Why is Anime so Obsessed with German Culture?

why is Anime so obsessed with Deutschland [Applause] the only person to notice this from JoJo to Evangelion to girls and Panzer to attack on Titan to Saga of Tanya the evil and many many more the Germans seem to have stopped invading countries and instead have set their sights on Japanese cartoons but the question you are probably thinking is why why has German culture influenced anime on such a widespread scale while I don't believe there is a definitive answer to this question I have a particular theory on why German culture influenced Japan and that had a later knock on effect on the Manga and Anime industry as you can probably tell I am neither Japanese nor German so what gives me the right as a British weeb to appropriate these two cultures with some dumb historical Theory well you gotta remember taking things from other countries is what the British do best so I'm the best man for the job please note that this is just a theory on the origins of German cultural influence in Japan which in turn affected our beloved Taiwanese moving pictures I have no proof that this directly affected anime in particular however it did plant the seeds of German influence in Japan which then later blossomed into the anime we know today let us begin if you are thinking that this Theory will be that because Japan was allies with Germany during World War II it then Sparks Japanese interest in German culture then you are wrong this video is not about World War II at all during the second world war there was little opportunity for cultural influence to occur as the Germans and Japanese tended to deal with their respective fronts and Affairs independently of course there are still State meetings between the two Nations during the war but this had little impact on the Japanese communities living in Japan in terms of German culture reaching them sure the second world war may have develop Japanese interest in Germany but the origins can be found much earlier let's unravel the history of the first Japanese germa booze for 214 years spanning from 1639 to 1853 Japan was under the sukoku policy which was an isolationist foreign policy where Japan had largely cut ties with the outside world with few exceptions and foreigners were forbidden to enter Japan Japan changed in 1853 with the expedition of U.S Navy Commodore Matthew Perry the modern ships of the US Navy made Japan realize they were outgunned and were forced to open up trade of the West Japan then adopted a policy of modernization during the Meiji period learning from the West to be able to compete with the Western powers in the future this was the beginning of significant German influence in Japan the new Japanese constitution of 1889 took inspiration from the philosophy of Rudolf Von neist a German politician and political scientist the modernized Japanese Army was stylized by the Prussian army with Prussian General and foreign advisor Clemens Wilhelm Jacob meckel spending three years improving the Japanese military from these two examples it's clear that Germany had a large contribution to the modernization of Japan with Japan developing its culture to be more Western and modernized now that I've got the backstory out the way let's fast forward to what I really want to talk about and the origin of German culture in the Japanese communities across Japan and that is the first World War wait what Japan fought in World War one that's BS the only fought in World War II well that's where you're wrong kiddo not many people know about this but Japan did actually fight in the first World War there is a catch they only fought in just one battle and this battle was the siege of Xing Tao from August to November 1914. Singh Tao was a German Colony in China since 1898 and if you like to go on the piss like me with beer and other alcoholic beverages the name Tsing Tao should ring a bell disclaimer I am not sponsored by singtel beer it tastes like ass I mean good job I'm an ass man and yeah it's pretty obvious who are the people who introduced beer to sing tao in China the Germans of course do I really have to spell it out to you anyway this is definitely a good example of German settlers who lived in singtel having an impact on their new community's culture in China and you might want to keep note of this as it's going to be relevant again later on anyway let us set the stage for the siege of singtel Britain had just declared war on Germany in August 1914 and requested Japanese involvement in attacking Singtao Japan accepted and the siege of singtel begun with the combined Japanese and British Empire force of about 23 000 men versus only about 2 000 Xing Tao German soldiers and an additional 3 000 German volunteers most of whom weren't trained soldiers and were just civilians and it settled in singtel and they just wanted to defend their colony from the Japanese and British who were invading as you can probably tell this battle was never going to end well for the the Germans the Japanese were victorious due to their overwhelming numbers playing a large role and a German suffering from an anglo-japanese Naval blockade starving the Germans of supplies and support most of the Germans surrendered meaning Japan and Britain now had around 4 000 German pows they needed to deal with the Japanese kindly offered to transport these German pows and imprison them in around 15 POW camps across Japan until the end of the war after criticism of the conditions in the camps by inspectors from neutral organizations such as the Red Cross over half of the camps were closed meaning only six camps remained in Japan the camp I mainly want to talk about was Bando camp located on shikoku island in Naruto City and before you weebs get excited no it's not the [ __ ] hidden Leaf Village okay the treatment of prisoners at band No Cap was unusually lenient as prisoners were often allowed outside the camp and even allowed to interact with the local Japanese community and work in the local factories and businesses for the vast majority of the local Japanese Community this was the first time that they had interacted with foreigners the German prisoners introduced their native culture to the local Japanese Beethoven's knife Symphony was played in Japan for the first time by the prisoners and the prisoners built a German Bridge which is still there today