Chloé - My Blog

Being interested in cinema implies most of the time some other interests in other form of arts and animation is the closest friend of movies. Instead of using real actors, animators use animated characters. The best animation ever seen stays in animes that comes from mangas in Japan. Known as comic in North America, mangas is the Japanese word that relates to comics created in Japan. This form of drawing began in 1950 and is now massively known around the globe. In 1960, mangas started to turn into animation or what the occidental fans calls ``anime`` for short. These mediums works in almost all genres and businesses: action-adventure, romance, sports, games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality. Since their apparition, mangas and animes had steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing and exporting industry, representing approximately 3.6 billion dollars in Japan in 2007. Mangas and animes have also gained a significant worldwide audience. In 2008, the American and Canadian manga/anime market was valued at 175 million dollars. These medium are now very accessible; you can read mangas and watch animes any time on the internet and this is the most important cause of the worldwide consciousness about these Japanese entertainment.

 At first glance, with the apparition of internet, it is much easier to get interested in mangas and animes. First, they are a fun and practical way to learn about the Japanese culture. It opens minds and helps people to be interested in other cultural events. But why does it help? Annie Manion, who wrote a master’s thesis for the East Asian Studies Center University of Southern California, has noticed this: ``The fact is that people who like anime, depending on their exposure to Japanese culture, tend to like many aspects of Japanese culture, from popular to traditional, as well, and develop at some point either the desire to learn Japanese or visit Japan.`` It is difficult to separate manga/anime interest from the Japanese culture because those medium tend to show the Japanese lifestyle or show historical facts and popular or traditional culture that is interesting for the viewers or readers.

On the other hand, the manga/anime community is very persuasive via internet. In the same thesis of Annie Manion, she says that the anime fan community operates in such a way that it encourages newcomers and fans to investigate and learn, which inevitably leads them back to Japan. Fans are generally welcoming and supportive of each other, which feeds the inherent curiosity and intellect of the average person likely to become interested in anime. In the anime community, unless one is interested in anime only in passing, one does not remain a newcomer for very long. The world of Japanese animation, it serves as a facilitator, encouraging and providing people with a means to explore and discover Japanese culture.

In conclusion, with internet, it is easy to get involved in a new cultural event like mangas and animes because it is difficult to separate manga/anime interest from the Japanese culture and the fans community is very welcoming. In fact, almost all other culture of the world can be discovered with internet. It is important to get the idea that internet is not only an entertainment, but a great searching tool.  

Mediagraphy:

MANION, Annie. ``Discovering Japan: Anime and Learning Japanese Culture``, [Online], http://www.chanpon.org/archive/manionthesis.pdf.

``Manga``, [Online], http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga, updated on 5 December 2011 at 06:54.

``Anime ``, [Online], http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime, updated on on 4 December 2011 at 04:58.