Mukokuseki
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Mukokuseki (Japanese: 無国籍, translated as "statelessness" or "nationlessness") is a Japanese term describing fictional characters in visual media depicted without a concrete ethnicity or nationality. It is commonly invoked in visual media, including anime and manga, such as when a character is described as having stereotypically European or racially ambiguous characteristics in a setting where they might otherwise be assumed to be ethnically Japanese.[1][2][3] It is thought to be particularly significant in the context of foreign influences on Japanese entertainment properties as well as the subsequent marketing of such properties towards non-Japanese audiences.[4]
Analysis
Implications of the term in visual media can vary considerably between artstyles,[5] either employing culturally "neutral" elements or hybridizing multiple disparate cultural influences.[4][6] One author nonetheless argued that "[o]n closer inspection [...] the communication of cultural markers and characteristics is far more intricate than the mere display of Japanese facial features."[3] Notable examples of mukokuseki characters include Hello Kitty,[4] Light Yagami from Death Note,[5] and Asuka Soryu or Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion[citation needed].
One of the reasons for mukokuseki might have been the desire to market Japanese products worldwide without making it obvious that they are Japanese, due to enduring anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States as well as many neighboring Asian countries, particularly as a result of Japanese war crimes in World War II.[7]
A Language Awareness study of Japanese popular media found traits such as blonde hair and marked speech were widely used as shorthand for depicting foreign characters, described as a "quintessential" image of foreigners, with Americans being the most affected nationality.[8] Asian studies scholar Laura Miller noted the increasing prevalence of light-colored hair and blue eyes as cosmetic choices in J-pop scenes and other fields of Japanese youth culture, emphasizing the impacts these aesthetics have on conventional perceptions of race and nationality.[9]
In addition to the increased international appeal of culturally neutral properties, Brian Ruh paraphrased Susan J. Napier in describing mukokuseki as "a way for contemporary Japanese to playfully escape their own concepts of Japan and their own feelings of Japaneseness... fantasized mukokuseki anime bodies can be free from the cultural and societal baggage of physical bodies."[6] Other popular narratives have stated that, due to their fictionalized or aestheticized settings and "abstracted" representations of the human body, manga and anime are inherently divorced from real-life categories of ethnicities and that their characters are therefore all naturally mukokuseki.[6][5]
Criticism
Mukokuseki has particularly received some criticism in the context of the soft power it does or does not afford Japanese culture in the Western World,[4] with the lack of distinct Japanese values described as rendering the cultural capital of Japanese media "nothing but an illusion".[3] A writer for Comic Book Resources also criticized Western film adaptations for taking mukokuseki characters as an opportunity to whitewash lead roles in works such as The Last Airbender (2010) or Death Note (2017).[5]
See also
References
- ^ Oana-Maria, Birlea. "Hybridity in Japanese Advertising Discourse", Acta Universitatis Sapientiae: Philologica, Vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 55 – 71, December 2019.
- ^ Nakagawa, Martha. "Analyzation and critique of a cute global character", Review of Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific by Christine R. Yano, Nichi Bei News. 23 July 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ a b c Kato, Hiloko and Bauer, René. "Mukokuseki and the Narrative Mechanics in Japanese Games". Narrative Mechanics: Strategies and Meanings in Games and Real Life, edited by Beat Suter, René Bauer and Mela Kocher, Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, via De Gruyter, 2021, pp. 113-150. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839453452-006
- ^ a b c d Bîrlea, Oana-Maria. “Soft Power: ’Cute Culture’, a Persuasive Strategy in Japanese Advertising.” TRAMES: A Journal of the Humanities & Social Sciences, vol. 27, no. 3, July 2023, pp. 311–24. EBSCOhost via Wikipedia Library, https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2023.3.07.
- ^ a b c d Altiok, Revna. "What Is Mukokuseki in Anime – And Why Is It Important?" from Comic Book Resources, 24 June 2022.
- ^ a b c Ruh, Brian. “Conceptualizing Anime and the Database Fantasyscape.” Mechademia: Second Arc, vol. 9, 2014, pp. 164–75. JSTOR via Wikipedia Library, https://doi.org/10.5749/mech.9.2014.0164. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.
- ^ Siuda, Piotr; Koralewska, Anna (2014). Japonizacja: anime i jego polscy fani [Japonization: Anime and Its Polish Fans]. Kontinuum (in Polish). Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Katedra. p. 70. ISBN 978-83-63434-17-5.
- ^ Rika Ito & Megan Bisila (2020) Blond hair, blue eyes, and “bad” Japanese: representing foreigner stereotypes in Japanese anime , Language Awareness, 29:3-4, 286-303 Retrieved 25 March 2024.
- ^ Miller, Laura. “Deracialisation or Body Fashion? Cosmetic Surgery and Body Modification in Japan.” Asian Studies Review, vol. 45, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 217–37. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2020.1764491.