Is anime a high or low cultural medium, according to Susan Napier (2005) and what are some of its sub-genres?
According to Susan Napier (2005), anime is considered a popular and dominating culture in Japan, however, in America it is seen as a “sub” culture. Often, anime is seen as a type of low culture depending where you are in the world, but at its roots, anime is a popular cultural phenomenon that inspires from previous high cultural Japanese traditions. Traditions such as Kabuki, woodblock prints, and martial arts can be seen as significant influences on a range of genres found in anime, as well as insights from worldwide twentieth century cinema and photography. The complex issues and narratives in high culture literature are also explored in anime, while entertaining the audience with its provocative visuals, as well as provoking viewers on a range of real-life contemporary issues. For instance, the ecological issues that can be seen influenced in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke and much of his other work.
Akira is a key animated film that brought a new perspective to the culture of anime when it first appeared outside of Japan in 1990. During the time of its release in the west, animation was typically viewed as a minor art form, reserved for children or abstract art-house films, and Japanese animation was further marginalized in comparison. With the popularity of Akira, it spurred the culture of Japanese anime into the more mainstream field of entertainment, and anime became an important figure in the global cultural economy. Akira even became a top selling video in the year after it was released in the UK, while also heightening its popularity in other European countries as well. Furthermore, Japan has been known for many of its “high cultural” products like haiku poems, Zen, and martial arts, however, animated films and videos became a bigger product in the 1990’s and remains as a big export. Thus, propelling anime from being a topic of smaller subgroups to a bigger marginal niche audience in mainstream media.
Moreover, unlike cartoon animations in the west, which has a larger focus on an audience encompassing mostly children, anime in Japan has viewers that vary from both children, to college students, and young adults. Napier (2005) describes anime’s pop cultural phenomenon in Japan as cutting across “generational lines to be embraced by everyone.” With different anime’s catering to different age groups, it also appeals to different contemporary issues and visual factors in the form of sub-genres. Cyberpunk is a popular anime genre with works like Akira, and Ghost in the Shell. Another popular sub-genre is Shoujo anime, which is targeted at an audience for younger girls, and often has a young, female protagonist. As can be seen, anime as a medium holds many different visual elements of generic, thematic, philosophical and psychological components to create a distinct and aesthetic world.
References
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.
Pop Genres 2020 