CATDOLL: Americans talk about how Japanese anime should change: reducing pornographic elements is key

Benjamin Boas, a translator from the United States, recently expressed his personal views in an article in the Yomiuri Shimbun titled "How to Promote Japanese Anime Culture to the World." One of the points mentioned is that the way anime expresses sexually suggestive pornographic elements needs to be changed. After all, many Americans have the impression that Japanese anime is "pornographic," "revealing," and "large-scale."

Therefore, if the Japanese industry wants to create a hit like "Spirited Away" again, it cannot just target core Japanese fans, but must create content that can be accepted by most people in the world.

Even with holy light, it cannot break through the US censorship standards

Japanese anime has great potential in the US market

In the article, Benjamin Boas first stated that Japanese comics could create extremely high sales after entering the US market. In the US, the monthly sales of best-selling comics such as Batman and Spiderman are about 100,000 to 200,000 copies, while Shonen Jump can sell 2.04 million copies in Japan in a week, or 9.6 million copies in a month.

In addition, popular comics commonly seen in American bookstores recently include many Japanese anime such as "Attack on Titan", "One Punch Man", "Inuyashiki", "My Story!!", "My Hero Academia", etc., which shows that there is huge potential.

One Punch Man

First impressions are everything

However, not all popular works in Japan can gain the same popularity in the United States. If Japanese anime is to be sold all over the world, it is far from enough to rely on exquisite paintings or interesting plots. The most important thing is the first impression. If the industry wants to make an animation that is as popular as "Spirited Away" in the international market, it must start with expanding the audience base. In this way, the erotic elements with sexual innuendos cannot be expressed too directly.

Spirited Away

"Pornographic elements" must not appear

Benjamin Boas mentioned that he liked to watch Ranma 1/2 when he was in high school. Because there were many nude scenes in the plot, people around him often mistakenly thought he was reading pornographic comics. Nudity in anime may be just a way of expression for Japanese people, but according to American censorship standards, as long as part of the body is exposed, it cannot be classified as a children's program and broadcast on TV.

Idol works are not understood either?!

Even the idol character advertisements that are common in Japanese stores and trains are rarely seen in public places in the United States. Because these characters look underage and have a lot of skin exposure, they can easily be judged as child pornography. As a result, Japanese idol culture may not be understood because of this.

Of course, many of these idol characters are indeed underage...

《Love Live! 》

The Idolmaster

Teen comics are very popular in the United States

In addition, Benjamin Boas believes that Crunchyroll, Netflix and other viewing methods are very useful for promoting Japanese animation. As long as it can be watched online, it may arouse more foreigners' interest in animation.

Another problem that Japanese anime faces in the United States is that the American public often thinks that anime is for children. The age group that reads comics in the United States is also mostly teenagers, which leads to the fact that most of the works signed by American publishers are also aimed at teenagers. In fact, the types of Japanese comics are actually very wide. For example, "いちえふFukushima Daiichi Atomic Power Plant Worker's Diary" is a comic that describes the story of the operators of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The subject matter is novel, but it is not favored by American readers.

As for sports comics, they are a new genre in the United States and have not yet established a readership, which is why the publishing process of the English version of "Haikyuu!!" took a long time.

"Volleyball!"

via: Otaku News

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