Japan in America: What are some of the most influential Japanese exports in America?

1. Hello Kitty

When I first started giving this some thought, I wanted to see what I could think of on my own before doing any research.  Hello Kitty was the first thing that popped in my head.  You can find pretty much anything with a Hello Kitty theme--bags, school supplies, phone accessories, kitchen appliances, even cars.  Even if you can't find something Hello Kitty-themed, there is always a knockoff to be found.  Sanrio is the company that created Hello Kitty.  During my perusal of Hello Kitty on the internet, I discovered that it was created in 1974.  I had no idea.  Wikipedia says that Hello Kitty is the second highest-grossing media franchise of all time (second only to my number two).

www.sanrio.com

2. Pokemon

The second export I thought of on my own was Pokemon (I'm not really sure why it wasn't first).  Pokemon is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time (according to the Hello Kitty wikipedia entry).  It's easy to see why.  Pokemon is everywhere.  I like playing the Pokemon games on my Switch.  My nephew likes it, too.  He collects the cards as well.  I don't think he plays the card game, I think he just collects them.  You can find about anything with a Pokemon theme.  I believe this franchise is so huge and successful in America because of its presence in video games.  

My big thing in shows and video games is the characters.  I like the diverse and original characters, and I like lots of them.  My favorite type of Pokemon is bug.  My favorite Pokemon of all time is Joltik.

https://www.pokemon.com/us/

3. Otaku

Otaku culture is growing in America.  I think before this term came to us from Japan, American otakus were just called geeks and nerds.  

We discussed how in the past it was almost shameful to be an otaku.  Now otaku culture has moved to being proud.  I think that otakus moving into the public eye has helped.  There are YouTubers that record themselves gaming and going back over their recorded videos and providing commentary.  There is also esports.  These are becoming more and more popular.  Some NEETs are turning otaku into a profession.  I'd like to know the number of otaku NEETs in Japan compared to otaku NEETs in America.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-united-states-of-japan

4. Video games

I already mentioned Nintendo in my personal influences.  Playstation also came from Japan.  I am not up on my game consoles.  The most recent of mine is an Xbox One, and I haven't played it in months.  The internet at our house has always been bad, but when it turned terrible and affected my playing and downloading, I just quit.  To get the full experience of a game console, you have to have decent internet.

5. Anime

These Japanese cartoons have really caught on in America.  The style really exploded after Pokemon.  Now, you can find "anime-style" animations in every franchise.  As we discussed in class, Japan has many flavors of anime.  Any preference, hobby, or kink you can have, probably has an anime that covers it.  We haven't evolved to the mindset that the Japanese have for these types of things--as Dr. Ito explained, a lot of things that are not appropriate to do in real life can be vicariously experienced in anime and manga with no judgements.

6. Food

I have to include Japanese food in this list.  It's obvious that I love to eat.  One of my favorite cuisines is Japanese food.  It has infiltrated its way through America, and I try to find all the good places to go.  I love going to my friend Yukiko's house.  She cooks for me.  She also introduced me to one of the easiest meals to cook at home--Japanese curry.  You can buy the blocks of curry at pretty much any grocery store.  You just boil vegetables, meat, or whatever you want and let the curry bricks melt, then eat it.  I always put it over rice.  I like it spicy.

7. Cosplay

@leobane

I've never done cosplay.  I'm too lazy.  The work that cosplayers put into their costumes is amazing (the attention to detail!).  This is a whole culture and community that seems to keep growing.  I love looking at pictures from all the cons.  Some cosplayers get home from a con and start designing their costume for the next year.  It might take the entire year to complete it.  I love the hot guys.  I follow a lot of cosplayers on Twitter and Instagram.  Some of the more hardcore cosplayers do certain types of physical training all year to get their bodies to look like the character they are playing.  https://www.pride.com/geek/2019/2/17/13-guys-whose-cosplay-we-love-umreasons#media-gallery-media-7

https://world.time.com/2013/07/01/japan-spends-millions-in-order-to-be-cool/

8. Symbols

Japanese symbols and the kanji are extremely popular in tattoo culture.  

9. Lore

Yokai (spirits or demons) are also a big in tattoo culture.  Tattoos in Japan are seen as marks of the Yakuza (Japanese criminal group like the mafia).  This is why tattoos are banned in most bath houses.  I was sad to hear this.  I would only be able to go to those bath houses of ill repute that allow tattoos.

