Japanese Animation vs American Animation?

Do not think all animations are same. There are various of animations exist in the world that you might not know! We are living in the world where there are full of entertainments that you can choose. I might say we are currently living in the world in the gold age of the animation.  Based on the ten years statistics, the animation industry worldwide earns more than $6 billion. In the year 2015, the Japanese animation was accounted for 65% of global animation market. In US "Sherk" series such as <The Incredibles> <Finding Nemo> became world famous animation. In Japan <Tales from Eathsea><Monster House><Pi story> and other Pokemon series are getting hit worldwide for the Japanese animation. We are living in the animation boom era where there are lots of animation exists. Animation has its distinctive meaning, but we can describe these meaning from two different culture, JAPAN, and the USA.


1. Hope and Dream.   Disney's Fairy Tale  vs.  Ghibli Myth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck

Disney and Studio Ghibli animation represent as a symbol of the USA and JAPAN. Both have in common for giving a message to people for dreams and hope. However, if Disney is for the "Children's World" Ghibli is aimed for the "Adult's society". Disney Animations have adventures, comedy, and classic Fairy tales, but Ghibli animations have its distinctive World made by Hayao Miyazaki where it coexist of Myth and Fairy Tales. US animation made Donald Dock, Micky Mouse, and Lion King are the best examples were it follows the origin based on the Novel. On the other hand, <Future Boy Conan> <Princess Mononoke> <Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind> <Laputa:Castle in the Sky> are from Japan where it gives a deep perspective / reflection to the audience in the society they are living. Plus, Hayao Miyazaki also makes unique world setting such as matriarchal society where the main character is the girl and shows heroic actions.

http://syntetyc.deviantart.com/art/Laputa-Castle-in-the-Sky-357889048

2. Human Satire    Prosopopoeia vs. metaphor

http://movies.disney.com/finding-nemo

American animation seems to be good at making prosopopoeia while Japanese anime enjoys making metaphor/parables.


<Toy Story> <Finding Nemo> <car> <Garfield 2> are the best example where the characters are doll, fish, cars, and cat. There animations use animals and things to shape the human society. Family love, humanism and the issues of capitalism can be easily sent to children, making them understand easily through the works of American animation (simplicity and comedy). Look at how DreamWork has done, they like to make the twist in American society/ Original Fairy Tale and ridicule on people. We can see these aspects from the movie  <Ant>,  <Shrek>  and <Shark>. In contrast, Japanese animation adds variety of code that can make adults and children to understand in many different underlying messages.  For example,  from the work <Red pig> pigs are not simply to compare animals and humans but has deep meaning to refuse to live as human beings due to outrageous/backlash of War and Fascism.

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/10/30/new-studio-ghibli-sunglasses-will-make-anime-fans-look-like-fat-pigs/

Do not underestimate indie Games.

          Indie games in other word, independent games are continued to increase their margin! Independent games do not receive any support from big companies such as Nintendo, Sony, etc. They are composed with a small group of the team and create games. These indie companies have huge disadvantages because they do not receive financial support from any company that causes less quality, and slow progress. However, these disadvantages cannot be obstacles because indie companies also make an evolution in their work. They started to create games with high creativity, using cheap programs such as "game maker, RPG Maker series" or adobe flash, unity 3D, UDK, etc. Due to their low development speed, they started to approach things that are easy to handle and flexible to create games. Now they can inform not only in PC platform but also in consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox and even in IOS and Android.

          In the early period, Indie Games and companies were having hardships to make a great success, earning lots of money from the customers. The population of the indie games were not shined compare today. Good indie games were hidden from other famous companies' games due to the low popularity. However, indie games were able to gain popularity from great successful games such as Minecraft, changing the atmosphere of the game industry. Indie companies started to use high graphic program software or develop a new software to create games. The continuous of popularity for indie games lead other companies such as STEAM (game distribution company) to put their games on the shop for selling to customers.

