Anime And Manga: History Of Development

In this use case I will be looking at how anime/manga has spread out and circulated throughout the world using a large fan-base, modern-day technology and through the available online societies. The main reason for the circulating of manga is the major fan base it has built globally over the last couple of years. Everywhere from US to China are fans invested and interested in sharing knowledge and their favorite figures and comic books together. Looking at how the content itself have circulated from Japan to especially other Asian countries including China and Taiwan.

According to Yuki Ohsawa, there are some common factors that has contributed to the interest of anime and manga in the above-mentioned regions. Firstly, the GDP growth and wealth of the individuals has help with the population being able to afford the magazines/comics. Secondly the culture in east Asia do not very much, making it easier for similar content to spread and interest residence in other nations. Thirdly, strong distributions channels such as social media groups, webpages and comic bookstores are needed in order for the manga to spread across nations.

Because of the history with Japan and their influence with Germany in the second world war a lot of Japanese content was banned in most parts of Asia including China, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. However, due to its popularity Manga and Anime was banned in the same period however where still transported into the above nations without the government’s knowledge. Examples could be copies and not-official versions of the comic books. (Ohsawa, Yuki. 2017) Before social media, Japanese Manage was smuggled around east Asia. Most of the 1950’s the majority of the population in Korea could read different manga comics in shops and then later in shops which rented out the magazines illegally. This also included copies of originals. (Yuki Ohsawa.)

To make a smooth transition from Japanese culture to Korean most manufactures changed the hero’s names from Japanese to Korean and in general made them seem more Korean, so the population would see them as Korean rather than illegally distributed Japanese cartoons. (Yuki Ohsawa.) This way of distributing content of manga and anime lasted up around till the 70’s and a lot of newer and popular comics were still circulating in Korea way into the 70’s.

In the 1980’s there where a small problem in the circulation of manga and comics in Korea as the population started losing interest and was beginning to see the graphic as a little to sexual compared to other acceptable norms of society. (Yuki Ohsawa 2017) These type of adult content comics books where later banned in Korea, but that did not include manga and other Japanese comics as they officially never existed.

This led to the forming of organized Manga societies way before the online societies were established. Creating a sort of underground and secret society, where Manga and anime was circulating from Japan and shared between each other through comic books, roleplay and cartoon movies. (Yuki Ohsawa 2017) This helped with circulating the illegal material faster than before as these networks was established all over the country.

By 1991 Manga and Anime was now legal in Korea. (Yuki Ohsawa 2017). In the 1990’s the Korean society and government started becoming more acceptable towards Japanese Manga and there was an increased interest in importing the magazines, which were now legal. This meant that the circulation of Japanese content now reached its high point in Korea and the former closed societies now could enter the surface and recruit new members and fans. (Yuki Ohsawa 2017). Even though Manga has been widely popular in Korea it was not before 1998 that most of the content was released and censorship was removed making it even more available to the public. In the early 2000’s the final censorships were now removed making the circulation of Manga even stronger in the region.

The Chinese situation were a little different compared to the situation in Korea. In the early 1980’s when Manga started circulating in China it was mostly in the younger generation and way later than in Korea due to the late GDP growth in China. Following the 1980’s and 1990’s TV became more and more open on which content to share and circulate in China. For example did the local and national TV channels start airing and show both American, Asian and other foreign shows. The first Japanese Manga shows started circulating in Chinese TV during the 1980’s with the introduction of high color TV (Ohsawa, Yuki. 2017). This also started the circulation of cartoons from other countries.

Following the coming years China would start airing and printing more and more Anime. (Ohsawa, Yuki. 2016: 142) and it peaked during the 1990’s to early 2000’s where a huge Chinese fan base started evolving. During these years their were even examples of Japanese fans sharing thoughts and idea through mail with fans from China hence circulating the ideas and love they had for the anime genre.

In the early 2000’s did the Chinese government begin to restrict content from foreign produces including manga and cartoons from Japan. This led however to the same scenario, where underground / secret fan groups where created and the circulation of for example manga where done without the government’s knowledge (Ohsawa, Yuki. 2017). An example from Chinese TV would be the banning of foreign tv-shows at certain hours of the day to avoid to much foreign interference. This led to fewer Chinese children watching Anime. Therefor it safe to assume that these children will be much more influenced by the circulation of illegal anime and manga in the hidden groups. In this case circulation helps with sharing children hobbies even though they are illegal in their area. It is also shown that the Chinese started decreasing the amount of imports on manga and anime, however it is expected that due to its popularity it is still circulating in high amounts around the government.

