Japanese Soft Power

Japan is such a unique country that I have always been interested in. The way that Japan uses it's soft power (a cultural exchange on international levels) is extremely interesting because there are so many ways in which they can do this. The most common way that affects young people such as myself is through anime, manga, video games, and the "kawaii" (meaning cute in Japanese) culture.
The soft power of Japan affects our culture in so many ways that it seems we don't even notice how much is actually there. I know so many young people that watch anime and they read manga constantly, loving every moment of it. The impact of video games is even greater, because the majority of these games with the cute little characters comes from Japan; Pokemon is one that people don't always realize comes from Japan. Such as the image to the left, how many people represent this little guy? A large majority of people seem to be able to remember "Pikachu" and know his name. His influence on my generation especially is amazing, and while it doesn't affect every person it does effect a large amount. Japan's influence on our country is amazing. But how does this play into politics? What political influence does this use of "soft power" seem to have?
Young artists use anime in order to incorporate politics into something entertaining. An anime which I have watched called Hetalia. This anime uses political and historical events in order to create a historical satire. Each of the characters personifies a country in a humorous way, and interact with each other as they move through history. The anime itself is deeply researched and seems to be extremely accurate, especially with the personifications of the characters. While this anime itself can be seen as a political outlet, especially with the characters, the artwork that I have found reflecting this anime is a better example of soft power. To the right is a cartoon drawn by a fan representing two of the countries of China and Japan. It by itself is a pure example of soft power because the comic is focused around that exactly. Visually it's laid out as a manga, with the panels and speech bubbles. The style of the artwork also represents the "manga" or "anime" style of work that we know and can easily recognize. The funny thing about this image is that it specifically relates to soft power, and that Japan is using their culture to manipulate china. I just thought it was ironic that I found an image that relates to a topic of discussion within the topic of this post.
The anime of Hetalia becomes the perfect example of soft power within anime because its entire purpose is to discuss history or politics in a humorous way. Though Japanese soft power goes beyond this one anime, there is so many different ways in which this occurs.

Visually, anime is quite appealing for many reasons. Even the anime that were made in America still seem to represent the Japanese manga style of artwork. The style of this artwork is easy to characterize. Usually the characters have quite large eyes, even when their eyes are smaller they are still quite large. The faces are simplified as well as the expressions on the face. They show the rang of emotion through simplicity, because the artists of anime and manga have to draw so much. They make things cute, the girls are thin and generally look cuter than the men (i.e. bigger eyes and larger feminine features) while the men look more masculine (in most cases). The characters themselves are different for different series, because they appeal to different audiences. The range in these series are the same as our genres, the style itself interests so many different appeals. The work to the left represents an anime (as well as a manga) series that I loved for so long, Fruits Basket. I felt as though it represented Japanese soft power personally because it was one of my favorite shows and what got me interested in Japanese culture. The girl in the front is small and cute, happy face with large eyes. She has soft pale skin (which in Japanese culture is idealized) and is the one holding the animals. The men in this show represent different types of men to appeal to many different girls (since this is a "girl" anime). Visually this image represents the idea of anime and manga well in my opinion, and I feel as though it helps in the representation of Japanese soft power. However they are many different examples of this, too many in fact it was hard to choose one.
I know personally, as stated previously, I was deeply affected by Japanese soft power, especially in the progress of my artwork. This is a drawing that I did in 2009, which seems like it was quite some time ago especially if you look at my studio work now. As an artist I feel as though I should be ashamed of this image, however it's something I did when I was interested in Japanese culture, and it was something I did early in my relationship with my current boyfriend of 5 years, which is something we can look back on and see what all I've made for him. I chose this image also because I thought it was funny that I chose to dress us in University of Kentucky clothing and I was still living in Indiana at the time. Here I chose to represent my relationship with my boyfriend using the manga style with the large eyes, bright colors and even my current hair color was affected by the anime style. This shows soft power well, because I incorporated it into my early artwork, though I have expanded far beyond that it was still a frequent factor in my early artwork. I have dropped the style and moved to realism, however I still occasionally draw using this style. This style just isn't practical for a studio art major, however I am proud that this is how I learned to draw early on.
The use of soft power that Japan brings to America is quite surprising because there is just so much, their culture intertwines with ours and we don't even seem to realize it. It's personally affected me, and I feel as though it'll continue to incorporate itself into the American culture.