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16:03 why every western RUclipsr forget to mention some parts of SEA were imperial Japan’s colonies😭 BTW RUclips recognized the right parentheses as part of the links. It’d be better to have a space before the right parentheses
Europe has the great novels & great art so its easy meanwhile relatable to majority of the world population. But majority of anime its futuristic fantasy not really based in Europe or our own world Like Alita, ghost in a shell, DBZ & others. Some are referenced on USA classic movies.
Miyazaki got Heidi so right that most of Switzerland thought it was a Swiss production FOR DECADES. The state news eventually did a whole documentary about him and his team scouting the locations and a behind the scenes.
@@Anni-lavenderlemon They made "Heidi, Girl of the Alps" the animated series. The story is originally by a swiss author. Still doesn't remove any merit to the japanes, they made heidi popular again for most of our parents/grandparents in the 70's across europe.
@@LeukipposOfAbderaThe west has failed at making any meaningful or accurate adaptation of anything eastern, because they don’t get the subtleties or mix it up with other Asian cultures with each other. So it’s a big deal they got something right based off an original script when adapting something
@@vistalover9607 The west has done that plenty of times, with the most recent example of Shogun. All things considered, anime like Heidi are the rare example of anime being accurate to the setting they are portraying
Funny enough "Heidi" was not even considered to be Anime in Germany and Switzerland back then. It was just seen as a cartoon for children, people did no even know it was from Japan.
I'm Italian and I thought Heidi was a European cartoon, actually many anime that I used to watch as a child like Lady Oscar, Georgie, Remy, etc. we're all made in Europe
@@milena39 Ciao Marco, Ciao ... was also made in Japan. As well as Niclas the Boy from Flanders, or Perine, or Nils Holgersson, Puschel (Lo scoiattolo Banner), Maya the Bee (L'ape Maia), etc.
@@DaDunge Well you can look up what I said for yourself right here and now lol? You can look up photos and videos of people in Europe from 1880 to now and its all there to see. It’s not complicated, it’s literally history.
ハーフです。ヨーロッパについての動画でピザやハンバーガーについて話すのは面白いだよ。ｗ The American half of me finds this hilarious for some reason. Even though sure, I guess pizza technically isn't American, but he said pizza AND burgers.
europe actually became very fascinated with Japanese art! Vincent van gogh and many other artists of the time have entire collections of japanese inspired artworks, just as Japans floating world paintings began to become heavily inspired by dutch landscape artwork
Prussian monarchs were very much interested in Japanese art and literature as well, resulting in some of the first translated japanese woodblock print books to be german so they could read and enjoy the stories. And when Japan was modernizing rapidly during that time, they imported prussian science and modern medicine. Even today you will find german expressions in japanese hospitals because of that.
France was so obsessed with Japanese culture in the late 19th century that the craze had it's own word/genre : "Japonisme" . it's influence straddled every artistic discipline at the time.
Because Europe is truly like no other place on earth. It’s a beautiful continent full of ancient knowledge and heroic wisdom. The people are absolutely gorgeous and the environment from Norway to Spain is so diverse that you can basically go anywhere in Europe but still feel like you’re in a fantasy epic.
the middle east, India, south east asia and East Asia also have incredible historical accounts but are way less popular in fiction, maybe because of the language barrier coming from different scrips being hard to read
Fun Fact: When you enter Switzerland in the airport in Zurich, you're actually greeted by Heidi talking about the beauty of Switzerland. The show is absolutely adored there
I think it is the same reason as of why the west is so fascinated with the far east. Just as we hear stories of mysterious Samurai and strange mythologies, so the japanese are fascinated by these medieval castles and knights in armor, that is also why i believe Games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring create this legendary european aesthetic more than even Europeans themselves do, due to it being more mystical and fantastical to them
The west isn’t obsessed with the far east, just Japan and in recent years South Korea. Most of the west is extremely racist and xenophobic about China which is like 95% of the Far East
Yeah, honestly castles here in Germany are just everywhere and for us not that much different than a windmill in the Netherlands or bull fighting arena in Spain. It's just too normal and familiar for us i think. I mean, my school was next to historical city center and when we started having afternoon school, we would leave school premises and go into the center (i'm german btw, and that's normal here once your age reaches 2 digits), buy a Döner Kebap or Pizza somewhere, and then return through the barock era herb garden of the monastery that is now a museum, and climb the early medieval city wall (that was originally built sometime in the 10th century) to eat there while looking down on the school which was built around 1800. Just another tuesday.
Agreed, if anything I'd ban Americans from making stuff about europe. Japan hasn't tried to tell me that greek people and Scandinavians are African yet.
@@PeachDragon_I'd ban Americans from doing stuff about European culture but more because they dont respect it. Look at Marvels Thor. No not the movies the comic. WTH?!
@@GAZAMAN93X Not like you could be trusted with them anyway. But i'll bite. Which artifacts? What remains? Also that had absolutely nothing to do with what he stated.
Okay but Howl's moving castle inspiration was very precise : it is the town of Colmar in France, where Miyazaki went multiple times before making the film...
Interesting, I saw somebody else saying it was inspired by Czechia, with Welsh influences. Then again, this movie has a variety of settings all having their noticeably own style. As such you might both be right.
European look at Kimono and say "How exotic !" Asian look at western frilly dress and say "How exotic !" like all stories and immagination start with "in land far far away..." its to invoke a sense of wonder, places that was not here and to took the reader/viewer away to an adventure~
that is how I always thought about it for Japan/Asia, Europe is an exotic place with a lot of history/culture. basically the same way many Europeans feel about Asia.
this is definitely true but i think a big focus of the question is more so why specifically europe. there are plenty of places in the world that are far far away from japan but europe seems to be the most popular.
when i was young i asked my dad if he had ever seen an anime and he said "yeah, heidi" which blew my mind because i've always thought it was a german or swiss cartoon. really speaks for the creators that they managed to capture the culture so accurately
You have no idea how crazy it was the first time I learned that all my childhood cartoons, that I thought were produced by German studios for a German audience (I was a child, cut me some slack) were actually anime. Like Maya the Bee, Heidi, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and Vicky the Viking. And then it turns out that the man, the myth, the legend - Hayao Miyazaki was one of the main people behind Heidi. Like W H A T ?!?!! Nice accurate history lesson about JP in there, from what I can remember from the history lecture in my JP studies course. Pronunciations are good, but I can only judge German and Japanese. Common Soak/SVB W :) ETA: Nils bit
@@carstengrooten3686 yep. Both animations were produced by Japanese companies; Vicky the Viking is a German-Japanese co-production, but the animation itself was produced by a Japanese company called Zuiyo.
don't forget that there are several versions of Moomintroll series that are also made in Japan. The 1990s version is even a collaboration between Japan, Finland, and Netherlands.
I am Japanese, born in 1986, and I have been longing for something European ever since I can remember. I don't know why, but.... I think adults were also longing for Europe at that time. Whenever I thought of traveling abroad, I usually thought of Europe.
I know Miyazaki has the bigger name recognition, but the fact you kept mentioning him in relation to Heidi instead of Isao Takahata, the creator of the show (whom you only mentioned once), goes to show how criminally underrated the man is.
I agree. Takahata is a genius in his own right, but I think of it like this. Philip the II of Macedon was an exceptional man who did incredible things, but he is overshadowed by his son Alexander the Great who was somehow even more exceptional… That being said, I get heavy “casual” vibes from those who fail to recognize the greatness of Takahata, esp when the show in question WAS LITERALLY CREATED BY HIM and this channel keeps fawning over Miyazaki…it’s annoying, and I’m one of Miyazakis greatest admirers
Actually Japan's interest in Germany started way before WWII during prussian times, because the japanese leaders were fascinated by (among other things like medicine and law) the prussian military so they got some generals over to Japan and they taught them how the prussian military works, which led to a lot of the japanese military at the time being remodeled after the prussian one. Search up Jakob Meckel who was a foreign advisor to the japanese government during the Meiji period. This also led to some german words being integrated into japanese, like Arbeit in german meaning work, becoming the japanese arubaito meaning part-time work (and later the korean areubaiteu), because japanese students at the time often worked for german officials as their part time job. German was also a popular second language along with french back then and a lot of medical sciences back then used german loan words.
I would like to add that the japanese interest in Germany started even earlier. The Japanese, who were allowed to study Dutch books on medicine during the Edo period, did not fail to notice that these were often translations from German. A very important german in this regard was Phillip Siebold, a bavarian physician who influenced not only the modernization japanese medicine but the botanik studies. It was very usual for japanese physicians to learn german and to study in Germany up until the 1960s the patient files were written in German. Another big Episode for the japanese fascination is WW1. Japan succesfully attacked the little german colony in China and the german soldiers were POWs in Bando in Shikoku, Japan. Most of these soldiers were not professional soldiers. The Japanese gave the POWs some freedom and opportunities to work, make music and even bake like in Germany. Now they were allowed to work again as bakers, butchers, cooks, tailors, shoemakers, watchmakers, painters and photographers. There were even exhibitions where contact with the Japanese population was allowed. As far as I know, it was one of the Japanese's first major contacts with German culture outside of the military, science and trade and that must have made a huge impression.
To TheSteakLP: Actually, even if several western nations sent military missions in Japan to help Japan to build its military forces, France was the major nation in this process (even following the Franco-prussian war of 1870). There were 4 different French military missions in Japan between 1867 and 1919. (That's in the first one that came Jules Brunet, the guy that loosely inspired the 2003 movie _"The last samurai"_ with Tom Cruise). French military missions in Japan: 1867-1868: formation of the Denshutai elite troops corps. 1872-1880: reorganisation of the Imperial Japanese Army. 1884-1889: influenced the Japanede Navy. 1918-1919: formation of the Japanese airforce. From 1886 to 1889, two German officers were invited in parallel to the French mission, to form the Japanese Army general staff reform.
European romanticization for Japan is much older than what you mention. Giacomo Puccini's greatest work, Madame Butterfly, is an example of nippophilia at its fines, and that opera came out in 1904.
@ryu_san_ Elden Ring has nearly 0% "England" reference in it. Its references celtic culture which is not english culture, but british cultrue. Similar to Dark Souls references Europe genericaly then specifically "England"...
I'm so glad you mentioned Vinland Saga in this video. I find there is kind of a fascinating comparison to how Vinland Saga depicts Europe when compared to how Studio Ghibli depicts it. Like most Ghibli movies, Vinland saga is about the end of an era, the modern world and the march of history coming to break down and uproot an old order. The big difference is that Vinland Saga is very blunt about the fact that it considers the end of the Viking age to be a very good thing. Instead of an idyllic era being upturned by war and the coldness of technological progress, Vinland Saga is about an age of violence that needs to end to make way for a better way of living.
Too bad that better way of living never came. Posted from my non alloidal land, in my rented apartment, full of microplastics, disarmed, a slave to FIAT currency debt hunger cause every bit of tender starts as a loan from a bank, vasts swathes of culture destroyed and warped by abrahamism, my peoples old folklore dismissed as myth or fantasy, and such nice things.
@@hansbrackhaus8017You are not being pillaged and murdered in endless wars. You and everyone close to you are not dying to a common cold. You have access to an unbelievable amount of information at your fingertips, from hundreds of cultures. Stop feeling sorry for the world, it moves forward regardless.
