ポケモンが輪出した「クール」な日本と日本人

アメリカでの流行を考える

流行 [はやり] /fashion/fad/vogue/
皮切り [かわきり] /beginning/start/
煽る [あおる] /to fan/to agitate/to stir up/
満を持して [まんをじして] /to be perfectly prepared/
公開 [こうかい] /presenting to the public (vs)/
Summary: Following two years after (the trend in) Japan, Pokeman is also becoming very trendy in America. The movies and card trading are becoming a cultural phenomena, and now there is not a elementary school child that doesn't know of Pokemon. At first the flame was lit with the Gameboy game, and its popularity was fanned by the card game, then the movie was released to the public (in accordance with a perfectly prepared plan.)
見事 [みごと] /splendid (an)/magnificent/beautiful/
戦略 [せんりゃく] /strategy/tactics/
優秀 [ゆうしゅう] /superiority (an)/excellence/
過程 [かてい] /process/
成功 [せいこう] /success (vs)/hit/
体現 [たいげん] /personification (vs)/impersonation/embodiment/
株 [かぶ] /share/stock/stump (of tree)/
資産 [しさん] /property/fortune/means/assets/
殖やす [ふやす] /to increase (vt)/to add to/to augment/
親 [おや] /parents/
輪出 ? single flower or something?
多大 [ただい] /heavy/much/
貢献 [こうけん] /contribution (vs)/services/
予感 [よかん] /presentiment/premonition/
副産物 [ふくさんぶつ] /byproduct/side line/
Summary: It was a completely beautiful strategy of mixed media. The process of becoming a great trainer while playing the game embodies the theme of a success achieved through great effort, and the collection of cards is a copy their stock-buying (and increasing) parents. Just as the exporting of Hollywood movies made a big contribution to (the exportation/adoption of) American culture, outside of the prediction of the export of the "Pokemon Phenomena" another byproduct of the Japanese culture has been born.

露出に違和感

露出 [ろしゅつ] /exposure (vs)/
違和感 [いわかん] /malaise/incompatibility/
一部 [いちぶ] /copy/part/partly/some/
批判 [ひはん] /criticism/judgement/comment/
暴力 [ぼうりょく] /violence/
清教徒 [せいきょうと] /puritans/
無修正 [むしゅうせい] /uncensored/
敏感 [びんかん] /sensibility (an)/susceptibility/sensitive (to)/well attuned to/
ご法度 [ごがっと] /banned/
対象 [たいしょう] /target/object (of worship, study, etc)/subject (of taxation, etc)/
Summary: This "Japanese culture" is not the good, old culture represented by "My Neighbor Totoro". It is for the same reasons that "Sailor Moon" was partly criticized, the violence, and the unnecessary exposure of skin. In the America that has the tradition of Puritanism, it is easy to obtain uncensored adult videos and magazines but on the other hand, when violence or sex are in front of a child's eyes they are unusually sensitive. However, children are banned from being the object of sexual desire/worship.
対照 [たいしょう] /contrast/antithesis/comparison/
封切り [ふうきり] /premiere/first showing/release (film) (vs)/
逆襲 [ぎゃくしゅう] /counterattack (vs)/
改訂版 [かいていばん] /revised edition/
副主人 [ふくしゅじん] /sub main character/??
狂言 [きょうげん] /play/drama/make-believe/
狂言回し [きょうげんまわし] /in a play or movie, things that concentrate on those people/
Summary: In contrast, Japan is the country that exports the most so-called "child pornography". I also went to see the Pokemon movie with some kids. It was the movie premiered about half a year ago in Japan, the revised edition of "Muutsuu's counter-attack". I heard that with respect to violence that it was completely censored in the Japanese version, but the thing that bothered me the most was that the two female sub characters that the movie focused on and the appearance of the character "Musashi".
必然性 [ひつぜんせい] /necessity/inevitability/
娼婦 [しょうふ] /prostitute/harlot/
典型 [てんけい] /type/pattern/archetypal (a-no)/
格好 [かっこう] /shape/form/suitability (a-no)/moderateness (in price)/appearance/manner/
異物 [いぶつ] /foreign substance/foreign body/xeno (pref)/
Summary: The two would show their stomachs without necessity, especially you could see their belly-buttons and they wore tight pants and boots. In America, this is the prototypical appearance of a prostitute. This sort of woman does not exist in American cartoons. It is a foreign substance.
纏わる [まつわる] /about/concerning/to be associated with/
常識 [じょうしき] /common sense/
隔離 [かくり] /isolation (vs)/segregation/
作為 [さくい] /artificiality/act/commission (of a crime)/intention/
結果 [けっか] /result/consequence/
枠 [わく] /frame/slide/
接する [せっする] /to come in contact with/to connect/to attend/to receive/
認識 [にんしき] /recognition (vs)/cognizance/
刷り込む [すりこむ] /to insert (an illustration)/to stencil (a pattern)/
伝播 [でんぱ] /transmission (vs)/propagation/spread/circulation/diffusion/dissemination/
Summary: However, it seems like children and the parents dragged along with them do not notice this foreign body. This is because the common sense about sex from the adult world is isolated from the child world as a result of the puritanistic (censorship). The foreign body carried to America by the animation from Japan that is outside this framework of puritanism that comes into daily contact with children will probably be unconsciously imprinted onto the children. That is what is being transmitted across the cultures.
除外 [じょがい] /exception/exclusion (vs)/
たかが /it's only ... (something)/
蟻の一穴 [ありのいっけつ] /from a small crack or damage, becomes big/
Summary: From excluding children as the object of worship/desire, once again the effort of the America that is isolated from sex will be let in through the small (but that will grow wider) crack of animation. Japan should be afraid.

