The Giants of Anime are Coming
Today, anime is everywhere. Filmmakers from James Cameron to Quentin Tarantino acknowledge the influence of its rococo plots and stylized visuals. American teenagers download fansub OVAs (anime videos subtitled by fans) by the thousands, and female twentysomethings publish scarily well-made amateur manga (Japanese-style comic books) that imagine the romantic exploits of anime heroes. Every major video store has an expanding anime section, and anime has become a cable staple, featured on Fox, the International Channel, G4techTV, the WB, and especially the Cartoon Network. In July, Anime Network launched the first 24/7 cable network devoted to the genre.
...To their own surprise, Oshii, Otomo, and Miyazaki have become part of a tsunami that is propelling Japan's reemergence - this time not as an economic superpower but a cultural one.
"It used to surprise me when foreigners were interested in what we were doing," Oshii says. "But I stopped being surprised a long time ago."
Americans and Europeans come to anime initially because they're delighted by its magic, but they stick around to be introduced to other aspects of Japanese culture. Sometimes the introductions are quite literal: DVDs for the anime series Supergals! feature instruction in Japanese slang and manners, teaching newbies how to be kakkoii (cool, more or less) in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. Other times, these experiences simply lead the audience to an awareness that a faraway place called Tokyo positively hums with interest - a place that, in the not-too-distant past, might have been New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco.
...Sushi bars in Sao Paulo, Yu-Gi-Oh cards in school backpacks in Chicago, videogames across the globe - Japan has already become an alternative source of coolness. Japan dominates even areas of entertainment rarely associated with that country. With anime leading the way, the Japanese culture industry is poised to do to its US counterpart what Japanese carmakers did to Detroit in the 1980s.