@@esssss8415 >not being pillaged Yes we are, through banks, FIAT money "give me all your live savings" which is then spent by the banks on brick and mortar investments because they know that not everyone will take all their savings out. And then slap it with inflation to devaluate the rest that IS still in the account. People back then also didn't die of the cold all the time, and the information on the internet is tampered with all the time. Hell, if you ask Americans, who come from a really young country (so they should still remember things) about their culture then they'll stammer because it's European culture but they don't identify with it. And so forth.
Vinland Saga isn't about the end of the viking era, it's about the peak of their conquests, when England, Denmark and Norway are all united under one empire the violence comes from war, and it's not a war unique to vikings or Englishmen, the Normans would repeat the same takeover 40 years later while still being led by vikings
for western fantasy. there is eastern fantasy as well, less well known cause of how it can be a bit more absurd then western fantasy but it still exists. (absurd may be the wrong word, its more that eastern fantasy can have things beyond traditional comprehension more so then western magic and such has a harder time being animated)
@speedy01247 Naw absurd is definitely the word. I'm a pacific Islander. Maui gets killed by entering a goddesses obsidian toothed vagina. It's weird. It's ok to admit that. European mythology and folklore is so great because it's so universal. You don't need to be a part of the culture to understand that Herakles is heroic because of his strength. Or that Arthur is heroic because of his sense of justice that is portrayed through Chivalry. Like it keeps the message simple while building a fascinating world around that message. The modern equivalent is Tolkien. The message is simple. People are inherently corruptible, but through righteous attribute like love and loyalty we cam rise up to battle the darkness within and around ourselves. Simple message with an insanely complex background lore and story. That's why European myth is popular. Because it balances simple and fascinating.
Not the full picture. How many asian media set in both Americas ? How many in Africa ? How many in Oceania ? The truth is that Europe has ~3000 years of documented history featuring hundreds of greatly variating cultures, which makes for a collossal ressource for both historical and fantasy settings
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark because it’s based on Prince Amleth from the Gesta Danorum (“The Deeds of the Danes”) a book by Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. It was only written 300ish years before Shakespeare wrote Hamlet so keep in mind that it would still be relatively recent for him. Literally closer to his time than he is to us.
@@KrasseOdaVonBayern It's also why Beowulf is set in Denmark and southern Sweden. It's a fantasized image of ancient Scandinavia from a Christian Anglo- Saxon perspective.
@@stormstrider1990 The original story of Beowulf comes from the angles who were from modern Denmark, it was only written down in Old-English and then the church translated it
I went to Switzerland last year and bought a Heidi, Girl of the Alps anime magnet while there. I thought that was really cool that they were so proud of how a Japanese production depicted the Swiss culture.
It's kinda like. It's known in some countrys well, but it's kinda like eevery kid in Finland and many in Japan knows Moomins because it's like a finnish books and comics that was made into a series by finnish national tv with Japan by.. them making it 😂 (like we gave money to the project). Animating it aka it would be anime really in all sense. I especially remember it since it was 1990's show, but has really been seen by older people too and passed on to younger even if there is other not as good iterations of the franchise.
My illustration teacher knew Tove Jansson (the original creator of the Moomin trolls), who was famously known as an ornery, grumpy Finn. The Japanese courted her for the rights to the Moomin for _years,_ and Jansson refused, mostly because the Japanese wanted to change a lot. Then all of a sudden she agreed, and my teacher called her and asked what the hell happened. Jansson's reply: "At least I got them to drop the goddamn samurai."
there is a video somewhere on youtube, called amateurs guide to Moomin. She agreed after she had creative control for the anime to be closer to the originals.
Kiki's big city is based on Stockholm. Not every house nor every street is looking like Stockholm, but Miyazaki has openly stated it and it's evident when you know the real-life town. And Howl's moving castle roams in Czechia with a clear Welsh inspiration at times (a part of the original book is actually set in Wales). Excellent video, reminding Europeans that one's mundane is always someone else's exotic !
@@hakanstorsater5090 I saw a reddit post that compared several screenshots from Kiki's delivery service that were exactly the same as some parts of Visby and Gamla stan in Stockholm, amazing to see the two directly compared!
Sophie's hometown is based on Alsace in France, most specifically Colmar. I always got a Austria-Hungary vibe from Howl's world, with that grandiose Central European capital city and the Adriatic-coded seaside town. Castle in the sky is fully inspired by Britain, mostly Wales.
Studio Ghibli films are really popular here in Finland and most children didn't even realise that the Moomins anime was an anime. The Japanese are huge fans of Moomin and even travel to Finland because of it. Excellent video btw!
It's actually because the Moomins as well as several other children's animation for TV during that time period was made by a production company that was a collaboration between Finnish, Dutch, and Japanese animation studios and writers. Another show that didn't end up with the same level of global success is 'Alfred J. Kwak', animated by the same team that made the Moomins but it was made in particular for Dutch and Japanese viewers, it did air in many different countries globally (though never in the US, and I believe the same applies to the Moomins). There were in the late 80's and early 90's a lot of collaborations between European and Japanese animation studios, and they made shows that were very unique with a special kind of global appeal.
Speaking of Finland I just want to tell that the Russian animation Snow Queen, based on Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale, is the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki that he started animating again. The Snow Queen story is set in Finland
@@magicwandstudio3141 It's a long Gerda's trip through the hypothetical Northern Europe where are just a three geografical names - Denmark, Lapland and Finland. But between a point A (Odense, Denmark) and a point B (Finland) are much more unnamed countries.
@@darkalice650 The Snow Queen palace located on Spitzbergen, a real life place but Gerda didnt visit that particular palace. She visit her second palace on the Lapland. HCA usually very specific about the settings, its not just hyphotetical palace but a real world place and even some historical even mix in (the dryad for example). I am not sure Gerda’s home is in Odense since there are no mention about the name of the village or town, but judging from the description of the architecture and their name, it seems to be somewhere in Scandinavia
I'm someone of African descent (as far as I know, I'm American) and one thing I was always envious of was how Europe and many Asian countries have such fascinating history and cultures to be proud of. They are displayed with such love globally to the point that everyone is deeply familiar with Anglo, Germanic, Scandinavian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese culture and I'm happy for people that hail from such places and are able to enjoy such recognition. I always wished the same thing could be experienced for many African countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria being candid. Hopefully someday in the future this can happen but if anything this feeling always inspires me to create art of my own to explore such things for my own satisfaction lol
Preach! I'm pretty sure there are amasing history, culture and landscape to work with in Africa and they would be great to see. Unlike seing the same european tales retold for the 100th time but with "colored" cast this time. That is booooring. The real thing wouldn't be.
Unfortunately, Japan's first real exposure to anything African-related was through minstrel plays. So in Japan's eyes early on, black culture was seen as trivial and only for entertainment.
Africa also has fascinating history from mansa musa's mali empire, songhai, ancient Egypt, Nubia/Kush, Axum, Great Zimbabwe, ect. Id love to see more african media.
As a Japanese, this is very well made and researched, well done! Also to add in a cultural context, being a monoethnic country and sakoku, Japanese people have always had fascinations with outsiders especially Europeans. During the Meiji era, Japan had a bit of an inferiority complex when compared to Europe since we were still way behind, hence the change in clothings, certain customs and norms to seem more "civilized" to the rest of the world. This is true for almost all Asian countries. This in turn, influenced a lot of mindset of Japanese and further enhanced the fascination. After WWII and economic recovery, that fascination still persists and with so much resources of exotic history and folk lores like elves, orcs, giants etc. The artists from this period took inspiration to create fantastical world and tell stories which are not found in Asia. In modern Japan, you can still find the mindset mentioned in French-styled cafes, European-themed attractions and I'm glad you mentioned Paris syndrome since you can see fascination with France here everywhere. Even today, you can see interests in cultures of predominantly white countries. Almost everyday I see random white people being interviewed by TV programs.
I’m so glad you have said all that,it’s great to hear from someone in the culture being discussed.I’ve noticed aswell that’s there’s lots of white people on Japanese tv such as RUclipsr “abroad in Japan”.I wish my country of Scotland would be more diverse and have themed cafes and adopted some of the cultural and social norms of Japan.I feel that in my home country it lacks things to do compared to japan
The mindset in Japanese copies of Europe is fake though. It's a facsimile. You as Japanese can never have the European spirit, and we can never have yours. The closest the Japanese can get to European is to be Roman Catholic. But Japanese are very distant to Europe because you rejected the Catholic faith and preferred to what we would consider more of paganism. I know Catholic Japanese and non Catholic ones and the Catholic Japanese are very European in outlook. Sadly Japanese are intolerant of Christian Japanese, while Europeans are tolerant of other people. That's also how you're not European. Your country is intolerant of foreigners. When I see Japanese depictions of Europe, in manga or other products, or cafes, it looks fake. It's not real. And there is no SPIRIT in it. It's dead. In fact we can even spot when a show is Japanese or Japanese inspired. It's not from an European country, but it dotes on little skin deep things which Europeans would not dote on. You obsess over dress or style but Europeans don't obsess over that in their classic works. So please don't say mindset. You don't have European mindset, in the classic sense. That would require a Christian culture, even if no longer that practicing. Thanks.
i did a small reviewpaper on russian and japanese development in +- the meiji era essentially russia accepted western foreign investment and japan still refused any foreign controll over any of their infrastructure or resources but did invite experts and copy technology, both invested heavily in infrastructure as well both also developed for the same main reasons, mainly fear of western colonisation/conquest. Japan became enticed by western culture but retained a very strong sense of self, which in turn lead to Japan forming a modern Japanese culture that is heavily influenced by the west but still mainly unique (honestly very similar to how early Japanese culture was influenced by Chinese culture) Japan also didn't purely copy tech, they realised that it was better for japan to use manpower than steam for production but they did copy the mechanisms from british machines for them to be handcranked and made out of wood rather than metal.
Interesting facts: the school uniforms we know in Japan today, were inspired from wealthy, European aristocratic families in the 19th centurs who dressed their children in sailor uniforms, especially in Germany and Britain. Funny little side note: Sophie from Howl's Moving castle is strongly alluded to being German or Austrian. The war propaganda posters on the walls of her hometown are written in German, and the whole architecture of her town, as well as the surrounding nature seemes to suggest it as well.
The movie is ofc based on the book of a UK author, where the original also takes place. According to Miyazaki he took most visual inspiration for Sophies hometown from the town 'Colmar' where they had a studio. Colmar is a french city in 'Alsace' which was historically sometimes german, sometimes french (today it's french). It's about 5 minutes away from the german-french border and is one of the main quarters for german-french exchange-, coop- and coworking projects of the governments and institutions of both countries. So, it's like a mix of french and german visually (Baden-Württemberg, to be more specifically, the other southern german stated next to Bavaria and home of the Black Forest). The architecture is, btw, very typical for southern Germany, northen France (or rather north-east France), northern Switzerland and Austria.
Likewise, Boy's school uniforms in Japan tend to have a stand-up collar, which they borrowed from the Prussian Military Uniform. That's because the Prewar Japanese government thought Prussia had the most militaristic culture in Europe and they wanted their boys to be like them.
Not to mention in Kiki's Delivery Service, many shops' names are based on swedish/germanic names and objects, for example there's the bakery that has a very german sounding name as well as one of the stores Kiki flies by has "Herrmode" written on it, which means "Men's fashion" in swedish :D. The references make me really happy
Actually, Japan had a facinatination with the west even before the meiji period. During the sakoku period, even though it was illegal, many japneese scholars studied the west from what little information they could get from the Dutch. They were especially interested in their military techniques involving guns and cannons. There's a great video essay on it from the RUclips channel "Voice's of the past" called Japan and the West: The First 500 Years // Japanese History
@@U_dropped_ur_crwn_queen ignore them. They're just being rude. Thank you for the recommendation. I was aware of Dutch studies, but the essay sounds interesting so I'll give it a listen
@@peterc4082South Korea, China and Taiwan are all economically advanced as well lol, in fact China is considered one of the smartest nations and the ONLY nation that can challenge the USA economically.
