Life in Japan Part 3: Anime and manga in Japan

Posted on | November 5, 2009 | 4 Comments |

So I was moving house the last few days, so apologies for not updating very much…on the Yuribou-scans side of things, I’m still doing commissions, but at the moment I’ve not had the spare time aside to do other projects too.

This time I wanted to write about the part anime and manga have to play in the daily life of the Japanese. The truth is – not very much. Although Japan’s tourist board likes to hail it as the capital of animated visual culture, there isn’t really very much to see on that front as you walk around the average town. Not even in Mitaka where I work (where Miyazaki lived apparently) is there much alluding to Japan’s secret world except for the garishly constructed Mitaka Ghibli museum, of course. And the Manga cafe on the 5F of the building by the station.

Anime shows, as I’ve generally complained of before are generally scheduled for the cheap TV slots (1-4am) or have been relegated to one of several anime cable channels. The only anime you’re likely to see everyday by turning on the TV is likely to be Pokemon, Beyblade and kidsy shows, which mainly congregate on the Saturday and Sunday morning slots (and have good marketing potential).

Manga is a little more widespread – you can buy the big weekly/monthly brands such as Shonen Jump in most bookstores and newsagents/station kiosks and every bookstore has a good stock of the old stuff – you’ll often see commuters reading manga volumes on the train on the way to work…

However, outside of this, anime characters are used widely to promote everything from pachinko parlours to webmail services, cafes and travel agencies. It’s as if Japan acknowledges its anime and manga visual culture on two levels – most people are aware of it, but the depth and extent of the whole culture is a mystery to most. Anime characters are seen as both Japanese and cute, so are good objects with which to promote products. Since the Japanese absolutely adore cute things (you’ve only got to look at the Suica penguin on your commuter’s card to realise this)

Of course, the centre of this all is Akihabara, the electronics district – only a kilometer or so east of the Imperial palace the otaku reigns supreme…or they used to, anyway. Not that Akiba is no longer the centre of Japan’s otaku culture…The towering twin buildings of Comic Toranoana’s flagship stores attest to this fact. However, increasing government unrest to clamp down further on the unsavoury side of otaku culture – namely doujinshi – and a seeming dislike of this section of society in general (breaking up impromptu street mobs around cosplaying idols and the such) shows that the future plans for Akihabara in general don’t seem to include the otaku in them. Increased commercialisation of the area, especially with the completion of the Yodobashi Camera Akiba store is slowly driving out the small market stores that made up the bulk of the electronics district.

It seems clear what the Japanese government wants people to see in Akihabara – a buzzing electronics town, with super high tech gadgetry and towering shiny buildings attesting to Japan’s superior technology. Just ignore all the maid and ninja clad girls frantically throwing out flyers for various overpriced cafes, the sex toy shops and the towering shops and basements chock full of hand drawn pornography. Because that kind of grassroots culture that has been prospering for decades is embarrassing to the nation.

Well, I guess it kinda is…

Walking through Akiba today is still a liberating experience as a foreigner. Nowhere else in my experience can you push through crowds of people flipping casually through shelves of explicit pornography or eyeing up scantily clad buxom 1/2 life sized plastic models and not feel (too) out of place. I don’t think the concept of shopping points cards for pornography exists in many places in the world either. Or cat eared maid cafes.

So come to Akiba and be proud that your knowledge of the secret world of anime is – even in it’s home country – perhaps even more of a secret.

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Category: Japan living

Comments

4 Responses to “Life in Japan Part 3: Anime and manga in Japan”

anonymous_lambda
November 5th, 2009 @ 3:27 pm

Sounds magical, I hope it doesn’t disappear.
Alexeon
November 6th, 2009 @ 8:33 am

I truly hope so too. I still havent gotten a chance to set foot in Akiba. I hope when I do its not just another bunch of electronics stores. I wonder how long until all traces of otakuness disappears from Akiba and if that otakuness will simply move elsewhere.
sporkhead
November 8th, 2009 @ 12:51 am

Mmmm, cat-eared maid cafes…

Nice post indeed, I did expect what you had said about anime in daily life, nice to see manga has remained widespread there though.

Did you buy a French Maid Outfit?
Peter
November 18th, 2009 @ 11:33 am

nice on-site reports :).

But I’ve a request: please add an explicit tag or link to earlier parts of multipart articles.

There might still be an interesting article named LifeInJapanPt1 hidden in the archives somewhere (before August2009; and no: search doesn’t help either).