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Writer's pictureJatin Thukral

Japanese Anime: An Architect of Indian Subculture


Japanese Anime: An Architect of Indian Subculture

With the increase in popularity of Japanese anime and manga in the western part of the world of Japan, many countries are witnessing the celebration and strong impact that Japanese popular culture is holding on their respective culture and how Japanese anime and manga has become a strong element of modernized entertainment.


When we talk about India, the number of otakus, the anime enthusiasts, is exponentially rising and reaching new heights every other day. Extending from North-east to Delhi and till Bangalore and Mumbai, anime viewership is increasing by every passing year. Much like the otakus in Japan, the Indian otakus also have come far enough to regard the anime culture as a vital part of their identities.


Indian Cosplayers: Otaku Community in India

A bunch of people have given it their best to help in strengthening the roots of Japanese pop culture here in India. People are taking initiatives to bring aspects other than anime and manga into Indian culture and providing them with their very own platforms for performing cosplay and other conventions. Likes of Jeet Molankar and Rachita Saha are to mention a few. But they aren’t alone in this… Hemant Gaba, in his documentary, Japan In Nagaland, explores the detailed craze of Japanese popular culture in the northeastern state of Nagaland in India.

The Internet has been playing a pivotal role in the widespread of all these eastern cultural elements, the virtual forums and groups to share your views and to promote your content in the way to gain the reach and appreciation for their efforts and widen such groups and views of other fanatics. Anime fan clubs and recurring conventions being held across India have also worked as major propellers of engaging the young Indian fans with the beauty of the depth of Japanese anime and manga. Anime Con which started in 2010 in New Delhi, has grown into one of the biggest celebrations of pop culture, anime, manga, gaming and music in India. The convention completed its fifth edition in October last year. Cosplay is getting more and more popular by time and people are getting into designing and performing cosplay in the national and international, if not the virtual conventions.


Most of the anime fans began their journeys with watching anime that used to broadcast on channels like Animax, and blocks on AXN, and Toonami on Cartoon Network. Now with the internet having all such anime and manga virtualized, they download and stream all these whenever they want. Anime fans also stay tuned with their Japanese street art and myriad of aesthetics of this culture by hosting events, trading merchandise and even trying to create anime music videos.

With the immense increase in popularity in their countries and knowing how they could gain from the followers of this eastern culture in their own country, western production units also started dubbing the anime to resist the language barrier to as much as they could for making it easier for their countrymen to explore more and more of such anime. Although, many fans have always liked to keep it as authentic as it is by not asking for the dubbed version and sticking with the original Japanese audio and background score with the suitable subtitles.


The growing number of manga readers in India

Much of anime movement has its roots in Japanese comic books but by the 20th century, manga comics and cartooning became a household fascination across entire Japan. And with the age of digitalization, comics started to getting transformed into animation, and the popularity of these animated shows and films started shooting up to new heights by the time and gradually evolved into an International Sub-Culture.


Despite being an alien culture and language barriers, global fans have accepted and embraced this culture claiming it not being just indigenous but a universal culture now and how it resonated with the followers of all entertainment.


Did you like our views? Like and Share this with other otakus and participate in the spread of this beautiful culture as much as you can. And don’t forget to visit otakuintown.com for more such informative blogs and juicy updates.

 

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