Monday, December 21, 2009

December 1, 2009: The International Manga Museum in Kyoto

I really didn’t want to go to this museum, had no interest at all really. The only reason why I went was because it was the cheapest museum on a list that my Japanese Civilization teacher gave us. She instructed us to go to one of the museums on the list for two hours, take notes, and somehow incorporate the experience in an essay for the final that we would take weeks later.

I should have gone to the Ainu Museum. I had intentions to, just no time in the end.

Well, this excursion wasn’t all bad. And I am sure the anime ‘otakus’ would love to hear about what I have to say. When you first walk into the museum, there is a whole section of anime from around the world and a timeline of Japanese anime, all pictures no writing except for the general dates. But, the pictures are self-explanatory, that’s anime for you all right. I walked through the timeline and realized that the characters in anime from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s to the 60’s and up until the present got more realistic and probably sexier. It went from short midget people with powers and lightening bolts shooting out of their palms, and characters with too much muscle and awkward face proportions to skinny nerds with big glasses, and girls with big boobs in red spandex suits that were too revealing for my taste. I must say they also did something to their hair. It went from bald and little detail on the hair, to spikier, bigger hair. Is there some correlation in the way the characters in the anime look to the way that the actual Japanese people look in society nowadays? Take nowadays for example: just looking at a glance, out of the guys who are in their teens, 20’s and maybe early 30’s, I’d say about 70% perm their hair to make it curly or spiky. Girls, starting from the age of 5 wear short skirts and heels.

Anyway, flipping through Spanish anime, I was a bit more shocked. If the anime is for kids, then they must be traumatized. The Spanish anime was just as bad if not worse. Themes include: a half-naked woman who looked like she was a cocaine addict, a guy, holding a gun, who abused her not just once but many times, and it was all in black in white. And this was all in just one book. Need I say more?

Anyway, the rest of the museum was just filled with Japanese anime, written all in Japanese, as well as a bit of history of Japanese anime. I had to say that my favorite room was the room with the history written all over the walls. It was a timeline starting with the very beginning, the four strip comics in newspapers. The dynamic in this room was actually more interesting than anything else. Half of the room was set up to display the history, the other half filled with tables and chairs so that people could bring their favorite anime off of the bookshelf and read it. The history was written in Japanese and English. But, the people that were actually paying attention and reading the history: the foreigners! Not just any lonesome, otaku foreigner, but loads of them that travelled in packs as a guided tour. They were mostly men and some women, but all in their late 20’s and above. The ones sitting in the other half of the room, totally oblivious to the history: the Japanese. They were women, mostly in their 20’s, and some Japanese guys. Under a stack of their favorite anime, it seems like the Japanese people use this place as a library more than anything else.

In front of a museum is a lawn. A plot of fake grass made of black rubber painted green, you can actually see Japanese people sitting here and enjoying their manga. Even though it was winter and a bit chilly, there were about 10 people all together, all Japanese, sitting on the fake lawn, immersed in an imaginary world that must be much like this one.

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