Japanese Animes Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay

Living in today’s world under the influence of globalization, different cultures are converging by incredible speed in diverse ways. America has been a major influenced for other countries in the world mainly derives from the music, movies, food, general attitudes and values. It is presentably that many countries are inspired by American way of life. But on the other hand, as the biggest country of immigrants, America is also the affected country of integrated cultures. If you demonstrate this culture integration, Japanese culture is undoubtedly taking an important position. Among all of the culture forms Japan brought to America, Japanese anime is probably the one people get most familiar with since early age and growing up with into adulthood. Anime is so heavily influenced American popular culture that it now became one indispensable part of it. The word “anime” has two different meanings, one which is meant as the Japanese version of animation. The other is animated manga comics. Anime movement has become the heart of the pop culture American acceptance of Japan. In this paper, I will introduce a brief history of Japanese anime and its development in America, its recognition among American audience and how it succeed by embracing existing and setting up new “American values”.

The history of anime began at the beginning of 20th century: during World War II, Japanese artists and animations were inspired by the work of Walt Disney and deeply influenced by the animation techniques imported from the West. It went further to separating itself from Western roots and developed distinct genres during the 60s and 70s: in the 1960s, Tezuka became the most famous manga artist and credited inventor of Japan’s modern manga industry. Thanks to Tezuka’s work, the genres and stories in Japanese animation have became more various, creative and universal than they had ever been before (Gillespie, par.2). And with the success of comics or “manga”, the popularity of animation was soon followed when television and movies were invented. Since then, anime was accepted in the mainstream in Japan and experienced its first boom in production. Overseas, Japan began to share some of its anime industry with the West as early as the end of World War II. For America, the first significant exposure of Japanese animation was Tezuka’s famous work: Astro Boy. With the instant success of Astroboy’s expressive character and fast-paced animation, the door opened for other Japanese animations to filter across the international borders. Just after the debut of Astroboy in 1964, NBC introduced another Japanese series named “Speed Racer” and it began to gain popularity on American shores.

However, despite success of Astroboy and Speed Racer, anime was still viewed as kiddie fare in U.S back then (Larabee, par.11). The misconception of anime being simply a form of cartoon targeted at the