Forum - View topicDoes anime open your mind to explore Japanese culture?
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prettygirl
 Posts: 127 Location: too far from home... |
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Steve and I have been arguing on this topic in the Saint Seiya thread. I thought I'd be a good idea to start a new thread instead of taking up room in Saint Seiya's thread. Soo....
What do you think? Pretty Girl’s point of view: Anime helps some anime fans open closed doors. Anime helps people appreciate foreign culture, thereby opening people’s minds to accepting others’ ideals, beliefs, and schools of thought. For example, if Wendy hadn’t come across anime, she would never have had the interest to learn Japanese. Anime had directly affected her interest in exploring the Japanese culture. Another example might be Joe, who joined the Go club at his school after watching Hikaru No Go (an anime about the Japanese game Go). Steventheeunuch’s point of view: Exploring the Japanese culture has nothing to do with anime fans appreciating anime. People watch it for the blood, gore, sex, or whatever reason. For example, Dan watches anime because he likes the samurai fighting scenes. He has no interest in finding out what a katana is. He simply watches it for the fighting. (If I haven’t accurately described the main points you were arguing Steve, feel free to add your bit). P.S. - New question to this thread: IF, because of anime, you have become more open to exploring different aspects of the Japanese culture, what aspects have you looked into? How has anime opened your mind? Examples: Did you start using chopsticks more often? Did you organize a visit to Japan? Last edited by prettygirl on Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:42 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Efan
 Posts: 340 |
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May i just point out that what Steve ment was that SOME (Notice, some meaning not all, not majority, not minority, just SOME) people watch anime just for the sex, violence etc and that i can agree with. The way you say it, you make it sound like people who don't explore Japanese culture and still watch anime are comiting blasphemy. We can safely say "some anime fans want to learn and take part in the Japanese culture and some arn't interested at all." How many times have you wanted to learn about Canadian history after watching a hokey game, or go dig up some English literature after listening to the Rolling Stones? Some people just arn't interested in Japanese culture.
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prettygirl
Posts: 127 Location: too far from home... |
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When making arguements about the general public, it is almost always assumed that we are talking about some of the people and not all of the people. It is just obvious redundancy and unnecessary to continually say "some" this "some" that. Last edited by prettygirl on Fri Nov 18, 2005 11:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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msi435
 Posts: 465 Location: Behind you! |
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If you connected your arguments you would make one single point that satisfies both parties. As Efan said, some people become interested in Japanese culture from anime, and some do not.
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msi435
Posts: 465 Location: Behind you! |
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If that is true then what are you arguing? |
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prettygirl
Posts: 127 Location: too far from home... |
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Well, if you look at the Saint Seiya thread, Steve (in my opinion) feels pretty strongly that I am just plain wrong. I'm not quite sure if he means "all" people or not but I want to clarify that I do not mean "all" people.
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msi435
Posts: 465 Location: Behind you! |
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If you want to pick an argument with Steve, do it on AIM or some private form. Don't dedicate a thread to question one person’s opinion. 
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Bosque
 Posts: 102 Location: Chile (castillian-talker) |
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Anime can even teach you about japanese culture. For example, the other day i saw Ghibli's Ponpoko and after that i started to search for information about tanukis and that stuff. Of course, the thing is not in anime, it's in every person's point of view, i mean, some persons are not interested in culture (of any kind) so nothing will "open them the doors of japanese culture" cause they may only want a bit of fun. But, if you're interested in other countrie's cultres and that, of course that anime can teach you a lot of things.
sorry for the english, i'm chilean.
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Efan
Posts: 340 |
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If it's almost always assumed than why didn't you assume that Steve was talking about some people instead of all? |
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prettygirl
Posts: 127 Location: too far from home... |
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Hmmm... *deep thought*...
 ... good point Efan  . I guess because Steve came on so strong and didn't sound like he was talking about just "some" people (refer to Saint Seiya thread). I guess he could have been. Well, it did make for an interesting discussion though... well, at least for me anyways.
