Is it a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)?
“Anime is a popular cultural form that clearly builds on previous high culture traditions.” Napier (2005, p. 4).
So this pretty much sums up the fact that Napier regards Anime to be constructed from high culture values and ideas. It’s interesting to note how popular Anime has become within the Western Society. As we know, Anime can be seen as a popular Japanese art form, which is being brought to life in movie theatres around the world and not only just in Asian countries or Japan.
I believe it is fair to say that in regards to its ever increasing popularity around the globe, that Anime can be defined as high culture. The fact that it also shows “influences from Japanese traditional arts such as Kabuki and woodblock print but it also makes use of worldwide artistic century cinema and photograph,” according to Napier (2005, p. 4), should give it some sort of recognisable status within the high culture genre. Anime is not only a form of entertainment but just like Herge’s work, it highlights issues within today’s society such as “technological development, gender identity and relations between the sexes, and the problematic role of history in contemporary culture.” Napier (2005, p. 10). Anime has depth to it and it is not only a wonderful work of art, but it holds meaning and values, leaving the audience not only entertained by also allowing them to think about arising issues and questioning such things as “the shifting nature of identity in a constantly changing society.” Napier (2005, p. 12).
Anime is a perfect medium to make us think and for us to feel challenged about issues concerning today’s society and our values. It therefore, is most definitely not just aimed at children as many people think. If it was just aimed at children and held no in depth meaning to it I would be lead to believe that it was a form of low culture media. However this is not the case! As I mentioned earlier it depicts “powerful resonance with contemporary society and culture” ideas and issues, Napier (2005, p. 12). So it is therefore and should be highly regarded as a ‘high culture’ genre as it digs deeper into morals and traditions, unlike just mainstream children’s cartoons.
Is anime a genre or a media?
To be honest I didn’t actually know that there was a distinct difference between the two. After briefly doing a quick dictionary search I see otherwise.
Media, being “tools used to store and deliver information or data” and genre being simply “the term for any category of literature as well as various other forms of art or culture e.g. music, based on some loose set of stylistic criteria”, Random House Dictionary (2007), I can now confidently say that Anime is most certainly a genre!
Anime, like I discussed earlier holds not only entertainment values but also social and traditional values. Therefore it cannot just be a media. It holds more depth than just a tool used to deliver information.
In saying this, Anime was not always noted to be an “important part of the Japanese popular culture industry”. Napier (2005, p. 16). It had to work its way up to earn the title as a ‘genre’ as such. With Western films having appeared in Japan since 1909, “Japanese animators began to create their own work by 1915, and animation as a commercial art form really got started in the postwar period”. Napier (2005, p. 16).
Anime initially was a form of entertainment and it wasn’t “for a long time [that] it was clear that opportunities for the new and original were far more likely to be found.” Napier (2005, p. 17). New ideas and cultural heritage became evident throughout the work and with more and more scholars beginning to analyze Anime has it become evident what is really held in amongst the Japanese works.
Clearly through these findings, Anime has become a piece of art with much more meaning being established behind it. It is fair to say then, that Anime is a genre.
Reference List
Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.
Great responses again Nic - showing an excellent engagement with the theoretical texts. Some points to consider - in our 'postmodern' age - is there still a distinction between high and low cultural forms - remembering that 'high culture' was something determined and maintained by groups from a particular economic status and geographic position (white /upper-middle class /European/ wealthy / male?). As to your second response- I actually removed this question from the online page (but forgot to remove it from the reader) because I don't believe that this is really a valid question (I didn't write it). Anime is a genre as you suggest - but I'm not so sure if being a genre prevents it from being a media. I'm not so sure if we can actually make such a distinction.
ReplyDeleteYea, when I read Kelsey's response she didn't distinguish the two and said it could be classifies as both and I guess I never really looked at it like that. But it is a very valid point. It was only in my opinion that I believed it to be considered more of a genre than a media but I guess that it is a very hard distinction to make. Nowaday's it probably isn't as relevant as 'back in the day' referring to your point on 'high culture, low culture' forms. It was probably more relevant when there was this whole prejudice going on against certian colours...
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