Want connectivity, want the content too
■"Kung Fu Fightin' Anime Stars, Born in the U.S.A.: The creators of 6-year-old boys' favorite cartoon figures aren't actually Asian. But, they say, they have tried yoga," by Mark Lasswell, New York Times, 28 August 2005, p. AR19.
It always used to confound me why the lead characters in Japanese anime cartoons had Western features. I thought, do these people hate themselves?
The real answer warms the heart of any capitalist: the Japanese animators give the characters American looks to improve their marketability here—simple as that.
Japanese content export to the U.S. in this venue is so profound, that now the same content is simply being produced here, by Americans. That's like the Honda plant in Ohio that builds my Odyssey: at some point the exporting becomes in-sourcing and jobs are jobs.
Makes perfect sense to this dad. My daughter draws anime, my son reads manga, and my youngest kids prefer anime movies to Disney ones (although, one notes, Disney distributes Miyazaki films here in the U.S.).
Isn't it amazing that no one in America calls this "cultural imperialism"?
Not at all. America is the ultimate globalized culture—synthetic to the core.
Plus, the Japanese are simply smoother at it.
Just wait til the Chinese version starts a' coming . . .