BSc Multimedia Technology & Design EE3199B

Character Culture in Japan BSc Multimedia Technology & Design EE3199B By Chris Pallaris: 0115895

Presentation Topics Project Outline Aims and Objectives Project Time Management Research Progress and Developments Character Culture in Japan

Project Outline Personal interests and intrigue into Japanese culture born out of an acceleration of Japanese influences in the West. Japan however remains largely detracted and alien to many Westerners. It is considered a culture jungle obsessed with novelty goods, merchandise, sex and technology. Characters have become a real culture rooted in Japanese heart. There is a theory of communication weakness between Japanese people. Character Culture in Japan

Aim • The aim of my project is to investigate into the character crazes that have swept modern day Japan and create a short animation/film to communicate my own conclusions and interpretations. Character Culture in Japan

Objectives • Research into the genesis and principles of Character culture. • Study into the types of characters: style, attributes, appeal. • Look into the various character companies and designers. • Explore the traditional and pop cultures in Japan. • Research into the process of making an animation/film with respect to • Japanese techniques and styles. • Travel to Japan for a first hand insight into the culture and area of study. • Create a short animation/film. • Design and build a project website. Character Culture in Japan

Project Time Management I constructed GANTT Chart to schedule the main stages and activities over the course of my final year project. Character Culture in Japan

Research Areas Character Culture in Japan

History of Character Culture • 1945: Saturation of post war American animation, advertising, novelty goods and merchandise from ‘victorious’ America. “A dream from Overseas” Murakami, Takashi (internationally acclaimed Japanese artist) • 1950 Fujiya pastry company’s PEKO-Chan and Marukome Miso’s MARUKKOME-kun were developed as company mascots. • 1963 Tezuka Osamu’s groundbreaking black and white animation Astroboy (aka Atom boy) went on the air. • 1973 Bandai model company produces Chogokin Mazinger Zproving a huge hit in Japan and the first export to US becomes a best-seller Character Culture in Japan

History of Character Culture continued • 1974 Hello Kitty was introduced by Sanrio cooperation. The success led to a breakout of other purely merchandise based character companies. • 1980 Game characters Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog and Dragonquest emerged as ‘dot image’ graphics. • 1996 Pokemon and Tamagotchi crazes hit Japan and expanded worldwide storming global markets. • 2000 Acceleration of internet communities gave birth to characters Mona and Giko Cat in the form of ASCII art. Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: Pokemon:"Gotta Catch 'Em All" Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: Gloomy: cute but very deadly, notice the claws Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: Sticker used on the metro beware the closing doors Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: Condom shop on the right, with a very cute mascot Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: One of hundreds of food shops with character appeal Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: Hello Kitty land in local department store Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Characters run riot in Tokyo: Collecting cute toys transcends age and gender Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan has a fascination with all that is daintily attractive. This is commonly known as ‘Kawaii’ meaning cute. Cute in Japan is everywhere. Grow up to save money with cute, pray with cute, to have sex with cute. Character appeal runs riot in Tokyo: Aibo: Sony’s cute and loveable marketing strategy Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Context Japan is considered a child society whereas western countries (US and UK) are adolescence societies “In Japan, its childhood, mother, home that is yearned for, not the wilderness of youth ” Yamaguchi,Yucko (assistant general manager of Sanrio character design department) The appeal of cute is in large at the level of a child. “There seems to be this feeling of always wanting to be at that level, of never wanting to move on, to grow up and leave it behind ” White,Merry (assistant general manager of Sanrio character design department) Character Culture in Japan

Character Decompositions Purely merchandise based characters Tiny round stumps for limbs Simple adaptable design Playful and harmless Genderless Passive and helpless Cute / adorable Vulnerability and pitiable Lack of certain features e.g. mouths Childlike qualities Character Culture in Japan

Character Decompositions Sharon Kinsella, sociologist and writer of several papers on Japanese culture describes the essential ingredients of a cute character as being: “small, soft, infantile, mammalian, round, without bodily appendages (arms), without bodily orifices (mouths), non-sexual, mute, insecure, helpless or bewildered” Kinsella,Sharon (freelance researcher) Cute is a collection of superficial attributes that create an existence that is perfect. Natural human appeal to cute. “There is an emotional magnetism in cute. We are drawn to protect our young and as humans when we see living creatures with babyish features we feel an automatic surge of disarming tenderness” Gould, Stephen Jay

Character Decompositions The appeal of cute does give rise to more sinister notions. Consider some Japanese men are drawn to the typical owner of cute than to cute itself. Cute ties in with what is known as Lolicom in Japan, the Lolita complex. The phenomenon of little girls as sexual objects is all too apparent in Tokyo. Pornographic sections in character shops are common. “The cute characters themselves often display elements of passivity and little girl helplessness ” Roach, Mary (Wired Magazine) Character Culture in Japan

