Orientalism in Anime

After having developed a new-found appreciation for anime throughout this semester, I decided I wanted to look at it through critical lens and in a way that we haven’t really discussed in this course.  As an East Asian Studies major, I am inherently an Orientalist (and so are all of the people taking this course about anime, for that matter).  I decided to research anime and its relation to orientalism.  I came to find this meant orientalist perceptions of anime and orientalism within anime itself and how as a medium it might perpetuate this kind of attitude.

The significance of animation is weighted differently in the United States and Japan.  Animation seems to have played a more important role in Japanese culture and history however American animation eventually influenced Japanese anime a great deal.  Something that anime offered American audiences that they didn’t yet have was animation for adults and teens.  This added a whole new layer to American media but is still interestingly contrasted to present-day American condescendence towards animation in general.   This attitude is not popular in Japan as many anime are very highly regarded and are particularly influential.

When I first started researching, I initially thought I would focus strictly on Western perceptions of anime and why our view of anime is the way it is and how it might have changed.  However I found the possibility of anime promoting an orientalist view of Japan to be much more interesting.

For starters, I should provide a definition for orientalism.  In its origin it meant imitation or depiction of Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures by Western artists and writers.  But for the last few decades it’s more commonly understood, thanks to Edward Said and his book Orientalism, as “a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian and North African societies.”  Through this lens the West views itself as superior to these societies.  In his book, Said says in his analysis that the “West essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced” (Said).  Within this idea is the distinction between the Orient (East) and the Occident (West).  Orientalism is evident in scholarly analyses of Eastern culture and appropriation of pieces of Eastern culture as commodities in our own culture.  We distance ourselves from true understanding by taking a pedestal perspective and viewing the other culture as just that, the Other.  Said also explains the Orient as a place of “romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes.”  We then take these values and place them together into our perception or picture of the Orient. 

It is through this lens that our orientalist perception of anime is developed.  This orientalist view of Japan as seen in anime also stems from here.  Anime adheres to orientalist expectations and portrays Japan in a similar way as described by Said.  This is a good example of something I found in my research known as self-orientalism (also referred to as auto-exoticism and reverse-Orientalism).  In my research I found self-orientalism defined as “the practice of adopting and absorbing Western hegemony to turn oneself into an Other” (Huisman).

Tons of anime are filled with dream-like drawings and storylines that portray whimsical worlds and offer an disillusioned view of real-life Japan.  This makes me wonder: could there be Japanese anime that focus on fantastical elements without being seen as self-orientalizing? Where does the difference lie between a genre and adhering to stereotypes and orientalist perceptions of one’s culture?

Japan as seen through this fantastical lens is almost fetishized in our (Western) perception and consumption.  Simply put: “the worlds we see in anime seem far more fantastical than those in the west and reinforce notions of Japan as a place of the exotic ‘Other’” (Illogical Zen).

When anime is viewed as this ‘other’, it becomes more like a spectacle than an art form or a medium meant for entertainment.  The creative intentions are lost and attention is placed on the outlandish elements of the anime.  A few good examples I found in my research are films such as Akira and Spirited Away.  The focus for Western audiences becomes the unusual creatures or extravagant adventures.  Both films are placed in Japan but things shift to the supernatural.  The plots no longer focus on life in the realm of reality, but instead the audience must accept the bizarre nature of what this new realm is like; meanwhile it’s still portrayed as “real” in the sense that it elicits reactions from the characters and exists on the same physical plane as them (or in the case of Akira, is a part of them). 

Some interesting terms in relation to Orientalism that I found while doing research had to do with internationalism in anime.  Since many anime are made for mass-market there becomes a need to appeal to international audiences.  Many anime do this through internationalization which is the incorporation of non-Japanese elements.  These elements are seen as ‘universal’ or ‘everywhere nowhere’ and are not attached to one specific race or culture.  Using this as a tactic to attract international audiences is called de-politicized internationalization.  I also read about Occidentalized-internationalization which referred to the moments, depictions or themes that evoke a nationalist sentiment.  The most prime examples of this I found were moments in anime that involved a Japanese character battling an American character.  This kind of internationalization is meant for a Japanese audience.  The last type I read about was self-orientalized internationalization.  Similar to self-orientalism, this is based on a desire to represent Japan as a Westernized country in the East.

Some of these aspects may be subject to censoring before it reaches the American audience.  This is yet another factor in the orientalist viewpoint of anime.  The final product received is already judged through the ‘Other’ lens but then it’s warped even further.

Another way Western perception of anime is skewed is through a loss in cultural translation when anime is adapted into another language.  Puns, historical references, obscure pop-culture references, idioms and so on are lost on the viewer because of cultural differences, translation itself, and sometimes censorship.  Without the relevant historical and socio-cultural knowledge the meanings and significance of anime could be and are often lost.

I found a few interesting examples of this in my research.  In Cowboy Bebop, there is an instance of perhaps censorship, perhaps mistranslation when one character insults another by calling them an otaku but the dub says something to the effect of “smelly nerd”.  In Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) the title includes a play on words having to do with Chihiro’s name and the characters it’s made up of.  Even the simple fact that the American audience doesn’t get the full title leaves something out.  In the adaptation of Ranma ½ for American audiences, apparently all of the poetry Kuno Tatewaki quotes is replaced with Shakespeare.  There are references to the Tokyo Olympics and student protests over the revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty in Akira.  These went unnoticed by me and probably many other viewers without a strong knowledge of Japanese history.  These translations and misinterpretations give the wrong impression and bring the audience out of the original cultural sphere.

Within this Western perception is the compulsion to compare anime to American animation rather than judging it by its own value.  Much of American influence may have played an important role in the prevalent orientalism in anime.  There are many reasons for this including purposeful internationalization or circumstantial due to what’s lost in translation between versions.  Due to a variety of factors anime has been complicit in orientalism throughout its history.




Sources

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"Does Anime Promote an Orientalist View of Japan: Or, a Case of 'lost in Cultural Translation'?       

- Part 2." Illogicalzen. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. .

History of Anime in the US Part 1." Right Stuf. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. .

Huisman, Martijn. "Orientalism and the Spectacle of the Other." (2011): 111. Erasmus School of

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Lu, A. S. "The Many Faces Of Internationalization In Japanese Anime."Animation 3.2 (2008):

169-87. Print.

Napier, Susan. "The Problem of Existence in Japanese Anime." Proceedings of the American

Philosophical Society 149.1 (2005): 8. Print.

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