I'm Worried about Japan
Categories: Entertainment , Graphic Novels , Travel
Not only is North Korea lobbing missiles in its direction, but also what's going to happen when the billions of American anime and manga fans complete their East Asian Studies degrees and move there. Can the small rather racially homogenous island nation assimilate these new potential citizens?
I am an expert because I spent ten hours with my daughter last week at Ikasucon and also because I read Wrong About Japan, by novelist Peter Carey. Like my daughter, Peter Carey's 12-year-old son Charley is Otaku and plans eventually to move to Japan, but Carey has Japanese connections that help him meet and interview publishers of manga and other involved people on their Tokyo trip. Carey never really gets it.
His assumptions that the Japanese characters in manga and anime are differentiated by social class, and that manga and anime have evolved from the Japanese experience in World War II are constantly denied by the people whom he interviews. Charley and his online Japanese friend Takashi get it, and soon it's Charley, not his father, who's navigating the subways and as much as possible managing the itinerary.
Charley gets to meet artists Tomino and Miyazaki and perhaps correctly connects Takashi's anger, near the end of the trip, to the Miyazaki visit, because Takashi believes that to meet Miyazaki is to be disloyal to Tomino. One of the final scenes involves commentary on Miyazaki's popular and accessible movie My Neighbor Totoro, with a friend of Carey's playing the movie very slowly and pointing out small details Westerners are not likely to appreciate.
If you don't have Japanese connections, you can take your children on a package tour called Hello Kiddies that should temporarily satisfy their lust for anime. Remember to order your tickets to the Ghibli Museum months in advance.
Remember too that not all anime is as innoccuous as Fruits Basket. There can be a lot of violence and sex. I'm Number 20 on the waiting list for Gravitation, and I must say I find the plot description surprising for a book marketed to teens. Also, the cosplay at the con was pretty risque.
When I got home from the con, I downloaded the Romanian "Numa Numa" song that seems to have been appropriated by fans.