Thank you so much for this! I haven't commented on a video in a very long time, but this just deserves all the praise a huge Ghibli fan like myself (who has always wondered where the inspiration came from) can give. So once again, thank you!
@@PeachDragon_ The rest of the Alps looks similar, Carpathians and Northern Balkans look similar if you squint. Any other places can't be confused with Austria unless you have brain damage.
*As an Austrian I never understood the admiration Japanese Anime/Manga had with Europe, until I started seeing it myself. Sometimes we don't realize how beautiful our place is, until you see others admiring or writing about it.*
when I was a child I always dreamed of leaving in Europe, as a grown up I still think Europe is far better than many other places but you really need to fix your boarder crisis
Do you know the Japanese slogan of the governor at Meiji-era, after 1868 that "leave Asia, enter into Europe". Europe is an advanced and aspirational lands to Japanese people after that.
There are places where Europe looks exactly as you would expect from a Studio Ghibli movie, slightly steampunk-ish, bucolically-beautiful and melancholically-peaceful but with plenty of ominous remainders to past wars: Near ruins and wreckages of WWI and II forts and battlefields in the Alps. I wish I could add pictures to this comment: A couple of summers ago, while hiking between Italy and France, I ended up in this high-mountain meadow, complete with flowers and grass rippling like waves in the wind. It was dotted with large rusted metal domes, most tilted and half-sunken into the ground, with big holes for where cannons must have once been. It looked like something straight out of Castle in the Sky or Howl's Moving Castle.
I have seen such trances high in the northern mountains of Romania (Maramures), I grow up along them where my grandma told me stories about the ww2 (shes 98 now)
Another point is, that germany and japan developed a great friendship in the 60's to today seen as example in the city of dusseldorf where there is even a whole japanese neighborhood. A lot of japanese workers are sent there to work for a short period and than called back because the bosses are afraid their workers get too lazy because working mentality in germany is different than in japan. Where germans tend to work precise but tend to enjoy live in equal matter the japanese tend to put a lot of livetime into their work.
@@dizelraf at that Time they were more allied forces than friends. They shared some technologies but really friends we grew later when the finance boom in the 60s started.
Do you think Germans and Japanese are special people? Do you think if the rest of us committed suicide and the Japanese and Germans could settle the whole world the world would be a better place? You seem to think that Germans and Japanese are superior.
@@dizelrafdespite being allies the two countries didn't have great relations, mostly due to Germany signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop with the Soviet Union and still having relations with China, and the fact that Poland and Japan before the invasion of Poland had very good diplomatic relations due to sharing Intel regarding the Soviet Union. They were allies in name that parallely attacked the same powers but they didn't coordinate or communicate a lot together.
I am from the Philippines and the anime that I grew up watching here that aired on local channel with European settings are Heidi, Dog of Flanders, Little Prince Cedie, Princess Sara, Romeo's Blue Sky. My favorite in all of these is Dog of Flanders and Romeo's Blue sky these two animes broke my heart and made me cry when I was a child, it had a tremendous impact on me.
Okay but I'd like to address something about Howl's Moving Castle; Miyazaki may have picked it, but he didn't write it, nor did any one in the studio. Many of those elements stated were already present in the book by Diana Wynne Jones, including descriptions of the villages, towns, and castles. And the part about Howl being Howell originally from Wales, (the part where he discovers the falling star was supposed to be in Wales, they actually visit and talk with his family in the book) was deliberately cut out. So Sofie's world is actually an 'otherworld' where Europe quite firmly exists on the other side of a door that Howl traveled through using his magical abilities. It was the first book in the series. (Also no, Castle in the Air has nothing to do with Castle in the Sky if you look it up) And saying it's all inspired from DnD is a bit of a stretch given this started well beyond the first time DnD was released.
@@reinertgregal1130 Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater has several examples: Nobody's Girl Remi is far more well known around the world than Sans Famille, to the point that a French live-action adaptation of the original source material was hated overseas because of it being "an awful adaptation of an anime". Lucy May of the Southern Rainbow is an adaptation of a book called Southern Rainbow(technically an Eastern thing as it's from Australia, but some people consider Australia a Western nation) & the original book was seemingly already extremely obscure(kind of like the original Dumbo book that Disney adapted) before the anime came out as I can't find much on it online.
A note on Kiki's setting: two places in Sweden, Stockholm and Gotland Island, were used as inspiration for the fictional town. They were even visited and photographed by the team. If you look at pictures of both places, you can easily recognise features depicted in the film.
As an austrian I have always wondered why Japan has such an obsession with Europe and it's languages (specifically german) and I realized it's genuine admiration and marvel. Others see the beauty in things you deem mundane. It makes you appreciate your world quite a bit more and I'm grateful that it gives others so much joy.
I played FFXV a few years ago and the map of the game is almost like a remonagination of Italy (where i live), like the giant mountains not so far off of the bright blue beaches, that city-state 1 to 1 to Venice, the planes, hell that second city you visit in the game is like almost what every city in Italy looks like
I love European history and historical fictions. In general, I don't like modern settings in stories. But historical Europe is a great love of mine for fiction.
Could you explain why. Ive always kind of wondered about the love of fantasy as whole as its never really clicked for me. ive always been more interested in sci-fi. Especially ones where you can travel to other planets. Exploring the deep expanse of space. Learning about new creatures. Discovering new technologies and all that jazz
@@dozergames2395 I think I can. I’ll start by explaining why I like the past as a setting first. Everything was much more personal. You can’t communicate long distance without a great deal of effort and time. Fighting is much more intimate, fire arms, artillery, computer controlled missiles, etc. take you further and further from the intimacy I like to see in writing. (Not that I don’t think guns and the like aren’t cool. I also like sci-fi. Big Halo fan). As for fantasy, I find mystery to be one hell of an immersive tool. And for that reason I am picky about the fantasy I like. If magic is common, understood, it’s not magic, it’s a fictional science. So, the mystery of not knowing how certain things works in an otherwise practical world makes the mind explode with possibilities. The rumors about that beast in the forest? That someone might hear your words on the wind just as an animal might smell you? That somewhere out there the dead walk? Who knows if any are true until you see them. That is what is beautiful about fantasy. It makes you wonder about the world, just like you did when you were a child. Fantasy can take place in the future too, with great technology. Starwars, Dune, they’re fantasies more than they are science fiction.
The thing with European history is how versatile it is for making settings in fiction. Every period of European history is incredibly interesting and has its charm. You can make a setting in the Middle Ages, if you don't want to do in the Middle Ages you can do in Ancient Greece, if not Ancient Greece then Ancient Rome, if not Ancient Rome then the Renaissance, if not that then maybe the 18th century, if not that then WW1 or WW2, so on and so on
@@saithvenomdrone thanks for the explanation. Heres my views I feel that sci-fi can use similar settings and lack of knowledge to do the same thing as long as it's written well. of course, this is true of a skilled author in any setting That same reliance on easy communication and knowledge can make the unknown all the more scary. It can highlight just how much there still is to learn despite our accomplishments. the same way that you mentioned that overly understood magic can just begin to feel like science. minimally understood science can become magic. for instance, a ship that has lost external communications in space. It can have the same personal feel as a fantasy setting. With all the same fear. hell for the characters involved the fear can be greater as the communications only shortly before the event were a given, hell a requirement for the running of the vessel they find themselves in. it can have those same feelings of fearing the unknown when you travel where no one has before. Or through space that you lack control over. alien biology can seem completely illogical. Allien biospheres uninhabitable. while it's not the norm I do feel that more sci-fi focusing on the smaller scale should exist. Edit: also as far as Dune and star wars it does open the discussion of where do we draw the line between sci-fi and fantasy. It's commonly viewed as a simple time thing but I think that your correct in asserting that fantasy can be high tech, or far in the future Id argue that sci-fi distinguishes itself in that everything has to follow similar rules. That while it may not be understood or explained yet it always can be.
Colosseum is not strictly Italian but Roman which is found all over the place. Spain has a number of amphitheatres so its not something out of place on that One Piece island.
exactly! “roman” could refer to anywhere from south britain to nothern africa because of the vastity of the roman empire. plus it would need more precision because rome was founded in 753 BC and fell technically in 1453 DC. that’s a fuckton of years
Colosseums are neither italian nor roman. The Etruscans have been building Colosseums for centuries way before romans even existed. romans learned architecture, literature, civilisation etc. from Etruscans and then the very same romans as a gift, destroyed theirs 🤦♀️ We must give the credit to the Etruscans instead of praising the thieves.
@@jokerquinn9057if you’re gonna yap like that at least get the name right. They’re amphitheatres not “colosseums” the colosseum is a specific very large amphitheatre in Rome
Amazing video. From how Western cowboy films and Japanese Samurai flicks continue to influence each other since their inception , to how European artists' fascination with eastern art was a contributor to post-impressionism, to even John Wick, Matrix, and Scorcese and Tarantino films drawing heavily from Hong Kong cinema, I'm endlessly fascinated with the back-and forth flow of inspiration between the East and the West 🙌🙌
broo i remember watching heidi and that one blonde girl who turns flowers into professions. i remember wanting a hay bed, finding every attic nook with a drafty hole that the sun would peer through, would run outside barefoot trying to find every flower and be whoever anyone i wanted to be. Living in the countryside really just elevated it all to such good fantastical times.
Miyazaki said that one of the movies that inspired him the most was a french cartoon called "le roi et l'oiseau" (the king and the bird) that he saw as a child. There are many similarities between this movies and the work of studio ghibli. That may be one of the reasons why he is facinated about Europe.
YEEEES I was waiting for someone to mention this movie!!! It's excellent, I must have watched it 30 times growing up (and still today). It's by Paul Grimmault also! (with texts from Jacques Prevert, he's a really good French poet)
i think of it as echoes of the waight it pulled from late medieval to early modern. i taught that writing fantasy in medieal european setting was an unwritten rule
@@Hello-uk5xpNo idea but in terms of which one I’d like to visit the least, its South America. Won’t catch me lacking in South America anytime soon. I’m staying the f away from that.
Anime is often obsessed with Europe because Japan has been obsessed with European culture ever since the late 19th Century Meiji Era when Japan adopted many European cultural and technological innovations as part of the program to "modernize" Japan in order to to be competitive with the West. This obsession with "everything western & European" has remained a continuing feature of modern Japanese culture. Similarly, many westerners are obsessed with "everything Japanese." It's a mutual idolization.
In broad strokes, Europe has a rich long history and culture to draw inspiration from; but I’d prefer more series like Golden Kamuy or The Apothecary Diaries which take place in eras and locations I’ve never really seen stories about before
Apothecary diaries is i think insipired from China. So you do have a lot of Chinese anime covering that period. Unfortunately you need to learn mandarin to even find them which is too bad XD
Yeah both series are incredible and Id love to see a modern anime on the story of the Monkey King. This is a myth we often see depicted in anime, games and other media but I have never heard the actual story before.
Same here. I've been on the hunt for media based on cultures that we hardly see given spotlight, such as native american, african, and south asian cultures. And personally as someone who's from a country that's been colonized by europeans, it does get tiring to only see my colonizers' cultures be given any proper representation.
