The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Japan is World War 2 and its devastating effects on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now after a long journey from those tragic days Japan has established itself as one of the world’s biggest and advanced countries along with a stable economy and high-end technology. There is another thing about Japan, which makes the country famous all over the world, generating a buzz-worthy status to its soft power, that soft power is named as Anime, as the name suggests, it refers to animation.
Anime is the animation or cartoon particularly made in Japan with a huge fan following all over the world. This art form covers serious topics than usual cartoon animations, not only does it attract children but also young adults and teens. It is a huge concept covering different genres like comedy, romance, drama, pornography.
All the animes share the same kind of appearance which is different from the other cartoons and animations. The editors, the designers, the creators all strictly follow a peculiar artwork for anime. The characters have big eyes, highlighted bright colourful hairs, and chick dressing sense. They also have exaggerated emotional expressions and gestures which are specifically meant for the anime characters. Many of the characters are inspired by the characters of Disney like seven dwarfs, Micky mouse, mini mouse, and so on. So we really cannot confirm where the idea of big eyes, well- endowed figures have come from.
The Anime Culture and Its Popularity
The anime culture is purely Japanese. This culture was born in Japan along with the birth of Otaku subcultures in the 1960s. It has made a huge impact on its own country. The citizens and government of Japan constructed different kinds of statues, landmarks, and sites for the local citizens and also for the tourists. It is such a dominant side of Japan that many companies, business, brands, and organizations use anime characters in the advertisement, slogans, packaging, snacks and so on. Some brands have even launched anime-theme products for the customers, they are surprisingly doing very well in the markets of Japan as well as abroad. These markets are mainly the younger market, where audiences are more curious about the mascots or anime characters featuring in the product more than the product itself. It has become a household cultural trend among kids and young adults ever since the nineties along with pokemon, Digimon, yu-gi-oh.
The inspiration for anime has partially come from Japanese comic books, manga. Japanese culture can be seen in many TV shows. High schools in Japan are as similar as shown in anime. Staying in traditional ryokan inns, eating with chopsticks, the same kind of accessories, quite the same kind of hair and dressing styles are seen in the common people of Japan. There is a character called Hatsune Miku, Japan’s first Vocaloid singer, who has a huge fan base and craze over the Japanese young audience. There are also many realistic shows of anime that accurately blend Japanese culture into art. A Japanese village Manoyama has an anime based on itself named Sakura Quest. The Ambition of Oda Nobuna is based on another real man of Japan’s history called Nobunaga.
A massive part of the Japanese cultural industry, their animation industry is the country’s third-largest industry, bringing nearly $20 billion a year. It is visible everywhere across the country. As we can tell that most of the Japanese people are a fan of anime, the country is filled with people who are mad about manga as wekk and are really into otaku culture.
Anime’s World Domination
The world of anime is full of the genre, variety, and a lot of complexity. It is an incredibly rich culture. It is not only famous in Asian countries but also has an expanding fanbase among Indians, Americans, Europeans, and many more. An amazing thing about the animation industry is that 60% of all animated shows across the world come from Japan. Marketed to a huge global audience, it has been growing higher and higher in terms of popularity, income, and fame. Apart from providing the biggest selling film in Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, it has become the most likeable among the western countries.
When it comes to animation, Disney has always been the priority of many audiences. With the rising popularity of anime, Disney has decided to put a Pokemon theme park in Disneyland.
Astro-boy, Dragon Ball, Howl’s Moving Castle, Detective Conan, Cowboy Bebop are very famous and popular in the world. People try to make their anime characters inspired by the characters from these series. Many of the popular anime series and films are taken to be remade in different film industries in different languages. The fantasy world of anime is just taking over us all with lots of colours, moments, and sounds, and songs bring these cartoon characters to life. Shockingly this fantasy world of anime and its characters has more fan following and popularity than many real celebrities.
Anime and the USA has an old connection since the 60s, American fandom has always been loyal to the anime series since then. Channels like Cartoon Network and Sci-Fi programmed anime blocks, series, movies from the 90s. Anime has already taken over Netflix, Amazon Prime. Apart from these anime has a specific app for streaming named HULU. Social media has been a great platform to know about anime characters, their specialty. Halloween costumes, memes, sites like makegirlsmoe, cosplay community are just all about anime and its impact.
The Soft Power of Japan: Anime
The love of Japanese people is and perhaps always will be anime. A lot of ceremonies are celebrated in Japan with the presence of an anime mascot and theme. Before the K-pop industry in South Korea became popular, anime was already there with its immense popularity, huge fanbases, and sky-high viewership. The multi-billion dollar industry is quite a strong tower in Japan’s economy. Japan’s contribution to the world in terms of cars, video games, fashion, and anime is quite impressive.
As mentioned earlier, Japan has lots of brands, products specifically themed in anime for the market with the positive point of the blue ocean market. Well in the field of tourism anime has been a great plus point. Besides the reflection of Japanese culture, food, dressing style in anime already attract the tourist but different kinds of anime concert, anime-themed markets, mascot, statues, art camps are way more effective in promoting tourism to Japan as well as influencing pop-cultures. Places like Tokyo Anime Centre; holds daily radio with an anime character, the electric city Akihabara known as the otaku destination, J-talk Tokyo, Tokyo character street, Dogo onsen, Otome Road are hubs for tourists, people all over the world’s visits these places for their craving for anime, game worlds and many more. Tourism is becoming a high hit in Japan due to its influence all over the world.
Being the third biggest largest economy in the world, with the rising soft power, culture, and diplomatic relations, Japan is doing a great deal in enhancing its international standing. Japan has invested billions of dollars in cultural exchange and teaching of the Japanese language, which is a great success to date and giving a major boost to the economy of the country. A lot of the young generation coming to Japan in search of work, education, and to learn the otaku culture is a great deal for its economy and culture. The root of anime all across the world becoming a major soft power bouncer to the country. The Japanese government has exploited the power of its animation industry to make the country’s economy stronger. The Japanese government has made a lot of investment to make anime-themed towns and museums for tourist attractions. This not only helps the tourism, or work section but also brings a lot’s of business collaboration from the world.
Rise of Japanese programs is also helping japan to promote their pop-culture in quite an impressive way. The formation and promotion of J-pop just like K-pop is one such example. It’s kind of popular among the younger generation.
“Art and culture play a vital role in globalization. It is a way to get your message across, an effective yet discreet way to create friends – opposite to the alarm and fear resulting from coercion.’’ said the commissioner at the Japanese government’s cultural agency, Seiichi Kundu.
‘’Japanese pop culture is a gateway to the deeper and more traditional Japanese culture’’ said, Ambassador Kondo.
Conclusion
Anime has become the soft power to Japan indeed. The paradox is that the concept of japan’s soft power is not very controversial. People back in Japan and abroad discussed it as a soft power very little. Not like other soft powers, it is not offensive, it is loved by all. It is creating a new pride and confidence in confronting the issue of soft power to the world. Anime’s emphasis on cultural diplomacy is quite agreeable to the whole world. The tourism market, education sector, learning camps are rising daily as lots of people across the globe are getting attracted towards Japan. The people who are still at home trying to learn Japanese, buying many anime-themed products, kind of being prepared for their first visit to Japan, helps the Japanese government to gain more revenues hence improving their economy.
