Theresa’s Research for Group 5

For my research I want to discuss the start of ‘pop culture’ and how it came to be. Pop cultural involves modern entertainment and mass media such as (in Japan) anime, manga, music, kawaii-culture, and otaku life. First, I would discuss manga and how it evolved into anime. The start of manga and the one known as the ‘father of manga’ is none other than Tezuka Osamu. He was seen as the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney because of his major inspiration to animation today. Tezuka Osamu created classics such as Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion, ect. After Astro boy, this began the start and craze for anime in Japan. From here we can discuss how much of an influence Tezuka Osamu really was on the start of manga and anime. This would then bring us to the start of anime and animation companies branching out into making studios of their own for the sole purpose of creating anime. One of the most major contributors to the animation industry in Japan was Hayao Miyazaki. In discussing the influence of Tezuka Osamu, this brought upon even more greater influences that really branched anime and manga into what it is today. The questions that could be brought up here are, ‘how did anime/manga become so prevalent today?’, ‘how did western culture inspire the anime/manga industry?’, ‘What influence did the postwar period have on Japanese anime/manga?’. While manga may have become big after such hit titles, there was a lot of influence from the war period as well. 

After this, I would discuss the result of popularity of anime/manga leading into the rise of otaku culture. This includes locations in Japan such as Akihabara, Ikebukuro, ect. Having shops and districts where otaku culture thrives (such as maid cafes, anime/manga, animate shops, ect.). Another question we could ask is, ‘how does Japanese otaku culture differ from western otaku culture?’. Aside from otaku culture, another type of culture that is more relevant in Japan rather than in North America, is ‘kawaii-culture’. ‘Kawaii’ (meaning cute in Japanese) is a word that is probably understood to most people who know about Japan. In Japan, you’ll often see cute mascots such as Hello Kitty and Pikachu. In addition, kawaii-culture inspires fashion as well such as Lolita and harujuku. In discussing ‘kawaii culture’ you can see that Japan favors adorable things that are small and well… cute. Lastly, there is Japanese music and where it is today. Japanese music has various types of genres such as Jpop, Jrock, visual kei, idol music, ect. While music always derives from different parts of the world, Japan creates a whole new genre on lots of different types. With lots of influence from western music, Jrock is very popular in Japan with artists such as Uverworld, Radwimps, Bump of Chicken, One Ok Rock, ect. In addition, Japan (knowing its way with technology) not only had actual vocalists, but man-made ones too. Vocaloids are synthesized computerized programs (using real voices as a base) to create music. This is where a lot of popular artists started creating music as their own producer of music.