I'd be happy if they were just more original with the world building of fantasy settings. If they allowed themselves to get more creative. Sure be inspired by various cultures but still mix it up into something new and different, rather than always have the same stereotypical takes and character clichés.
I love that you mentioned vinnland saga. I fucking love the show and manga. One of the best parts of the manga for me was reading the notes Yukimara put in the back of the books where he talked about the history the manga was based on, and his philosophy
This is so closely tied to who I am, as a half Swiss half Japanese anime fan, whose mother came to Europe because of her obsession with it. And now I have a girlfriend, who is obsessed with these old world masterpiece anime, and came to Germany to study. Maybe these anime put that idea in her head. She actually told me today that she is rewatching Heidi
I moved to Germany last year, during the vacations we went to visit the old city of Nördligen (one of the places that inspired Attack on Titan, but i didn't knew that until i looked it up after seeing so many references carved or written in the walls) No wonder why it felt so familiar, now it's the best experience i got as an anime fan Even on a general look, old cities here always look like those "generic Isekai towns" and when some random musician plays the accordion on the street, that nails the atmosphere 😂
I’m only 8 minutes in and this is one of the most interesting video essays on anime and its history I’ve seen in a long time. Amazing job covering an often overlooked, integral part of its history - shoujo.
It's a very nice and well researched video! Thank you so much! I'd just like to add, that at least in Germany the anime hype did not actually start with heidi but with Vicky the Viking (1963) written by the Swedish author Runer Jonsson. He won the German literature prize and afterwards it was produced as an anime in Japan on behalf of the German channel ZDF and the Austrian Channel ORF.
I’ve tried so many times in so many ways to describe why I love Studio Ghibli so much, but your video essay helped me nail one of the main things! The way that the Japanese animation style is combined with the European aesthetics, architecture, and clothing, creates that perfectly other worldly feel you described, because those two completely different cultures have never existed in a melting pot blend like that. And it does make me feel nostalgic for a “fantastical, sweet European fantasy past”. Amazing video! Also, the Zelda music playing in the background totally threw me off but was also perfect for the subject matter 😂
My favorite connecting trope is how in so many isekai, there's so often a hint of homesickness, whether an MC who becomes obsessed with finding or making rice, miso sauce, etc, or else there was another Japanese person sent to the other world in the past who founded a nation steeped in Japanese culture.
The worse in when a MC makes it like the food in the new world is shit while is rice and tofu or ramen are better 💀💀 like bruh not all of us have british food 😂
I laugh at the main character in Isekais, who always seems to build a hot spring bath house and "invent" soap. It always impresses the Euro/Fantasy people as they are too stupid to understand bathing.
Japan's compulsory education and high school education are strongly influenced by prewar elite culture. In that culture, Western culture was collected and translated, and required reading for all students. After the war, it was forbidden to use Japanese mythology as the background for stories, so Japanese writers often set their stories in Europe.
Since the 1990s, with the help of the United States, Koreans have established control over Japan. Koreans have no interest in Western mythology, classics, or philosophy, so a manga like this will never be created again.
Yeah, exalting japanese culture isn't been a good thing since japanese defeat in ww2, mixed reception legacy. I recall Akira kurosawa being called out by Japanese Media as a fascist whereas the West was all ears embracing his movies with Orientalism narratives. The reality is Japanese politicians are afraid too much appreciation for japanese traditional culture would eventually put Japan back into the way of Ultranationalism once again, a political system not so tolerable of democracy speech and that would gradually strip most japanese politicians of their government positions... And to say more. ANIME legally distributed worldwide is often dubbed in English, German and French, not in Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Thai or Vietnamese etc... Westerners are the largest market for ANIME outside of Japan... most japanese people don't care about ANIME at all, Japan's industrial successful in the postwar era would have never been possible the way it took if wasn't for the advanced economies of the west willing to purchase japanese imports...
I find it hard to believe the popularisation of the Europe fantasy setting comes from D&D as it relates to games and therefore anime. Fantasy had existed in the past in the form of ancient and often religious epics. But modern fantasy, which is associated with Europe, was birthed by predominately English authors in literature. They combined bits from the medieval period and European mythology. Tolkien is said to have been the one to have popularised it. It’s disputed whether he influenced D&D to a great extent but ultimately D&D was influenced by literature. And I don’t know for certain but I’m going to guess that modern fantasy literature, such as the lord of the rings, had the bigger impact in pop culture to cement the fantasy setting, even as it relates to Japanese games and anime.
Yeah, D&D also borrowed heavily from Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser, from Jack Vance's stories about a post-apocalyptic Earth where magic is real (it's where they got the D&D magic system from) and also Lord Dunsany's stories (which predate Tolkien by decades).
I don't see how it could possibly be disputed considering that D&D copy pasted Tolkien's fantasy wholesale and there's a big and pretty obvious difference to pre-Tolkien and post-Tolkien fantasy. Also, just reading Tolkien it's obvious how heavily all RPGs including D&D drew from his work as his world is very RPG ready from the get go. Just reading it it seems obvious where RPG mechanics (loot, combat, gear, race and combat class etc) would slot in.
@@_Atreides_Yeah, if I remember correctly, D&D used the term "hobbit" in their first editions, but got slapped by the Tolkien Estate, which is way we have halflings now. And moreover, the depiction of elves in particular makes it all kinda obvious how influatial Tolkien's work was. Of course there are plenty other sources of inspiration, but for the core fantasy of D&D, you can just say it's essentially Tolkien's influence.
We all have that "Europe" in our hearts. Whether it is with our obsession with the landscapes, of knights and honour, of magic and witchcraft imaginary europe is just the perfect setting. The closest of that imaginary europe today is switzerland and some parts of germany, The alps, the vast woodland of hungary and the quietness and stillness of fjords.
You guys should bring it back. Visited paris and london some time ago and it's like someone ransacked it. Only prague, krakow and vienna truly feels "Europe".
@@AeneasSaturn Yup, it's quite bad. You might find better things in wealthy smaller cities (avoid the poor ones tho, they also are full of problems). I am from Bordeaux, and my city is still gorgeous without the same level of problems there is in Paris.
What an amazing video! A lot of the anime from the 80s and 90s are nostalgic to me, I'm glad there are so many others who watched them as children too.
Japan and anime's obsession with Europe always fascinated me since I was younger. I remember first getting into anime thinking most of the settings would look foreign and Japanese to me, only to find that a LOT of what I saw felt familiar, both culturally and aesthetically. Not to mention modern fashion and clothing in Japan looking so Westernized and European, it really made me wonder what the origin of Asia's fascination with Europe came from!
I mean, Japan has ever since the mid 1800ds sent their elite to study in European schools. It was verry much understood that Europe was superior and that Japan needed to adapt. If you listen to Japanese (or Korean, Chinese whatever) patriotic music from the 19th and early 20th century you will find it's all european style band music.
A lot of time the writers don't even think of it as Europe. it's just Fantasy novel or manga that they create a lot of elements from other western fantasy books or RPG like this video mentioned. Most manga is still based on Asia settings. There are some American settings mangan like chrono crusade, Baccano!. there is not much old literature about the US anyway. No work to copy from like greek vs norse myth. They do have anime about mayan mythology
Get rid of multiculturalism, immigration, LGBT, feminism, sexual deviancy, modernism, modernist art, atheism, secularism, immorality, etc. Problem solved.
@@orvos1459Feminism was never the issue. it's something endemic to northern European culture specifically that other countries can't handle because they do not carry the same cognitive abilities and spirit that northerners have. The issue is the genuinely soul-sick (()) and ethnics who seek to destroy our prosperity out of sheer envy and banality.
The Japanese image of Germany: A history of great science and technology. Smart people. People who love China and have secretly built relationships with fu◯k China since ancient times, even when they were allies in World War II.
One of my favourite shows ever is Nils Holgersson, its about a kid that got cursed by a gnome and goes on adventures with a pack of geese. This depicts several adventures, folklore, stories and the eventual industrialisation in Europe. It shows the fascination Japan had with Europe, similiar to Heidi, exactly as u said in the video. This was one of my first pieces of media and it will stick with me forever.
I'll say this: when I went to Japan, I saw plenty of shops and public establishments styled with a quaint "traditional" European esthetic. German bakeries, French cafes, Italian florists, etc. As a European myself, I must say that I wish everything here was as charming and pleasant as the Japanese seem to see it. It was humbling and heartwarming to look at our continent through their eyes.
I read somewhere that anime and manga is fascinated by Europe, particularly 19th and early 20th century Germany, because Germans played a big role with modernization of Japan after the isolation period ended. Their culture made huge impact of Japanese people and became part of their popculture which can be seen today in some anime with protagonists having german names, in some isekai you have spells that have german names, with parts of german history and myths being adapted into some stories. The biggest examples of this is AOT. But you can find traces of it in for example in Gundam, Eva and so on.
As a German who studied East Asian Art History i can tell you that assumption is false. Japanese Meiji Politicians took many diverse inspirations from European culture and political systems. Germany never played a direct role during the Meiji era. The modernization of Japan was solely on the Japanese elites and their own will to "develop" (aka the eurocentric belief in modernity) as they feared being colonized by Western powers. That is to say that they travelled and enjoyed european culture and fashion etc. but also changed their approach to them to fit their own tastes and needs.
@@_de_reve I mean, Japan famously replaced their French military advisors with Prussian ones after 1871, and military culture is also culture. Additionally, German PoWs in WW1 were often treated more like exchange students you can learn from than enemies. So I wouldn't call it nothing. But there were, of course, huge Britain and France fanboys in Meiji Japan as well.
@@_de_reve Ok, I stated "I read somewhere", so now I stand corrected ;) But also, quick look on the Wikipedia: "Japan modernized rapidly after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, often using German models through intense intellectual and cultural exchange". So maybe Germans never played direct role, but Japan prefered their models of industry. I watch a lot of anime recently and I see a lot of mostly German influences on the names of characters, geography of the lands and cities, the are even magic spells that have a german names (for example Zweit Sheild in The Rise of the Shield Hero), and shows that have german-sounding titles( Elfen Lied etc). Of course there are some influences from other countries and a lot of english-sounding names and titles, but specifically Germany around the 19th century and beggining of 20th century comes up very often in anime. It has to have some reason.
@@_de_reve Thats just not true, Japan modernized rapidly after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, often using German models through intense intellectual and cultural exchange.
I don't think there is a direct link there, Japan modernized out of necesity, to prevent be colonized or losing territory like China, not because of admiration, many were against it. Many westerners helped with the japanese modernization, not just Germans, the British helped them build their first few railways, the Dutch helped them to build their first steam war ship, later battleships were buit in England and France, the Germans along with the Americans and French helped modernized their military, the Germans also helped with things like teaching modern western medicine. They did have an impact but not bigger than other european coutries or the Americans. The good relations between Germany and Japan only lasted like a decade and half, because Germany was against Japanese expansionist in China and actually supported the Russians during the russo japanese war, they later fought in ww1, and in the 20s and 30s the Germans trained,helped modernize and equiped the Chinese KMT army to resist Japan.
Ooooh Heidi ! I remember watching this as a child in the 2010s (in France), and being half Swiss myself, I always thought it was a Swiss or French production. Thanks for bringing up this part of my childhood, so many good memories ! I loved that show so much
This video is one of the most comprehensive and compelling stuff I've seen especially for an anime essay video. So much interesting informations being well presented. I only recently came up with the idea of Europe-centric Japanese media since I rewatched fmab and fantasy type shows & manga, & all the dots are connected perfectly with your video. Keep up the quality content man!
