WEEK FIVE - Ethan

Is it a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres,

To answer the question ‘Is anime a high or low cultural genre/media?’ it is easy to say that Anime is a high cultural genre/media as it plays off many old Japanese traditions. As Napier (2005, p.4) says, “Not only does the medium show influences from Japanese traditional arts as Kabuki and the woodblock print, but it also makes use of worldwide artistic traditions of the twentieth-century cinema and photography.”

As Napier (2005) also says, “The culture to which anime belongs is at present a “popular” or “mass” culture in Japan and in America it exists as a “Sub” culture. Anime has many sub genres such as Shojo, Shonen, Mecha and many more which can all be related to high cultural traditions as well as new traditions and societal interests like technology and robots, which is the reason anime has become such a popular media in not only Japan but around the world as it is something the audience can relate to and may be interested in.

References:

Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.