One way or another, the roots of all modern Japanese urban culture are rooted in Western influences. Traditional melancholy, a detached feeling with a taste of fatalism, a ban on public expression of emotions, the need to become a worthy link in a team did not at all fit into the new trends of the emancipated 1960s. Gradually, the mirror of the youth's consciousness could not stand it and cracked, but what was reflected in its distorted network of surface impressions was not dreamed of by any Western rebel.
In the beginning there was manga
The Japanese media market is oversaturated with comics and cartoons of various genres and trends - from frankly childish and naive to completely psychotic. Compare at least the creations of the Oscar-winning storyteller-animator Hayao Miyazaki, adored by children and adults, filled with goodness and magic, with the works of the patriarch of the Japanese horror film Junji Ito, which can seriously undermine the moral health of an unprepared viewer. All this diversity grows on a well-developed backbone of genres, designed for the target audience of various ages and tastes and bearing the appropriate ideological symbolism. The main difference between anime and Western animation is that it is a full-fledged and constantly evolving cultural layer that lives by its own laws and has a unique system of types and templates. If all over the world cartoons are created mainly for children, then a huge array of products by Japanese animation studios is aimed at an adult and teenage audience, which is expressed not only in the art and plot "heaviness", but also in ideological, if you like, philosophical content. If at the dawn of animation, the industry gave out mostly original creations (as far as it was possible under the condition of stylistic borrowing from the Walt Disney studio), today, watching any Japanese cartoon, you can be sure - in the beginning there was a comic "manga". Comic book sales in the Land of Eight Islands are comparable to a third of all book printing income. This is due to the fact that behind the screen of the frivolous direction lies a deep interconnection between the spheres of education, economy and culture. Japan has a very rigid, grueling education system. And this applies not only to the exact sciences, but also to the arts: drawing lessons begin with elementary school and continue as electives until the end of high school. It is not for nothing that Japan is sometimes jokingly called "the country of the winning illustration" - most Japanese are really good at drawing. So that the national talent does not go to waste, drawings are widely used in advertising, in the media, in the design of shops and cafes, as screensavers for TV programs and, of course, in the creation of manga and anime. Mangaka, a comic book writer, is a very common profession. In our country, such an army of artists would not have been able to earn a living, but in Japan the situation is different. One of the important points in the development of the economy in the postwar years was the policy of "soft power" - unobtrusive propaganda of its own civilizational attractiveness (and with it - the return of hopes and dreams to its own people, who were grieving over defeat). It was then that charismatic drawn characters appeared, endowed with all those hypertrophied character traits that the nation of notorious workaholics and yesterday's militarists could not boast of. A special economic system based on keiretsu - financial and industrial groups uniting several companies from different spheres of production - helped to keep illustrators and animators financially afloat. At the same time, the leading firm rescues smaller partners from financial storms, ensuring a stable economic situation for the entire cluster.
The "expansion" to foreign markets was successful: the world fell in love with Japanese culture. But it turned out to be more difficult to stop than to start: thanks to the Internet, interest does not decrease, but only increases. Today, tiny Japan has about 430 rather prolific animation studios and thousands of professional artists.
But don't think that anime and manga are the infallible pride and adoration of the entire nation. Not at all. Like any modern trend in popular culture (be it music, video games, films, etc.), they are invariably subjected to harsh criticism both in Japan and abroad. Many rightly feel dissonance from the primordial childishness of the idea of animation and completely unchildish situations in which drawn characters of all ages find themselves (cruelty, hostilities, pornography). Also, viewers do not like the voices, infantile emotionality and the famous big eyes of the characters. Particular indignation is also caused by the fact that the most attractive characters, for the sake of the old cliché, are endowed with a frankly "white" appearance - blond hair and eyes, thin facial features, and tall. All this became fertile ground for the cultivation of a variegated bouquet of all kinds of complexes among young Japanese, which resulted in the most insane subcultural trends. And if you consider that all of the above is equally applicable to the music, game and film industries, you can imagine what kind of psychological sublimation the younger generation of Japanese are engaged in.
2D life
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Since we started with hand-drawn culture, let's see what it has led to. In Japan, the term otaku is used to refer to people who are passionately addicted to something. Outside the Land of the Rising Sun - including in Russia - fans of anime and manga call themselves and each other this way. But at home, the meaning of the word is much broader, and it is used less willingly because of its derogatory coloring. In Japan, fans of the hand-drawn culture are often called "akihabarakei", in honor of the local otaku mecca - the Akihabara quarter of Tokyo's Chiyoda district, where such characters like to gather. Central to otaku culture is the concept of "moe" - in fact, a fetishization of fictional characters with all that it implies. Otaku likes to dress up in the costumes of their favorite heroes (they call this transformation "cosplay"), buy posters, figurines,growth pillows and other paraphernalia depicting the object of adoration. Given the choice, they would rather live in a cartoonish 2D world.