Howl was written by an European woman.. I'm surprised you left that out like if Miyazaki came up with the whole thing...when the European things are already ingrained in the novel
It's simple to understand, European culture is, alongside japanese culture, one of the biggest cultural hits in recorded history. For us Europeans our culture is taken for granted and therefore non exotic and less interesting. For Japanese people, their amazing culture is taken for granted and therefore less interesting. So we Europeans marvel at Japanese culture, while the Japanese people marvel at Our culture.
European culture conquered the world, literally with arms, thsts why it's hegemonic world wide and it invades even the mind of a people with a strong modern culture like Japan
It's also a question of 'being out there'. For example the chinese culture was historically far more relevant for a much longer time than the japanese culture. But the China of today (of it being actually China or not is a whole different topin in and on itself) is so extremely closed off, you have to put in real effort to find things out. On the other hand, Japan has opened itself up to the world and the west decades ago. You can see a similar situation with South-Korea going on right now, k-pop specifically marketed for the western aka global market, it opened many paths for korean culture to pour into the minds of the world, and korean media is starting to conquer the world (k-pop and manhwa are already on par with japanese counterparts in popularity, if not beyond). And with that, always comes the interest of the culture and history that is behind it.
Europe has a very rich, varied and well known history. You can find tales of exploration, romance, wars and revolutions, mystical creatures and gods. It’s no wonder that a lot of fiction has influences from Europe. The scenery and architecture is also varied and beautiful, with castles, cottages, churches, coliseums etc. A lot of magic spells for example tend to use rune language as well. It’s definitely interesting
I always thought it was because we all love the armor of European knights and their capes, but now that you mention it and remembering Fullmetal Alchemist, I think they do feel a pretty deep admiration for Europe.
9 месяцев назад+15
I'm not particular a person that watches much anime but I agree up with the "Anime" that was so blend in that I didn't knew it was anime until much after I watched it. What I like most about anime depictions of Europe is that besides the inaccuracies that comes from the Anime drawing style the stories and environments behind them were told true to their origins or at least respectfully altered but never show them in a way that is disrespectful, false or in way that judges us from above without understanding. I'm German, I know a lot of my countries and culture of my people outside of Germany and inside before there was even a Germany. What I noticed is that a lot of media uses our history to tells a story but often they don't try to understand the environment how these things happened or how they are depicted in the historic setting so that they look out of place e.g. what a lot of people forget that to be German you don't have to life in Germany a lot of people lived in German cities outside of my country. What I also noticed is that while media tries to be more verbose these days (which is great) it does it more in a way that doesn't address diversity in a way that respects the story or addresses diversity in a way that is more diversity in the point of view of the country of origin of the media rather than to for example see that having people with different skin colors don't have to increase diversity or people with the same skin color but different cultural background decreases diversity.
Honestly I love how the West and Japan has just had this funny game of Ping Pong when they were inspired by each other for nearly a hundred years now. It's awesome. Jojo's bizarre adventure was openly inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Avatar the Last Airbender was an open love letter to Anime both in art style and world-building. Attack on Titan draws deep inspiration from. "All is quiet on the Western front." down to the design of a German city. And of course almost all the characters have german names. The Disney Renaissance was very inspired by early Miyazaki and the way he portrayed women in a new way. Miyazaki himself was very inspired by Norwegian author Astrid Lindgren and how SHE portrayed young girls in her books. And it just goes on and on with the West and Japan playing ping pong with each other, and being inspired from each other to create new and amazing things, and I am all here for it. It's awesome. Fist of the North Star is inspired by Mad Max. And Star Wars is deeply inspired by "Seven Samurais." It's so funny and so cool how we inspired each other like this.
@Neo_Vandole yea and even the American ones have gotten worse now. i know anime got more popular among adults but tv tends to be out of touch these days .i rarely watch tv anymore so i am not sure what its like .
I hope you know that Howl's Moving Castle was based on a book by author Dianna Wynn Jones. Those fantastical elements you attribute to Miyazaki were literally in the book as well. Which is probably why it inspired him to make the movie in the first place.
Great video, well written and paced. You are really good at conveying your ideas, definitely deserve more subscribers. I hope you continue to publish content like this regardless of what it’s about.
I'm Japanese and I think it's more accurate to say it's an obsession with WESTERN Europe, not "Europe" as a whole. The nations of Europe that I personally like (Uralic peoples, Baltic peoples, Kalmyks, Belarusians, Crimean Tatars, Circassians) NEVER appear in anime with the exception of brief references to Finland (due to the popularity of Moomin) here and there. It's just Western Europe that's overrepresented (alongside Greece and Russia) and even within Western Europe just France, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. I can't name a single Basque character in anime even though one of the most influential figures in Japanese history (Francisco Xavier) was Basque. Nor can I name a single Cornish anime character and when Switzerland is represented the Romansh language is never featured. Meanwhile a lot of anime features gratuitous use of English (too many examples to name), French (e.g. the Gen 6 Pokémon anime), German (e.g. Spy X Family and Attack On Titan), Italian (e.g. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX), etc. but no European languages I like (or even the few Western European languages I find interesting such as Basque, Romansh, Cornish, Luxembourgish, or Northumbrian). Also, Hayao Miyazaki is specifically an Italophile (he's even admitted to being one), hence why Porco Rosso is his prototypical example with all of his personal quirks and even the general European aesthetic he goes for has clear Italian influences. That being said I do agree with what you said regarding how European settings being exotic allows an appeal to Japanese audiences while exploring unconventional themes. The isekai aspect I also agree with. I lived in Hungary and Estonia partly for similar reasons to the ones you named and enjoyed life there far more than in Japan. And the next European country I'd want to live in is Latvia, hence why I've been learning Latvian for more than 2 years. But sadly these countries are never represented in anime.
In the Americas, Europe, specifically the UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany were viewed as the main evil in history, specifically Latin American history.
Great video! I've had this question for a very long time. I don't know why this showed up on my feed since I don't really follow anime content on youtube, but I'm glad it did!
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16:03 why every western RUclipsr forget to mention some parts of SEA were imperial Japan’s colonies😭
BTW RUclips recognized the right parentheses as part of the links. It’d be better to have a space before the right parentheses
2:07 what music track is that?
I don't get how in the world you avoided talking about Records of Loss War
Europe has the great novels & great art so its easy meanwhile relatable to majority of the world population. But majority of anime its futuristic fantasy not really based in Europe or our own world Like Alita, ghost in a shell, DBZ & others. Some are referenced on USA classic movies.
Where do you watch these animes?
Im swedish and would like to watch, is there a website?
Miyazaki got Heidi so right that most of Switzerland thought it was a Swiss production FOR DECADES. The state news eventually did a whole documentary about him and his team scouting the locations and a behind the scenes.
As a swiss person I agree to this . I legit was shooked when I watched the video. The creator of Gihbli studios created Heidi? That‘s crazy.
@@Anni-lavenderlemon Nope. Heidi was created by Swiss author Johanna Spyri in 1880. This is an anime production of the story and character.
@@Anni-lavenderlemon They made "Heidi, Girl of the Alps" the animated series. The story is originally by a swiss author. Still doesn't remove any merit to the japanes, they made heidi popular again for most of our parents/grandparents in the 70's across europe.
@@LeukipposOfAbderaThe west has failed at making any meaningful or accurate adaptation of anything eastern, because they don’t get the subtleties or mix it up with other Asian cultures with each other. So it’s a big deal they got something right based off an original script when adapting something
@@vistalover9607 The west has done that plenty of times, with the most recent example of Shogun. All things considered, anime like Heidi are the rare example of anime being accurate to the setting they are portraying
Funny enough "Heidi" was not even considered to be Anime in Germany and Switzerland back then. It was just seen as a cartoon for children, people did no even know it was from Japan.
I'm Italian and I thought Heidi was a European cartoon, actually many anime that I used to watch as a child like Lady Oscar, Georgie, Remy, etc. we're all made in Europe
@@milena39 Ciao Marco, Ciao ... was also made in Japan. As well as Niclas the Boy from Flanders, or Perine, or Nils Holgersson, Puschel (Lo scoiattolo Banner), Maya the Bee (L'ape Maia), etc.
And they were right back then. After all anime is just Japanese cartoon
Well yes i think this categorisation started in the mid 80s or late 80s and 90s
yeah im a spaniard and i grew up thinking it was made in here from how popular it is 😭
As an Englishmen, I've often said that I'd love to live in the England and the rest of Britain that Japan thinks exists.
@@ghost-user559 Even that's not the same England depicted in Japanese media, I don't know what alternate timeline you live in.
There's a whole meme for that with Americans. "Be the American the Japanese think Americans are"
@@ghost-user559No it never did.
@@DaDunge Well you can look up what I said for yourself right here and now lol? You can look up photos and videos of people in Europe from 1880 to now and its all there to see. It’s not complicated, it’s literally history.
A Japanese girl once told me she loved England because it is a gentleman's country 😂 mate you got no clue.
私は日本人です。
子供の頃は今ほど外国に簡単に行けませんでしたし、映像や情報も少なかったです。
けれど子供向けに多くの童話や小説が翻訳されていました。
知らない世界に好奇心がわきました。その頃はピザやハンバーガーもめずらしかったのです。
アニメが旅行の代わりに世界を見せてくれました
Thank you for your insight! As a westerner I really couldn't understand it
ハーフです。ヨーロッパについての動画でピザやハンバーガーについて話すのは面白いだよ。ｗ
The American half of me finds this hilarious for some reason. Even though sure, I guess pizza technically isn't American, but he said pizza AND burgers.
@@urphakeandgey6308 Burgers are a German invention.
i grew up in Hawaii. Anime Showed me the World as well!
thanks Google translate for eliminating boundaries in communication. love this.
europe actually became very fascinated with Japanese art! Vincent van gogh and many other artists of the time have entire collections of japanese inspired artworks, just as Japans floating world paintings began to become heavily inspired by dutch landscape artwork
Prussian monarchs were very much interested in Japanese art and literature as well, resulting in some of the first translated japanese woodblock print books to be german so they could read and enjoy the stories. And when Japan was modernizing rapidly during that time, they imported prussian science and modern medicine. Even today you will find german expressions in japanese hospitals because of that.
France was so obsessed with Japanese culture in the late 19th century that the craze had it's own word/genre : "Japonisme" . it's influence straddled every artistic discipline at the time.
Xenomania
Preconceptions are something else. They see things in Europe the same way we have preconceptions of Japan.
@@mcgoose258
And France was the birthplace of scifi manga/anime. They produce some of the best anime art of our time
Just like how japan is exotic to us, we are to them..
Not really true they know a lot more about Europe than the reverse
@@FOLIPE lol
@@FOLIPE I've been to Asia, yes you are seen as exotic there as a European, (no shit.).
Why do you spout stupid takes?
@@FOLIPEof course we are exotic to them
@@Kevin-oh9huMeanwhile half your electronics are Japanese…
Be the European Japan thinks you are 🙏
🙏
why@@constantinethecataphract5949
@@constantinethecataphract5949 cry i guess
what if said european was johan liebert
oh my days!! I'm stealing that! :'D :'D
Because Europe is truly like no other place on earth. It’s a beautiful continent full of ancient knowledge and heroic wisdom. The people are absolutely gorgeous and the environment from Norway to Spain is so diverse that you can basically go anywhere in Europe but still feel like you’re in a fantasy epic.
racist!
the middle east, India, south east asia and East Asia also have incredible historical accounts but are way less popular in fiction, maybe because of the language barrier coming from different scrips being hard to read
Fun Fact: When you enter Switzerland in the airport in Zurich, you're actually greeted by Heidi talking about the beauty of Switzerland. The show is absolutely adored there
omg im going to zurich this summer! ill look out for it!