かっこいい

語彙 [ごい] /vocabulary/glossary/
垂涎 [すいぜん] /watering at the mouth/
Summary: For a long time, nintendo, tamagoti, origami and so on have been a part of the vocabulary of American children. Video games, anime, cards and so on, a large part of children's life has come to be "born in Japan". As a result, interest has become deep (? does this mean: children have started to have a deep interest in Japan. its all about Robotech baby.) It seems like within the circle of American kids, the thought that "Japan is cool" has been born. The "Pokemon silver" or "Pokemon gold" version games that my child can easily get in Japan are envied by most children, and the Japanese cards are sold as Premiere cards at local toy shops.
起源 [きげん] /origin/beginning/rise/
経る [へる] /to pass/to elapse/to experience/
象徴 [しょうちょう] /symbol (vs)/
展示 [てんじ] /exhibition (vs)/display/
興奮 [こうふん] /excitement/stimulation/agitation/
Summary: Surpassing the boom of the American-bord yoyo in Japan, (Pokemon) is being reverse exported. The booms are always coming from Japan. The movie "Toy Story 2" which will open in Japan in March also has scene symbolic of adults. The main antique doll character, Woody, is sold to a rich Japanese man, Konisi, and will be put on display in a museum. Woody and his doll friends were more excited about "starting the new heavenly life that waits for us" than they were worried about being brought to a far away country that they don't understand. It feels like for the "The blue eyed dolls" (or innocent dolls?) cried (floated) tears, to come to Yokohama harbor would be a completely isolated world.

世代間でずれ

見慣れる [みなれる] /to become used to seeing/to be familiar with/
代表 [だいひょう] /representative (vs)/representation/delegation/type/example/model/
Summary: Kids are just like that. (??)
真珠湾 [しんじゅわん] /Pearl Harbour/
地元紙 [じもとし] /local newspaper/
飾る [かざる] /to decorate/to ornament/to adorn/
収容所 [しゅうようじょ] /home/asylum/camp/
記念碑 [きねんひ] /monument/
据える [すえる] /to set (table)/to lay (foundation)/to place (gun)/to apply (moxa)/
計画 [けいかく] /plan (vs)/project/schedule/scheme/program/
在郷軍人 [ざいごうぐんじん] /war veterans/
遭う [あう] /to encounter/
現状 [げんじょう] /present condition/existing state/status quo/
感覚 [かんかく] /sense/sensation/
Kids that have become used to Japanese animation easily adopt the "cool" "Japanese cultural common sense" represented by women's belly buttons. At the same time, DragonBall and Pokemon are associated with "cool Japan and Japanese" to Americans. In the country village I live in, before December 9th, the Pearl Harbor experience was decorating the front page. Near a Japanese camp in New Mexico, Santa Fe, the news that the plan to erect a monument to the veterans met extreme opposition from the veteran's association came out about two months ago. This is also the present state of affairs in America. Old men that think "A country of Pearl Harbor backstabbers (??)" and old women that think "Hard workers represented by Sony and Toyota" and kids that think "the cool people that make Pokemon". (??) The sense of Japan and Japanese people is starting to be different depending on the generation of people.
紛れもない [まぎれもない] /unmistakable/
対日 [たいにち] /with Japan/with respect to Japan/
転換 [てんかん] /convert/divert/
寄跡 [よせあと] /tracks after visiting?/
寡聞 [かぶん] /limited information/
Summary: We can't say that "it is just Pokeman". Anime and video games are unmistably part of culture. Exporting the Japanese "common sense" all over the world, there is the possibility that the view of Japan overseas will be changed 180 degree. This is a feat that was not acheived by the "tracks of Japanese politics". I do not know of any other Japanese product that has had this sort of cultural influence.

Dave Evans

Last modified: Fri May 5 12:30:20 EDT 2000