Anime and manga
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Collectively, anime and manga refer to a form of mass media produced by the content industry of Japan.[1][2][3] The anime and manga industry forms an integral part of Japan's soft power as one of its most prominent cultural exports.[3]
Subculture
In Japanese, the word "subculture" (サブカルチャー, sabukaruchā) does not have the same connotation of oppositional culture as it does in English, so it is frequently used in situations where "fandom" might be preferred by Westerners instead.[4]
In Japan, most works start out as manga, with the most successful titles receiving an anime adaptation (アニメ化, anime-ka). However, for overseas fans their first encounter with the subculture is typically through broadcast anime. It is common for a work to be distributed overseas via fansubs and scanlations, or unauthorized fanmade translations of anime and manga, respectively, before official translations become available. Typically, overseas fans will first translate the work into English, French, and Chinese, and then into other languages using those as an intermediary.[5] The legality of ethics of these fanmade translations has been hotly debated. Many of those involved refuse to profit from their translations out of principle, and destroy the copies once officially licensed versions become available. Some industry participants in both Japan and the United States have expressed tacit acceptance of fanmade translations, seeing them as a trial run for the American market.[6]
Other types of media such as light novels[4] and video games[3] are frequently associated with and considered part of the anime and manga subculture.
History
The explosive growth in Japan's soft power began in the 1970s, when it changed from a net importer to a net exporter of information.[5] Prior to the late 1990s, the primary export of Japan's content industry was video games. However, beginning in 2000, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recognized anime and manga as part of "traditional" Japanese culture, and the government began to promote them as part of its Cool Japan strategy, passing the Content Industry Promotion Law in June 2004.[3] The value of the anime and manga industry is estimated at US$5 billion as of 2008.[7]
Anime and manga were not widely marketed in the United States before the mid-1990s, with only a few titles available on network television. The rapid growth of the genre in the United States has led some commentators to deem it an American import rather than a Japanese export.[6] Despite the popularity of anime and manga overseas, publishers and producers continue to target primarily the domestic market with little thought towards catering to an increasingly international audience.[5]
In other languages
In China, dongman (simplified Chinese: 动漫; traditional Chinese: 動漫; pinyin: dòngmàn) is a portmanteau of donghua and manhua, used as an umbrella term for animation and comics.[8] The term "dongman" is often mistakenly used to exclusively refer to the animation, while in fact it should include both the donghua and the manhua. When video games are included, the term used is ACG (simplified Chinese: 动漫游戏; traditional Chinese: 動漫遊戲; pinyin: dòngmànyóuxì), short for "anime, comics, and games". A further extension which includes light novels is ACGN, or "anime, comics, games, and novels". Another term for the genre as a whole is erciyuan (Chinese: 二次元; pinyin: èrcìyuán), meaning "two-dimensional space". One of the most popular websites for ACGN content is bilibili.[9]
See also
References
- ^ Manion, Annie (2005). "Discovering Japan: Anime and Learning Japanese Culture" (PDF). East Asian Studies Center, USC. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 15, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2009.
- ^ Hernández, Álvaro David Hernández (2018). "The Anime Industry, Networks of Participation, and Environments for the Management of Content in Japan" (PDF). MDPI. 7 (3). doi:10.3390/arts7030042. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ a b c d Choo, Kukhee (2012). "Nationalizing 'cool': Japan's global promotion of the content industry". In Otmazgin, Nissim; Ben-Ari, Eyal (eds.). Popular Culture and the State in East and Southeast Asia. London: Routledge. pp. 85–105. ISBN 9780203801536.
- ^ a b Ōtsuka, Eiji; Steinberg, Marc (2010). "World and Variation: The Reproduction and Consumption of Narrative" (PDF). Mechademia. 5: 99–116. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ a b c Cooper-Chen, Anne (2011). "Japan's illustrated storytelling: A thematic analysis of globalized Anime and Manga" (PDF). Keio Communication Review. 33: 85–98. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ a b Levi, Antonia (2006). "The Americanization of Anime and Manga: Negotiating Popular Culture". In Brown, Steven T. (ed.). The Americanization of Anime and Manga: Negotiating Popular Culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 43–63. ISBN 9780230606210.
- ^ Wahab, Juliana Abdul; Anuar & Farhani, Mustafa K. (2012). "Global Media Product and Construction of "Japanese Identity": a Case Study of Anime on Malaysian Television" (PDF). Jurnal Komunikasi: Malaysian Journal of Communication. 28 (2). Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ "三部门印发关于动漫企业认定管理办法(试行)通知_A notice regarding recognition for Dongman enterprises". The State Council of China (in Chinese). Retrieved December 21, 2018.
- ^ Li, Jingjing (27 November 2016). "Rapid growth of ACGN subculture in China has companies standing up and taking notice". Global Times. Retrieved 20 June 2020.