Japan/Amer. Influence
As a culmination of the research done throughout this semester, I have crafted a three part series pertaining to international media influence on both American and Japanese cultures via Anime programming. This series intends to cover the main aspects in which media exposure to a country’s popular culture has both influenced and helped to shape the entertainment industries in the United States as well as Japan. First, in the movie realm, the United States has a consistent and ominous presence worldwide; most of the movies shown around the globe originate in Hollywood. Second, Japanese anime has become such a heavy influence that many if not most of American cartoons are based off of or drawn in anime style. Lastly, the entertainment industry relies heavily on the technology industry, revealing the necessity for the symbiotic relationship between Japan’s technologic dominance and the United States’ entertainment industry prominence.
There are many instances of the spread of both American and Japanese ideals throughout the global entertainment industry. Matsushita, a Japanese company, owned Universal Studios, a United States of America based film company. In addition, Seagrams of Canada and Vivendi of France then purchased the same Universal Studios in succession (Feigenbaum, 2007). What is so interesting about this whole ordeal is the fact that the core production remained the same, however the types of movies being released under the ever-changing ownership varied to match the “stereotypes” surrounding the majority ownership’s base country.
Japan is just as influential worldwide as America in the entertainment industry. Feigenbaum (2007) stated in his research on hegemony and diversity in film that Japan is nowhere near as concerned as other nations concerning “Americanization” leading to a heightened influence in entertainment. Animation in particular is an arena that Japan thrives in and is utilized most in America. The largest visual representation of this Japanese influence is in cartoons aired since the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Many of the cartoon superhero staples such as Batman the Animated Series, X-Men the Animated Series, and even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original series) were drawn in Japan. The larger eyed, visually emotional appearance of characters is a tell tale sign of a cartoon’s origination.
Anime is simply a cartoon that was produced by a Japanese crew. The origins however are not so simple. According to Benesh-Liu (2007), Japanese artists began to create their own unique cartoons in 1914. They were influenced by and attempted to mimic western cartoons created by Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera. Even though these cartoons were intriguing, they never gained much fame anywhere outside of Japan. The Japanese did release an internationally acclaimed feature-length cartoon named Momotaro, however that wasn’t enough to make the world take notice of what would soon become an epic change in the cartooning landscape.