OHH THATS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I HAD A LAYOVER IN ZURICH, I DIDNT KNOW IT WAS FROM THIS SHOW
i heard that Heidi was plagiarized from
another book, apparently names Adelaide, the Girl from the Alps published 50 years prior
@@svk0531actually it‘s from the book that the show is based of
Well that's really funny, because I actually saw her. She wore white fishnet stockings, a near-transparent top plus cherry-red fingernails.
I think it is the same reason as of why the west is so fascinated with the far east. Just as we hear stories of mysterious Samurai and strange mythologies, so the japanese are fascinated by these medieval castles and knights in armor, that is also why i believe Games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring create this legendary european aesthetic more than even Europeans themselves do, due to it being more mystical and fantastical to them
The west isn’t obsessed with the far east, just Japan and in recent years South Korea. Most of the west is extremely racist and xenophobic about China which is like 95% of the Far East
Yeah, honestly castles here in Germany are just everywhere and for us not that much different than a windmill in the Netherlands or bull fighting arena in Spain. It's just too normal and familiar for us i think. I mean, my school was next to historical city center and when we started having afternoon school, we would leave school premises and go into the center (i'm german btw, and that's normal here once your age reaches 2 digits), buy a Döner Kebap or Pizza somewhere, and then return through the barock era herb garden of the monastery that is now a museum, and climb the early medieval city wall (that was originally built sometime in the 10th century) to eat there while looking down on the school which was built around 1800. Just another tuesday.
@@olgahein4384 the American mind cannot comprehend
Europeans USED to be interested in their own history and honor it too. But then they lost the war.
European fantasy works had the legendary aesthetic down already, unless you referring to what we're producing in very recent times.
I, for one, welcome my Asian Europeaboos.
Violet Evergarden has some of the most beautiful depictions of European inspired culture I've ever seen.
Agreed, if anything I'd ban Americans from making stuff about europe.
Japan hasn't tried to tell me that greek people and Scandinavians are African yet.
@@PeachDragon_ This
@@PeachDragon_I'd ban Americans from doing stuff about European culture but more because they dont respect it. Look at Marvels Thor. No not the movies the comic. WTH?!
@@GAZAMAN93Xwhen you return the land to native americans
@@GAZAMAN93X Not like you could be trusted with them anyway.
But i'll bite. Which artifacts? What remains?
Also that had absolutely nothing to do with what he stated.
Okay but Howl's moving castle inspiration was very precise : it is the town of Colmar in France, where Miyazaki went multiple times before making the film...
Interesting, I saw somebody else saying it was inspired by Czechia, with Welsh influences.
Then again, this movie has a variety of settings all having their noticeably own style. As such you might both be right.
That is interesting…I hope there is Welsh influences in the anime though because I thought the author of the book was Welsh
@@elcee8She was born in London and grew up in Essex. But: In the Boks Howl is from Wales and it does play a part in the story.
@@mofo9927 oh I didn’t realize that. I just assumed since Howl is Welsh that the author is too.
European look at Kimono and say "How exotic !"
Asian look at western frilly dress and say "How exotic !"
like all stories and immagination start with "in land far far away..."
its to invoke a sense of wonder, places that was not here and to took the reader/viewer away to an adventure~
that is how I always thought about it for Japan/Asia, Europe is an exotic place with a lot of history/culture. basically the same way many Europeans feel about Asia.
I think it's mutual love and appreciation of each other culture
Both Kimono and western frilly dress are exotic now. People wear them mostly on some special occasion.
I love this
this is definitely true but i think a big focus of the question is more so why specifically europe. there are plenty of places in the world that are far far away from japan but europe seems to be the most popular.
when i was young i asked my dad if he had ever seen an anime and he said "yeah, heidi" which blew my mind because i've always thought it was a german or swiss cartoon. really speaks for the creators that they managed to capture the culture so accurately
And you realize cooking masterboy which chyna been introduced was made by japan😂😂
You have no idea how crazy it was the first time I learned that all my childhood cartoons, that I thought were produced by German studios for a German audience (I was a child, cut me some slack) were actually anime. Like Maya the Bee, Heidi, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and Vicky the Viking. And then it turns out that the man, the myth, the legend - Hayao Miyazaki was one of the main people behind Heidi. Like W H A T ?!?!!
Nice accurate history lesson about JP in there, from what I can remember from the history lecture in my JP studies course.
Pronunciations are good, but I can only judge German and Japanese.
Common Soak/SVB W :)
ETA: Nils bit
Wait, Maya the Bee and Wiki the Viking are Japanese?!
@@carstengrooten3686 yep. Both animations were produced by Japanese companies; Vicky the Viking is a German-Japanese co-production, but the animation itself was produced by a Japanese company called Zuiyo.
don't forget that there are several versions of Moomintroll series that are also made in Japan. The 1990s version is even a collaboration between Japan, Finland, and Netherlands.
@@carstengrooten3686 Vicky the Viking is actually one of the prime inspirations behind one piece! but yea, shared production
This Asian guy (me) just learnt Vicky the Viking is created in Japan, not in Europe 😅
I am Japanese, born in 1986, and I have been longing for something European ever since I can remember. I don't know why, but.... I think adults were also longing for Europe at that time. Whenever I thought of traveling abroad, I usually thought of Europe.
I know Miyazaki has the bigger name recognition, but the fact you kept mentioning him in relation to Heidi instead of Isao Takahata, the creator of the show (whom you only mentioned once), goes to show how criminally underrated the man is.
I agree. Takahata is a genius in his own right, but I think of it like this. Philip the II of Macedon was an exceptional man who did incredible things, but he is overshadowed by his son Alexander the Great who was somehow even more exceptional…
That being said, I get heavy “casual” vibes from those who fail to recognize the greatness of Takahata, esp when the show in question WAS LITERALLY CREATED BY HIM and this channel keeps fawning over Miyazaki…it’s annoying, and I’m one of Miyazakis greatest admirers
Actually Japan's interest in Germany started way before WWII during prussian times, because the japanese leaders were fascinated by (among other things like medicine and law) the prussian military so they got some generals over to Japan and they taught them how the prussian military works, which led to a lot of the japanese military at the time being remodeled after the prussian one. Search up Jakob Meckel who was a foreign advisor to the japanese government during the Meiji period. This also led to some german words being integrated into japanese, like Arbeit in german meaning work, becoming the japanese arubaito meaning part-time work (and later the korean areubaiteu), because japanese students at the time often worked for german officials as their part time job. German was also a popular second language along with french back then and a lot of medical sciences back then used german loan words.
And Japanese government was based on the German one at the beginning
Isn't german still a rather popular language?
From what I hear the japanese just think the language also just sounds really cool.
I would like to add that the japanese interest in Germany started even earlier. The Japanese, who were allowed to study Dutch books on medicine during the Edo period, did not fail to notice that these were often translations from German. A very important german in this regard was Phillip Siebold, a bavarian physician who influenced not only the modernization japanese medicine but the botanik studies. It was very usual for japanese physicians to learn german and to study in Germany up until the 1960s the patient files were written in German.
Another big Episode for the japanese fascination is WW1. Japan succesfully attacked the little german colony in China and the german soldiers were POWs in Bando in Shikoku, Japan.
Most of these soldiers were not professional soldiers. The Japanese gave the POWs some freedom and opportunities to work, make music and even bake like in Germany.
Now they were allowed to work again as bakers, butchers, cooks, tailors, shoemakers, watchmakers, painters and photographers.
There were even exhibitions where contact with the Japanese population was allowed. As far as I know, it was one of the Japanese's first major contacts with German culture outside of the military, science and trade and that must have made a huge impression.
True. The way Prussia assisted Turkey in the genocide of Armenians was also a blueprint for the way Japanese later handled the Chinese and Koreans.
To TheSteakLP: Actually, even if several western nations sent military missions in Japan to help Japan to build its military forces, France was the major nation in this process (even following the Franco-prussian war of 1870).
There were 4 different French military missions in Japan between 1867 and 1919.
(That's in the first one that came Jules Brunet, the guy that loosely inspired the 2003 movie _"The last samurai"_ with Tom Cruise).
French military missions in Japan:
1867-1868: formation of the Denshutai elite troops corps.
1872-1880: reorganisation of the Imperial Japanese Army.
1884-1889: influenced the Japanede Navy.
1918-1919: formation of the Japanese airforce.
From 1886 to 1889, two German officers were invited in parallel to the French mission, to form the Japanese Army general staff reform.
The Japanese romanticized European culture and , in turn, Europeans romanticized the romanticized Japan made European aesthetics.
Not to mention the parallel romanticization of Japan by Europeans xD
European romanticization for Japan is much older than what you mention. Giacomo Puccini's greatest work, Madame Butterfly, is an example of nippophilia at its fines, and that opera came out in 1904.
Yep
@ryu_san_ Elden Ring has nearly 0% "England" reference in it. Its references celtic culture which is not english culture, but british cultrue. Similar to Dark Souls references Europe genericaly then specifically "England"...
@ryu_san_ England? More like Western European countries in general
I'm so glad you mentioned Vinland Saga in this video. I find there is kind of a fascinating comparison to how Vinland Saga depicts Europe when compared to how Studio Ghibli depicts it. Like most Ghibli movies, Vinland saga is about the end of an era, the modern world and the march of history coming to break down and uproot an old order. The big difference is that Vinland Saga is very blunt about the fact that it considers the end of the Viking age to be a very good thing. Instead of an idyllic era being upturned by war and the coldness of technological progress, Vinland Saga is about an age of violence that needs to end to make way for a better way of living.
Too bad that better way of living never came.
Posted from my non alloidal land, in my rented apartment, full of microplastics, disarmed, a slave to FIAT currency debt hunger cause every bit of tender starts as a loan from a bank, vasts swathes of culture destroyed and warped by abrahamism, my peoples old folklore dismissed as myth or fantasy, and such nice things.
@@hansbrackhaus8017You are not being pillaged and murdered in endless wars. You and everyone close to you are not dying to a common cold. You have access to an unbelievable amount of information at your fingertips, from hundreds of cultures. Stop feeling sorry for the world, it moves forward regardless.
@@esssss8415
>not being pillaged
Yes we are, through banks, FIAT money
"give me all your live savings" which is then spent by the banks on brick and mortar investments because they know that not everyone will take all their savings out.
And then slap it with inflation to devaluate the rest that IS still in the account.
People back then also didn't die of the cold all the time, and the information on the internet is tampered with all the time.
Hell, if you ask Americans, who come from a really young country (so they should still remember things) about their culture then they'll stammer because it's European culture but they don't identify with it.
And so forth.
Vinland Saga isn't about the end of the viking era, it's about the peak of their conquests, when England, Denmark and Norway are all united under one empire
the violence comes from war, and it's not a war unique to vikings or Englishmen, the Normans would repeat the same takeover 40 years later while still being led by vikings
1) because Europe is essentially the blueprint for anything fantasy.
2) its "exotic" so it has wider appeal.