Japanese folklore really interests me.  Tengu, kappa, tanuki are some of the yokai that I have seen in shows.  A really good site that is a database of Japanese yokai is www.yokai.com.  I bought a book on yokai, but I haven't had the chance to read it yet.

10. Yukiko Taylor

This is probably cheating a little, my friend Yukiko is from Japan and she has influenced a lot of people.  She is a social worker in Arkadelphia.  She works for Group Living, which is an organization for developmentally disabled people.  I've learned a lot about Japan from her.  I learned about love hotels from her.  I learned about Japanese attitudes toward sex, or really open-mindedness to anything pertaining to sex.  There are only a few things that she couldn't stand.  One is making a fist and showing the tip of your thumb through your pointer and middle finger.  She never would say what that meant.  She just said that it was the nastiest of nasty.  Here is some evidence.

Yukiko Taylor

LMAO!!!!!! omg i cannot look that naughty RED thing!!! Bad Bad Brady!!

PS. thank you for tagging my twin girls...lol

It's been a while since we have taken any pics.  That's Jenny sitting with us.  She and her sister Judy are from Taiwan.

I couldn't leave Judy out.

Personal Influence - Disney

 

Disney was a huge influence on me during my childhood, and even still today.  My mom bought us every Disney movie that was put on VHS.  My parents, my sister, and I watched those movies all the time.

One of our favorite things to do was sing Disney songs.  Back then, I knew the words to just about every song.  My dad still does impressions of Donald Duck and Jaq from Cinderella.  We have inside jokes that are still told to this day.  It's something that we are passing down to my sister's kids.

My older cousin, Daniel lived in Searcy.  His mom made a lot of money, so he and his brothers were always in the know and always had the newest and best everything.  Daniel was the one that told me about subliminal messaging.  I was distraught that naughty things were in my Disney movies.  I tried to look for them.  The only one that I can remember and the only one that I might have seen (if it's a real thing) was in The Lion King when Simba plops down at the top of a hill and pollen or some type of plant material flies up into the air and possibly has the slight resemblance of the word "sex" as if written by a drunk four year old.

*Note: In my search for a pic, I discovered that Cinderella Jack is a type of marijuana.

Personal Influence - Nintendo

 

I was just a child.  Mom, Alli, and I had been somewhere.  When we got home, Dad was in my room.  I  faintly heard the song to the Mario Bros game.  My dad had cashed in all the coins from my piggy bank (which was actually made from 4" PVC pipe) and gotten what I'd been begging for:  an NES.  I could tell that Dad didn't really want to stop playing, but he did.  I was in heaven.

Once the SNES came out, I saved up birthday and Christmas money and with a church lady using her Walmart employee discount, I got one.

I took my NES to Nanny's house and set it up.  It provided hours of entertainment for me, my sister, and our cousins.  We played that thing until my cousin Andrew used it for a soccer ball--he kicked it across the room.  It broke.  It was already on its last leg.  I can't remember why he kicked it.  It's still something that comes up in conversation today.  All of these things of pop culture have something in common: they had a huge effect on me and my family.  It's not something I really thought about until this assignment.

Personal Influence - Titanic

It's funny when I think that this movie had some influence in my life.  It did, though.  Everyone was talking about this movie, even in DeWitt.  Some of the more well-off families went to Little Rock to see it when it came out.  The parents even let their kids watch it because it was said to be so big; history in the making.  DeWitt actually had a movie theater at the time.  It only had one screen.  I'm not sure how long after the premier date that our little theater got it.  I wasn't very aware of my surroundings at thirteen.  I wasn't up on current events or pop culture.  I was probably too worried about who I was and how to fix myself to pay attention to anything else.  One wrong move and the fact that I liked penises would have been discovered.  I really just remember it being a big discussion between my mom and dad on whether me and my sister should see the movie.  They finally decided that we would all go to see it.  The little theater was packed.  I remember Mom and Dad sitting near the back while my sister went to sit with some of her friends and I sat down amongst some boys in my grade.  I don't remember much about seeing the movie that first time in the theater.  What I do remember is when the boobs were shown, all the boys around me were in fits of hormones and boners.  I didn't get it.  I couldn't have.  Anyway, after the movie we hung around to visit with some people.  I remember my dad asking if I had covered my eyes during "that part."  I said, "No, but I wish I had."  I don't remember my dad's reaction.  I don't remember who it was, but one of the men that we were visiting with gave me a scathing look.  I had accidentally shown part of my true self without realizing it.  I freaked out for weeks.

