Anime's Obsession With Europe: A Brief History

in 1974 a show called Heidi girl of the Alps aired on televisions worldwide creating an instant Global sensation still seen as a masterpiece today the show told the story of a young girl named Heidi who is sent to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps here she gets up to all kinds of adventures with Peter the goat herd her dog Joseph and her rich friend Clara all while squirming her way into the heart of her grumpy old grandfather and in turn us the viewing audience if you're old enough but not familiar with the show you probably live in either the UK or the US two of the few places that the show didn't catch on but across Europe the Middle East South America South Africa and Asia this show was a huge hit as someone who grew up in India before moving to the UK I have incredibly fond memories of watching this show even in the '90s and my family still nostalg ises about the days that I watch innocent shows about little farmer girls and not violent anime featuring gratuitously big booby ladies but what neither they nor I nor most of the viewing World realized at the time was that this was an anime one of the first truly Global anime and one of the leading figures involved in its creation was a then unknown hay Miyazaki who would go on to create an animation house by the name of Studio jibli the creators were in fact so keen on telling this story authentically that Miyazaki himself went on a scouting mission to Switzerland and throughout Europe to make sure they depicted the environment and characters as accurately as possible but why was this 1970s anime made in Japan so keen on retelling an old Swiss children's novel I mean the original story is from the 1800s and why do so many anime from then till now and especially now with the likes of Attack on Titan Vinland Saga and freen all seem to have such a fascination with Europe I mean it's not like in the west we make loads and loads of shows said in Japan only the odd film or TV show here and there and they're almost never based on retelling authentic Japanese literature or folklore usually they're just white guy ends up in Japan stories but in anime Europe or fictional places that are substitutes for Europe are such a common setting that you probably didn't even think about how normalized that is until just mentioned it so what's going on where did anime's Fascination and maybe obsession with Europe come from well I'm about to tell you but it's a bit of a long story so settle [Music] in nowadays when we think of weebs in the west obsessing with Japanese culture and fetishizing the Allure of Japan we often make the mistake of assuming that it's a one-way street but Japan Japan itself has long been fascinated with Europe too in its own way before we talk about anime we need to talk through some important historical context for those who aren't aware Japan went through a period of isolation from the rest of the world called sakoku which means closed country and it lasted over 200 years during this time which spanned from the early 1600s till the 1850s Japan didn't allow any Europeans or generally foreigners to enter the country except for some limited trade with China and Korea and One Singular Dutch Trading Post in Nagasaki while this was a time of great cultural growth for Japan sakoku ended in 1853 when the US arrived with warships and demanded that Japan open its borders and then forced them to sign the hilariously named Treaty of peace and Amity after this time though in what is known as the Mei period Japan once again opened its borders and set about to furiously catch Pace with the rest of the world having realized just how far they had fallen behind the Western Powers with this came an influx of Technology literature and science into Japan particularly that from Europe European fashion became trendy and European culture became a point of Fascination it is in this context that a lot of Japan's prominent media developed particularly its films and eventually comic books or mangas an easy mistake to make would be to assume that the second world war is the cause of anime's fascination with Europe but no evidence from any of the literature I read and I've been researching this topic for like 2 months now backed up that idea it is an obvious conclusion to draw that Japan being allied with Germany would would somehow make it fascinated with German culture but if you stop to think about it just a little bit you'll understand why it's not true Germany didn't suddenly become fascinated with Japan after the world war why would it the alliance was purely militaristic there was no exchange of cultural ideas and there was no time for it there was a global conflict going on living in the UK we didn't suddenly become a lot more interested in France's culture thank God just because we were Allied in the war nor Russia instead Japanese film and media developed itself during and after the war with animated C Caron films being used for war propaganda and also for entertainment they were massively influenced by works from all over Europe particularly France and Russia but had its own style and Japanese grounding and influences too the medium slowly evolved into the Styles and Aesthetics that resemble what we would now recognize as being anime eventually they became a commercial product with manga being purchased by thousands of people and with television those stories began being converted into TV shows which is when the boom of anime really came through in the 1960s and Beyond the 60s is when anime started to find a lot of Commercial Success both in Japan and abroad in the US and Europe first with Astro Boy which was the first anime film to be released in the US and later in the 1970s with Space Battleship Yamato here's where we start to see the establishment of a certain Trope that would follow in a lot of anime there after the adventures of young male protagonists in Conflict oriented worlds which we now see as a staple in shown in anime like Naruto one piece or my hero Academia but it's actually show Joo anime where our interests lie stories about young women targeted at a young female audience while young boys enjoyed space operas about Intergalactic War young women in Japan were much more interested in stories about people everyday interactions of Love jealousy and friendship and this is where Europe comes into the picture since the beginning of the mai period that I spoke about earlier young women in Japan were already fascinated with Europe fashion and Aesthetics and early