Representation or misrepresentation? British media and Japanese popular culture
(June 2014)Abstract
From the late 1980s to the early 21th century Japanese popular cultural rose from a cult interest to mainstream media in many Western countries, including the United Kingdom. Large numbers of Japanese comics (manga) and animated films (anime) were sold in English translations, gaining their own sections in British book and video stores with thousands of titles available from online retailers for English-speaking audiences. Japanese toys such as Pokemon and video games gained global appeal in this period.1 The Oscar-winning anime works of Hayao Miyazaki were dubbed into English and distributed by Disney. With the live action version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Japanese programmes entered Western television for children. The anime classics Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988) and Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Hayao Miyazaki, 1986) were shown by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the early 1990s, along with the documentary Manga! introducing manga and anime to a British audience by presenter Jonathan Ross in 1994. Subsequently, despite popular children?s anime such as Pokemon, anime for older teens and adults has barely featured on mainstream British television except in occasional late night slots on the BBC and Channel 4. To explore the reasons for this my essay will examine representations in Japanese popular culture and their interpretation in the British media.