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Perspectives
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MANGA, ANIME AND VIDEO GAMES: GLOBALIZING JAPANESE

CULTURAL PRODUCTION
Dr Minako Oóhagan a
a
Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University,

Online Publication Date: 24 July 2007

To cite this Article Oóhagan, Minako Dr(2007)'MANGA, ANIME AND VIDEO GAMES: GLOBALIZING JAPANESE CULTURAL
PRODUCTION',Perspectives,14:4,242 — 247
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 242

Manga, Anime and Video Games:

Globalizing Japanese Cultural Production

Special Issue Editor Dr Minako O’Hagan

Centre for Translation and Textual Studies, Dublin City University

This special issue of Perspectives is devoted to translation questions arising

from the globalization of the Japanese popular cultural production of manga1,
anime2 and video games. In his article Japan’s Gross National Cool, McGray (2002)
drew attention to the collective power of Japanese popular culture permeating
through the rest of the world. His observations highlight the globalization
process undergone by these areas of Japanese cultural production and as
such serve to raise the question of the role played by translation – a topic little
explored in Translation Studies (TS). Widespread popularity of these genres
beyond Japanese shores is evident in that the Japanese terms manga and anime
together with associated but rather obscure culture-specific concepts such as
otaku3 have come into the vocabulary of an increasing international audience.
Examples of the influence of manga and anime range from Hollywood films
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such as The Matrix and Kill Bill to a UK publisher’s recent launch of a Manga
Shakespeare series4 turning Romeo and Juliet into a contemporary story set in Japan
with Japanese characters depicted in a distinctive manga style. The latter is an
example of the emergence of so-called Amerimanga and Euromanga, i.e. the
adoption of manga form by comic artists in the US and Europe, adding to the
deep-seated impact of manga and creating a domain of its own. Similarly, the
popularity of Japanese video games has long ago crossed the national border
to produce best selling games in the global market (Roturier 2003). Japanese
role playing games (RPGs) are known for introducing a completely new story-
driven, rather than action-driven, dimension and winning international fans for
their unique characteristics. According to the Japanese Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry (METI) the Japanese game export market is over 80 times
that of the import of overseas games (cited in Nakamura 2006a: 16) with an
implication that the localization direction is predominantly from Japanese
rather than into Japanese.
The extent of the international influence of these products can indeed be
inferred from some statistics. In terms of international dissemination anime
occupy 60% of the TV animation broadcast worldwide with the ratio in Europe
exceeding 80% (Nakamura 2006a: 30). The US forms the single biggest anime
market and accounted for US$ 48.4 million (€ 35.6 million) in 2004. This
apparently equates to several times the value of steel exported from Japan to
the US. Anime sales as a whole are reported to be as much as US$ 4 billion a
year in the US, with leading Japanese anime studios earning up to 35% of their
revenues on foreign markets (Brown 2006: 6). The worldwide export of Japanese
video games, including hardware and software, was approximately ¥ 560 billion
(EUR 3.5 billion) in 2004. Japan is considered to be the second largest video
game market, following the US which is estimated at € 5.8 billion in 2004 (ESA
0907-676X/06/04/242-6 $20.00 © 2006 Minako O'Hagan
Perspectives: Studies in Translatology Vol. 14, No. 4, 2006
 O’Hagan. Manga, Anime and Video Games 243

