Forum - View topicWhat Impact Does Anime Have On Other Cultures?
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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I'll have to admit that I just don't quite get the whole Japan fanboy bit. Japan is certainly an interesting place to learn about, but it's hardly the forward thinking panacea that some folks on this and other forums sometimes make it out to be. The more I learn about life in Japan the less impressed I am; it doesn't seem any better than most other first world countries in my view and some aspects of Japanese culture are downright disgusting and even a little depressing.
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Mindless Watcher
Posts: 68 |
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I wonder if anybody here can even define what they mean with "their culture"? How am I supposed to imagine that? Folk dancing in silly costumes? My personal "culture" is reshaped a bit everyday by a multitude of external stimuli but up to now I couldn't detect a severe loss in quality. Certainly not by watchintg "cartoons" from whatever country.
 Have a little faith in yourself, your culture, whatever that might be exactly, and your ability to make up your mind on your own and choose an appropriate way of life.
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daxomni
Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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You can't define your own culture if you never bother to learn about other cultures, so in that context I think it's cool that some people develop such a strong interest in another culture. It's mainly the blindly loyal fanboy bit that I don't agree with. Many Americans don't seem to have any concept of their own culture because they don't seem to have any concept of what a culture even is. It doesn't just refer to the distant past; it also refers to how we live our lives today and what role we play on the world's stage. American culture has far more impact on the world than most Americans seem to realize and every action or inaction is watched by most other nations. Just because a given course of action gets virtually no press in the US doesn't mean that it went unnoticed by the rest of the world. Learning to see the world through the eyes of another country helps us to learn more about ourselves as well.
Faith is probably the last thing we need more of. If you're going to be proud of your culture, be proud of what you did to help make it so great today, not what somebody else did a generation or more ago. Putting a flag on your house and a bumper sticker on your car doesn't make you into a great American; it just turns you into a billboard. Many Americans don't seem to know nearly as much about any given country as the citizens of the other country seem to know about America. Most Americans don't even bother to own a passport, despite the fact that it's extremely simple to acquire and the fact that we enjoy some of the most favorable foreign entry requirements in the world. I'm no expert on why this is, but I don't consider it a very positive aspect of my own culture. So, in closing, it's true that I still find Japan fanboys rather annoying, but in a larger context it's probably better that they at least had the motivation to learn about another culture instead of just resting lazily on back of their own. |
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Mindless Watcher
Posts: 68 |
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Well, I do have a definiton of "culture", I'm just doubting that everybody here understands that word the same way, thus my provocative statement about folk dances in silly costumes.
So we probably agree that things like that are not essential to our culture and probably also that eating pizza, sushi, or burritos doesn't have a subversive effect on it. Then culture can mean a set customs, behavior patterns, values, and beliefs. (This "culture" depends of course not only on nationality. Things like age, education, class are probably even more important.) But experience shows that these are very robust things and can hardly be influenced from the outside. Japan itself is the best example for that, very americanized on the surface but only on the surface. Bottom line: I think watching anime 24/7 and running around with a fake samurai sword won't make you any more Japanese culturally. It's exactly as you say, it only makes you more sensitive to cultural differences. |
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RighteyeZ
 Posts: 4 |
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Personally I believe that anime possess a efficacious impact on other cultures. In my opinion this impact is due to the fact that anime itself is strongly influenced by other cultures. For example Eden's Bowy encompasses some Chinesee believes on the after life. Elfen Lied also has a strong Germanic influence. Also I believe that some American anime lovers start to obsess over Japan becuase they dont fit in or dont like American culture. I know that I'm not fond or proud of popular American rap and rock culture, but thats just how I feel mabie?
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Samurai-with-glasses
 Posts: 628 |
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America's cultural influence in the world: massive. Everywhere. Every Macdonalds you see in some foreign city is American influence. Most rap music done by foreign artists are at least partially influenced by America. Countless fashion trends have ties to what's hot in America a year earlier or even today. If you want to go deeper also, some governments model themselves upon the American model, right down to the balance/separation of powers within the governmental structure; and the Western tradition of liberalism that before the American Revolution had been a mere philosophy, was propelled to life... Anime in particular (not all of Japan): animation, comics, arts, subcultures. That's just about it. Moreover, many anime fans are sadly blind to the matter that most anime out there are just like any other form of media: mostly entertainment, few with full artistic intentions. Anime does not really "opens the mind" compare to watching a movie or otherwise. It's okay to hate American Idol and burn its effigy as the representation of Everything That Is Wrong With America (tm), but to then turn the other way and raise all anime to the pedestal... |
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Lorraine_Kristine
 Posts: 50 Location: Philippines,Cebu |
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Believe it or not, but when curious play or fushigi yugi got licensed here in the Philippines, the parents went beserk. As in, they were going crazy, sending so many "get that anime out of TV" and doing rallies saying "Anime is bad"...it was a major news phenomenon, when hentai entered the philippines. They posted it on the news, parents were yelling and stuff...
But it just happened in manila fortunately, not in my place. God, I'll never forget that news... Hahaha... 
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Mindless Watcher
Posts: 68 |
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Um, no. If anything, Japanese anime is a mirror of the stereotypes and clichés in the Japanese mind about the rest of the world. There is no big difference to US media in that regard. There is only tiny real knowledge in Japan about the world outside of Japan. So Japanese wouldn't know how to describe other cultures correctly and the audience wouldn't care. |
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