Anime and Manga

Today we have had a rather exiting theme to work with. We had a few texts in our book to work with and all of them where centered on Japanese English and culture. I worked on this with Heidi Emilie, Julie and Marie. The theme we chose to focus on was anime and manga. For me this was perfect since anime and manga is a personal hobby of mine.

Anime and manga are similar to comics in the western world, but there are many differences. For example an anime usually has a lot more episodes and they are much more connected to each other. Because of this we get to know a lot more about the main characters and we get much more into the story. This makes anime very addictive, which I know very well. The drawings are also very different from American comics. In shojo-anime (girls anime) the drawings are very beautiful and perfect, and in shonen-anime (boys anime) the drawings are not always as flawless but still very different from other comics. Even though the anime series are called boy’s and girl’s anime they are suited for both genders.  Anime does not only suit both genders, but also all ages. It is a common misunderstanding that anime, like comics, are a children’s thing. Many anime series are directed at young adults and a lot of them also have a age limit at 17+.

Another difference between anime and comics is that in anime there are a lot of references to Japanese culture.  This can be all from festivals and cherry blossoms to references to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many anime series are inspired by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was first after this crisis the anime became an important part of Japanese culture. The references are not usually direct, but in anime it is not uncommon that the story ends tragic of that the main characters are orphans. A lot of anime series also have some kind of disaster that could destroy the world in them. Other than this anime series also contains more violence and grotesque scenes than comics.  Examples of anime series that has some kind of hidden reference to Hiroshima and Nagasaki is: The spaceship Yamato, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Akira and the movie Barefoot Gen.

In class today my group decided to watch an anime and compare the culture to ours. We watched Ouran High School Host Club which is an anime about some students in a school for rich people who are in a Host club. They are, as they say in the prologue, boys with way too much time on their hands who entertain girls who also have way too much time on their hands. From this anime we managed to come up with a lot of cultural differences and similarities. First of all, Japanese people use honorifics just like in English. Like the English people use Mr., Mrs. and miss, Japanese people use san, kun, sama, chan, sempai and so on. These are added in the end of a person’s name and all have different meanings. For example using sama means that you are talking to a person you have a high opinion of or who has a high position in the society.

Another difference is that it seems they are much more open to homophiles and cross dressers in Japan.  I think this is a good thing because and hope that the western culture will take after them. They are also very straight forward in the way they talk. I also noticed something that I find very interesting. Although they speak Japanese in anime series, they use English slang words just like they do in Norway. It is very funny when you suddenly realize that you can understand what they are saying. The intro song to several anime series that I have seen also has an English name. You can hear them sing some words in English and the rest in Japanese. This shows that also in Japan, which is a country very fond of their culture, English has a great influence.

I think that we were pretty productive today and I like the way we were allowed to work in our own way. I am also fascinated by Japanese culture and hope that we will learn more about it.

Sources:

Anne Thelle, Anime – hva er det?, oslo 2009, Omnipax