For many, the terms “popular culture” and “globalisation” no doubt convey some meaning, though these meanings will likely be as varied as the personal preferences of the many who define them. For me particularly, this can be shown through the rapid rise of, “anime”, as in being a foreign product, anime owes its popularity and growth to globalisation.

However, as mentioned these terms can be varied and therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to have some clarification between the two and what these terms actually signify. Popular culture is a form of ‘public fantasy’ in the sense of culture as a ‘signifying practice’ i.e. one which itself creates meaning for the individual (Storey, 2009, p.2, p.9). In addition, Globalisation is the spread of ‘transplanetary connectivity’ and ‘supraterritoriality’, a phenomenon where geographical location does not hinder human connection (Scholte, 2007, p.1478). Finally, in regards to anime, this is just simply animation made in the Northeast Asian style- principally from Japan.

Anime is popular in part because globalisation provided it with a new market outside of Japan. This is demonstrated by its sudden rise in popularity during the 1980s which followed closely a global trend towards foreign private investment and media deregulation (Kehr, 2002; MacBride & Roach, 2000). This is not to say its popularity in its home country did not potentiate its spread. Rather, an interdependency existed between the two which was potentiated largely by economic interest. This hints at the fact that popular culture is only able to exist in a capitalist market economy (Storey, 2009) However, this is not the only way in which globalisation popularised anime.

The popularity of anime is in part due to the influence exerted on Japan by the United States through globalisation. The latter half of the 1980s saw the rise of space opera anime. The surge in popularity of this genre is oddly enough directly attributable to the success of Star Wars (Barder, 2015). This demonstrated the viability of such projects and spurred the export of Anime to the United States. Thus, the effects of globalisation were also seen in Japan- in the sense of the Westernisation of anime as a medium.

Finally, anime’s popularity is in part due to the marketability of foreign cultures offered by globalisation, specifically Japanese culture. This is evidenced by the existence of “weeaboo”, individuals obsessed with Japanese culture (Dictionary.com, n.d.). Although you’re probably wondering what on earth a weeaboo is, it is not merely an anime fan. Rather, a weeaboo is one whose economic and cultural identity is tied to the consumption of Japanese merchandise. In essence, the popularity of anime is largely a mercantile expression of the propensity of the working class to consume, a necessity of globalisation.

Various forms of popular culture exist, one of which is anime. The presence of anime in the language of popular culture is inextricably tied to globalisation. This is because globalisation exposed the medium to a wider audience, which lead to influences and further strengthened the medium in its home country and served to market Japanese culture as a whole.

Reference List

Barder, O., 2015. Understanding The Japanese Influences Behind ‘Star Wars’. [online] Forbes. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/12/21/understanding-the-japanese-influences-behind-star-wars/amp/ [Accessed 3 September 2020].

Dictionary.com, n.d. Weeaboo – What Does Weeaboo Mean?. [online] Dictionary.com. Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/weeaboo/ [Accessed 5 September 2020].

Kehr, D., 2002. FILM; Anime, Japanese Cinema’s Second Golden Age. The New York Times, [online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/20/movies/film-anime-japanese-cinema-s-second-golden-age.html?_r=0 [Accessed 3 September 2020].

Macbride, S. and Roach, C., 2000. The new international information order. In: F. Lechner and J. Boli, ed., The globalization reader, 1st ed. Malden: Blackwell publishers, p.289.

Scholte, J., 2007. Defining Globalisation. The World Economy, 0(0), p.1478. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2007.01019.x

John Storey – What is Popular Culture? (Cultural Theory and popular culture: an introduction, Routledge, pp. 1-16.