The PlayTime exhibition opened with a lively PEM After Dark event in partnership with Anime Boston. For this week’s link pack, we check out the latest in anime culture.
The universes of gaming, play, and anime are intrinsically linked for many fans. Cosplay and many video games draw directly from anime and manga series, of course, but there is much more to the kinship between the forms than we can see in costumes and on-screen. From the evergreen Streetfighter franchise to Monster Rancher there is a sub-category for every fan.
Robin Brenner has written at length about anime and manga and the gamer-fan connection, and as a librarian, is primed to note that, “A new kind of literacy is necessary for both: active participation in creating the story and the translation of visual, auditory, and textual clues into a complete tale are a few of the intersecting skills. Gamers arc predisposed to enjoy and immediately understand manga and anime’s visual language given the practice they’ve had over years of playing games.”
The explosive popularity of both genres has spurred new avenues of research around the cultural and visual influence of anime on western entertainment culture and literary theory. Some analysts also see the huge inroads anime culture is making in Hollywood and on the style of more conventional superhero movies. The list of games based on anime is lengthy, but the number of anime based on games might be even longer (and getting longer). The intertwined history and origins of video games in Japan is fascinating and illustrates how early on the potential of the genres was tapped and exploited; in the US things took a little longer, but penetrated an unexpected (and perhaps unsuspecting!) new audience.
The impact on our culture that the intermingling of anime, play, and gaming goes far deeper than many non-fans can imagine, but it has made significant contributions to our visual and literary cultures and is undoubtedly here to stay.
Check in next week for a new roundup of the latest play news and stories.
(Image credit: Streetfighter still courtesy Danny Pena via Flickr.)
