While I was lurking around the Internet, a particular post at the Project iM@S forums has caught my attention since it has a close relation to the Anime Fandom besides just Japanese games.
It’s a known fact that most Anime features a lot of cute and pretty girls, possibly more than the amount of male characters. The trend of moè characters has gained popularity in the second half of the 2000s. Eventually, this has caused some harsh criticism from some fans, which I have explained in a prior editorial, so I won’t go into too much detail about that. However, I feel that a cultural difference is the reason why some feel this way.
Since I’m Asian myself, I tend to favor Asian cultures such as Chinese and Japanese ones more favorably than the western cultures. Because of this reason, I have lost interest in most western pop culture because most movies that gets shown today has a lot of violence, crime, stuff getting blown up, etc. From this, I feel that the West has some obsession over violence as shown with the so called “manly” shooting games like Grand Theft Auto 4 and the numerous rehashes of Call of Duty flying off store shelves opposed to the other games that don’t feature this element whatsoever. For me, I just don’t see any fun in shooting people in a video game and would rather play a different game.
In comparison, the stories in Asian shows/movies are drastically different, although they still have shows with violence and action. The only difference is that it doesn’t overshadow everything in sight. Also, there is a popularity of cuteness, which is prevalent in Japan and has spread to other Asian countries. As a result, you might see more female characters in proportion to males with some shows having an all female cast and these shows are largely popular. At the same time, it has received harsh criticism from a certain section of the fandom in the West for being “mindless entertainment” even though it has the potential of becoming good. Just because the show has cute girls doesn’t mean it’s automatically bad. One has to look deeper and see that this is not the case at all. For instance, Fate/zero had some pretty women and young girls along with an interesting story. In another example, Madoka Magica has four girls and a cute magical girl mascot. However, the story developed into a deconstruction of the magical girl genre filled with drama and despair. Even so, I still see a reason why people react this way.
I can see why some people feel this way mostly because the cultures from the West and the East are different. In the past, there was Anime that has matched what western Anime fans liked in the 90s and early 2000s. This has changed in the second half of the 2000s, which some starting to hate the new trend with a few going so far to berate fans that enjoy these kinds of shows and other forms of media online or real life. People have to realize that Anime is intended for the Japanese audience. Therefore, beggars cannot be choosers. Moreover, I don’t see anything wrong in liking these types of anime. Watching a show that has a lot of cute girls is not any worse than playing a shooting game on a game console. It’s not harming anyone. I think that this is only coming from the ignorance and elitism in the fandom and not everyone is like this.
In conclusion, I felt that the dissimilarities of the cultures is one of the contributing factors on why some fans hate or even go so far to bash it without any fair reasons in backing their argument up. Since the western pop culture places a lot of emphasis on violence, some fans expect the same in Anime, which is an unfair assumption. At the end of the day, the story matters more than cute girls or violence and has a potential of becoming good. For that, fans should just enjoy the show and don’t worry about it.
I really, really think you hit on a very important point. We in the west are consuming an eastern media through our western goggles. We apply our culture’s prejudices, preferences, and analysis to it. Unless one considers certain aspects to apply universally, it’s probably better for westerners to say that they prefer or dislike certain elements, instead of judging certain elements as good or bad.
Another interesting note is your mention of your background. I also have Asian ethnicity – I wonder if our backgrounds color our view of anime more than a fan without that background.
I think most people fail that that and it’s very apparent in the live action adaptations of Japanese Anime done in the US with the whitewashing of Asian media. Instead of setting the story in Japan and using Japanese Actors, they use white actors that don’t necessary fit the role and set the movie in New York as shown with Warner Brothers doing an adaption of Akira.
Still, I think fans should stop applying culture prejudices and take things with an open mind. Otherwise, they are better off watching American cartoons and movies that align closely to their tastes if it bothers them that much.
Very well put chikorita157 … are you going to copy paste the thing into the project-iM@S forum?
And when can we start that thread about the decline of western gaming? XD
I was busy, but I mentioned this post last night on the forums… but then again, it seems that I’m enjoying more of the Asian games and media nowadays opposed to western pop culture… Too much emphasis on violence, shooting and killing people got me turned off completely to the Japanese games.
However, I won’t be covering decline of western gaming on this blog since it’s not related to Anime. Probably as a post on my side blog, but we’ll see.
As far as I’m concerned, I have a simple “adapt” kind of mentality. I have absolutely no problem with anime being dominated by females, both moe and badass kinds…and those with peanut sized brains in harems.
In any case, I don’t care that men take a back seat in anime. If I want to see a show where men are portrayed as awesome, I’d just watch a shounen, sports or the annual most popular anime like Steins;Gate. After all, Macho Nichijou said it best in one of their sketches: “Anime men are only good at fighting and sports”.
Meh, most Western anime fans obsess over violent, action packed shows. I do pick up an FPS once in a while as long as it isn’t a military shooter. I like my shooters to be over the top and weird. Other than that, I’d rather play Atelier Totori, Neptunia Mk 2 or Ni no Kuni (When it comes out in the West) over the latest installment of Battlefield, Call of Duty, Red Faction or any other shooter.
Anyway, different cultures have different tastes but let’s not push our own traits as being superior over the other. Each side has their own cons in their entertainment media.
Sturgeon’s Law is always true with harem Anime, which is why I tend to avoid most of them along with the countless ecchi anime unless they have a really good story. But still, it seems that most of the males in those stories come off somewhat lame, but there are some really interesting ones out there (as seen in Fate/zero for instance). But then again, my preference for shows tends to be biased for mostly female casts, so…
Also, I’m not much of a fan for violence. I like the calmer story lines presented in Japanese RPGs and such, which is one of the reasons I like Pokemon and enjoy playing Final Fantasy (except XIII since it’s too linear) and others. However, I do like other genres as well. But still, cultures have different tastes, but we need an open minded approach to them… not x is superior to y and berating people who likes things from a different culture.
I would imagine that most (no doubt ill-informed) negative views of anime from Western observers would revolve around the fanservice elements, or the idea that it’s all just for kids, or perverts, or giant-robot-fanboys. However, most (or at least a vast amount of) Western TV shows, films and games are no doubt chock full of stereotypical elements (e.g. the Hollywood Rom-Com, or the English soap opera, etc.) of their own. You point out that it boils down to cultural difference and that fans should enjoy it regardless, which is probably a sound observation and advice, but it might also be worth adding that occasionally the more specific criticisms might be worth considering on some level, as keeping a critical eye open should enhance rather than get in the way of enjoying something that is mainly just a bit of entertainment/ something enjoyable with which to pass the time.
You have a good point since this is also true in Japan. People tend to look down heavily on Otakus because of their interests and the negative connotations behind it. Still, I think the west have a double standard when it comes to comparing Anime and Western Shows. They tend to write most Anime because of the fanservice and emphasis on cute girls… on the flip side, Western stuff is just as bad with the stuff you mention along with the obsession of violence, sex, drugs, partying and such. If you turn on the radio, you hear this stuff in music, which is one of the reasons why I don’t like western pop music anymore.
Aside from that I agree with you that it depends mostly on the person on what they make out of the culture they aren’t familiar with. Although Japanese culture holds a few similarities to my own (aside the fact that Chinese characters are used a lot), appreciating a culture is a good thing, even though we don’t necessarily agree with it.