Forum - View topicNEWS: Wall Street Journal Criticizes Use of Anime to Promote Japan
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Anime is a medium. Every medium has its good, bad, and ugly titles. This is like saying "movies shouldn't be used for PR campaign because there are such-and-such pornographic films." |
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Xenofan 29A
 Posts: 378 |
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Unfortunately, very few outside of the fandom view anime as a separate medium from live-action film. Images are images, whether they're captured through a camera, or drawn and painted.
The problem with the article is that it paints the situation, along with anime and manga in general, in exceedingly broad strokes. The tone is clearly cynical, but without the deep analysis that excellent criticism requires. |
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leatherman
 Posts: 36 Location: Calgary Canada |
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And it's not like the US doesn't try and make itself look better in the eyes of the world either. Part of government is propaganda. You want people to focus on the good instead of the bad. It doesn't matter what country your talking about.
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W-General
Posts: 280 Location: Ithaca, NY, USA / Taichung, Taiwan |
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This article gives you an idea about the quality of students at Princeton and the sort of stuff they study.
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Xenofan 29A
Posts: 378 |
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Exactly. Propaganda is not necessarily a bad thing, either. It's a good thing, on the world scale, if a country attempts to present itself in a favorable light. If the propaganda is covering things up, they will likely be exposed anyway. The word just has negative connotations. |
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jsyxx
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Who gives a fudge what this chick thinks anyways?
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omnistry
 Posts: 1015 |
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This is what happens when Rupert Murdoch takes over $#!+.
Seriously, is this person retarded? Granted Japan just shouldn't use anime and manga to promote Japan (how about a li'l music thrown in for good measure); but to generalize anime as "sexual" is wrong. Where in Doraemon do you see acts of sexual nature? How about in "Detective Conan" (which the writer spelt wrong, BTW)? Granted there are some manga that is really ****ed up (remember "Rapeman" anyone?); but to put these h-titles in with the likes of "Naruto" and "Bo Bo-Bo" is just plain stupid. |
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leatherman
Posts: 36 Location: Calgary Canada |
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As an anime fan you should. The Wall Street Journal is a major publication, and this is giving a negative outlook on anime, sort of another, "Anime, isn't that Japanese porn?" to a lot of people. Parents reading this will be less likely to allow there young children to watch anime, Businessmen will be less likely to invest in the companies licensing anime and manga, and cable companies will be less likely to pick up a given anime series. Let's be honest, I'm describing a knee jerk reaction here, but that is what most people go off of without giving it further thought. And I don't know what we can do about it either. |
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Xenofan 29A
Posts: 378 |
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Likely very little, considering that we've been unceramoniously dumped with the Star Wars and Star Trek fans, and all as a group labeled as "a source of late-night television humor." So, if you attempt to show them who you are, they have an excuse to call you pathetic. 
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kokuryu
 Posts: 915 |
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More FUD from someone who is clueless...
As Japan tries to spread a medium that promotes peace and harmony among people, the WSJ tries to stir things up and create xenophobic racial hatred against the Japanese... Go figure - its the perfect mouthpeace for the Republicans... |
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Terrestrial_Cel
 Posts: 99 Location: SF Bay Area |
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Aren't these all porn? This is like judging Hollywood Film based on the porn produced in Los Angeles county. |
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Splitter
 Posts: 1276 Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door |
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This entire article feels a lot like a personal attack. Japan is aiming for youth but the reporter seems to have a problem with that. A bit strange, if you ask me, because in 10-20 years, it's the youth that are going to have the power.
Manga and anime is a celebrated form in many arthouses and is a constant staple of bookstores like B&N and Borders. The reporter is clearly insuing that only hardcore anime and manga fans are the only ones that this is focused at. She is saying that it's not aimed at normal people. She's saying it's aimed at pedophiles and weeaboos and the guy in the cardboard Gundam suit. If that's the case, why does manga frequently crack into the BookList Top 50? If that's the case, why do we have Naruto Nation, which has captured the hearts of every 12-year-old boy both physically and at heart? The reporter needs to step back from her own personal agenda. Japan is indeed a culture rich in heritage and studious about keeping up that image. What's so wrong with that? The strict upbringing of the Japanese is what keeps crime low and economy up. We in America have become lax about the upbringing of our youth. Corporal punishment is no longer allowed as an option to parents and is deemed as "child abuse". And we wonder why the majority of America's youth doesn't give a shit about elders, respect, and being a dependable person in this world. |
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render
Posts: 12 |
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I'm sure she's a good student, and Princeton has a lot of talented, smart people. I doubt she's clueless - I think she's just jumping the gun. People should wait and see what kind of campaign Japan will employ.
I agree with her, though, to an extent. I think Japan has the right idea in pimping what they've got, but they need to be careful about it. I'm sure they'll do it tastefully, but press like this certainly doesn't help make their audience (uhh, the world) terribly optimistic. Anime and manga a "medium that promotes peace and harmony among people"? A vast majority of anime series are nothing more than pretty shells with juicy "solve-conflicts-with-violence" insides. I think the problem is not the students at Princeton, but the Wall Street Journal's choice to give voice to someone who isn't going to present a well-rounded arguement in a publication that speaks to an audience that is generally culturally ignorant. Granted, I'm sure some people over at WSJ know that this kind of thing will cause a stir and/or resonate well with their readers' misconceptions of Japan/anime. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
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pat_payne
Posts: 179 |
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The author/misinformed person is not a reporter. She was an outside author writing an op-ed, which is explicitly meant to be an opinion piece, which means personal agendas can be pushed (so long as it's in an ethical manner). In theory, reporters are not supposed to let their own opinions into actual news stories (in practice, however... ...but they try to do it more subtly. As a J-student and sometime newspaper writer and a follower of the media, I know from whence I speak). In fact at some papers there is even a separation between the news staff and the opinion staff (parallelling the much more well-known "Chinese Wall" between advertising and editorial).
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