The Globalization of Anime Essay -- The Merging of Cultures

Anime is an art form as it expresses cultural phenomena about Japan and its people. Like most other countries, cartoon has existed in Japan throughout the 20th century and onward, which began with traditional drawings and comics that dealt with political, social, and historical themes. However, what separates anime from the rest is that the anime included a huge portion of Japanese culture within it. In every series that aired, they include special holidays like Natsu Matsuri—summer festival, tea ceremony, traditional clothing such as kimono, etc. One could, from watching anime, notice the characters’ behavior are different and food and customs are different from American or western cartoon. Strangely, these differences in the anime, eastern media features, appeared in the philosophy of Confucius. Confucianism has played an important role in creating and maintaining the social values and order such as forgiveness, manner, respect, loyalty, and honesty since the sixth century. While Japanese society has become so much different since the early postwar era, these same principles are still highly valued as they are in some other forms. Recent shà ´nen anime, anime for pre-teen and teen-age boys like Naruto and Bleach, is hooking their viewer with interesting storylines and action scenes while Confucian values spread. As this culture value mixed in, anime became interesting and seem to attract a wider audience every day because of its ability to make its audiences to see themselves in the show. The success of anime began with the famous Japanese artist Osamu Tezuka, one of the founding fathers of Japanese anime and manga. In the 1960s, Tezuka became a famous manga artist and was given the credit of creating Japan's modern anime i... ...r. Ed. Frank J. Lechner and John Boli. 4th ed. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 88-94. Print. Focus on the idea of both the global and the local are affecting the world at the same time while globalization process keep spreading. Sen, Amartya. "How to Judge Globalism." The Globalization Reader. Ed. Frank J. Lechner and John Boli. 4th ed. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. 17-21. Print. Analyze more a better way to understand what actually globalization is while making a point that globalization is also beneficial to the whole world. Wang, Georgette and Yeh, Emilie Yueh-yu. Globalization and Hybridization in Cultural Production: A Tale of Two Films. Hong Kong: David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies, 2005. LEWI Working Paper Series no 36. Illustrate the processes of hybridization, and the conclusion on the debate on the globalization of culture.