Kawaii: Anime, Propaganda, and Soft Power Politics. [video]

For decades, mainstream Japanese culture has ridiculed anime and those who watch it. The media even went as far to treat them as potential criminals because why not? In their view, anime fans are nerds who lack people skills. When police finds anime in a suspect's home, they lay out the entire collection at press conferences for the whole country to see as if it has anything at all to do with the crime. Only very, very recently has that kind of animephobia within Japan subsided.

Now after all of this, the author is claiming that it has been a tool for propaganda all along? Seriously??

Same thing when it comes to Hollywood.

I see people accusing Hollywood of “cultural imperialism.” But Hollywood is just filled with folks making movies they want to make and that producers think other people will pay money to see.

If folks in other countries end up watching Hollywood movies and emulating them that’s because these people are individuals who might chose to make the choice to do that. It’s not imperialism in that sense. Some people even use cultural imperialism as an argument when talking about folks in the rain forest wearing t shirts and jeans. Maybe the folks in the rain forest just like wearing jeans? Hell jeans are comfy. T shirts too. Same argument.

Note: this comment was originally written as a reply to someone in the thread who said he disagreed that anime was propaganda. I typed this comment to reply to him. But by the time I tried to post it he deleted his comment. So I am posting the comment here anyway