Is Anime High or Low Culture?
According to Napier (2005), anime is seen as a popular, or low art in Japanese culture. But this is very much the view of the high culture elite. The younger generation of Japanese consider it a “cultural staple.” Regardless of whether it is high or low, Napier’s chapter “Why Anime?” points out that this is irrelevant. Due to its instant visual appeal and huge range of potential subject matter, audiences and styles, Anime, as an art form, is above judgement over its worthiness for the canon. It’s widespread acceptance has made it a cultural phenomenon, and it has become a mainstay of popular culture.
Subgenres
Rather than looking at anime as a genre, it’s much easier to look at it as a medium. “Watching anime” is like saying “I’m reading a novel” or “I’m listening to music” – You don’t know what the novel, or the music, or the anime is, it could be for kids (J.K. Rowling/The Wiggles/Pokemon) or it could be heavier stuff (Lovecraft/Burning Witch/Berserk). Anime contains a wide variety of genres within itself, many of which are familiar to western audiences, but some of which are not. Some of these unfamiliar ones are….
Josei & Seinen – Josei is aimed at women 18-40, usually has very realistic themes about love, romance, every day life. Seinen is highly sexualised, violent and phsycological. They deal with this subject matter in mature ways though. Aimed at adult men, 18-40.
Shonen & Shojo – Shonen contains a lot of action and adventure and are aimed at young boys. Alternatively, Shojo contains a lot of drama and romance and is aimed and young girls.
Shonen-ai & Shojo-ai - Similarly themed as above but these relate to same sex relationships, aimed at young adults.
Yaoi & Yuri – Taking cues from Shonen-ai and Shojo-ae, but with much more graphic content.
Mecha – Contains robots, a Japanese cultural obsession.
Bishounen – Usually deals with an androgynous male character whose “beauty exceeds gender.” These are usually aimed at young women in Japan.
Akuma – Like fantasy but deals more specifically with demons.
Ecchi – Light-hearted and full of sexual innuendos, these are usually aimed at young adults, kids in their early teens.
Hentai – Animated pornography, which presumably has many subgenres of it’s own.
Samurai – Mostly based in Japan’s Edo Period or contains themes from that time.
Tournament – Takes elements from some of the other genres (action, adventure etc) but focus’ around a tournament. This genre is borrowed a lot more in Japanese culture than in Western.
Frenetic – “Wild and weird”
Although some of these are familiar to western audiences, it’s usually not in a capacity as wide as a popular genre. Additionally, some of the themes therein are familiar to such audiences but usually not in an animated form.
According to Napier (2005), anime is seen as a popular, or low art in Japanese culture. But this is very much the view of the high culture elite. The younger generation of Japanese consider it a “cultural staple.” Regardless of whether it is high or low, Napier’s chapter “Why Anime?” points out that this is irrelevant. Due to its instant visual appeal and huge range of potential subject matter, audiences and styles, Anime, as an art form, is above judgement over its worthiness for the canon. It’s widespread acceptance has made it a cultural phenomenon, and it has become a mainstay of popular culture.
Subgenres
Rather than looking at anime as a genre, it’s much easier to look at it as a medium. “Watching anime” is like saying “I’m reading a novel” or “I’m listening to music” – You don’t know what the novel, or the music, or the anime is, it could be for kids (J.K. Rowling/The Wiggles/Pokemon) or it could be heavier stuff (Lovecraft/Burning Witch/Berserk). Anime contains a wide variety of genres within itself, many of which are familiar to western audiences, but some of which are not. Some of these unfamiliar ones are….
Josei & Seinen – Josei is aimed at women 18-40, usually has very realistic themes about love, romance, every day life. Seinen is highly sexualised, violent and phsycological. They deal with this subject matter in mature ways though. Aimed at adult men, 18-40.
Shonen & Shojo – Shonen contains a lot of action and adventure and are aimed at young boys. Alternatively, Shojo contains a lot of drama and romance and is aimed and young girls.
Shonen-ai & Shojo-ai - Similarly themed as above but these relate to same sex relationships, aimed at young adults.
Yaoi & Yuri – Taking cues from Shonen-ai and Shojo-ae, but with much more graphic content.
Mecha – Contains robots, a Japanese cultural obsession.
Bishounen – Usually deals with an androgynous male character whose “beauty exceeds gender.” These are usually aimed at young women in Japan.
Akuma – Like fantasy but deals more specifically with demons.
Ecchi – Light-hearted and full of sexual innuendos, these are usually aimed at young adults, kids in their early teens.
Hentai – Animated pornography, which presumably has many subgenres of it’s own.
Samurai – Mostly based in Japan’s Edo Period or contains themes from that time.
Tournament – Takes elements from some of the other genres (action, adventure etc) but focus’ around a tournament. This genre is borrowed a lot more in Japanese culture than in Western.
Frenetic – “Wild and weird”
Although some of these are familiar to western audiences, it’s usually not in a capacity as wide as a popular genre. Additionally, some of the themes therein are familiar to such audiences but usually not in an animated form.
"Complete List of Anime Genres" Ani Recs. 29 August 2011. Web. Retrieved from http://anirecs.infinityanime.com/facade/anime-genre-list-with-descriptions on 16 September 2012
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan
Yumeka "What are the genres of Anime?" Mainichi Anime Yume. 3 May 2010. Web. Retrieved from http://animeyume.com/blog/2010/05/03/what-are-the-genres-of-anime/ on 16 September 2012
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