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Steventheeunuch
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Okay, I'm going to just sort this out otherwise it'll get silly-
The point made to begin with was that being an Anime fan showed that you obviously were someone who explored outside of their own area and was more open-minded about other cultures. The point I made was that not all Anime fans are like that. Many of them like Anime for Anime's sake, be it for designs, sex, violence, gore, implied swearing in cartoons, trying to be mature, whatever else. This doesn't mean that everyone is like this, but there isn't a majority that you could tally up to be on either side, therefore the representation of fandom as that is inaccurate. To add to that, Anime fans, not all of them, can also take heavily-biased opinions on their own cultures form of Animation, be it clay, disney, CG, or whatever else. Some even get the deluded idea that Japan itself is somehow a better, clean and loving country that will automatically accept you for liking Anime, which it isn't. This is not a majority, however it is not a minority, therefore we can't assume all Anime fans are open minded for whatever reasons. Some people will want to explore what a Katana is after watching Samurai Champloo, or what Mon is. However, some people will know Mon is obviously meant to mean money (given that he offers it as a gift/tribute, blahblahblah), and that a Katana is, quite obviously, a sword. These aren't blanket statements or generalizations of Anime fandom as a whole, but they certian fill up certian pockets of it. |
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Nani?
 Posts: 632 |
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I think it comes down your own circumstances, inclinations and experinces.
I for one have been deeply influenced by by Japanese culture and my interests reflect that. For example, I can usually watch Anime and "get" the Shinto references, a process I started when first saw Blue Seed 7-8 years ago. I have even identified with Susano-O, the Japanese god who gets thrown out of heaven and has to come to terms with the world on his own terms. That interest has re-sparked an interest in mythology in general but lead to a deeper understanding. It alowed me to admit to myself that I was by inclination and "animist" in my basic worldview. Characters like Shiro Ladatt (Wings of Honeiamise), helped me find ways to believe in myself during a medicore early life. I was open to this "alternative"viewpoint because most religious people in my life were self rightous hypocrites as were most and most authority figures in my life were ineffective. I was a "rebel" because of that, tempermentally and emotionally ready to look at the world in a different light and unwilling to accept a mainstream view. A lot of Anime did that (and still does that) for me, exposing and validateing the right to look at the world in a different light. I have friend who is almost the polar opposite of me. His was spoonfed a way of life when he was growing up and had honest role models worth emmulating. He watches Anime too, but what he gets from is very different from me. He admires a show like Twelve Kingdoms which is, to him, the way the world works while to me it's enjoyable but idealised (Kino's Journey, Wolfs Rain, or Haibane comes closer to my view of reality). He fits whatever he gets from Anime in to his basicly surburban, Christian worldview. Whether on of us is "better" is totally a judgement call. But our reactions to anime is totally based off our experinces, incilnations (slightly intellectual, more so in my case) and openess. Yes, Anime can open doors for you. Which doors you "see" and step through is totally up to you. All the Best, Nani? |
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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I think that the base reason most people will at least initially watch anime, is for entertainment, pure and simple.
However, the fact that it is from Japan means that it's pretty invariably full of various traces and artifacts of Japanese culture. Even something in a deliberate and blatent western-style setting such as Fullmetal Alchemist has reminders of the fact that it's made by a Japanese all over the place. So no matter what reason a person first starts watching an anime for, they will be exposed to that. Whether or not they act on that, however, is another story. If someone's curious about why the characters always take off their shoes when entering the house, for example, they can go look it up and learn a bit about Japanese culture that way. But on the other hand, someone can just as easily pass it off as "eh, that's just how they do it" and not bother. So basically, anime definitely does give people a view of Japanese culture, however, whether that person goes a step furthar just depends on them. |
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prettygirl
Posts: 127 Location: too far from home... |
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Thank you everyone for your valuable contributions to this thread.
Okay... I am spending waaaayyyy too much time these past few days obsessing over this argument with Steve. I need to begin on my research for my courses. Yahhh... so much work I've neglected!!! Anyways, I'm going to end with this statement: As much fun as I have had, Steve, you can go on believing whatever you want to believe. I remain firm on my argument that anime helps people appreciate foreign culture, thereby opening people’s minds. (Thanks SakechanBD for somewhat helping me form this statement) That is the end of that. Now, to begin a new question related to this topic… one which I’m quite interested in and probably the question I should have started this thread with. IF, because of anime, you have become more open to exploring different aspects of the Japanese culture, what aspects have you looked into? How has anime opened your mind? Examples: Did you start using chopsticks more often? Did you organize a visit to Japan? |
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Efan
Posts: 340 |
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Yes and maybe. After watching a few anime series I began to use chopsticks when our forks were not clean (I'm way to lazy to wash them). Also as for the trip to Japan, maybe in a few years when I have a real reason to go other than to site-see. I also am trying to learn Japanese because I think that if I want to succeed in the buisess world, i need to know another language, and why not the language of the most technologicaly advanced nation on the planet? As you can see, I take great intrest in Japanese culture because I feel it will open more doors for me. |
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