CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: POPULAR CULTURE Anime |
| Nowhere in the world is popular culture more influential than in Japan. From Hello Kitty and Pokémon to anime (animation) and manga (comics), the culture of youth dominates Japanese media. In this video series, Harvard University professors Theodore Bestor and Helen Hardacre explain what Japanese popular culture reveals about the society’s history, religions, and national consciousness. |
Theodore Bestor :: There’s also anime — animation. Japanese animation is amongst the best in the world, most sophisticated. A lot of it is now available in the United States, has been released in other countries, ranging from animation for relatively small children — Pokémon cartoons, the Power Rangers television series a few years back — to much more sophisticated, much more serious popular culture, including the film — the full-length feature film — Battleship Yamato, and Akira, that deal with serious themes of popular culture, much the same way as Japanese novels deal with real-life issues, but in a more fantastic setting. |
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