Asian Media in Transition Topic 2.4 Overview Topic 2.4 Asian Media, Global Audiences

Cultural Odour

"refers to how contemporary “cultural features of a country of origin and images or ideas of its national, in most cases stereotyped, way of life are associated positively with a particular product in the consumption process”” (Iwabuchi, 2002, as cited in Fennell et al, 2012, p. 441)

“Culturally odourless”/ “mukokuseki”

"lacking clearly identifiable Japanese national, racial, or ethnic markers” (Fennell et al., p. 441)

Also useful to think of this in relation to how Jung (from previous topic) uses the term Chogukjeok “to describe the new media circulation of Korean popular culture in the global market”. It refers to “how cultural flows enable the mixing of various cultural elements (both specific and global), causing particular cultural elements to lose specificity. It also implies how hybridity and non-nationality allow such mixed pop cultural products to easily cross national borders” (2013, p. 109).

• Does not mean culture is absent – consumers may realise product is of Japanese origin.
• Cultural references minimize by creators/producers to make a product ‘culturally odourless’ for marketing purposes (Fennell et al, 2012, p. 441)
• Different types of anime (some based on reality, others on fantasy elements) can limit specifically Japanese references. (Fennell et al, 2012, p.144)
• Anime scholarship – points to anime being tied to Japanese culture (containing at least some Japanese reference) so much so that its Japaneseness can’t be disguised (Fennell et al,2012, p.144)

In relation to Japanese anime, is there a 'cultural odour' in these examples? Is there a difference to the 'cultural odour' if the media text is dubbed instead of sub-titled?

Characteristics

Cartoon creations often have non-Asian features:

• “non-Asian hair colors (which can range from Western-looking blondes to purple, green or blue) and the big-eye style. In anime, emotion shows in the eyes in the form of tingling, scintillating sparkles.” (Cooper-Chen,2012, p. 45)
• “The big-eye style ‘has become a convention and is typically used to give a character a cute, appealing quality.’” (Richmond, 2009, as cited in Cooper-Chen, 2012, p.46).
• “The contention that anime characters are their own race, or do not have a race at all, also supports the culturally odorless argument.” – “Anime style” rather than ‘western’ (Fennell et al, 2012, p.442)
• Need to also take into account the influence of Japanese scrolls (linearity) and woodblocks (not using contrast/shadows) – (Koyama-Richard, 2007, as cited in Copper-Chen, p.46)
• Draws from multiple cultures – “This implies anime reflects the forces of globalization.” (Fennell et al, 2012, p.443)

Culturally odourless?

Content:

• May contain some references to Japanese culture
• May be based on fantasy not reality, with no specific cultural reference
• Anime is very diverse (see Pelliteri, 2021)

Consumption:

• May or may not be recognised, depends on audiences/readers cultural positioning
• Does not mean that the audience/readers do not recognise it as being a Japanese media product

Does a lack of cultural odour contribute to a global appeal?

Media Flows: Contra-Flow

Contra-flow refers to media originating from the peripheries of global media industries being consumed by audiences beyond the peripheries.

• Media which challenges the dominant markets i.e. in the US (Cooper-Chen, 2012, p.44)
• Anime’s growing influence since the 1980s “on the aesthetics of foreign animation and on the poetics of filmmakers, animators, artists, musicians, even fashion designers from Europe, Asia, and the United States.” Pelliteri, 2021, p. 34).
• Impact in the region (i.e. competition for Disney products) – also illustrates ‘cultural proximity’:
• “Regional factors rather than cultural proximity account for anime being more popular in Asia than in the West.” (Copper-Chen, 2012, p.44)
• One of the top five publishers (Kadokawa) confirmed that “Asia is the firm’s #1manga market” (Cooper-Chen, 2012, p. 53)

Global Audiences

Consumption (in relation to media flows):

• Online (see Cooper-Chen, 2012)
• Access depended on whether it was via mainstream media (top-down) or by subculture (bottom-up) i.e. bootleg in pre-social media times in Europe (Pellitteri, 2021, p.22).
• Via translations/fansubbing (find and help each other across borders)
• “fan-translated and fan-distributed products” (Fennell et al, 2012, p. 44)
• Consumption of manga and anime not necessarily because of the race of characters, or because they are trying to become Japanese – “They are participating in what may be a genuinely new and unique culture” (Napier, 2005, as cited in Fennell et al, 2012, p.443)

Therefore an example of Staubhaar’s (discussed in Cooper-Chen) concept of cultural proximity i.e. audiences are also interested in texts that are exotic (but preferences are still for local and regional ahead of this)

Distribution

Fung and Chik (2022) look at contra-flow provided by streaming services such as Netflix but question the implications of access being curated by a Western media corporation.

• Role of streaming platforms such as Netflix (access to media products from Asia) - "the company did not attempt to distribute Hollywood content worldwide but to bring the content of different countries to a global audience (Spangler, 2018 as cited in Fung & Chik, 2022, p. 47).
• Media products that are collaborations or co-productions i.e. producing Netflix original anime series (Fung & Chik, 2022, p. 43)

"In Japan, Netflix’s strategy has had an increasing focus on the purchase and commissioning of anime series and motion pictures, taking advantage of the country’s fame as the world’s animation, comics and games (ACG) powerhouse." (Fung & Chik, 2022, p. 48)

• Strategy results in media products that suit "preferences, tastes and languages of local audiences" as well as attracting new audiences (Fung & Chik, 2022, p. 48).

"As a result, Netflix, the foreign platform, facilitated the reverse flow of Asian content across the globe." (Fung & Chik, 2022, p. 48)

‘Culturally odourless’ or Hybrid?

“… there is a great amount of anime with various degrees of cultural syncretism, which, data indicate, were for this reason more easily purchased by producers and television executives of foreign countries. We can frame this phenomenon as a spontaneous form of ‘strategic hybridism’” – a concept used by Iwabuchi (2002, cited in Pelliteri, 2021, p. 28).

“the more the creators of a manga/anime manage to bring features of Japanese culture and society (verbal and visual languages, relationships and dialectics among characters, values and sentiments promulgated) together with cultural elements more frequent in other areas of the world (settings and sceneries, costumes, objects, characters’ psychologies), the higher will be the probability that such work, other conditions being satisfied, will gain a ‘universal’ success.” (Pelliteri, 2021, p. 29)

Media Flows and Hybridity

Iwabuchi “argues that “hybridism” is one of the strategies Japanese industries use to establish economic power in East and Southeast Asia, often by drawing upon ties remaining from their imperialist past. “Hybridism,” as a national discourse, is promoted in Japan as the nation’s unique ability to repackage American media products for its “less-developed” Asian neighbours, while simultaneously creating “culturally odourless” products that are easily consumed in America itself. When it comes to media, then, Japan is neither simply a borrower nor a lender, but both at once, complicating the distinction between victors and victims in the global culture wars. The case of Japanese relations with both the West and East Asia thus demonstrates the shifting asymmetries of transcultural flow.” (Annette, 2011, p. 169-170)