Anime as Japanese Popular Culture

Abstract

Japan is a developed country in a world that is rich in culture and its uniqueness. Whether it's in the form of visible culture or invisible culture. One such culture is anime. This culture later made Japan famous in the world and made anime an inseparable part of Japan. Because it can not be separated anymore from Japan, this then makes a common perception around the world that anime is identical to Japan. This study aims to describe the history of anime in Japan, describe the anime identified with Japan, and describe why Japanese anime became popular. Previous research on anime is Nugroho's research whose results are the underlying factors behind anime as popular culture as follows: a) the influence of mass media, b) the ease of getting anime content through websites, c) the influence of friends, d) anime is cheap entertainment, e) many genre choices, f) characters in anime, g) fashion in anime, h) interesting story lines in anime, and i) place settings contained in anime are very realistic (Nugroho, 2016: 11). While the theory I use is William's popular theory. The popular term has the following meanings: (1) much like, (2) easy to find, (3) work done to please people (Pujileksono, 2016: 43). This type of research is descriptive. Data collection techniques carried out by means of library research (library research) and interviews. The data analysis technique is done by: (a) data classification, (b) analyzing, and (c) concluding the data that has been obtained. From the data found it can be seen that the development of anime in Japan looks significant from time to time. When viewed from the manufacturing process there is no difference. But what makes the anime different from other animations is the story element that is highlighted more with the thick Japanese theme. It could be from the story, the time setting, even the place setting depicts the real Japan. Because of this Japanese specialties that are very highlighted, this makes the anime different from other animations and becomes popular not only in Japan, but is popular all over the world.
Keywords: anime, Japanese culture, popular