Before we start out talking about how Anime and Manga or Animanga is a portal to Japan and the culture its good to discuss a bit about Danny Choo the pioneer who showed everyone it was possible. Knowing a bit of his back story can get people into the idea of how someone worked from almost nothing and got to Japan and made a career for himself and set the road for others to walk on. So lets talk about Danny Choo and his effects on peoples perspectives of Foreigners making it out in Japan. Pioneer of the Weeb Dream Danny Choo had discovered anime from Japanese imports of the Sega Megadrive and London Japanese Specialty Book shops that had magazines which featured manga, anime, and idols. He would do self study at the university while earning money at Benihana restaurant where he met his wife. Danny would go on to work at Japan Airlines and work in Tokyo at a office job and he started his webs site dannychoo.com which over the years developed into the side business of Mirai Inc (Future Inc) with a ever growing online community. In 2009, Mirai Gaia would start up to share Japanese culture with the world and provide a bridge of the media web, videos, and conferences which helped Japanese companies overseas and spread Japanese culture to the masses across the world, so much so he was nicknamed online as Danny Choo "The Japan Cultural Ambassador". He really set a highlight on Japan and even more so on by putting the spotlight on Animanga before there was even a term for it. His persona reflected plenty of the culture as he was very kind and had the proper etiquette down as he would speak softly and still get the message he wanted across while still being polite about it, which would get people to really take notice about his changes in western to Japanese mannerisms. Choo showed how you could be a otaku radical and open up an entirely wild experience while still being yourself while being aware of the national difference in perception of the nations of residence as well as the world, he still definately was Gaijin, but a model one. Pioneering the path of what would be later on in the 2010's as "The Weeb Dream" there would be many who would continue to follow his blogs online to see what he did to immerse, adapt, and respect the culture to properly beable to live in the Japanese society from a western origin. It was sort of like he would take viewers through this Japanese culture fascination and into a portal of interests of Animation and Media and it would keep on going like a sort of road that showed the way of how to live in the land of the rising sun. It gave other people interested in Japan to summon the courage to travel there and study there or even try to work there with the goal of living in Japan as a sort of dream. Many would take his stories into their minds and see it as a path towards becoming a resident of Japan instead of simply fantasizing about it. How is Animanga linked to Japan? As time went on there would be other influential figures that would pave the way for linking people around the world to Japan, but other than people, what would catch peoples interest in looking for such people? This would be those who were intrigued and inspired by anime and manga, even if it certainly was not real the language was undeniably there as well as the unique traits of people interactions and the themes that were very specific to the animanga industry and not usually seen outside the realm of animation. Even as Japan had some of its roughest times in economic decline the "soft power" of entertainment and its global appeal creates larger interest in culture, exports, and travel. When looking at the appeal of anime and manga as well as other forms of entertainment it is important to see the amount of total "Cool" a country has to their appeal as a sort of magnetic pull that makes interest in the destination as either a place of living or travel that effects residents and travelers and their personal interests, mental attitudes, and even regional pride. Since Japan is an nation of many islands there is only so much money it can gain from its internal economy and some business are looking for overseas expansion, which in case the power of having something appear cool or interesting gets more people exposed to the country and thus the products and services it has to offer. As a business its great and for the people it builds up interest as well in wondering why so many people overseas find certain things interesting and they check it out for themselves. Everyones hearts become more invested inthe place it self and that is really starting be known as the "Gross Total Cool" of a nation. Brings the Idea of Traveling to Japan This sort of cool has left people with a longing and want to see their beloved described places and inspired areas or even the people who life every day as normal as a sort of sight to behold from their consumed media. It has led people from Asia and the West on "Animanga Pilgrimages" which are tours to the most famous scenes in anime or manga and subcultures that were inspired from what was trending come as well. Those who are interested in Shibuyakei come to Shibuya and people interested in Arcas which has its roots in electric towns go to visit those areas and Otaku who hear of the wonderland that is Akihabara go to pray at the shrine. For example there is a temple in Okayama Prefecture where people who are fans of "Tenchi Muyo" go all the way in the mountains in the middle of no where to show respects for the series. There are hundreds of these locations from all sorts of stories that it makes almost any prefecture in Japan apart of the experience. So, what many of these visitors do is they travel and they share these experiences with the world on the internet as well as in person and by word of mouth get others interested through oral marketing and then they study even more into the area and plant to return with even more things to share. The travelers, especially otaku go to travel and collect as well as write about it in a way that is really enthusiastic and almost obsessive to find every detail of what they can to find interest in a place. It is so popular there is even a " Anime Tourism Association". The numbers of tourists who primarily come with going to at least one anime related experience has countless and almost expected by many locals who live in Japan. The anime industry has become almost like a large long commercial for the country and is like the biggest mascot it could have ever dreamed and the bigger and better and longer the anime and more different places it increases growth in everything in those shows and comics and sold products. Some fans went to such pilgrimage sites and started to replicate experiences in their own countries or searched across anonymous chats and social media to write down everything they could that was in relation to the animanga and the actual location for some things even people who live there haven't heard of. The bottom line is it truly is connecting tourists, pilgrimage sites, and oral stories to create everlasting relationships with