ANIME /MANGA Japanese Pop Culture.
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Anime (Japanese: アニメ) is a movie or television episode of sorts which utilizes animation as an art style iconic to Japan in order to convey a story. Unlike western cartoons, anime can be distinguished by its detail in character design, large array of facial expressions, in-depth character development, wi
de target audience and rare use of talking animals.[33] These traits are used in order to better the connection between a viewer and the characters. Most of the time, anime is based on animated comics called manga, which is an ancient form of comic writing which dates back to the 12th century.[34]
The world of animated films in Japanese popular culture has been a growing trend since the 1920s. Influenced by Walt Disney and his animated characters, Osamu Tezuka (1925–1989), also known as “manga no kamisama” (which means, “God of Comics”)[35] would begin his forty-year evolution of animation, or anime, that would change the content of Japanese comic books. With the creation of his first animated character Astro Boy that was unlike any other animated character; he found the hearts of the Japanese public with a robotic boy who has spiky hair, eyes as big as fists, with rockets on his feet.[35]
Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio, also contributed to anime’s worldwide success through films including “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Ponyo”, and “Spirited Away” (winner of the Golden Bear award in 2002 and the Academy Award for Best Animation Film in 2003). For these works, the studio’s current president Hayao Miyazaki is often credited as a visionary in animation [36][37]
The success of the Pokémon franchise has been credited by people such as Nissim Otmazgin and sociologist Anne Alison as popularizing anime in the United States.[38] The anime market has also been described as owing greatly to the crucial role of fans as cultural agents, the dereterritorializing effects of globalization, the domestication and heavy editing of animé to suit local tastes, and being part of the wider global flow of Japanese pop culture and “soft power”.[38] Otmazgin argues that the rise of anime in the United States is a result of the sophisticated graphic quality, a wide thematic diversity, and an inclination to reject the Disney convention of a happy ending – even when the animé is produced entirely in America.[38] He further states that animé was a tool in which the Japanese could gain popularity in their pop culture and give Americans a taste of something unique and interesting in the media.
As anime has grown in its variety of viewers, genres, and themes, the industry has become more prevalent in society. Many producers will at some point create an anime that’s inspired by Japanese lifestyle and reflect the culture. In modern Japan, anime has become so popular that memorable characters have frequently been made into byproducts such as figurines and video games.
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