Character Decompositions Manga, Anime and Game characters Young and free spirited Attractive Misunderstood Passionate / Emotive Talented Leader - courageous Modest and brilliant Strong and heroic Powerful and Inspirational In love Loner / Lost soul Character Culture in Japan

Character Decompositions Well-defined categories for shounen (boys) and shoujo (girls) genres, as well as for teenagers and adults. Takashi Murakami explains that after Japan’s defeat in the Pacific a communication weakness was born leading to an ‘un-relatedness’ to people. In human relationships, in order to understand the personality its is more popular to character type them as the perky main character, the perfect like accommodating girlfriend, the twisted character , the chubby character, the doctor (smart) character and so on. Murakami, Takashi (internationally acclaimed Japanese artist) Character Culture in Japan

Anime: Japanese animation • Common characteristics and techniques evident in anime: • Evocative and deep storylines. • Cell shaded style. Some CG effects. • Scrolling or repeating backgrounds • Still shots of characters sliding across the screen. • Panning and zoom techniques. • Dialogue is limited to mouth animation. • Money shots used to give a certain scene more emphasis. Character Culture in Japan

Traditional Japanese Culture Religion: Buddhism and Shintoism have distinct parallels with character culture. Notion of nature as being equal to and part of a wider natural order. Nature is highly regarded in Japan – characters and features are inspired by real animals. Mushi: Beetle collecting is a traditional common past time for children in Japan – parallels with Pokemon Ideals and discipline: consider Kamikaze and Samurai warriors. This level of heroism is often portrayed in manga, anime, games. Art: Early examples of Japanese art shows distinct correlations with manga and modern artistic styles. Character Culture in Japan

Developments during my trip to Japan Immersed myself into the popular culture of Tokyo – Shinjuku’s neon lights and concentration of skyscrapers – Shibuya’s pop youth culture and trends. Gained and awareness into etiquette, superstitions, discipline, kindliness of Japanese people. Visited several temples, shrines and parks in Tokyo and Kyoto and also visited an artificial reconstruction of traditional Japanese settings. Gained an appreciation of Japanese values of nature, history, art and religion, drawing several parallels and inspiration for my project. Character Culture in Japan

Developments during my trip to Japan Some images and inspiration drawn from natural and Traditional Japan Character Culture in Japan

Progress & Development Begin to filter through the large amount of footage and photography and draw on my experiences to develop initial and final project ideas. I especially like the challenge of creating a personal artefact that will communicate my interpretations of Japan and its character culture. The idea of drawing on aspects of traditional and pop culture. Including art and design, story telling, poetry. I am very keen on using 3D and with elements of graphic design and even incorporating some of my live action. December will be key to developing my ideas fully. I intend to begin implementation by the start of January. Character Culture in Japan

References BANDAI, 2004 Bandai’s history: 1970’s[online] Available from: http://www.bandai.co.jp/e/company/history/1970.html [11 Dec] FINEX., It’s a Kawaii World [online] Available from: http://www.finex.co.jp/att/10kawaii.html [10 Dec] KINSELLA, S., 1995 CUTIES IN JAPAN, US: Sharon Kinsella Publications LAURENT, E. L., 2001, Mushi - Japanese children catch and play with insects [online] Available from: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_2_110/ai_71317743 [10 Dec] MCNICOL, T., 2004 Does comic relief hurt kids? [online] Available from: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040427zg.htm[11 Dec] MURAKAMI, T., 2003, Contemporary Character Design: Early 21st Century: About Japanese Character Culture,P, Thaler. ed. Pictoplasma 2, Germany: Die Gestalten Verlag, 2-5 Character Culture in Japan

References PETERS, S.,Japanese Fads in the 1990s [online] Available from: http://www.topics-mag.com/edition02/fads.htm [11 Dec] RAAP, J., 2004 Cute a container, Insensitive to content and Context, Germany Thesis (Masters) Merz Akademie ROACH, M., 1999 Cute Inc [online] Available from: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.12/cute.html [10 Dec] SUZUKU, T S., Re-inventing Japan – Time Space Nation TROOST, K, K., 2004 Popular Culture in Japan, USA Thesis (PhD) Duke University VIRGIL, B.,2004 Japanese Pop culture isn’t lost in translation [online] Available from: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/virgin/178161_virgin17.html WIKIPEDIA., 2004 Anime [online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime [10 Dec] Character Culture in Japan

Character Culture in Japan

BSc Multimedia Technology & Design EE3199B