the people and country itself. Makes Japanese Class Fun & Relevant Definitely anime and manga have inspired many people to learn about Traveling to Japan, Japanese culture, and even be interested in the language. Many young adults talk about their favorite Japanese anime and how it inspired them to pick up their first Japanese book. For instance, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films are extremely popular overseas such as “Spirited Away”, which won an American Academy Award. It is fun to learn a different language! Japanese is especially fun because some words sound really funny and I remember my former students were getting a kick out of the word, “tokidoki”! They said it sounded like “okidoki!” Also, when you are learning a foreign language, you get to learn a lot about its culture and it is one of the most rewarding aspects of learning Japanese language. Japanese courses offered in the community colleges in the 00s were hitting their Enrollment Capacity by the first registration deadline, because it was so cool to study Japanese. Not many might have put any deep thought into it there were definitely the few and people could tell who those were, but most weren't and that the power of "soft power" where people who aren't thinking too deeply just get hooked onto the culture. Some professors might be wondering out there that it might be strange to see so much enthusiasm to learn about Japan and certain phrases that might not even be used day to day in Japan, because they came from Animanga, but they would still roll with it because it was job security on their part. But, what is for certain is it made a language class that was a necessity into a relevant subject that could be used for understanding some words without subtitles. Opens the Ideas of Japanese Music Most Animes tend to have an opening and an ending theme to each season, sometimes its different, sometimes the option to hear it in dubbed or the raw Japanese. With being exposed to more songs the more Anime the person watches it is inevitable to like a few of them. Thanks to the internet its really easy to go online and check out a few songs from the same artist by simply searching the song name to link it to the artist themself and get to a music track. When searching for the track online it is typical to find both the Anime opening or ending and the actual Japanese music video, so even browsing by mistake may capture some interest. Singers like M-Flo, Namie Amuro, Kyary Kyary Pamyu, and Utada Hikaru are popular outside Japan, but many of them don't know what they are singing about until they search the translated lyrics. This makes a curiosity to learn more phrases, more words, and more language structure to further understand the Anime itself. It really makes people want to learn a language. Familiar Scenario of Japanese Schools After people have seen enough shows of either J-Dramas or Historical Reproductions or in this particular case Anime and Manga they have a sense for a sort of scenario. They watch enough slice-of-life anime and they are going to know the normal set up of: How schools organize their class rooms, or How important exams are for getting into high school, and how most people are expected to be perfect performers and not get questions wrong. Or other small things like mandatory school uniforms, school club days, no janitor to be seen, and how school grades are publicly posted on a school board. It really makes people wonder what it would be like to be in a Japanese School and experience all that as well as want to know what it would be like to live in Japan knowing all those things are apart of everyday life. It might be an eye opener and be something they themselves from their country may have never experienced before and that can make it either very scary or very interesting. While Animanga would show people the artistic colors and beautiful animations and scripts that would come out of the Japan as a country there would be others who would spark the same groups interest and even those outside of the animanga scene. This would be the Japan Video Bloggers or J-Vloggers Rachel and Jun (2012) who would slowly show some very basic ways of living in Japan, daily life in Japan, and was sort of a sneak peak into living in Japan as a multiracial couple in Japan. For those who were already interested in anime as self proclaimed Otaku or those who just had any curiosity or interest in Japan at all would have seen the Video Blogs as a sort of Virtual experience through the couple and live through their recorded experiences. It would be referred to at times as a sort of genre of Virtual Vicurious Slice-of-Life channel. It enhanced the urge to find out more about Japan as more content was released and people started looking for multiple Japan Vloggers, but there were few at the time: Kimdao (2011), Sharmander (2013), Texan in Tokyo (2014). People who were once into animanga and took the plunge into real life couldn't get enough of how much the living in Japan experience was like an anime would be addicted to watching the show as if it were watching an anime of someone elses slice-of-life genre show. But that would just be the beginning as there were many more people to come up in the ranks of hosting their own J-Vlogs. This would lead the world to discovering Chris Broad (2012) and his channel of someone who knew almost nothing about Japan except experiencing it in his imagination and through research without the actual experience of traveling abroad in Japan. Funny enough it was the name of his channel due him being smart and clever with his last name "Broad" that would be the keyword people would think of when searching for his content that was said to have a sort of transformative power. There was just something about it as his negative and sarcastic tones would change into happier and very enjoyable smiles in the moment it would be someone who has peeked with a Aha Moment where he gets it and the viewers felt the same. People would experience the journey that it is discovering everything in Japan for the first time through his eyes through the sights and sounds of his lense.
The Streaming community of Japan has become stronger as the years have gone on and many YouTubers have come and gone, but overall there hasn't been a time that it was so hyped and normalized to tell another that they were going to travel to Japan. This is thanked to those who talk about Japan specifically like Rachel and Jun, Chris Broad, and all the rest. And the ones who get that interested started often times is the Animanga community through its western otaku and asian otaku from foreign countries who just can't seem to get enough from the strengthening force of Ani-Tubers from Geeks Plus. That being said what captures your interests in Japan and what brought you from Anime to real life Japan? most likely everyone will have some sort of different answer of what drew them to Japan and thats whats so special about the experiences all these people have done for all their audiences.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
|