Napier (2005) points out that Anime is increasingly being seen as an intellectually challenging art form by a number of scholars and their published writing on the subject (Napier, 2005). To these scholars and other connoisseurs of the genre; anime deserves to be studied due to it being a 'rich contemporary japanese art form with a distincitve narrative and aesthetic that harks back to traditional Japanses culture as well as moves forward into cutting edge media and art.' supposedly it als should be commended for the breadth of its subject matter that serves as a mirror to Japanese society and offers an array of views on everything from issues to dreams of the present day and is all quite adult in content, despite being simple in form. (Napier, 2005) To many other people, Anime is often lumped into the catagory of mass (or commercial) culture in Japan, and sub-culture in America- whereas the high culture of Japan is aligned with products such as haiku, Zen and the martial arts. The popularity of anime has been growing at a huge rate since the 1990s and is finding a comfortable niche on western tv, possibly due to the exoticism of it when compared to western cartoons. By looking at anime from these viewpoints it is hard to group it into what could traditionally be called 'high' or 'low'culture, so it sits somewhere in the middle ground where it remains as an important vehicle for contemporary philisophical debate and social commentary in a changing global world while still being globally poular and mass produced which I think stops it from being grouped with the products seen as 'high culture'. (Napier, 2005).
Sub-genres within anime are aligned with other genres of popular fiction such as cyber-punk and mecha which are within sci-fi's conventions, alternatative histories are sometimes presented and comedy is another sub-genre. often, anime deals with the role of technology in society. Anime can at once depict beauty, fairytale stories and philisophical ideals. Despite uniquely japanese themes and icons, I think that princess Mononoke and other films in the anime genre have achieved cross-cultural popularity because of being both familiar and exotic to international audiences. I guess what I'm talking about as the familiar is the idea that fairytale storylines are what help to make anime accessible to kids and adults but they also seem to run along a collective consciousness that helps them to be grouped together while being culturally specific- for example, Princess Mononoke is representative of japanese history (despite subversions that displace it..) but it has also been compared to the animated version of Tarzan that was created by Disney but is a much older story that deals with the place of humans within nature- like Princess Mononoke does (Napier, 2005). I guess this deviates from the question a bit, but I think it's something to think about when contemplating the status of anime and other popular genres of fiction.
The ancient high culture of Japan still lives, it's just been transformed by modern influences and shown through anime as re-thought tales of folklore. The hyperactive pop culture of japan might look like something from the future but really, it has its roots in traditions that create themes much deeper.
A question I've had in my mind while thinking about high vs low culture is; what place does high culture play in contemporary society anyway? In my mind, high culture belongs in the past- hung on gallery walls and inside glass cases at the museum or alternatively, as the domain of poets and art students. When I think of the future in regards to anime and other relics of pop culture I can't imagine them occupying the same space; for a start- how on earth would you choose what to include in such exhibits when they have been mass produced and churned out in such high volumes?.. Despite this pondering, however, I do think that what we're studying as pop culture has relevance and is really important in defining the times and the age we live in- especially because they're so fast moving and reflective of ever-changing and advancing technology. I just think it's harder to put in a box the way that cultural products once were.
References:
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.
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