2005). Overseas sales of manga in 2006 were estimated at roughly ¥ 3 billion (€

18.5 million) (‘Practical Guide to Publishing in Japan’ 2006: 12). Although the
smallest in economic terms among the three genres, the importance of manga
lies in their subsequent multiple use as source material in the secondary market,
which includes books, TV anime, films, direct-to-video anime known as OVAs
and character merchandise (Nakano 2004: 2). Furthermore, these areas are now
regarded as a strategically significant sector in Japan because of their potential to
provide attractive content for a plethora of digital media platforms (Nakamura
2006b).
While their economic significance undoubtedly contributes to motivation
for research into these areas of Japanese popular culture, what makes them
particularly promising subjects for TS, in my opinion, is the unique process
of cultural negotiation they undergo through translation. Despite anime’s
characteristic dimension of mukokuseki literally meaning “without nationality”
often discussed among anime scholars (e.g. Napier 2000: 14) a focus on
translation perspectives only highlights how anime constitute a battlefield
of cultural negotiation for professional and amateur translators alike. While
the question of how translation has played its role in globalizing these areas
remains underexplored in TS, a small enclave of TS researchers is taking up
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the challenge. This special edition attempts to further promote these subjects
as promising areas of translation research by introducing a diverse range of
perspectives across the three areas.

Defining the Research Domain

The location of research in the three areas under study in this issue needs to be
addressed in order to chart the territory, although a comprehensive description
of each genre is beyond the scope of this introduction. These areas have so far
attracted scholarly interest from Asian studies, cultural studies, film studies,
media studies and communication studies as well as computer science.
Furthermore, for obvious reasons they have attracted researchers with Japanese
language competence across different disciplines. A difficulty with grasping
their entire scope owes to the fragmentation of scholarly interests due to the
multidimensional nature of these genres, considered variously as visual art
forms, a subculture, new entertainment media, or under the generic umbrella
of Japanese popular culture. These subjects were once the cause of moral panic
(Kinsella 2000: 131ff), both in Japan and elsewhere, and suffered a severe lack
of interest in academia. However, they are now beginning to gain academic
attention due to their diverse culturally-rich content as well as their affinity with
new technology platforms for entertainment and also for education.
Manga, anime and video games each forms its own domain of research, and
clustering them together may appear to be unproductive as well as unduly
ambitious. However, there is a certain insight to be gained by observing them
side by side as versatile media content subject to different modes of translation.
From a commercial point of view, a close link between the three essentially
derives from the strategy of making successful content in one form available in
another. For example, Pokémon went from the original video game medium to
manga and then TV anime5 before being released as a feature anime film. This
media mix approach seems to be a global trend, but the particularly close link
 244 2006. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Volume 14: 4

between manga and anime is noteworthy, with 60% of anime being based on
popular manga (Onouchi 2006: 101). From the TS viewpoint, these can all be
treated as polysemiotic texts which need to be mediated in consideration of the
particular platform for which they may be deployed (Gottlieb 2005). Emergence
of new media platforms further makes their content an exciting new area of
TS research, pushing the conventional boundary of divisions of research. For
example, translation issues pertinent to video games are classified under games
localization akin to software localization, given the nature of games as a piece of
software. However, other aspects of games translation can only be illuminated
by drawing on the body of knowledge available in audiovisual translation
(AVT). While AVT and localization have not come together explicitly in sharing
insights, the new media content such as digital games demands to be placed
between the two (O’Hagan 2005). As noted by many AVT scholars (Díaz Cintas
2003; Orero 2004) this particular branch of TS is seeing its boundary blurring
due to developments of media technology. The focus on manga, anime and
video games only brings home this observation.
However, the last and by no means the least challenge is that of language.
While it is possible to embark on research in these areas without a knowledge
of Japanese, studies focusing on the micro issues of translation as explored
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in this volume by Howell and also by Ortabasi and Mangiron do necessitate

consideration of the specific features of Japanese language. Furthermore, the
linguistic skills affect the ability to access reference materials which are often
only available in Japanese, particularly in the area of manga. Translation-related
articles (e.g. Ono 2003) are appearing in Japanese in the journal Manga Studies
by the Nihon Manga Gakkai [Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics].
Similarly, the useful resources such as the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Manga
(2006) chronicling manga in the period 1945-2005 remain locked in Japanese.
Much of such works remains inaccessible to the outside world as no translation
is available, and this in itself is a translation problem that may ultimately be
tackled by the TS community with the uptake of research into these areas.

