9 Images at an Impasse: Anime and Manga in Contemporary Russia

YULIA MIKHAILOVA AND EVGENII TORCHINOV

INTRODUCTION eginning in the second half of the 1980s, Japanese popular culture Bbegan to spread rapidly around the globe, attracting fans in East Asia, the United States and some European countries.1 Popular culture is no longer identified with lower forms of entertainment or with the leisure activities of the working classes. Indeed, popular culture defines the modern experience; according to John Treat it serves as ‘convenient shorthand for myriad ways in which modern people experience what makes them “modern” or even “people” ’.2 Japanese popular culture is diverse, but anime and manga have come to be its chief representatives. Japanese animation dominates the field as confirmed by Miyazaki Hayao’s Oscar for Spirited Away (2001) and the nomination of Mamoru Oshii’s Innocence for the Palme d’Or prize at the 2004 Cannes Festival, the first animated film to be selected for this top category. Why are these forms of Japanese cultural experience interesting to people outside of Japan? Some think that the appeal comes from the technical and visual quality of Japanese animation.3 Others praise the ability of anime and manga to show ordinary life as it is, without moral- izing, and yet convey a basically optimistic view of human nature, leaving space for romantic dreams, heroic adventures, eternal struggles and passionate loves and longings.4 Still others claim that the Japanese genre is able to represent new and at the same time universal themes and issues, such as the advance of technology and its concordant anxieties, or shifting gender identities that have come to fascinate people.5 Russian reviewers of Japanese animation emphasize those qualities of empathy and deep penetration into psychology that make them especially attrac- tive to a Russian audience.6 176 Japan and Russia: Three Centuries of Mutual Images

Many Japanese cannot imagine life without manga or anime. Nonetheless, critics of anime and manga are everywhere.7 They consider these genres too erotic, if not pornographic, too prone to violence, prim- itive in comparison with live-action films or literature; they claim that the cartoons, even in the hands of masters, have the power to stupefy their viewers, destroying rather then enhancing their intelligence. This negative attitude encompasses those who are particularly attached, the otaku. The latter are said to be so obsessed with the ‘virtual world’ that they may sever all relations with ‘real’ society. In the early 1990s, when Russia began to enter the global cultural flow, Japanese anime and manga found an eager audience. Groups of newly- liberated youth became fans of Japanese popular culture. The popularity of anime and manga in Russia has continued to grow, producing a new youth subculture deriving its inspiration from Japan. This chapter examines Russian youth subculture, focusing on the activities of RAnMa (Russian Anime and Manga Club8). It questions Russian youth interest in anime and manga and explores their fascina- tion with Japan in general. The chapter argues that in this age of global mass media and communications, Russian fans of anime and manga have ironically perpetuated stereotypes of Japan that emerged some three hundred years ago, while the image of Russia in Japan today is no less associated with time-worn images. Data on the activities of Russian anime and manga fans has been gained through meetings and interviews during the period from 1996 to 2004,9 results of a survey of 200 people carried out in March 2004 in St Petersburg,10 materials which Russian anime and manga fans broadly advertise on the internet, their own drawings in manga style, and mag- azines which popularize Japanese anime and manga in Russia.

OTAKU SUB-CULTURE IN RUSSIA11 The policy of perestroika created unimaginable opportunities for Russians to become acquainted with various forms of foreign culture. In the late 1980s, books by formerly banned authors, rock music, action and other entertainment films quickly inundated the country.12 Young people became the leading social (and age) group participating in these cultural activities. Informal youth groups based on interest in foreign culture became diverse and well publicized.13 The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 had a dramatic effect on young people. Many found themselves unemployed, financially disad- vantaged, or unable to adapt quickly to the new life.14 Economic and social instability made the problem of simple physical survival a priority among young people. A subsequent erosion of civil society undermined existing safety nets and nurturing systems, depriving many youth of any hope for the future. Mass media and academics have portrayed the youth of the immediate post-Soviet period ‘as a vulnerable section of society whose position may lead them into politically or socially dangerous