shjo anime reflected this the large number of them taking place in European settings but one fascinating and surprising reason why early shjo anime set their stories in Europe was that it allowed them to explore otherwise forbidden themes such as homosexual love and female empowerment as legendary critic Frederick SCH writes foreign settings create an exotic quality with storybook scenes and Fashions and allow Heroes and heroins to act in ways that are not always socially possible in Japan a notable example of this was the rose of Versa a manga which eventually got turned into an anime and is set in the French Royal Court just before enduring the French Revolution initially the show follows the biographical story of Marie Antoinette the last queen of France but soon pivots to the real Main and fictional character of Oscar franois dejaj and this is the point I would acknowledge that I'm pronouncing words in like four different languages so please forgive me if any of my pronunciations are way off Oscar is a young woman who was raised as a boy and a so Soldier by her father who longed for a male Heir Oscar becomes captain of the Queen's guard and although she openly identifies as a woman her masculine demeanor and androgynous aesthetic created for various gender defying and homoerotic subplots Oscar's first romantic intertwining for example is with a female character named Rosalie Who falls for Oscar after she saves her life multiple times but Oscar rejects rosal's advances stating that she wanted to be in a relationship with a man not a woman in shjo anime it was very common to explore such romantic interests between women so much so that it had its own term class s relationships these were not usually sexual in their nature but still romantic friendships between women with intensely strong emotional bonds or admiration for one another after this failed situationship Oscar then encounters two different male suitors one who sees her only as a man and one who sees her only as a woman both of which prove exceedingly frustrating to Oscar who wants to be recognized for her whole self eventually Oscar falls in love with her life long sidekick Andre who is himself an androgynous figure and by the end of the story cuts his hair to look similar to Oscars and indeed by the end of the show they look very much alike Oscar even describes Andre as her Shadow and the fact that they're both basically the same person is again a ND to the homoerotic elements which were a normal part of the genre it was this ability to play with the Dynamics of sex and gender which made shjo anime so popular with Japanese girls at the time who were able to project themselves into situations they otherwise wouldn't be in male homosexual love for example was fairly common in shjo anime because the idea of men having sex was considered a lot more normal than thinking about the sexuality of women on top of that the rose of Vera was also politically very bold and inspiring with the main character Oscar becoming so disillusioned with the corruption of the French aristocracy that she joins the Republican Rebels and fights to overthrow the monarchy eventually dying in battle for the cause these Progressive and transgressive messages made the rose of versa so popular at the time that according to critic Deborah shamun when the main character Oscar died teachers reportedly were forced to suspend classes because all the girl students were in tears and one angry fan actually mailed a letter containing a razor to the artist who wrote the manga akid rioko so we see here that early on in anime Europe represented a foreign setting where characters could behave differently to what the Norms in Japan allowed while still speaking very much directly to Japanese audiences this is a theme that would continue on in the 70s as we approached the era of Miyazaki in the 1970s a new type of anime subgenre began to emerge series which directly retold traditional European stories Heidi the show I mentioned at the start of this video was one of the pioneering Works in this field and was part of a larger series called the world Masterpiece Theater this was a Japanese TV show which would take a classic piece of literature and spend a year airing it as a serialized anime the series adapted everything from the mumin of Finland to the British classic of Peter Pan and although it was not originally part of the series Heidi was later usurped as part of the wider umbrella of the world Masterpiece Theater in almost all these series Europe is shown as a magical idilic land where Adventures can take place and children in particular are at Liberty to discover themselves and the world around them if you're wondering why this was the case critic kobus vanon staden summarizes it well there are very few anime depictions of contemporary Europe mostly Europe is treated as a changeless Rania where the use of historically European detailing and Landscapes designates the setting as beautifully passed what Von staden is saying here is that for anime Europe becomes an almost Fantastical fictional land trapped in that era when cutes little Villages were tucked away in some lush green part of the world away from the corruption of the modern Industrial Age and the evils that come with it this also followed in the footsteps of classic European literature and the trend of build Roman which means coming of age stories in the vein of what Charles Dickens wrote where children confront a cold Adult World and learn lessons meant to teach the viewing or reading audiences valuable life lessons on top of that the European setting allowed filmmakers to tell a different kind of story unlike the kinds currently being told to Japanese audiences at the time in more action-oriented anime speaking on his time working on Heidi hay Miyazaki wrote that we wanted to create a work for children that wasn't frivolous and we wanted to break away away from the compromised and slap Dash television animation shows of that time in fact this desire was so strong that it actually ended up taking the animation company that made Heidi zuo ISO and ended up running it into the ground financially Heidi's animators were so determined to make sure that there was lasting quality in every cell and every second of Animation that they spent way more time making each episode than was the norm for the industry Miyazaki refers to making Heidi in a year-long state of emergency and said that it was the lessons that learned from making the show that pushed him away from television and towards films it was only