Thats really the tl;dw of the video by just reading the title, if you live in reality and have read *a* book
for western fantasy. there is eastern fantasy as well, less well known cause of how it can be a bit more absurd then western fantasy but it still exists. (absurd may be the wrong word, its more that eastern fantasy can have things beyond traditional comprehension more so then western magic and such has a harder time being animated)
No other continent has 3000 years of well documented history featuring as much different cultures, its just as simple as that
3) its white and beautiful
@speedy01247 Naw absurd is definitely the word. I'm a pacific Islander. Maui gets killed by entering a goddesses obsidian toothed vagina. It's weird. It's ok to admit that. European mythology and folklore is so great because it's so universal. You don't need to be a part of the culture to understand that Herakles is heroic because of his strength. Or that Arthur is heroic because of his sense of justice that is portrayed through Chivalry. Like it keeps the message simple while building a fascinating world around that message. The modern equivalent is Tolkien. The message is simple. People are inherently corruptible, but through righteous attribute like love and loyalty we cam rise up to battle the darkness within and around ourselves. Simple message with an insanely complex background lore and story. That's why European myth is popular. Because it balances simple and fascinating.
The far east and the far west mutually fascinated one another
And also influence each other
Screw the global south. Global north solidarity East Asianand European unity.
West is cucked
Not the full picture. How many asian media set in both Americas ? How many in Africa ? How many in Oceania ? The truth is that Europe has ~3000 years of documented history featuring hundreds of greatly variating cultures, which makes for a collossal ressource for both historical and fantasy settings
@@JugementThe Beatles ate up those Eastern ancient hokey religions and influenced an entire generation of hippies
Fun fact: Shakespeare liked to do exactly the same with his works. Which is why Hamlet is the prince of Denmark and Romeo and Juliet are Italian.
Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark because it’s based on Prince Amleth from the Gesta Danorum (“The Deeds of the Danes”) a book by Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus. It was only written 300ish years before Shakespeare wrote Hamlet so keep in mind that it would still be relatively recent for him. Literally closer to his time than he is to us.
I mean Denmark was never really foreign to England, in fact at times you could say they were a little *too* familiar.
Shakespeare had a real fascination for Italy.
@@KrasseOdaVonBayern It's also why Beowulf is set in Denmark and southern Sweden. It's a fantasized image of ancient Scandinavia from a Christian Anglo- Saxon perspective.
@@stormstrider1990 The original story of Beowulf comes from the angles who were from modern Denmark, it was only written down in Old-English and then the church translated it
I went to Switzerland last year and bought a Heidi, Girl of the Alps anime magnet while there. I thought that was really cool that they were so proud of how a Japanese production depicted the Swiss culture.
It's kinda like. It's known in some countrys well, but it's kinda like eevery kid in Finland and many in Japan knows Moomins because it's like a finnish books and comics that was made into a series by finnish national tv with Japan by.. them making it 😂 (like we gave money to the project). Animating it aka it would be anime really in all sense. I especially remember it since it was 1990's show, but has really been seen by older people too and passed on to younger even if there is other not as good iterations of the franchise.
My illustration teacher knew Tove Jansson (the original creator of the Moomin trolls), who was famously known as an ornery, grumpy Finn. The Japanese courted her for the rights to the Moomin for _years,_ and Jansson refused, mostly because the Japanese wanted to change a lot. Then all of a sudden she agreed, and my teacher called her and asked what the hell happened. Jansson's reply: "At least I got them to drop the goddamn samurai."
there is a video somewhere on youtube, called amateurs guide to Moomin. She agreed after she had creative control for the anime to be closer to the originals.
The...what?!
Thank god they dropped the samurai
While the samurai were studying The Blade, Tove Jansson the Anti-Weeb was studying The Pen.
@@DeadKingKnight Imagine the Moomi--rai did happen...
Kiki's big city is based on Stockholm. Not every house nor every street is looking like Stockholm, but Miyazaki has openly stated it and it's evident when you know the real-life town. And Howl's moving castle roams in Czechia with a clear Welsh inspiration at times (a part of the original book is actually set in Wales).
Excellent video, reminding Europeans that one's mundane is always someone else's exotic !
Stockholm and Visby, if I remember correctly...
@@hakanstorsater5090 I saw a reddit post that compared several screenshots from Kiki's delivery service that were exactly the same as some parts of Visby and Gamla stan in Stockholm, amazing to see the two directly compared!
@@badinstructor6806 That, and quite a bit of Kungsgatan.
Sophie's hometown is based on Alsace in France, most specifically Colmar. I always got a Austria-Hungary vibe from Howl's world, with that grandiose Central European capital city and the Adriatic-coded seaside town.
Castle in the sky is fully inspired by Britain, mostly Wales.
Stockholm and Visby
Studio Ghibli films are really popular here in Finland and most children didn't even realise that the Moomins anime was an anime. The Japanese are huge fans of Moomin and even travel to Finland because of it.
Excellent video btw!
It's actually because the Moomins as well as several other children's animation for TV during that time period was made by a production company that was a collaboration between Finnish, Dutch, and Japanese animation studios and writers.
Another show that didn't end up with the same level of global success is 'Alfred J. Kwak', animated by the same team that made the Moomins but it was made in particular for Dutch and Japanese viewers, it did air in many different countries globally (though never in the US, and I believe the same applies to the Moomins).
There were in the late 80's and early 90's a lot of collaborations between European and Japanese animation studios, and they made shows that were very unique with a special kind of global appeal.
Speaking of Finland I just want to tell that the Russian animation Snow Queen, based on Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale, is the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki that he started animating again. The Snow Queen story is set in Finland
@@magicwandstudio3141 It's a long Gerda's trip through the hypothetical Northern Europe where are just a three geografical names - Denmark, Lapland and Finland. But between a point A (Odense, Denmark) and a point B (Finland) are much more unnamed countries.
@@darkalice650 The Snow Queen palace located on Spitzbergen, a real life place but Gerda didnt visit that particular palace. She visit her second palace on the Lapland. HCA usually very specific about the settings, its not just hyphotetical palace but a real world place and even some historical even mix in (the dryad for example). I am not sure Gerda’s home is in Odense since there are no mention about the name of the village or town, but judging from the description of the architecture and their name, it seems to be somewhere in Scandinavia
It was an anime?!
I'm someone of African descent (as far as I know, I'm American) and one thing I was always envious of was how Europe and many Asian countries have such fascinating history and cultures to be proud of. They are displayed with such love globally to the point that everyone is deeply familiar with Anglo, Germanic, Scandinavian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese culture and I'm happy for people that hail from such places and are able to enjoy such recognition. I always wished the same thing could be experienced for many African countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria being candid. Hopefully someday in the future this can happen but if anything this feeling always inspires me to create art of my own to explore such things for my own satisfaction lol
Preach!
I'm pretty sure there are amasing history, culture and landscape to work with in Africa and they would be great to see. Unlike seing the same european tales retold for the 100th time but with "colored" cast this time. That is booooring. The real thing wouldn't be.
If it happens it probably wouldn't be made by Japanese. Antiblackness in Asia is real
Unfortunately, Japan's first real exposure to anything African-related was through minstrel plays. So in Japan's eyes early on, black culture was seen as trivial and only for entertainment.
@@PrayLuna actually jazz music is extremely popular in the far east especially japan
Africa also has fascinating history from mansa musa's mali empire, songhai, ancient Egypt, Nubia/Kush, Axum, Great Zimbabwe, ect. Id love to see more african media.
As a Japanese, this is very well made and researched, well done!
Also to add in a cultural context, being a monoethnic country and sakoku, Japanese people have always had fascinations with outsiders especially Europeans. During the Meiji era, Japan had a bit of an inferiority complex when compared to Europe since we were still way behind, hence the change in clothings, certain customs and norms to seem more "civilized" to the rest of the world. This is true for almost all Asian countries. This in turn, influenced a lot of mindset of Japanese and further enhanced the fascination.
After WWII and economic recovery, that fascination still persists and with so much resources of exotic history and folk lores like elves, orcs, giants etc. The artists from this period took inspiration to create fantastical world and tell stories which are not found in Asia. In modern Japan, you can still find the mindset mentioned in French-styled cafes, European-themed attractions and I'm glad you mentioned Paris syndrome since you can see fascination with France here everywhere. Even today, you can see interests in cultures of predominantly white countries. Almost everyday I see random white people being interviewed by TV programs.
I doubt u are JAPANESE. Most Japanese aren't good in writing or speaking in English. Ur sus
Europeans and the Japanese have been having huge cultural and technological exchange for centuries ever since the Portuguese arrived in Japan
I’m so glad you have said all that,it’s great to hear from someone in the culture being discussed.I’ve noticed aswell that’s there’s lots of white people on Japanese tv such as RUclipsr “abroad in Japan”.I wish my country of Scotland would be more diverse and have themed cafes and adopted some of the cultural and social norms of Japan.I feel that in my home country it lacks things to do compared to japan
The mindset in Japanese copies of Europe is fake though. It's a facsimile. You as Japanese can never have the European spirit, and we can never have yours. The closest the Japanese can get to European is to be Roman Catholic. But Japanese are very distant to Europe because you rejected the Catholic faith and preferred to what we would consider more of paganism. I know Catholic Japanese and non Catholic ones and the Catholic Japanese are very European in outlook. Sadly Japanese are intolerant of Christian Japanese, while Europeans are tolerant of other people. That's also how you're not European. Your country is intolerant of foreigners.
When I see Japanese depictions of Europe, in manga or other products, or cafes, it looks fake. It's not real. And there is no SPIRIT in it. It's dead. In fact we can even spot when a show is Japanese or Japanese inspired. It's not from an European country, but it dotes on little skin deep things which Europeans would not dote on. You obsess over dress or style but Europeans don't obsess over that in their classic works.
So please don't say mindset. You don't have European mindset, in the classic sense. That would require a Christian culture, even if no longer that practicing. Thanks.
i did a small reviewpaper on russian and japanese development in +- the meiji era
essentially russia accepted western foreign investment and japan still refused any foreign controll over any of their infrastructure or resources but did invite experts and copy technology, both invested heavily in infrastructure as well
both also developed for the same main reasons, mainly fear of western colonisation/conquest. Japan became enticed by western culture but retained a very strong sense of self, which in turn lead to Japan forming a modern Japanese culture that is heavily influenced by the west but still mainly unique (honestly very similar to how early Japanese culture was influenced by Chinese culture) Japan also didn't purely copy tech, they realised that it was better for japan to use manpower than steam for production but they did copy the mechanisms from british machines for them to be handcranked and made out of wood rather than metal.
Interesting facts: the school uniforms we know in Japan today, were inspired from wealthy, European aristocratic families in the 19th centurs who dressed their children in sailor uniforms, especially in Germany and Britain. Funny little side note: Sophie from Howl's Moving castle is strongly alluded to being German or Austrian. The war propaganda posters on the walls of her hometown are written in German, and the whole architecture of her town, as well as the surrounding nature seemes to suggest it as well.
The movie is ofc based on the book of a UK author, where the original also takes place. According to Miyazaki he took most visual inspiration for Sophies hometown from the town 'Colmar' where they had a studio. Colmar is a french city in 'Alsace' which was historically sometimes german, sometimes french (today it's french). It's about 5 minutes away from the german-french border and is one of the main quarters for german-french exchange-, coop- and coworking projects of the governments and institutions of both countries. So, it's like a mix of french and german visually (Baden-Württemberg, to be more specifically, the other southern german stated next to Bavaria and home of the Black Forest).
The architecture is, btw, very typical for southern Germany, northen France (or rather north-east France), northern Switzerland and Austria.
@@olgahein4384 its a very beautiful part of the world and I am grateful to have visited so many times
Likewise, Boy's school uniforms in Japan tend to have a stand-up collar, which they borrowed from the Prussian Military Uniform.
