YouTube link here. There was an Ezzie, but I think she left before we started recording.
The biggest phones! The smallest internships! Horror movies, horror movies, horror movies. We give you the skinny on what the kids are calling “Japanimation.” And Tony spends a surprising amount of time and energy calling Jas and her profession a fraud. Enjoy!
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What I’ve been thinking about in response to the question I asked was probably more simple–that the emphasis on social connection in Japanese stories, and anime in particular, is an appealing counter message to the individualism of Western culture because a lot of young people are feeling isolated and alone at the moment.
Ooh! Now this is interesting…
Like most white boy-childs, I had a long phase of being way into Japanese culture.
I’ve long assumed it was the exoticism and hyper-patriarchy, most of which manifested in my brain as an explicit emphasis on the erotic much earlier than what I was getting in Western culture.
But in more recent years, I have noticed the emphasis on society and community in Japanese media and (I assume) Japanese culture, versus the importance of the individual as found in Western, and especially US culture.
And now I’m remembering the importance my adolescent self placed on identity, usually attached to belonging to a group or community.
(I say importance, it’s a relative thing. I’ve famously never been much for belonging to groups… but as a youth I was much less not into it)
And I’m wondering if that was also part of the draw of Japanese culture. If it was, it was definitely on a fully unconscious level. But I still think it’s quite possible, even probable, that it was a component.
I take it back… you and your profession might not be a fraud after all. š
Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by hyper-patriarchy in anime?
In Japanese culture generally, patriarchy develops somewhat differently and later than it does in the West. Patriarchy is introduced to Japan with Confucianism in the 5th century C.E., and even then it does not completely dominate things like rules of succession. Women were only banned from becoming Emperor with the Meiji Restoration in the 19th century and this may have been influenced by an attempt to copy Western styles of governance.
Also, Japanese ideas of identity are not as tied to internal states as they are in the West, but to exterior appearance. This results in both a blurring of identity through changing appearance, and an attempt to control that blurring of identity through strict laws about appearance. The history of Onnaga/Oyama (male actors appearing as women in Kabuki) gives some examples of both. I’ve always thought cosplay is tied into this concept of identity/costume.
I think that idea of identity probably also relates to the different valuation of individualism/social connection. Your identity is not as much about who you are internally, but how you are seen by others.
*******
On behalf of the profession, I thank you…..*bows*
See, this is what happens when all your knowledge of Japanese culture was picked up as a horny teenage boy!
My observation of the patriarchal structure in Japanese culture falls into exactly two categories:
1. “Outdated” gender roles. Everything I ever watched in Japanese media seemed to have gender roles that I associate more with 1980s and earlier in the US. All the secretaries are women. They always wear skirts and pantyhose. Men are explicitly all the bosses, and while technically that’s not required, it’s always a shock when that’s not the case. Generally speaking, it’s not so much that Japanese culture seemed MORE patriarchal, just more explicitly/honestly so?
2. Sexuality. Men are horny… all the time. All men are one step away from being rapists, unless they are so terrified of women that they’d pass out if they were kissed. And women have no sexual urges at all, and are deeply ashamed at the idea that they might. Again, not too different from US social norms, just more… up front about such things.
Again, I want to make it clear that, although I would have argued it was not the case at the time, I think almost all of my interest/exposure to Japanese culture in my formative years is filtered through an extremely hormonal lens. š
That’s interesting.
There is definitely some anime that is like that.
It kind of reminds of what I’ve often thought about class and misogyny/sexism. You often see more blatant examples of misogyny/sexism in the lower classes, but this to me is because of the way class & gender is interacting, Like the people getting bullied/oppressed don’t turn on the bullies but on people even weaker. I wonder if a similar thing has happened with various countries dealing with Western imperialism.