then that we came to understand the danger of Television he writes television repeatedly demands the same thing its viciousness makes everything banal we realized that television required our state of emergency to become a normal condition the only way to have a long-term relationship with television is to lower the level of production quality to one that can be sustained though this was obviously tragic at the time it's also something we can perhaps be grateful for now because it's ultimately what leaves the creation of studio jibli in 1985 founded by the legendary figures of hay Miyazaki and isau takahata who had worked together on the show Heidi as should already be apparent by now Miyazaki in particular had a great personal fascination with Euro and made several research trips across various parts of the continent from Wales to Stockholm to several places in Germany it is these varied influences that would eventually become the iconic Studio juilee style which most of us can now recognize at just a glance and as in influenced so many anime since but unlike Heidi where Switzerland was a relatively specific but rural Utopia in jibli films we start to see a change in emphasis Miyazaki uses all these places that he had visited and taken pictures of and turns them into one beautiful amalgamation for example if we look at Kiki's Delivery Service which is one of my favorite films of all time we can see that the locations in architecture aren't particularly match with any one European location instead it's a mix of various European Aesthetics but but also some Fantastical and anachronistic elements making it hard to place exactly where or what time period the film is supposed to be set in the same can be said of how's Moving Castle which on top of having magic of course also has things like gliders and various steam minations which have gone on to massively influence steampunk and basically create another subgenre where a vague hodg Podge Europe is often the setting critic Danny cavalaro writes that this all comes from the Japanese concept of akogare no Paris the Paris of our dreams which refers to an elaborately fantasized Europe as seen through the Eastern eyes this is actually quite funny because this idealization of Europe pushed heavily by Miyazaki amongst others has actually resulted in a specific phenomenon called Paris syndrome which is a term coined by a Japanese psychiatrist to refer to the cultural shock that tourists particularly Japanese and other Asian tourists feel when they turn up to Paris and realize that it's not at all as magical as they imagined it to be and apparently it can cause quite severe mental health problems but going back to jib films we can see again the use of Europe as a Fantastical exotic setting which allows for new stories to be told but is also something new being done which is that the idilic European setting is often corrupted by the advancement of Technology films like how's Moving Castle and the early jibli work Castle in the Sky are explicit warnings on the dangers of technology and particularly militaristic technology while both films start off with wholesome and idilic settings these are quickly destroyed and the peace ruined by people who use the fruits of human advancement for their own selfish gain both our main characters Sophie and pazu respectively have their lives turned upside down by these Bad actors these of course have strong parallels to Japan's own militaristic history going back to what we spoke about earlier after the end of isolationism once sakoku ended Japan rapidly rush to both modernize its technology but also its Empire and taking a leap from its European influences began to invade and Conquer various parts of China and East Asia rather than necessarily set these films in Japan and make the message more blunt but also more antagonizing one possible reason for setting anime in Europe is that it allows the social critique to be more generalized and also one that is more Universal and with so much of this militaristic Behavior originating from the European powers it made added sense to tell these stories in a European setting as well this again is a major theme that continues in the steampunk genre where the dangers of Technology are of often Central to the story and even outside steampunk the European setting can still offer a great window into those same critiques Full Metal Alchemist which is often listed as one of the best anime of all time touches on these very themes it follows the story of two brothers alons and Edward ELC obviously Germanic names in the fictional country of amestris which is clearly meant to portray a militaristic Germany in their world Alchemy is a science which allows Alchemist to transform objects from one form to another as long as they follow the law of equip valent exchange which is that they must provide something of equal value to transmute an object like they do the older brother Edward is recruited by the government to become a state Alchemist which he hopes will allow him to conduct research on returning him and his brother to their original bodies which themselves were lost during The Reckless pursuit of scientific advancement but the government merely uses its Alchemist as human weapons for militaristic expansion and the brothers soon learn the Dark World they've been dragged into disturbed by what they see they began working on ending the current regime and to fix the wrongs they see in the world as we get closer and closer to the modern day of anime the reasons for the European settings become increasingly diversed as we see in examples like this but the influences of their Origins are still also very [Music] clear nowadays we live in an era where the world is much more globalized and easy to access the absolute domination of the internet over our lives and the ability to travel across the world so much more freely has done a lot to demystify Europe to Japan and vice versa so accordingly representations of Europe has started to become even more common though they still follow a lot of the same Inspirations we've spoken about already let me break down some of the different kinds we've seen the rise of anime like the Vinland Saga which is a beautiful exploration of violence slavery and the evils of war the anime is set mostly in England and Denmark but is also an historical account of the real events of the Danish conquering of England it features real characters like King canut and thorine but takes creative liberties with the specifics of their stories the show plays with all the