Anime is more culturally revered in Japan than it is in most Western countries such as the USA. As mentioned by Napier (2006) "unlike cartoons in the West, anime in Japan truly is a mainstream pop cultural phenomenon." Princess Mononoke still remains to this day as Japan's highest grossing Japan made film ever. The highest grossing film animated film in Hollywood right now is Toy Story 3 according to figures from Box Office Mojo (2012). Although this is a respectable achievement, it lags behind at 11th place. Some of the other films that surpass it include two Star Wars films and in the top spot remains James Cameron's Avatar. In terms of real Anime, Pokemon: The First Movie burst into American screens in 1999 for a total USA gross of "$85,744,662" (Wright, 2008). This is a respectable amount of money earned at the Box Office but this number pales in comparison to Toy Story 3's USA of over $400 million.
Hayao Miyazaki remains as Japan's most popular directors as his films are critically and commercially acclaimed to the Japanese audience. "Miyazaki is as popular as Steven Spielberg and J.K Rowling are in the West, his name has not quite yet entered every Western household." (Cavallaro, 2006). One of the reasons why Miyazaki's films are so popular is because his film's challenge the normal morals and stereotypes that are often seen in other movies.
In Princess Mononoke for example, the story challenges the morality of all of the characters and there is no clear cut "good" or "bad" person in the movie for the audience to distinguish. Environmentalists might easily label Lady Eboshi as the "bad guy" because she tears down the forest in search for more iron to use for her town. On the flipside of this, she's not entirely bad because she uses the iron to help run her town. Without the town, the girls would have to go back to the city to work as hookers while the lepers would just be left to die. The same can be said about the Animal Gods and Princess Mononoke. Others may think they should let the humans dig for iron, while others think it's wrong to kill and destroy the forest. It's for these reason I feel Princess Mononoke was so successful in Japan because the story wasn't as simple as Western animated cartoons. It has a story that can appeal to anyone from any age.
That's not to say that anime isn't popular in Western countries, although it hasn't reached the mainstream popularity that it has over in Japan. It wasn't until the late '90s did America and other Western countries experience an Anime boom. Pokemon toys were even given at KFC restaurants "(a product tie-in with the extremely popular children's animated television show)" (Napier, 2006). Although one could still say that Anime still remains a niche market in Western countries and doesn't penetrate the same amount of buzz that other franchises to like a Harry Potter or Lord of the Ring etc. Westerners still "regard animation as a second-rate art form and - when Judging specifically Japanese animation - to dismiss it as violent, superficial, cliched and technically cold." (Carvallaro, 2006). If you look at the Academy Awards, only two animated movies have been nominated in the Best Picture category. These two movies are Toy Story 3 and Beauty and the Beast. Other animated movies are just nominated in its own category and never get nominated for other categories such as best script etc.
References:
All Time Box Office. (2012). Retrieved August 21st, 2012, from http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan
Wright, W. (2008). Highest Grossing Anime Movies of All-Time. Retrieved 21st August, 2012, from http://voices.yahoo.com/highest-grossing-anime-movies-all-time-808949.html?cat=40
It's interesting reading this because I personally think that since the quotes written in 2006 about Miyazaki not being a household name in western countries, it may have changed a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe if we don't know the director, most western people have now heard of his studio - Studio Ghibli or at least the name of some if it's films, like Spirited Away or the Cat Returns or Howls Moving Castle.
At least that's how it seems to me, and the people I know.
Did you hear about him/studio/any of the films before this class?
I think maybe it is subject to each person. Personally I am probably the only one out of my friends who has any idea about who Miyazaki is, his studio or even his movies. I enjoy anime but I don't know many others who do.
DeleteI think that probably it has somewhat grown in popularity in the west but like the post explains, it is nowhere near the popularity of western animated films.
I guess that's true :) I shouldn't generalise based on my experiences.
DeleteInteresting read :). I like the last point about animated films being nominated in their own category and not really being nominated for other awards. Do you think this is a fair call?
ReplyDeletePersonally I think that this shouldn't be the case and have always wondered why they are never nominated.
I think it goes without saying that anime would be significantly more popular in Japan than in western countries, but why do you think that with the success of shows such as Pokemon that popularity hasn't grown very much? I honestly haven't got a clue. I love anime personally but most people I know don't really give it the time of day. A lot of the time I get called a nerd for liking anime which I find hilarious.Is it nerdy? Maybe that's why it is not as popular is the west? Interested to hear your thoughts :)
I think it's growing. We talked about it above, but I meet more and more people who know at least one 'anime' - if not at least dragon ball Z, although personally I don't really include it myself.
DeleteI think the depth of the stories in anime is what's appealing as more and more people discover it.
And I think less and less people care about being a 'nerd' and are more into loving what you love.
But then, those are just my experiences. I don't usually give people the time of day if they care about not liking something for the sake of appearances.
Hi Damian, you draw some great parallels between anime and western animation and this is a thoughtful answer. I like that you've done extra reading around a topic that obviously interests you. Well done!
ReplyDelete