Research Avenues
Given the multidimensionality of these genres as demonstrated in the interest
from a wide range of disciplines, there is also ample scope for translation
research. This section aims to present the focus chosen by each contributor in
this volume, moving from a macro to a micro perspective, making connections
between their points of view where possible.
Jüngst observes a particular way in which the significant impact of the
globalization of manga has manifested itself in the target culture. In Germany
cultural and commercial forces seem to have combined to lead to the creation of
“fake manga” produced by local German artists. As opposed to the direction of
world comics, which take in different elements from comics of different origins,
the former strictly adheres to the manga form, in particular following manga’s
dominant translated style even to the extent of adopting the recently popular
back-to-front book format and, in some cases, using Japanese onomatopoeia for
sound effects. Jüngst argues that these otherwise German language manga are
therefore simulacra, prompted initially by translated manga, but then taking
off without them. The role of translation here then can be seen as influential in
 O’Hagan. Manga, Anime and Video Games 245

disseminating the “form” of manga while the translated content itself becomes
irrelevant. This line of investigation in turn can be related to the long-standing
fan activities such as fanfic or fan fiction in which fans produce their own
fictions using the characters or settings from the original film, and now from
anime, manga and video games. The insight provided by media studies scholars
such as Henry Jenkins (1992, 2006) is useful in interpreting such committed fan
participation in media, which links closely to the topic of fansubs.
The contribution by Pérez González focuses on fansubs, which are unsolicited
translations produced by fans notably for anime productions, and highlights
the unique way in which anime are globalized through this alternative set of
practice. The phenomenon of amateur translation emerged linked to a resistance
to transformations imposed on some anime when they were broadcast in the US
market mainly through the mode of dubbing. Given that their rationale is not
profit making, but rather meaning-making and authenticity-seeking, fansubs
can be viewed as a legitimate act of intervention albeit undertaken “outside” the
law. Pérez González also refers to the indispensable role played by technology,
which has afforded the means for fans to become such a committed party in the
otherwise professional activity of subtitling. In an analogy to the butterfly effect
discussed in chaos theory, this contribution alludes to uncertainties about the
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future of translation modes and norms challenged by these alternative practices

in the changing media landscape.
The subject of fansubs recurs in the contribution by Ortabasi, who uses anime
as a platform to discuss limitations in the current translation mode of subtitling,
which does not cater adequately to cultural references embedded in films in the
form of nonverbal visual code. Coming from a film studies background, Orta-
basi’s concern is the treatment of visual messages woven to form intertextuality
and presented independent of the verbal message. By taking the case of Kon
Satoshi’s less known and culturally-loaded anime Millennium Actress Ortabasi
questions the degree of attention given by AVT scholars to resolve this dilemma
arising from the visual dimension of film, and suggests technological solutions
with film itself as an interface to enable a desired viewing.
Moving from the visual to the narrative of film dialogues and from macro to
micro questions, Howell focuses on the treatment of character voice reflected in
subtitles, in particular addressing the Japanese source text of anime productions.
Howell’s contribution is particularly refreshing considering the paucity of
work in TS discussing the nature of Japanese language in terms of pragmatics
in socio-cultural contexts. The evidence produced on different translation
strategies used in different DVD versions of the same film, one for the learners
of English in Japan and the other for wider markets of English native speakers,
proves something which may be perceived but has not been so compellingly
proved: The former shows more neutralized character voice, rendering it into
stylistically flat dialogues whereas the latter shows compensatory procedures
in operation in an attempt to re-create a character voice stylistically equivalent
to that of the original. His reference to the quantitative differences between the
two versions of English subtitles would provide a further scope for corpus-
based AVT research. Howell also makes reference to amateur subtitles with
their penchant for blunt foreignization. The final findings on the marked and
effective use of orthographic and typographic devices as translation procedures
 246 2006. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology. Volume 14: 4

