Japan: Not as Weird as We Think?

               Japan is an interesting topic that has come up in class recently, and I feel there are a few things I can add to the discussion coming from the perspective of an outsider looking in who has minor experience in Japanese culture (from working the annual Stevens convention) as well as someone who has watched a few different anime series with other people on campus. Anime and American cartoons is an interesting comparison that can be made; Anime is based off the American cartoon, but covers many other ideas, genres and themes unlike cartoons, which are usually considered reserved for children. Anime tends to be age-independent; I’ve seen as many elderly people at conventions who are heavily interested in anime as I’ve seen highschoolers and college students. There are many different genres that vary in the target audiences. For instance, there are violent action animes targeted toward adults, but then there are slice-of-life and other animes targeted toward children / teenagers. Imagine if all of the cartoons in America were not mainly targeted at children, but instead used the animated medium to appeal to a wider audience (such as the Simpsons earlier seasons). While anime is a medium that targets a vastly larger demographic in Japan, we are still not as different as some think.  While Stevens is a weird case to consider when you take into account the large number of oddities our campus population has, I still hear many references to both anime as well as cartoons of the late ‘90’s / early 2000’s. Additionally, there are a ton of people who still play Pokemon, yet watch things like Hey Arnold! And Spongebob, apparently.

               Japan gets a lot of criticisms from some due to it being full of weird social norms, and occurrences. Drawn pornography being sold out on the street, weird tales of people marrying fictional beings or animals (whether untrue or not), as well as weird entertainment in the form of animes that have weird concepts or creatures. These are all common things that I’ve heard mentioned why Japan is such a foreign place in comparison to America, but these are not that different from our oddities. Drawn pornography is weird, but considering they have laws against full nudity, and we sell adult magazines at most convenience stores around the US, Japan is not quite so weird (unless you consider some of the pornography there considers weird fetishes readily available in magazines). People marrying fictional beings or animals seems weird at first (and I’m not saying it isn’t), but considering the jokes all about incest and bestiality in the southern US, it does not sound so far off from jokes about the oddities of Japan. Finally, in terms of anime with weird concepts, I can easily point to just as many cartoons from my childhood. Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rocko’s Modern Life, Spongebob Squarepants, Catdog, and many more cartoons are just as weird as some of the weirder animes out there if you look at those shows these days. Overall, Japan is not as different as many would think, if they knew more about the cultural norms and media that has been created there, and there are actually some animes created there that rival some of the better cartoons here in America.