RESEARCH & ARTICLE
Cross Cultural References in Japanese
Animation:
A Survey on " Kiki's Delivery Service" with Scandinavian Audience
The presentation at SAS (Society of Animation Study) Conference in Trondheim, Norway (August 5- 7, 2000)
Summary:
With increasing access to internet and mass media, cultural boundaries
has been thinner than ever. What are cross cultural and universal conventions
in animation filmmaking? How do they work and what are the consequences
and possibilities?
The paper will present the final result of the survey regarding anime, "Kiki's
Delivery Service", with audiences from Trondheim, Norway. The film
has specific European setting and cultural references. With European/ Scandinavian
audience, what has been working and what has not, and why, will be discussed.
Many of the topics are not only limited to Japanese animation, but also
all cross-cultural related filmmaking.
Abstract:
The consequences regarding audiences in different cultures and languages
are critical, especially for commercial distribution in the international
market. Not just games and internet, but also films and TV series.
What are cross cultural conventions in animation filmmaking? How do they
work and what are the consequences and possibilities?
Japan has been a particular nation which cultivated its animation culture
to an extreme direction. Japanese animation, also known as anime, has become
popular in the Western world. Not just various Japanese TV animation series
playing in many countries , but also many computer games have been influenced
by anime style. Anime's unique style in both storytelling and visual images
has been developed in the Japanese society, which accepts animation films
as serious filmmaking and where comic books are the most popular literature.
Anime is indeed one of Japan's unique cultural properties. It has such an
elaborate style of film language, so if one is not used to it, he/ she may
find it very confusing.
One of the known confusing facts for most Western audiences, besides having
big eyed characters with blue hairs, most stories in anime also has a Western
settings. Such cultural references can vary from simply name-borrowing to
serious meaning. How then, do the Western audience find it, really? Can
they understand big eyed characters, certain expressions, and stories in
supposed-to-be their own cultural-setting? Could an anime be accepted by
the Western public as successfully as in Japan? Should the audience know
the specific culture first in order to 'get it' ?
Bordwell pointed out three conventions in cross-cultural visual effects:
simply universal effects, easy to learn effects, and effects which requires
expert knowledge. My question is: what are the limits of these terms?
'Kiki's Delivery service' by Hayao Myazaki, one of the most respectable
animation filmmakers in Japan, has special features which attracted my attention.
It has all anime qualities in its serious storytelling, perfect European
setting, and with anime characters with big eyes. It is one of the best
quality production done in Japan.
The film has impressively high quality backgrounds and references of European
culture. Yet, I, an avid audience of anime and Japanese comic books, thought
it was definitely a Japanese film which never meant to be an European story.
Then I wondered how European themselves, who are not used to such animation
films, would percieve it.
The survey with a Scandinavian audience is reasoned by the cultural reference
to a Swedish city in the film, and the fresh-to-anime-audience. The survey
is conducted as a film screening with questionnaire at Trondheim, Norway,
from 20th. Jan. til 14th. March, 2000.
The main aim is to analyse how Scandinavian/European audience understand
the film language of anime.
The main pre-assumptions were:
European audience would
1. think of Kiki's character as Japanese
2. not recognize where the real background reference come from. (Sweden)
3. not understand certain expressions
4. may not enjoy or understand the film at all
So far the results are quite surprising. The presentation of this paper will be about what the final result of the survey is, and which conventions have been working and which have not, and why. The topics which will be discussed are not limited to Japanese animation, but also are valid to all cross-cultural related filmmaking.