various Traditions we've just spoken about in this video much like miyazaki's works the European setting in the Vinland Saga allows for scathing critiques of armed conflict and dehumanization but it also deviates in that it is very much concerned with the realism of where it is set Europe is not a Fantastical magical land but rather a brutal and unforgiving place where murder war and slavery are all common place there are are real world events that the story has to incorporate and stay true to so it doesn't play loose with those aspects in this regard it's much more like the rose of Versa it's inspired in equal parts by real Norse folklore but also just the author Makoto yukimura's personal fascination with the culture so overall we can say a show like the Vinland Saga represents the Japanese desire to tell stories inspired by the local Tales of European cultures more traditionally we have anime like Attack on Titan which although clearly not as wholesome as jilee films is essentially following in the same tradition it follows the same beats of the European setting being a mishmash of various European countries with Germanic names like Arin Jer and the clear Nazi parallels all the way to the Norse influences for the Titans but a different reason for the European setting in modern anime is actually just the exoticism of Europe in the popular anime one piece for example we have an entire Arc set in the fictional setting of dress Rosa which is an island inspired by Spain and Spanish culture the main villain of the Ark Don Flamingo should tell you everything you need to know just by his name which is inspired by the Spanish Epic Novel Don kyote there's even depictions of paa and flamco dancing but here we still see the general mixing of European Aesthetics with an important part of the dress Rosa Arc taking place in a Coliseum which is of course Italian in origin so sometimes it's no deeper than just Europe being a fun and exotic place to set an anime in finally we have something which is actually relatively new in terms of reasons for European influence video games a vast number of anime are set in a European Medieval World of Adventures and quests whether that be digital like in Sword Art Online or real like they are in freen Beyond Journey's End this one is fairly simple to explain so I'll keep it short in that the reason so many video games take place in this kind of setting is that they're all drawing inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons which is the foundational point of role playing games particularly video games if you want to see that topic covered actually I have another video I made about it here and you'll find the link in the video description but it's not news that video games are very popular in Japan and so it's only natural that with the action adventure RPG genre being so heavily set in this kind of period and aesthetic that many modern anime would also want to explore that kind of world this is especially true in the isaka sub genre which is a genre characterized by the fact that the main character is suddenly transported from the boring real world to a new often literally magical world of knights and dragons like in the show jobless reincarnation which features a protagonist who lives in modern day Japan as an incel type loser and is deeply unsatisfied with his life but one day when he ends up in an accident and thinks he's died he actually ends up waking up in a magical European world full of Adventures and monsters and here he's given a second chance at life and as we've established what better setting for a second chance in a magical place than the Europe that anime loves so this has been a long video and an even longer personal Journey for me to investigate something that's been on my mind for a long time namely why so many anime are set in Europe ultimately the relationship is complex and has a long history in origin which hopefully I've done my best to elaborate on but obviously has far more steps along the way than I have the time to get into or even the resources to investigate on top of that something I haven't mentioned yet is the commercialization of anime ever since anime started becoming TV products and potentially sold to European markets its relationship with Europe became obviously more involved it makes sense that if you're making an anime and you want it to have a more Global appeal that you might set it in Europe or borrow from European Aesthetics to make the show more watchable to Western audiences but how much we should read into that is a matter of heated debate between academics speaking of I want to specifically shout out the academic article by Oscar Garcia Aranda and the mammoth book by Jonathan Clemens called anime of History both of which were amazing resources for research for this video and I'll be providing all my references in the video description in my mind there's a fairly clear Line running through the development of anime's relationship with Europe starting with the general cultural Fascination amongst Japanese people to then the use of Europe as a place for speaking on taboo topics in shjo anime from there it evolves to the exploration of European folk tales and children's stories to the jibli model of a Fantastical magical Europe which also leads to the industrialized steampunk themes that offer a chance to make social critiques finally we have the modern era where all the these influences kind of mix and we also get the addition of video games which bring with them their own fascination with Medieval Europe in particular courtesy of Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games so there you have it I hope you've enjoyed this video because it has truly been a labor of love and if you have then please like And subscribe and share this video so that it can reach a wider audience also if you'd like to support me directly head on over to the patreon link in the video description and you can earn yourself some benefits too like your name in the end credits I want to thank my current patrons my community and my editor Priscilla without all of whom this would not be possible please check out the other videos in this Channel and if you have any topics you'd like me to cover do drop them in the comment section below that's it for me thank you for watching once again and hope to see you very soon

Channel: The Soak

Views: 986,216

Keywords: movie, video essay, movies, tv shows, film breakdown

Id: jXjfzMCbaBc

Length: 24min 13sec (1453 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 31 2024