Japanese Cartoons as a Cultural Product Essay example

As a young boy, nothing appealed to me more than Saturday cartoons. The feeling of waking up every morning feeling excited to see what this week’s episode might bring to the table. Every individual show had its own way to express itself whether it be the action, animations/art style, or even the morals it tries to projects to the viewer. Every one of these shows gave me ideas on how to expand my imagination and not to be ashamed of embracing such characteristic. Then, this one particular Saturday morning, I got up and switched on the television to be introduced to a new fictional show that I’ve never seen before. From that day forward, because of that one fictional character, I fell in love with the television series called Dragonball.

“You see, the discussion surrounding appropriation takes on so many more layers than most think-piece authors care to engage with-layers that desperately need to be brought to the discussion”(Jaikaran, Elizabeth). “Movements that advocate the equality between races, religions, and cultures are extremely prominent in our modern-day society”(Cohen, Amanda). Cultural appropriation in pop culture allows for cultures to be spread and ultimately accepted by a wide variety of people.  Once an audience sees someone they follow do something,  they will likely accept it and try the same things; people in the media pave the way for everyone else and can start a movement.  Putting cultures in separate groups and not allowing for certain styles to be used by others is the root of discrimination of cultures. The main influencers in pop culture have been knocking down these separations and preaching the idea of mixing cultural styles into every aspect of life.  Pop culture has some of the most influence on society and the example that it sets for people to follow is needed

Introduction: As long as there have been civilizations, there have been stories, myths that are told to children. These stories are usually the basis of the cartoons characters except some which are from creator’s imagination. This story telling is a means of not only comforting and amusing a child, but of teaching the child the societal norms of their nation. These are memorized by children and remembered forever. Children idolize their favourite character, the character they have most in common with and are best able to identify with, and try to emulate that character’s

In the first chapter of The Rhetorical Power of Pop Culture by Deanna Sellnow, the author defines popular culture and explains the importance of studying the subject. Sellnow begins with a short explanation of ethics to convey that the influence popular culture has is not always used ethically. Secondly, Sellnow compares the different contexts of culture, elitist and diversity, to explain what popular culture is not. Popular culture is compiled of everyday things that influence people through subtle messages such as what is appropriate and inappropriate, good and bad, and so on.

Cartoons have been use for many years and its modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or mock different things. John Backderf, known as Derf, is a famous and recognized cartoonist “who works out of an unheated, attic studio in his Cleveland home, grew up in a rural, small town in Ohio and went to high school with serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer” (“Bio”). He drew a cartoon in 1995 in which he presents an implicit theory about how and why things evolve to be “cool”. This paper will elaborate on explaining what Derf’s theory actually is, an interpretation of the meaning presented in the cartoon, and a fad or style that follows Derf’s theory.

Sitting on a bench in front of a popular franchise, the woman in the cartoon can’t help but feel discouragement and disbelief. In today's reality the difference between what's sexy and what's not, not only gives the mother a feeling of not being good enough but also effects how the mother chooses to feed her child. The use of pathos, ethos, and logos as well as the vivid imagery used a double standard today to determine that exposing breasts are okay if it is in a sexual way.

During the late nineteenth century, the United States and Japan joined European nations to become an imperial power. Their ultimate goal was to influence other areas around the world for their own benefit, interest, and advancement. Countries become imperialistic for various reasons such as economics (secure markets), military power (excessive force and control), and political reasons (nationalism). In order to extend their power, they used these three main components to their advantage essentially to imperialize as many nations as possible. Morality was used to justify or excuse the actions and behaviors of imperialists. The process was certainly not tranquil nor was it approved of by all Americans. As a result, a debate of those who were in favor compared to those who were against it, led to the display of cartoons and poems that helped to illustrate the debate of imperialism.