If this type of otaku is bright, sociable and loving to show off in front of a shocked audience, then other extremely enthusiastic personalities have chosen the polar opposite path. It is difficult to call them a subculture, but they, like no other, demonstrate all the ins and outs of the social contradictions of modern Japan. It's about "hikikomori", or just "hikki". This is the name for young people (students or men during the midlife crisis) who could not stand the pressure of society and voluntarily refused any contact with the outside world. They are usually unemployed, locked up in a room and dependent on relatives, spending days watching TV, reading manga or playing computer games. This urban hermitage can last for years, sometimes decades. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health,labor and welfare, more than half a million young people aged 15 to 39 have not left their homes for more than 6 months, and this alarming statistics continues to grow. Yes, not every hikki is an otaku and not every otaku is a hikki, but they are related by the fact that both of them escape from a frightening reality into fantastic worlds.
Japanese glamor
But enough about sad things. Japanese street fashion is a lot of fun. That there are only girls (and later boys) nicknamed "oya about nakaseru", which literally means "making parents cry." It all started with one of the first Japanese youth subcultures - gyaru. Gyaru are glamorous chicks. In the peculiar form in which they appear to be long-suffering Japanese youth, sandwiched between the need to succeed in society and the desire for self-expression, fueled by the same manga, anime and music. They stand out for their frivolous demeanor, love for bright provocative clothes, tanning, provocative makeup, hairstyles and everything that is forbidden to decent Japanese girls.
For more than 40 years of existence, the gyaru subculture has spawned several equally extravagant trends. For example, kogyaru. This is the name of the image of a windy schoolgirl who dropped out of school. Despite the fact that some representatives of the trend are deeply over 30, they continue to wear cropped school skirts, uniform ties, children's accessories and unchanging knee-highs designed to drive men crazy. Ganguro (literally, "black face") became another gyaru-extreme. Representatives of this subculture are so fond of tanned skin that they do not leave the house without an armored layer of "plaster" on the face of the most negroid shade. At the same time, for contrast, the ganguros do not skimp on black eyeliner, they use deliberately light lipstick and zealously discolor their hair, emphasizing the strands with the most crazy colors.
But compared to the manba, even the ganguros in miniskirts and high heels seem to be shy. The name itself, derived from the name of the ugly mountain witch Yamauba, speaks of the ideals of the beauty of this stream. Manba's flamboyant fluorescent outfits are complemented by makeup that combines a very dark foundation, white shadows, white lipstick and neon patterns on the cheeks in the form of patterns and hearts. Gathering in groups, metropolitan witches dance synchronously to techno.
But, perhaps, the most common and tenacious of the descendants of gyaru were the fruts and lolita styles. The essence of the first is a complete rejection of the imposed ideals of beauty and the cult of expensive brands. Fruits create their own modern fashion, not limited to one style: today they are punks, tomorrow they are anime idols, the day after tomorrow they are spiked goths. It turns out "who is in what," but since the mid-90s. it is fruts that are recognized as the living embodiment of Tokyo's informal fashion.
Lolitas took a different path. Dressing up in vintage lace dresses up to the knee, opaque tights, girls' shoes and hats, they try to get as close as possible to the image of innocent girls from the fantasies of Nabokov's Humbert, corrupted by a tender American woman. If "sweet" lolitas prefer pastel colors, lace and bows, their harsh "gothic" sisters dress in all black without dropping their puppet charm masks.
Daddy's tramp, mommy's pretty
Japan is a yakuza country, so the dubious charm of street gangs is deeply ingrained in the minds of local youth. The history of the oldest troublemaker subculture begins in the 70s. of the last century, when the so-called Speed Clans began to form throughout the country - biker groups bosozoku, consisting of young men who consider themselves the ideological heirs of the kamikaze and dream of getting into the yakuza. By the 90s. the motorized troublemakers became so uncontrollable and numerous (about 42 thousand people) that special correctional institutions had to be created to pacify them.
Criminal romance and girlish minds did not pass. Groups of feminist young ladies who called themselves "sukeban" (which means "female boss") in the 70s. literally terrorized the streets of cities. They could be recognized by their dark ankle-length skirts. Among gangs, violent clashes often broke out, and within the gangs, a tough mafia hierarchy reigned, coupled with a rich practice of corporal punishment. Aggression girls were not interested, just as they were not deprived of a special predatory attraction. Take, for example, the conquered heart of Quentin Tarantino, who is literally in love with the image of a sukeban and who has repeatedly quoted it in his films.
Today, tightened laws have pacified the criminal addictions of young people, but the fashion for motorcycles, leather with rivets, high boots, sports jackets a la "dashing 80s" and hairstyles with coca remained. Although she migrated into the ranks of school hooligans, who changed their name to "Yanka".
There is nothing reprehensible in striving to stand out from the faceless gray crowd. This is an absolutely normal desire, just ask Abraham Maslow. But sometimes differences in culture and worldview lead to the emergence of something truly amazing, even shocking. Japanese youth subcultures are a living example of this.
Journal: Forbidden History No. 3 (36). Author: Aglaya Sobakina