Personal Influence - M/M Romance Novels

 

You probably didn't know this, but I used to be a bit of a prude.  I'm pretty sure that it was tied to being raised Baptist and cemented with self-hatred.  Well, not hatred.  That's a super-strong word.  Maybe more like doubt or uncertainty?  Anyway, my gay romance novels helped me become who I am in so many ways.  They helped me to accept myself, and expanded my mind to experiences I would never have and situations I would never face; my horizon widened.  Some of the most influential authors:  TJ Klune, Leta Blake, Keira Andrews, Lynn Kelling, Jay Bell, Robin Reardon, Mary Calmes, Amelia Faulkner, R Cooper, MomsDarkSecret, J Tullos Hennig, Mercedes Lackey, Andrew Q. Gordon.

Recommended books:

   

     

 

  

   


I'm going to stop.  I could do this for a long time.  I think one of the advantages to these plot-driven, genre fictions is that I can read them really fast.  If there is one book here that is an absolute read, it's The Lightning-Struck Heart by TJ Klune.  It is hilarious!

Personal Influence - Anime/Manga

 

Black Clover

These are all pictures from some of my favorite anime--screenshots from the shows and some fan art from deviantart.com.  I got into anime about ten to fifteen years ago and manga just a couple of years ago.  These jewels from Japan have introduced me to the Japanese culture.  It's something that I've come to love; something that I learn from with every experience.  I'm able to connect to these characters, but it is different from the cartoons that I grew up with; there is an entirely new depth added with the Japanese culture and history.

by bhavya

As I've said a few times before in this class, Black Clover is one of my favorites.  I watch the anime (waiting on pins and needles for the new episodes to air on Tuesdays).  I've also started reading the manga.  It still amazes me how accurately the anime keeps with the manga.  Anyway, it's about Asta--a boy (the only person in the world) with no magical power and his journey to become the Wizard King along side his fellow Black Bulls.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Demon Slayer is about Tanjiro a boy who returns home one day to find his family had been slaughtered.  The only person still alive is his sister, but she has been turned into a demon.  Tanjiro's mission is to find the demon (who is the demon among demons, original demon) that turned her and have him turn her back.  He becomes a demon slayer to accomplish this goal.

Blue Exorcist will always have a special place in my heart.  Naruto was shoved into my life because it's Naruto; a lot of people start there.  Blue Exorcist was the first that I chose to watch after researching all the anime I could find.  I found it on my own.  I also started reading the manga.  I am farther into the Blue Exorcist manga than any others.

by KazumiMai

MHA is a neat show.  I like that sometimes people's quirks don't necessarily make them powerful.  Sometimes their quirks don't work well with their bodies.  Deku destroys his body when he first gets his quirk.  Uraraka throws up if she uses her too much.  Aoyama gets the shits if he uses his too much and he has to use a special piece of equipment to control it.  Yeah, characters in this show/manga can be powerful, but they are all humans and have to deal with everything that comes along with being human and maybe more depending on their quirk.  I have only read the first volume of this manga.  My favorite character is Bakugo.  He's an asshole, but I feel he's got more depth that any of the other characters.

I've read the first volume of the Fire Force manga.  The anime is something that I eagerly await to come out every Friday.  It is set in a post-apocalyptic Japan.  A religion took advantage of what they call The Great Cataclysm that happened 250 years ago.  The Fire Force is just figuring out that what they know and have been taught about their history is a lie.  Arthur is my favorite character because he lives in his own world and is the "Knight King."  Shinra created a manual on how to deal with Arthur, so if anyone not from their squad had to work with him, they would be able to if they followed his manual.  It's hilarious.

Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is one of my favorites because it's a group of outcasts that work together.  It gives me that good feeling in my chest when I see this.  I've mentioned this feeling before.  I wish there was a name for it.  There might be.  Anyway, Fairy Tail is about wizards.  They get into all kinds of shenanigans; especially, Natsu and Happy.  It's very entertaining.  There is this running gag where the extremely powerful Natsu cannot overcome his motion sickness.

Of course, Naruto.  This seems like the starter anime.  It was for me.  It has lots of good feelings and hilarity.  It was my first step into the world of anime and manga and my introduction to Japanese culture.