During the late nineteenth century, the United States and Japan joined European nations to become an imperial power. Their ultimate goal was to influence other areas around the world for their own benefit, interest, and advancement. Countries become imperialistic for various reasons such as economics (secure markets), military power (excessive force and control), and political reasons (nationalism). In order to extend their power, they used these three main components to their advantage essentially to imperialize as many nations as possible. Morality was used to justify or excuse the actions and behaviors of imperialists. The process was certainly not tranquil nor was it approved of by all Americans. As a result, a debate of those who were in favor compared to those who were against it, led to the display of cartoons and poems that helped to illustrate the debate of imperialism.

There are many different ways to tell a story, but which way is the best? As mentioned by Scott McCloud, young kids read books with many pictures, and as they develop into adults, they read books with less and less pictures, but is this the best way to read stories? There is a better method to read a story, and that method is through comics. In McCloud 's graphic essay "Show and Tell," McCloud proves that through the use of both writing and illustrations in comics, comics are the best form of literature to convey a story. By proving this, McCloud demonstrates how visual representation is very important while conveying a message, as it provides a bigger range of emotion and expression. As humans, we like creativity and emotions and thus, visual representation in communication is important in our society.

Fiction has been around for centuries, feeding the imagination of young and older minds. Usually when people read a fictional story, they don’t think about the connotation the story tries to convey. But every story has a message, and whether it be big or small, it takes a complex, deeper thinking to be able to find that message. It is apparent that the reason we study fiction is to be able to find that deeper thinking within ourselves and enrich our imagination.

Every comic has a unique style that makes the comic to stand out to readers. A comic’s style is made up different pieces that come together and give the comic the uniqueness that the readers fall in love with. Comic writers have to decide what type of framing style, transitions, emanata, layout and cartooning style they need to have in their comic to fit the story. Ella Cinders by Bill Conselman and Charlie Plumb has a very interesting narrative and cartooning style that fits well with the story the comic portrays. Throughout this paper I am going to explore the narrative and cartooning styles in Ella Cinders to understand why the styles were chosen and how they enhance the story.

The Japanese literary genre known as the kibyōshi was considered to be mostly a comic book for children. However, after reading some Kibyoshi in depth, one realizes the Kibyoshi can be filled with deeper significance than just the surface meaning. Kibyoshi are filled with content that require a certain level of sophistication and general knowledge that may be above the average level of children. The Kibyoshi became a medium for sociopolitical satire, Edo-centrism and commodification, which are apparent in subtle hints within the visual-verbal narrative. Similarly, many Kibyoshi often incorporate different types of Shuko, such as naimaze, fukiyose and mitate, focusing on common folktales, current events or previous

             Japan, that strange and exotic land in the east, has a complex and interesting history that has shaped and molded its culture into a very unique society today.  Of course their customs have influenced their entertainment, especially television and movies.  In a day and age where information is free to all through the internet and reliable postal systems these television shows, movies, toys, and comics have made their way all over the world.  The reception of

As Japanese economy soared, its media products such as manga, TV shows, movies and music spread out across Asia. Especially, the young people in Asia began to embrace Japanese culture rather than the culture from the most dominant culture exporter- the United State, and this phenomenon was analyzed by Koichi Iwabuchi in his Feel Asian Modernities. His account of this intra-regionalization in Asia is cultural proximity that Japanese culture shares intimate similarities with other Asian countries and appeal to the audience to perceive this cultural flow.[ Iwabuchi, K(2004), Introduction: Cultural globalization and Asian media connections. Feeling Asian Modernities, pp 12.] In this way, American

“For most of the twentieth century, [popular culture] has been denigrated by intellectuals of all ideological stripes as either meaningless escapism or a dangerous narcotic” (Cullen 2). Popular culture is a form of escapism; however, I would argue against those intellectuals calling it meaningless, because, as we have also learned from Cullen, the elites will reject new forms of popular culture. Returning to escapism, an example we have seen is in comic books. Adolescent boys would turn to comics as a source of escapism. For example, lower-class second-generation Jewish immigrants, searching for their place to fit in society, created Superman. Their comics appealed to young boys, in a post-Depression era, with