What's Japanese in Japanese Animation?

What's Japanese in Japanese Animation? While translating from Japanese to English sometimes causes anime to loose part of its Japanese heritage, anime borrowing from American culture continues to complicate things. Japan has a culture that remains very unique, yet at the same time, is as an off shoot of many other cultures. Because of Japan’s easy going manner with other beliefs, it absorbed many of the ideas brought to the country into its own culture. When looking at an anime, a familiar custom may seem as if it has been overly tampered with, when actually, that is the way the custom always was in Japan (Levi 65). The borrowing of cultures by the Japanese is best illustrated in their use of Western holidays. In Japan, Valentine’s Day is not a day where lovers give each other chocolates and flowers, but more of a Sadie Hawkins day, where the girls ask out the boys. Christmas is not a family oriented holiday in Japan, either, since the Japanese do not practice Christianity; it has become romanticized and resembles the American Valentine’s Day. "The exchange of Christmas presents is fraught with romantic tension as... in the ‘Tendo Family Christmas Scramble’ episode of Ranma ½." (Levi 26).
Japan has not absorbed culture only from America, either. The Japanese borrowed many cultural aspects of their neighbor China, from religion to language, although nowadays one cannot discern where the Chinese tradition ends and the Japanese tradition starts. The story that forms the basis for Dragonball is an old Chinese novel named Monkey: a Journey to the West (Levi 59). Of course, the version of the tale that Dragonball has become is nothing like the original Chinese story beyond the fact that the main character has a monkey’s tail. Otaku will often assume that since Japan is in Asia, the Japanese cannot possibly misconceive or stereotype other parts of Asia. On the contrary, the Japanese will portray other Asian countries inaccurately, just as Americans may inaccurately portray their Canadian neighbors. Due to this fact, anime often uses other Asian countries, such as China or India, as places where mysterious and unwanted events occur. Jusenkyo, the spring that curses Ranma Saotome to turn into a girl, is located in China (Ranma ½ ep 1). The fantasy world that Miaka gets transported to in Fushigi Yugi also resides in a part of China; a frightening and dark part of China where bandits roam the countryside, molesting lost girls from another dimension (Fushigi Yugi ep 2). Although China is usually portrayed as a bad area, aspects of other cultures are misrepresented in anime as well. "...it’s not surprising to discover that anime doesn’t do as well with alien mythologies... Using an alien mythology as the basis for an anime generally results in either a bad anime or one in which the alien elements become Japanized." (Levi 61). In the romantic comedy Oh My Goddess!, Keiichi accidentally wishes Belldandy, a beautiful goddess, to live with him forever. Things only get more complicated when Belldandy’s two sisters, Urd and Skuld, show up (Oh My Goddess! ep 3). Belldandy, Urd, and Skuld come from Norse mythology. Their personalities may attempt to reflect their Norse origins, but the animators have added a third eye on their foreheads, giving them a distinctly Japanese look.

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