are illuminating, leading to Howell’s suggestion that “the technical constraints

of subtitling on stylistic functions has sometimes been overstated”. Howell’s
contribution also provokes a number of further lines of investigation in relation
to anime dubbing and manga translation in comparison with anime subtitling.
In parallel with domesticating tendencies in dubbed anime and manga
translation suggested by Howell, Mangiron’s contribution on localization of
Japanese video games argues that extensive domesticating procedures are at
work with this translation mode to the extent that it should be referred to as
transcreation. The nature of the medium affords an extreme form of adaptation,
not possible for cinema for example, where not only textual manipulation but
visual manipulation of various images is possible. In transcreation Mangiron
stresses translation gain, rather than loss from such changes in retaining the
pleasure of game play, which constitutes the skopos of games localization.
The specific areas of translator competence required for games localization
provide a concrete guideline for translator training in this expanding area of
entertainment and also invite TS scholars to dwell on new translation issues
that are arising from this new audiovisual text type.

Conclusions and future work

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Given their significant media exposure as well as some academic interest out-
side of TS, notably since the late 1990’s, presenting these Japanese cultural
artefacts as something new may appear naïve to some readers. And yet, as
stressed throughout this introduction the TS community has not yet shown any
serious sign of embracing these culturally-rich areas of, what some call, media
content. In fact, almost belatedly they have come to be recognized as a strategically
important area at a governmental level within Japan with the establishment of
an Intellectual Property Strategy under the auspices of the Cabinet Secretariat
(see details in Nakamura 2006b). As suggestive in the name of the strategy, one
particular area on which the government is focusing is protection of intellectual
property, which has long been neglected, allowing pirating activities. While
the sector may possibly have benefited from a wider distribution by turning
a blind eye to certain fan activities (Leonard 2005), with a matured and ready
market, the protection of the original artists’ rights, especially in new digital
media contexts, is considered to be an urgent and important long-term goal to
further promote the development of these areas of creative expression. As the
editor of this special issue, one mission I set for myself was to investigate the
issue of legality and tolerance of fan-produced translation materials when it
comes to publishing them in print as requested by some of the contributors in
this volume. Whose permission should we be seeking? Profound uncertainty
surrounding the copyright issues made discussions with some major copy-
holder Japanese publishers the only way to resolve this issue.
This special issue is merely a first step towards establishing solid research
in TS on these areas of Japanese popular culture production. As the guest
editor, I hope the collection presented here will indeed act as a catalyst to spur
exciting and new research from the wider community of scholars of Translation
Studies.
In this special issue, all references are found in the reference section on pp.
318-323.
 O’Hagan. Manga, Anime and Video Games 247
Notes
1. Manga is a Japanese word meaning comics in general. However, the term is now
widely used elsewhere to specifically refer to Japanese comics, and the usage in this
article follows this convention.
2. Anime in Japanese is a collapsed form of the English term “animation” and means
all kinds of animation films. However, in this article, the term is used to refer only to
Japanese animation films.
3. Otaku in Japanese refers to people who are introverted and, rather than socializing,
prefer to stay home to play games, watch anime or read manga. As such there is an
undeniable negative connotation associated to this term. However, the same is not
necessarily true in the usage among non-Japanese fans of these genres, who may proudly
describe themselves as otaku to indicate a certain expert status within this field.
4. In March 2007 the UK publisher SelfMadeHero launched the Manga Shakespeare series,
where the distinctive manga form is being used to re-tell Shakespeare’s stories. While
Richard Appignanesi’s adaptation closely preserves Shakespeare’s original language in
dialogues, in the case of Romeo and Juliet the setting is changed to contemporary Tokyo,
with all characters being turned into Japanese and the story evolving around the feud
between two Yakuza (Japanese mafia) families.
5. Pokémon first appeared as a game for Nintendo’s Game Boy in 1996 in Japan, eventually
achieving global sales of 140 million units for the entire series of games (Nakamura &
Onouchi 2006: 30). This was followed by its manga version and made into a TV anime
series in 1997 which enjoyed a phenomenal success and was broadcast in 67 countries.
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