> >John Gulick wrote:
> >
> >>Hollywood liberals getting up
> >>on their soapbox about endangered civil liberties while exporting putrid
> >>celluloid crap to the world.
> >
> >So why is the stuff so damned popular? Dennis Redmond posted a link
> >to the EU's stat site the other day showing that 75% of EU box
> >office receipts go to U.S. films - in countries with their own film
> >industries. It's not like they're forcing people to see the "putrid
> >celluloid crap." What's up?
> >
> >Doug
>The Socialist & Social Democratic Era = Anti-Imperialism =
>Internationalism = a Marxist girl in Japan growing up under the
>influence of Brecht, Bunuel, Vertov, Eisenstein, Pasolini,
>Fassbinder, etc.
>The Post-Socialist & Post-Social Democratic Era = the Third Way = the
>Progress of the Empire = Globalization = an apolitical American boy
>growing up watching cheap Japanese Anime, playing video games,
>masturbating with the help of cartoon damsels in distress.
>
>***** The New York Times
>January 28, 2001, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
>SECTION: Section 1; Page 1; Column 3; National Desk
>HEADLINE: Violence Finds a Niche in Children's Cartoons
>BYLINE: By JIM RUTENBERG
<snip>
>The success of the "Pokemon" cartoon show jumpstarted the genre two
>years ago and then others upped the ante in violence. The shows
>fulfill the need for inexpensive programming and address a growing
>interest in marketing shows and products more narrowly to American
>boys, who have grown up with video games and remote controls. Many
>of the shows are imported directly from Japan, where the public's
>tolerance for blood and guts on TV has traditionally been much higher
>than it is in the United States....
I can testify to the fact that my 7 year old daughter, too, laps up this Pokemon/cartoon show anime stuff as well. They haven't overlooked the girls, either - vide the cross-gender appeal of cute, violent action figures with morphing personalities.
>"The fascinating thing to me is to consider that these cartoons are
>made and air in a country with one of the lowest rates of violence in
>the world," said Mike Lazzo, senior vice president for programming
>and production at the Cartoon Network.
"Fascinating", indeed...actually, it is not too difficult to explain. Patrick Smith, in his vaguely social-democratic (or, if you prefer, "post-s.d.", though I find it redundant) "Reinterpreting Japan", though off-base on a number of issues (not least of which is his somewhat condescending racial/cultural attitude), is likely correct in his description of the repressive function of this sort of "inner fantasy life", the necessary complement of official state maintenance of orderly "tradition". There is nothing inherently "Japanese" in the intensity of this fantasy life (contrary to Smith) - otherwise they wouldn't be able to export the stuff. It is only that this toxic brew, internalized and channeled away in Japan, might be acted out by the odd American or two - that would be in our "tradition".
In reality, the sum of actual + potential fantasy violence means Japan may be even more violent then the U.S. Most of it is stored away as potential violence, and one day the whole mess will blow.
It may already be beginning to boil over. Seijin no hi ceremonies (Coming of Age Day, 2nd Monday in January, a "neo-traditional" national holiday established in the pivotal year 1948) have degenerated to the point that some authorities have begun to speak of shutting down the events altogether. This Januarys' events featured local politicians at the podium being pelted with eggs; "bad" youth rolling up in their convertibles outside the ceremony hall, denouncing the proceedings bullhorns in hand, only to be attacked by police; and generalized scenes of the jeering, catcalling and baiting of "grownup" representatives - all viewable on the T.V. news. One of a piece with the now generalized obsession with the "anti-traditional" behavior of Japanese youth.
As "de-political" behavior (it is neither 'pre-political' nor 'apolitical') it is a refreshing contrast to the portrait of their apathetic American counterpart's consumption of second-hand fantasies. There comes a time when fantasy life is no longer enough.
-Brad Mayer Oakland, CA