Ask John: Should Americans Be Obsessed With Japanese Culture?

Question:
Do you think it’s fair that anime is taking over someone’s life? When you go all anime-ish and start using annoying Japanese words? And if you feel the urge to move to Japan? Then what? What will happen to your own culture?

Answer:
Since this is such a pointedly personal question, I can only answer it from a very personal perspective. Ultimately, anime is an entertainment medium. For artists, it’s expressive art. For viewers, at the most fundamental level, anime is just escapist entertainment. Devotion to anime, from the amateur side, is just a hobby. In my personal opinion, there’s no harm in choosing to become obsessively devoted to anime, within logical reason. Any hobby, profession or interest that causes significant physical or psychological harm to the self or others is, of course, unhealthy and unwise. Regarding a personal hobby that, at worst only mildly annoys others, I consider it suitable only for the individual to determine the fairness of the individual’s fanaticism. In other words, as long as I’m not doing any harm to anyone else, it’s me and only myself that can decide if it’s “fair” for me to be an anime otaku.

Speaking personally, I’m arguably one of America’s most obsessive and fanatic anime fans. But I don’t use “annoying Japanese words” in conversation and I don’t “go all anime-ish” by costuming or “glomping” or even raising my voice. That may be partially because I’m typically more than 10 years older than the average contemporary American anime fan, but I think it’s more so because I’m a typical “old school” anime fan that pre-dates the current generation of anime fans who seem to distinguish anime as the forefront of an entire alternative social culture. Forgive me for straying off subject a bit. My point is that I’m a die-hard anime fan, and although I do feel the constant desire to move to Japan, but I behave like a typical anime fan, don’t annoy others, and don’t dismiss or denigrate any of my native American culture. Furthermore, I have no objections to anime fans that do allow anime to visibly take over their lives. The founding principles of American culture are freedom of expression and thought. America itself is a melting pot of international cultures. As such, America has no true native culture. In a sense, it is precisely American culture which allows and encourages Americans to become interested in Japanese culture.

I get the sense that the question asked implies an anxiety that excess interest in anime and Japanese culture will lead to a decrease in devotion to native American history and culture. I think this fear is misplaced. While anime is making serious and undeniable headway into American culture and consciousness, especially among America’s youth, it’s still relatively a niche market. It may seem like “everybody” is into anime these days, but in reality “everybody” is probably only a relatively small minority. Basically, I think its alarmist to fear that American culture is turning Japanese or that American youths are turning their backs on their own native culture. Not everyone likes anime. Not everyone is fanatically devoted to anime. I’m pleased by that, and pleased to see that some Americans are extremely, obsessively devoted to anime and Japanese culture. It is this diversity of interests which creates the diverse and tolerant American culture. In that context, not only do I think it’s “fair” that some American anime fans are slavishly devoted to anime; I think it would be unfair and un-American if we did not encourage an interest in a foreign culture.

Speaking from clearly personal opinion, I believe in personal individuality and the right to define one’s own personality and interests. I don’t want to encourage anyone to betray his or her own native culture. But I do want to see people happy and devoted to whatever hobby brings personal enjoyment and fulfillment, as long as those interests are passive and non-harmful to the self or others. I think that natural differences in personality and interests are adequate to insure the preservation of cultural values on a community scale. I think that an individual’s decision of how thoroughly to adhere to one’s native culture should be an unrestrained personal choice.