(Steam - Famous game distributing company. Help games to be on the bookshelf for customers to buy and play)

          The increasing popularity of indie games and their creatively influence other big companies such as Microsoft and Sony to put their eyes on indie games. Indie games were not underestimated as the time passes, but many people (customers or fans) think indie companies are not independent on making games. Many people dislike that indie games / companies are heavily relying on sponsors that make pre - advertisements( simply means they are getting investments system from other organization / company). Moreover, many indie games such as Minecraft were purchased by Microsoft. Due to their great success and popularity, many indie companies dragged over big companies for their prosperity of the game industry.

          Even though there are some problems with indie games, I think it is a great success. There are still lots of indie games/company who do not receive any financial support from other companies. They still protect their purity by only putting up their games on distributing company/sites to sell their products. Many indie games were able to prove themselves, independent game making shows great potential in the game industry.

Imperialism rise slowly….

          Lots of animation today demonstrate how much they are creative and innovative. They are the one of the biggest entertainments that I love to talk about.  Compare to the past, animation uses lots of symbolism with deep meanings. Animations these days can be called as one of the cultural standings, and marketing. However, not all animations can be called as “good” cultural standings. Japan is one of the major, and the biggest animation producer around the world. They create their own distinctive culture in animation compare to America, and many animations have worldwide popularity such as Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, and etc. However, Japanese animation markets not only include these positive popularity, but also infamous popularity. In Japan, many right-wing authors and animation creators exist which continued to be criticized by nearby states who were victims during the Imperial Japanese period. 

          The major criticism to these people is the animation they created. They create animations that symbolize, glamorize, and justify the Japanese imperialism. Many of the animation they created caused tension among other country and ethics. The biggest victims who were severally damaged/ colonized such as Korea, China, and other southeast countries continued to blame Japanese Animation Markets that they are creating products which distorts the past history and the image of past Japanese imperialism. The conflict between this topic went over more than 30 years since 1980s and rapidly increase during the 21th century. As the technology improves, the quality and marketing of animation increase tremendously which widely spead to many people. Many different people from other countries demanded that these animations which glorify or hidden the truth of Japanese imperialism should not be publicize. However, many  Imperialistic Japanese people(Animators, Directors, author,etc) neglected, ignored and showed indifference on the demands of other countries/ethics. Many different people from different countries look this consequence as a “Cultural Imperialism” that rise slowly in Japan. 

          Personally, I can also see these factors when I watch Japanese Animation. I love Japanese Animations and watch many different series each season. I started to watch Japanese Animation when I was 8, continuing to watch until today. However, I was able to find these factors as the time passes, especially after 2010. One of animation is called Steins; Gate which is one of the impressive ; the most successful SF (Scientific Fiction) animation in animation history. Good illustration from the author “Huke”(nickname) with good scenario, having Scientific Adventure. It was actually originated from Game created by nitro+ but it was also made into animation produced by “WHITE FOX”. The game itself had some problems, but animation was in greater extend. White Fox was famous for creating Imperial “Right Wing” based animation where they put Japanese imperial flags. However, the greater problem comes from the word “YASU - KUNI”, where it symbolize Yasukuni Shrine which enshrined War Criminals Class B - C and Class A Secretly. (Used to worship or show respect on War Criminals during the World War 2 and before). 

          When I always see these features, they always gave me disappointment and pitifulness. I love animation but these imperial features gave me a huge displease. This might be because I am a Korean. However, beyond the ethnicity, I believe many Japanese Animators need to realize that they are using animation as the tool, turning people(or culture) into imperialistic as they done before. This can cause conflict among different people and they continue to repeat the history of tragedy during the World War 2 with Japan's war crimes. If we think Germany continue to use HakenKrez or a term Nazi, it will be a great displease among other nations and Germans whom are ashamed of past war crimes. I hope the things get changed and want to kept on watching Japanese Animation in good terms. 

Japanese Imperial Flag, Commonly used today. And in Animation.   Left is HakenKrez. Both are Criminal Flags. 

                                                                                                                                  See commonly in Animation