During an investigation of the anime fan base in China it showed that only a low percentage preffered Chinese produce anime to Japanese produced. (Ohsawa, Yuki. 2017) Further highlighting the hypothesis of Japanese illegal anime circulating within the Chinese borders. Since the introduction of the Internet if has become even easier for anime fans in China to distribute Anime to each other and even easier for Japanese producers to air on certain platforms for foreigners to watch. (Rosenbaum, Roman 2016: 255)

In both of the above scenarios the online societies and the internet as a whole is the way to access illegal tv-shows and circulate content with each-other. Mostly because the content circulating is available at any time and a free of charge. Even though both governments have tried to ban certain tv-shows based on IP addresses and location – it is easy for a regular citizen to change their location using a VPN to pretend that their PC are in a certain area of the world where it is legal. Furthermore, does the online societies on Facebook often share videos and information about episodes, movies and comic books which is otherwise forbidden in some areas.

Through the above-mentioned examples, it is easy to see how something can circulate in a globalized world even though it is illegal in some areas. It started with copies of videos tapes, books and movies in the 19’hundreds and later spread into the online world and societies as we know today. This is mostly due to the massive fan base represented in the different regions as well as the importance of circulations for fans who would like to enjoy the content beside it being illegal. With today’s fast paced internet and the role of societies on different social media channels it has been even easier to distribute Manga in the world, which I will cover in the following paragraph.

As mentioned in the above paragraph it is no surprise that the internet and the work of online societies have speeded up the circulation of anime and manga (Ohsawa, Yuki. 2016: 167). This is due to the fact that since both the internet and later the social media and content sharing webpages has been introduced it is now much easier for fans and administrators to upload very high quality e-books, cartoons and movies with subtitles. Condry, Ian and Ohsawa, Yuki. 2017 has an interesting approaching to this form of circulation calling it “Fansubbing” (Condry, Ian 2017: 195). This term covers how anime and manga circulation has adopted to a more globalized world and supports the idea of foreign fans of Anime and Manga in other countries such as in the US and Canada distributes, uploads, add subtitles and translates the content into their native language as well as others. In certain groups online it is even possible to find illegally distributed movies and cartoons. Even though this is a beneficial form of circulation for the fans and give them the ability for them to see their favorite shows and read their favorite comics online. Including sharing it with the global societies it also has a downside for the producers of the content. In most cases the content circulating on social platforms are illegal copyrights or copies, which ensures that the produces do not get payment and they are there for breaking the copyright laws of global distribution. (Condry, Ian 2017). This leads to producers of anime and manga to receive less payment for their work and making them less interested in producing future content as larger magazine and movie companies cannot justify the manhours put into creating content when no income is coming in. The sharing of content has both upside and downsides for the anime fans as their use-sage of it is slowly suffocating the industry.

Nevertheless, does Ohsawa, Yuki argue that is necessary for such online societies to form as they make the content available to a larger fan base globally. Furthermore, deems it unstoppable as private users can share anything with anyone regardless of legislations or rules. (Ohsawa, Yuki. Ohsawa, Yuki. 2017)

In general, the internet and the social platforms has allowed not only the circulating of anime and manga on another level, but also the abilities for fans to share knowledge, thoughts and ideas on another level of what was possible before. This has led to an increase in circulation and a deeper society for certain types of anime. This brings me back to Ohsawa, Yuki’s argument regarding the social media groups been an asset for anime producers as they help distributing their product to a much larger audience than before.

A whole another type of online communities that has been building over the reason years are not only sharing the content but actually living” like” their favorite heroes through cosplay. This type of online and in-person societies allows a person to switch identity with a manga character and has resulted in the circulation of everything from dating sides to friendship groups online. (Ito, Kinko. 2014) Furthermore, has cosplay also allowed people to act and animals and even change gender with has made the circulation of cosplay a great contributor to the acceptance of trans people in the society (Ito, Kinko. 2014). Nevertheless, does it also provide an escape area for some young people dealing with depression and other issues.

Looking at this use-case there are certain elements that argues for the benefits of circulation. Firstly, does the spreading of Anime and Manga in online societies prove that fans can get a hold of their favorite content even though it is illegal. This also talks to the ability of online societies that not only are they used to discuss certain types of magazines but also to illegally distribute movies. Even though the illegal distribution of movies is costing the movie industry millions of dollars a year it is at the same time increasing the fan-base and people watching Anime. In this case it can be argued that the Anime genre would not be as popular if it was not for the circulation of illegal magazines and movies.