According to Lent (2000), "animation was fitted to Asian societies and their mass
media." and because of this, has become a very large business that many took the first chance they could get to get a piece of. It has come such a big part of Asian culture in the recent years that has opened up many opportunities for businesses, and is now seen in toys, music, and even pornography. The Korean government especially took advantage of this culture and noticed that they could even get money overseas from animation as it was so popular, and it wasn't long until Singapore had done the same. There are differences in the animation of the different countries in Asia. For example. anime in China is more based around morals and beliefs, while Vietnamese animation had taken the approach of war and violence. The anime that came from Japan had traits of religious beliefs and took shape based on folkloric stories. "Princess Mononoke" was a good example of this as the themes that were used involved mystical creatures. This can be related back to the genre of Fantasy, although two different genres, they still have many similarities.
China was one of the first to bring animation to Asia, and was inspired heavily by Walt Disneys' cartoons, releasing a very similar character to Mickey Mouse called Smiling Monkey. It is safe to say that China's anime is more closely based on that of the U.S.A. while Japan had mixed the animation with fantasy by the use of spiritual creatures. That is why now, Japans anime is more known around the world, because of its originality and uniqueness. Cartoons such as "Pokemon", "Dragonball Z" and "Yhu Gi Oh" made their way to the televisions of children all around the world, and are possibly just as popular, if not more than they are in Japan.
Fascinating. Can you find any reason why animation should have become such a Asian phenomenon. Why Asia, why not Europe or South America?
ReplyDeleteAnd, do you have any examples or links to Chinese, Vietnamese and Singaporean animation? I'd like to see some
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read that the anime in different Asian countries draws on different themes, i.e Vietnam taking on the war/violence theme while Japan had traits of religion. Like Mike, I would be interested to see some of these Vietnamese ones.
ReplyDeleteSomething else you might be interested in looking into is the kind of religion present in Princess Mononoke. I have read that many aspects of the traditional Japanese religion of Shinto are present in Princess Mononoke.
Remember Miyazaki's comment about this period of Japanese history being that turning point, or moment, when men abandoned the gods and began to worship money? the whole philosophy behind the film would be a fascinating study. In the meantime we are still waiting for those links to other anime...
ReplyDeleteI have curiosity about your sentence "The Korean government especially took advantage of this culture and noticed that they could even get money overseas from animation." I think it is not too much to say that Japanese animation is holding the foremost position in Asia animation market, especially Korea animation. Now, Korea government is trying to encourage people to watch Korean animation and to have interests in Korea animation, and many animation companies have invested in producing Korean animation. But, in practice, that doesn't work well except animation for children. It is quite hard to find animation toys, music and so on....
ReplyDelete