Japanese Amine Astro Boy

Running Head : Astro Boy

Japanese Anime Astro Boy

Japanese Anime Astro Boy

Is the success of Japanese anime in countries such as the US indicative of the emergence of a global youth culture

The success of Japanese anime around the world had led to the spawning of a subculture among the youth called otaku

Japanese anime in the United States has now become an 80-million industry . The success of this industry is attributed to its ability to cover a number of genres ranging from fairy tales and science fiction to

the daily lives of teenagers and more adult themes . The relationship between the characters in a Japanese anime storyline becomes more complex and as such , the characters are able to deal with multi-dimensional problems and situations and are able to express intense emotions . They also experience situations such as isolation from school , instances of bullying and domestic problems . Moreover , the characters are able to make mistakes , and the good guys do not always win . The ruthless characters are bad for reasons understandable (Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MOFA] , 2007 Stack , 1999 Wagner , 2004

The culture of the youth today is greatly influenced by media such as film , music , television , the Internet and other forms of information and communication technology and has an influence on how young people today socialize . It also entails a diverse range of interrelated practices such as language , religion , sexuality and the like (Heaven Turbidy 2003 Kahn Keller , 2006 United Nations [UN] , 2004 . When Japanese anime films , graphic novels and cartoon series have begun to proliferate in the United States during the 1990s , American youth have been fascinated with it and eventually considered it cool (Heaven Turbidy , 2003 Kahn Keller , 2006 MOFA , 2007 UN , 2004 . Eventually this fascination has turned into an obsession and caused the development of the subculture among the youth which has been termed as otaku (Eng 2002

Originally , the term otaku ' has been given a negative connotation among Japanese . Otaku was synonymous to the term nerd ' and was often associated with their confined in their own world and unable to communicate with the opposite sex due to their obsession with Japanese anime (Eng , 2002 Lim , 2008 . This trend is not only present in Japan but in other countries such as the United States and Europe . This is seen in the growing instances of anti-social behavior being exemplified by teenagers such as violent outbursts , rebelling against parents , or would resort in dressing outrageously in to make a statement When Japanese anime grew in popularity , they found in it a means of escape , allowing them to express themselves within the materials since these materials depict characters that experience situations that they had and experienced emotions that they experience (Zielenziger , 2006

Today the term otaku ' refers to an individual is more concerned about the accumulation of data and able to engage in hyper-social activities centered on the passion of Japanese anime . Otaku are not just very meticulous consumers on the materials that they purchase They do...