Japanese 308: Japanese Popular Culture
This course explores post WWII Japanese music, literature, artistic media, and hi-tech products. Investigates social themes ranging from post-holocaust Japanese hedonism to childhood fantasies by looking at Manga comic books, Anime animated movies, and popular music from Enka to J-Pop to Karaoke, as well as fashion and style, popular technology, consumerism, and environmental issues. Explores the evolution of pop culture and its impact on society. Taught in English.
Along with JAPN 306, I took JAPN: 308 in fall 2011 to complete another ½ of the MLO 2 culture requirement. Like JAPN 306, this course, examines and analyzes aspect particular to Japanese Japanese culture. Which, in turn, helps us develop a deeper understanding of Japanese culture. Through this class we studied post-war Japanese popular culture through to present culture. By understanding the process that in which pop-culture developed, I believed we were able to gain a little bit more insight to the Japanese “Ideal” of popular and entertaining. Through studying and analyzing numerous articles in this class, we develop our knowledge into what, in fact, Japanese pop-culture is. Below, I uploaded to short reviews I wrote during this class, one is in regards to a paper we read during class. In this short reflection I analyze and discuss the meaning of a certain quote and how that quote pertains to Japanese Pop-culture. In the second reflection I and analysis a movie called, "Grave of Fireflies". In this paper I discuss, my own feeling towards the movie, and why it is still such a popular movie in Japan.
As foreigners, mostly what we see is “new” Japanese pop-culture, which manifests mainly as Manga and anime. However, in this class, we studied and looked at why exactly manga and anime has become increasingly popular within the past 50 years,and how that truly connects back to Japanese culture as a whole. I think, by noticing this fact, I gained an understanding as to why this class contributes to MLO 2 .By studying the progression of Japanese Pop-culture, we gain for insight, and are able to analyze more thoroughly into more difficult topics, such as Japanese Ideals, and popularity. I would like to look more in depth into recent Popular culture, and compare it to Past, maybe edo popular culture, and examine the direction that culture has evolved in. As I plan to live in Japan, I’m really excited to look more at recent pop-culture as well as be immersed in it. I really want to be able to experience everything that Japanese culture has to offer, and will always be willing to learn, and analyze more, even if it’s not in a classroom setting.
feedback_page_1.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |
308_feedback_sheet_3.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |