and has evolved from being a traditional way of storytelling to a way of propaganda to becoming a source of entertainment and providing soft power to Japan. Down the line it also got international recognition and popularity as the fandom grows, with popular anime produced like, One Piece, Naruto, Haikyuu, Demon Slayer, etc. Because of which people outside Japan did get a taste of the culture and its customs, helping Japan in its economy boost etc. but too much indulgence into a foreign culture can turn the tables to disrespecting the culture.
References
Anime Project General Information. (n.d.). Anime Project General Information. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from http://websites.umich.edu/~anime/info_animehistory.html
The Evolution of Japanese Animation | Contemporary Art | Sotheby’s. (2021, December 14). Sotheby’s. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-evolution-of-japanese-animation
Kincaid, C. (2019, May 26). Is Being an Otaku Cultural Appropriation? Japan Powered. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.japanpowered.com/otaku-culture/otaku-cultural-appropriation
What Is Anime Art? The History Of Anime And Manga. (n.d.). Okuha. Retrieved January 26, 2023, from https://www.okuha.com/what-is-anime-art/