the Germans taught the local Japanese how to bake bread make cheese perform gymnastics and play fuzzball not soccer you filthy Americans in March 1918 the prisoners hosted ouster long for the biltkuns and Hanford kite you don't want to know how many takes that taught me to say that because I don't speak German but yeah if you're German and you thought that was a bad pronunciation let me know but for those English speakers it's the visual arts and crafts exhibition this was an exhibition of German food sport handicraft and music at the camp you might be thinking aeon what attention was small exhibition of under a thousand Germans actually contribute to Japanese cultural exchange that it affected the not so Chinese cartoons and mangoes that I read in the present well you know what I'm glad you asked this Festival attracted approximately 50 000 visitors over the course of days and even Prince naruhiko higashikuni of the Imperial family showed interest in the exhibition and wanted to bring it to the rest of Naruto City Prince naruhiko was the uncle in law of the future Emperor Hirohito and became Prime Minister of Japan in 1945. interestingly enough so while this was just one camp in Japan these German prisoners had a much larger impact on Japanese interest in German culture overall it is even said that these German prisoners introduced the first ever sausages to Japan and we know we all like a bit of sausage don't we but Bando was not the only Camp to have this kind of German cultural exhibition as other camps in Japan started to follow a similar formula in 1918 and 1919 such as the camp ninoshima near Hiroshima which attracted around 10 000 people it became a nationwide cultural phenomenon prisoners started to be shipped back to Germany at the end of 1919 however approximately 170 German prisoners actually decided to remain in Japan rather than go back to Germany which was suffering from the aftermath of defeat from the first world war and it was really not a nice place to live in at that moment in time what was truly significant about the gym in pows in Japan was that it affected many local communities in Japan and they had been exposed to foreign cultural exchange for the first time for many of them the prior German reforms to Japan in the 19th century that I talked about earlier was a perhaps contributing factor towards Japanese interest in Germany but that was less of a cultural exchange and more of a political and Military Reformation which isn't really cultural Exchange in my eyes the German prisoners not only influenced their local Japanese communities but also contributed towards Nationwide Intrigue and Fascination from the Imperial family so I know what you're thinking how does this all link to anime during the 1910s European cartoons were being introduced in Japan for the first time which inspired the first Japanese animators while German cartoons were shown back then there were also French and British cartoons shown in Japan so why did anime and manga develop an interest in German culture as opposed to other cultures well I mean you can find countless other cultural influences in anime such as American culture but I was likely influenced by American involvement in Japan after World War II so it's not exclusively German culture that's hinted at or referenced in anime it's a variety of cultures but certainly German cultures is one of the most prevalent ones in anime with the German pows in Japan thousands of Japanese became intrigued with German culture for the first time and as time passed the two countries became close allies by a mutual beliefs of militarism and ethno nationalism and we all know where that led to in modern day Japan the presence of the German prisoners that lived in Japan over 100 years ago has not been forgotten the Bando Camp was turned into a museum in 1972 and you can still visit it today and a Japanese film to commemorate the German prisoners of Bando cap was released in 2006 called balato nogakuen meaning Ode to Joy Beethoven's most famous piece my theory is essentially that the impact of the German cultural exchange of this period continued to influence Japanese cultural interest for the coming decades while there were anime released before and during World War II anime only started to flourish into what we know today after World War II especially in the 1950s and the one famous Anime Studio you may have heard of was formed and before you comment I know I said at the start of the video I wouldn't talk about World War II this was just one sentence and that's it so leave me alone thank you anyway back to the point as anime was heavily inspired by the European cartoons of the 1910s it was only natural that anime and manga would take on German culture as a theme for many many shows but that fascination with the culture blossomed out of the ashes of the first World War and I admit I have no factual way to prove this theory is true as a theory is just a theory and people die when they are killed I have no concrete maths formula to link this to anime and manga and some of you might call me a lion click bait bastard for doing that but what is undeniable is the contribution of the German prisoners towards not just Japanese interest in German culture but foreign culture as a whole and if any Japanese media to come out of the early 20th century was influenced by Foreign culture it's those goddamn cartoons if you enjoyed this video please consider subscribing to the channel while I mainly create videos about the toe aru franchise I may consider doing more unusual anime related videos such as this depending on how well this video does thank you very much for watching and I will see you all in the next video bye bye

Channel: Aeon of Horus

Views: 1,347,169

Keywords: Anime, Manga, Light Novel, Germany, deutschland, Japan, German Culture, Japanese Culture, History, World War II, World War I, World War 1, World War One, World War Two, World War 2, Meiji, Period, Restoration, Modern, Prisoners, POWs, Tsingtao, Cartoons, Cartoon, Animation, Discussion, Analysis, Theory, Japanese, History of Anime, Imperial Japan, Imperial Germany, Nazi, Nazism, First World War, Second World War, Character, Characters, JoJo, Evangelion, Girls und Panzer, Youjo Senki, Explained, Hitler, Bomb

Id: 1spY27d4iAs

Length: 14min 21sec (861 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021