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The fetishization of Japan and Japanese culture
So a few days back, my friend and I were in the manga section of a comics store when some guy interrupted us and tried to moonspeak with him. (My friend's Korean)
We exchanged confused glances and just stood there, in awkward silence. The dude was cosplaying as one of those characters from that ninja anime (I think it was called One Piece?) and he seemed more ignorant than genuinely out to provoke a reaction. My friend said what amounted to "what the fuck?" and he left in embarrassment without saying as much as a word.
(later we both found out that Korea has a really ugly history with Japan, but that wasn't in our minds then.)
So later my friend was playing Borderlands when he brought the topic up. He was less offended by the "all Asians are Japanese" sentiment expressed and more confused by the fetishization of Japanese culture in general. And that got me wondering the same thing. Why does Japan get so fetishized and idealized in Western culture and media?
Comments
The ninja anime is Naruto. One Piece is pirates. (One Piece is also way better)
I can't give an answer to your primary question, but as a One Piece fanboy I felt the need to clear things up. Not that One Piece fans are automatically any less annoying than Naruto fans, and in any case that guy was p. ignorant.
I'm sorry, I don't keep track of a lot of anime. The last one I remember really enjoying was Baccano. That was because it was Pulp Fiction meets Highlander, and thus was super Western.
The sad part is that he looked two or three years older than us. I assumed only 13-year-olds did this shit.
For pretty much the same reasons England and the US are: Its media and culture are massively widespread to the point that you can be relatively aware of them without necessarily being interested on them. Which leads to more and more people becoming interested on them.
All of that plus, you know, grass is greener and all that.
Isn't this kind of true regarding every country about every other country. I mean, we all know Russia is filled with fur-hat wearing soviets and that Mexico is filled with drug dealing taco server who large hats. and America is filled with quasi-retarded nationalists who gorge themselves on the Mac-donalds and listen to them Redneck Car chase radios.
/shrug
Sorry, I saw a hat theme
Yes Ica, they wear cowboy hats.
Cowboy hats, probably.
^ dammit, ninja of unknown (to me) nationality
Also, I feel like I should bring up this interview with Hideaki Anno:
Relevant?
I'm not sure Anno is the best person to take descriptions of the human condition from.
Probably not. But I'm a little amused at his seething hatred there.
(okay, maybe"amused" is not quite the correct word)
To be fair, I suspect no one is exactly qualified to describe the human condition.
Except maybe Psychologist Ambassadors perhaps.
Or the Doctor.
@ OP: Sounds like just a case of small reference pools that's gotten out of hand -- that is, thinking that anyone with black hair, east-Asian facial features, and light skin is Japanese, and forgetting the several other nationalities that fit those characteristics because derp.
Assuming this is the case (which I'm not sure of), I'll bet it's in part because Japan has been on the cultural radar of western-European-and-English-speaking countries for a lot longer than some other places. In the late 1800s, Japan decided to open up trade with a bunch of western countries, while the regional heavyweight China decided to remain mainly isolationist, I think. Korea I am not sure about, but the only other notable places in Asia from a western history perspective are the places that got colonized, such as the Philippines, India, Hong Kong, etc., and those are probably less prominent since they were treated more as culture sinks in the process of colonization than a culture source as Japan retained its independence as a trading partner.
Funny you should mention this, because I've been taking note of my anime tastes, and it seems I actually kinda prefer ones that aren't very "specifically Japanese" -- for example, relatively culture-neutral or just modern-day ones or futuristic sci-fi series, as opposed to ones that have lots to do with Japanese history or even things like the quirks of the Japanese school system.
i'm not sure to take at face value or trolls gonna troll
The thing that annoys me about the Japan obsession is that they very rarely actually interested in Japan but rather this insane, entirely fictional version of it that exists only in Naruto, DragonBall and Avatar.
Personally, I have major issues with certain aspects of Japan which I wont go into, but really it's just another country with it's flaws and quirks.
Naruto and DragonBall aren't in or about Japan, either.
Naruto is more of a highly fictionalized historical-Japan-like setting.
Well it's a Japan-like setting in the way that Fullmetal Alchemist has a Europe-like setting.
Naruto and Dragonball are at least recognizably culturally Japanese.
Despite the setting and a few staples of the animation, Avatar is really, really Western. Like, if you stabbed it, it would bleed West. Not blood going West -- it would bleed the abstract direction West. It's about as oriental as Rush Hour 2.
In this thread:
Totally missing the point.
My point was that these people's entire perception of Japan were from things that look a bit Asian. Thought that was fairly obvious.
But that's not really true, especially when your examples are serious which are inspired by Asia as of centuries ago. People don't think "I want to learn Japanese and live in Japan because it's like living in Naruto". People think "I want to learn Japanese and move to Japan because everyone is polite and honourable and they all watch Naruto". Yes, they're interested in a fictional version of Japan, but it's not one that they're getting from watching anime, it's one constructed from the general Western stereotypes about Japan.
Well to be fair, Japan in general has ugly recent histories with much of Asia because of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere not too long ago, my country included.
Who else is Asian around here?
If you mean actually from Asia, just Kraken and NHS that I know of.
If you just mean of Asian descent, idk lol.
And yes, Japan has a pretty ugly history with several issues, such as...let's just say they did some really, really bad things in the lead-up to World War II, especially in places like China, which saw the massacres at Nanking, among other things.
And then, more recently, historical revisionism, in the form of not mentioning these things in history textbooks.
I know Germany had the Nuremberg Trials and then banned the Nazi party after WWII. I wonder how Italy dealt with their shameful pasts in WWII...
Back on this topic, a number of anime fans are well aware of these issues, as well as more current ones involving topics like economic activity, depression, sexuality, gender roles, and more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihonjinron
>implying Japan doesn't snowflake itself far harder than any weeaboo ever could