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Japanese comics aren't just kid stuff Date: 3/7/2005 |
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The story of Japanese comics' and animes' increasing popularity in America, makes me happy, because it means a number of teens here can share my memories of teenage days. It's like getting new friends here, where I started a new life a month ago. I'm a Japanese intern working for The Daily News this year. In Germany, visiting there in 2002, I saw two well-known Japanese animes on TV while in a hotel. That also made me smile, even though most German kids might not know that the cartoons were made in Japan. Today, in Japan those comics and anime have established a position as a kind of popular culture due to the work of many great creators over the past three decades. We have many weekly and monthly comics, and hobby shops selling popular characters items. Even karaoke has a special category for anime songs. I suppose most of the generation born in Japan during the 1960s and ?70s used to be absorbed by these comics and TV anime. I wasn't an exception. I bet even Mariners outfielder lchiro (I'm the same age as he is) has favorite ones. When I was a sports reporter in Japan, I often heard professional athletes say they were motivated by sports anime characters. These comics and anime have existed for at least 50 years, but they got to be especially popular in the late ?60s. Fortunately, from the early ?70s into the ?80s, we had many talented TV anime creators like Hayao Miyazaki, who won an Academy award for the animated film "Spirited Away" in 2002. Although he now concentrates only on filmwork for the cinema, back then we could see the excellent work of Miyazaki and other artists every week. We used to dash home from school just to be in time to see them. I had to see them behind my mother's back, howevever, especially when I was reading comics. She didn't allow me and my brother to see them, because the majority of adults at that time regarded the anime TV and comic books as lowbrow. Contrary to my mom's expectation, I learned lots of practical truth from those stories, such as how to fix the trouble with a best friend, how to skip school, even some knowledge about sex -- questions Japanese teens of my generation never could ask our parents. I believe the biggest reasons Japanese comics and animes are accepted by foreign countries is because they deal with universal subjects -- things not only unique to Japanese but common to all people, such as friendship, a love affair, the bond of family. However, there are so many comics to chose from, it can be difficult to choose a good one. In fact some are very controversial for excessive expression of violence or sexual content. If you hit a masterpiece, I guarantee you will get the same pleasure as when you are reading an excellent novel. My favorite anime film is Leiji Matsumoto's 1979 work "Galaxy Express 999". In this is sci-fi adventure story, the main characaters bond through hardships together. By the end, their bond has changed to love. When I first saw it, I was just 10 or 11 years old. Then I was just intoxicated by its fantastic world. But last year I saw it again by chance on TV, and I was surprised to learn it was a love story. I was so touched by finding out the depth of the story. It has various metaphors of their affection which I hadn't noticed before. I realized that it's hard for children to understand the real meaning of this story. But of course they can still enjoy it. Now I'm seriously thinking of buying "Galaxy Express 999" for my niece, for the purpose of talking with her about the same universal problems someday. However she is still just 1 year old! Keiko Nishiguchi, 31, will be working as a design desk intern at The Daily News until next fall. She can be reached at Keiko.Nishiguchi@tdn.com |
| Source: The Daily News |
