Interest in Japanese Pop Culture Hitting Boiling Point
Japan’s influence over here is becoming more and more apparent all the time. It didn’t conquer our Saturday morning TV programming and stop there. No, the influence of Japan is reaching out to us on other fronts. Today we see Japan’s touch in television, film, and video games. Even major book retailers now have vast sections dedicated to manga.
The increasing prevalence of anime, manga, and video games continues to cultivate today’s youth. When someone mentions Power Rangers or Pokémon and you roll your eyes, there are a zillion other people who are nodding their heads enthusiastically, sharing in that same feeling of nostalgia you might feel when someone mentions M*A*S*H or McGuyver. People are growing up and discovering that many of the TV shows and video games they grew up with originally came from Japan, and that’s starting to carry over.
Big-budget filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, and the Wachowski Brothers have even openly voiced the influence of anime on their work. The people who grew up with this influence are starting to incorporate these things into their creative works, and that only serves to propagate more similarly influenced media. On top of this, we’re seeing countless imitations that “borrow” the style of Japanese anime, film, and comics. Many of the manga on shelves are the latest efforts of American artists and writers. Several animated shows, most notably Avatar: The Last Airbender (which is actually quite a good show), imitate anime to varying degrees of success. Many times it’s not even imitated – simply broadcast in its original form on television or screened in theaters (after some necessary localization, of course).
There’s a time of the year that many people refer to as “convention season.” This generally spans from early May to some time in August (though some events fall outside of this interval), and is when the biggest media conventions take place. These conventions are massive events built on the ever-growing popularity anime, video games, movies and comics. Anime Expo, Otakon, E3 (before it was down-sized), Comic-Con… All of them draw tens of thousands of people from surrounding states, and have high-profile guests of honor flown out from Japan to perform or talk about their work in front of fans. Comic-Con sits atop all of them as the largest, drawing in over 120,000 visitors at this year’s event alone, and while it is primarily focused on American comics, it deserves mention here. Why? Because it’s the one convention that never had “all that stuff from Japan” to begin with, yet companies that produce Japanese anime, manga, and games have made a sizable nest at the event, to the point where some of their exhibits rival that of big-budget Hollywood film studios. There will never again be a Comic-Con that does not have the touch of these Japan-born properties and overall influence.
Media retailing giants like Best Buy have DVD sections dedicated to anime that rival the size of normal genres like comedy and drama. Borders and Barnes & Noble have isles devoted to manga. Some of you might even be able to walk into your local mall and find a store completely dedicated to Japan’s goods. Even local libraries are carrying manga. Let me write that word one more time for emphasis: Libraries. A place we associate with studying, culture, and traditional education. Now that ideas and trends from Japan have become more commonplace, we’re seeing more and more of it being infused into the culture around us and the influence is almost inescapable.
But why would you want to escape it? The reason Japanese influence is finally starting to take root is because people are coming to realize that a lot of quality material comes out of that little chain of islands. So what do we do about this increased influence? Embrace it – embrace it with open arms. Enjoy the aspects you like, but be able to accept what you don’t, because it’s definitely not going away. One thing is sure: Japan’s effect on us isn’t going to let up any time soon. Its continued influence will only serve to merge our popular cultures together even further, mixing the creative juices of both locales into a sweet, sweet nectar of awesome for all to taste.
Taking the next step
This is not to say that all of these mediums don’t still have a long way to go before really becoming mainstream. Anime series, which are as long or longer than your standard American TV show, are still released volume by volume at gut-wrenching prices. Japanese music has barely made a dent over here with the introduction of artists like Dir en Grey, L’Arc~en~Ciel, and Utada Hikaru. The process of localizing manga, anime, and games is taking less and less time, but can still sometimes take as long as a few years. The language barrier is an obvious reason. It’s rare to find high schools that offer Japanese as an option to fill the foreign language requirement, but considering how popular Japan is becoming, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this slowly change over the years. Distance is another factor. Despite being one of the closest foreign countries to the West of the United States, we’re separated by the massive Pacific Ocean.
But it’s no surprise that the buzz around the water cooler has been focused on Japan quite a bit lately. Sports stars like Matsui, Ichiro, and Matsuzaka are becoming daily conversation topics. There’s definitely a growing desire to further explore the culture that’s putting out all of these wonderful things that have us so enamored. For many, the pace at which Japanese culture is coming over to the English-speaking world is just not fast enough, and the only logical course of action is to go straight to the source.
In response to this, H.I.S. International Tours, Inc., a powerful player in the US-Japan travel industry, has formed a division dedicated to sending those who want to step forward and experience the culture first-hand out to Japan. The aptly named Destination Japan organizes tours to Japan four to five times a year, and tours highlight the modern pop culture aspects of Japan such as anime, games, music, and fashion. Their next tour will visit Tokyo Game Show 2007, Japan’s biggest gaming convention.
With tours that last for approximately one week and hover a little under $2000 (depending on the tour) including hotel and airfare, it’s an excellent way to take that next step, to take a closer look at that the culture that’s slowly blending with our own. The pop culture experience available on a service like Destination Japan’s is definitely the way to take your interest in Japan to the next level, but also is just a great way to take a tour to a unique and interesting country. Find them online at www.destination-japan.com.