That's because the Prewar Japanese government thought Prussia had the most militaristic culture in Europe and they wanted their boys to be like them.
The sailor uniforms were also very common for French children.
Not to mention in Kiki's Delivery Service, many shops' names are based on swedish/germanic names and objects, for example there's the bakery that has a very german sounding name as well as one of the stores Kiki flies by has "Herrmode" written on it, which means "Men's fashion" in swedish :D. The references make me really happy
Actually, Japan had a facinatination with the west even before the meiji period. During the sakoku period, even though it was illegal, many japneese scholars studied the west from what little information they could get from the Dutch. They were especially interested in their military techniques involving guns and cannons. There's a great video essay on it from the RUclips channel "Voice's of the past" called Japan and the West: The First 500 Years // Japanese History
Who wouldn't be interested in advanced weaponry? So Japanese of the era were human with curiosity and desire to introduce new tech. Wow.
@@peterc4082 Are you being.......sarcastic? I'm sorry if im thinking to much, but the way u said that sounds sarcastic😭💀
@@U_dropped_ur_crwn_queen ignore them. They're just being rude.
Thank you for the recommendation. I was aware of Dutch studies, but the essay sounds interesting so I'll give it a listen
@@peterc4082South Korea, China and Taiwan are all economically advanced as well lol, in fact China is considered one of the smartest nations and the ONLY nation that can challenge the USA economically.
I love Voices of the past, I feel like not enough people know about his channel.
Thank you so much for this!
I haven't commented on a video in a very long time, but this just deserves all the praise a huge Ghibli fan like myself (who has always wondered where the inspiration came from) can give.
So once again, thank you!
I have family in Austria and always wondered about Anime’s obsession with seemingly German and that area. Frieren names come to mind at this time.
Most of Europe looks like austria.
@@PeachDragon_ Not even close.
@@PeachDragon_ Californian spotted
@@PeachDragon_
The rest of the Alps looks similar, Carpathians and Northern Balkans look similar if you squint. Any other places can't be confused with Austria unless you have brain damage.
A number of anime use German names or are set in European towns from the Middle Ages.
*As an Austrian I never understood the admiration Japanese Anime/Manga had with Europe, until I started seeing it myself. Sometimes we don't realize how beautiful our place is, until you see others admiring or writing about it.*
Japanese liked the concept of armored knights, they think it's cool. Much as westerners think the samurai and katanas are cool.
when I was a child I always dreamed of leaving in Europe, as a grown up I still think Europe is far better than many other places but you really need to fix your boarder crisis
You have nice green landscapes all over the world it's not just Europe. The world is beautiful
@@strikye7 True, it's sadly far from the safe place it once was.
Ew, the whole world is beautiful.
Do you know the Japanese slogan of the governor at Meiji-era, after 1868 that "leave Asia, enter into Europe". Europe is an advanced and aspirational lands to Japanese people after that.
That was about modernization, they also had a motto wakon yosai meaning western technology with Japanese spirit
So, like Peter the Great's plan only it worked?
For sure, but Europe no longer the most advanced regions anymore.
It is either the champion U.S or the runner-up China.
they are very proud of their alliance with Germany during WW2.
And look at Europe now. Everyone wants to leave and move into Asia Iike Japan lol. How the times have changed and tables have turned
As a Japanese who happened to stumble upon this video unexpectedly, I'd like to say, Please return to the Europe we dream of. What is happening there?
Get ready to see to very racist, xenophobic, and partially true responses.
Sand people are flooding Europe right now, and turning them to the Middle East but colder.
Bad news for you.
Europe is turning to the Middle East thanks to desert immigrants.
I don't know if it ever was what you idealized. What do you think really has changed?
@@GenerationNextNextNext
Lots of people from other continents there. Looking less European by the minute
I'm from Argentina and i remember seeing Heidi in the tv alongside my siblings when i was a kid, those are good memories.
Thats adorable also vamos argentina 🇦🇷 ❤️ 💙 😂🫶
Did you also watch "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother"? I think Marco went to Argentina, looking for his mother.
There are places where Europe looks exactly as you would expect from a Studio Ghibli movie, slightly steampunk-ish, bucolically-beautiful and melancholically-peaceful but with plenty of ominous remainders to past wars:
Near ruins and wreckages of WWI and II forts and battlefields in the Alps.
I wish I could add pictures to this comment: A couple of summers ago, while hiking between Italy and France, I ended up in this high-mountain meadow, complete with flowers and grass rippling like waves in the wind.
It was dotted with large rusted metal domes, most tilted and half-sunken into the ground, with big holes for where cannons must have once been.
It looked like something straight out of Castle in the Sky or Howl's Moving Castle.
I have seen such trances high in the northern mountains of Romania (Maramures), I grow up along them where my grandma told me stories about the ww2 (shes 98 now)
It's amazing how Studio Ghibli managed to mix so different cultures and folklore and still make such an artpiece
宮崎監督は、インタビューで答えています。
魔女の宅急便で描いた街は、第二次世界大戦でヨーロッパが破壊されなければ、おそらくこうなっていただろう想像を基に構築した。
Another point is, that germany and japan developed a great friendship in the 60's to today seen as example in the city of dusseldorf where there is even a whole japanese neighborhood. A lot of japanese workers are sent there to work for a short period and than called back because the bosses are afraid their workers get too lazy because working mentality in germany is different than in japan. Where germans tend to work precise but tend to enjoy live in equal matter the japanese tend to put a lot of livetime into their work.
They were friends since 1940 when Japan joined Axis Powers
@@dizelraf at that Time they were more allied forces than friends. They shared some technologies but really friends we grew later when the finance boom in the 60s started.
Do you think Germans and Japanese are special people? Do you think if the rest of us committed suicide and the Japanese and Germans could settle the whole world the world would be a better place? You seem to think that Germans and Japanese are superior.
Japanese work culture is awful, and everyone including the Japanese knows it.
@@dizelrafdespite being allies the two countries didn't have great relations, mostly due to Germany signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop with the Soviet Union and still having relations with China, and the fact that Poland and Japan before the invasion of Poland had very good diplomatic relations due to sharing Intel regarding the Soviet Union.
They were allies in name that parallely attacked the same powers but they didn't coordinate or communicate a lot together.
I am from the Philippines and the anime that I grew up watching here that aired on local channel with European settings are Heidi, Dog of Flanders, Little Prince Cedie, Princess Sara, Romeo's Blue Sky. My favorite in all of these is Dog of Flanders and Romeo's Blue sky these two animes broke my heart and made me cry when I was a child, it had a tremendous impact on me.
Okay but I'd like to address something about Howl's Moving Castle; Miyazaki may have picked it, but he didn't write it, nor did any one in the studio. Many of those elements stated were already present in the book by Diana Wynne Jones, including descriptions of the villages, towns, and castles. And the part about Howl being Howell originally from Wales, (the part where he discovers the falling star was supposed to be in Wales, they actually visit and talk with his family in the book) was deliberately cut out. So Sofie's world is actually an 'otherworld' where Europe quite firmly exists on the other side of a door that Howl traveled through using his magical abilities. It was the first book in the series. (Also no, Castle in the Air has nothing to do with Castle in the Sky if you look it up)
And saying it's all inspired from DnD is a bit of a stretch given this started well beyond the first time DnD was released.
Came to the comments for this. Seems like this YTer doesn't even know this movie was based on an English fantasy book to begin with. LOL
@@sinthasizah6649 Not just Ghibli productions. There have been several anime based on Western material that are more popular than the source material.
@@ExtremeWreck Sounds cool. Can you mention some?
@@reinertgregal1130 Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater has several examples: Nobody's Girl Remi is far more well known around the world than Sans Famille, to the point that a French live-action adaptation of the original source material was hated overseas because of it being "an awful adaptation of an anime". Lucy May of the Southern Rainbow is an adaptation of a book called Southern Rainbow(technically an Eastern thing as it's from Australia, but some people consider Australia a Western nation) & the original book was seemingly already extremely obscure(kind of like the original Dumbo book that Disney adapted) before the anime came out as I can't find much on it online.
Stopped everything I was doing when I saw this on my subscription feed. Glad to see you're still at it and producing quality video essays.
A note on Kiki's setting: two places in Sweden, Stockholm and Gotland Island, were used as inspiration for the fictional town. They were even visited and photographed by the team. If you look at pictures of both places, you can easily recognise features depicted in the film.
As an austrian I have always wondered why Japan has such an obsession with Europe and it's languages (specifically german) and I realized it's genuine admiration and marvel.
Others see the beauty in things you deem mundane. It makes you appreciate your world quite a bit more and I'm grateful that it gives others so much joy.
Japan is obsessed with France and Germany, and the UK and a few more European countries too to an extent.
I played FFXV a few years ago and the map of the game is almost like a remonagination of Italy (where i live), like the giant mountains not so far off of the bright blue beaches, that city-state 1 to 1 to Venice, the planes, hell that second city you visit in the game is like almost what every city in Italy looks like
japan has such an obsession with germany bcs they were allies in world war 2
@@DP-mv7ph 👁👄👁
@@Rubenz343 yup the rising sun is basically the asian version of nazi germany
I love European history and historical fictions. In general, I don't like modern settings in stories. But historical Europe is a great love of mine for fiction.
Europe has bad media. Anime is much better
Could you explain why. Ive always kind of wondered about the love of fantasy as whole as its never really clicked for me.
ive always been more interested in sci-fi. Especially ones where you can travel to other planets. Exploring the deep expanse of space. Learning about new creatures. Discovering new technologies and all that jazz
@@dozergames2395 I think I can.
I’ll start by explaining why I like the past as a setting first. Everything was much more personal. You can’t communicate long distance without a great deal of effort and time. Fighting is much more intimate, fire arms, artillery, computer controlled missiles, etc. take you further and further from the intimacy I like to see in writing. (Not that I don’t think guns and the like aren’t cool. I also like sci-fi. Big Halo fan).
As for fantasy, I find mystery to be one hell of an immersive tool. And for that reason I am picky about the fantasy I like. If magic is common, understood, it’s not magic, it’s a fictional science. So, the mystery of not knowing how certain things works in an otherwise practical world makes the mind explode with possibilities. The rumors about that beast in the forest? That someone might hear your words on the wind just as an animal might smell you? That somewhere out there the dead walk? Who knows if any are true until you see them. That is what is beautiful about fantasy. It makes you wonder about the world, just like you did when you were a child.
Fantasy can take place in the future too, with great technology. Starwars, Dune, they’re fantasies more than they are science fiction.
The thing with European history is how versatile it is for making settings in fiction. Every period of European history is incredibly interesting and has its charm. You can make a setting in the Middle Ages, if you don't want to do in the Middle Ages you can do in Ancient Greece, if not Ancient Greece then Ancient Rome, if not Ancient Rome then the Renaissance, if not that then maybe the 18th century, if not that then WW1 or WW2, so on and so on
@@saithvenomdrone
thanks for the explanation. Heres my views
I feel that sci-fi can use similar settings and lack of knowledge to do the same thing as long as it's written well.
of course, this is true of a skilled author in any setting
That same reliance on easy communication and knowledge can make the unknown all the more scary. It can highlight just how much there still is to learn despite our accomplishments.
the same way that you mentioned that overly understood magic can just begin to feel like science. minimally understood science can become magic.
for instance, a ship that has lost external communications in space. It can have the same personal feel as a fantasy setting. With all the same fear. hell for the characters involved the fear can be greater as the communications only shortly before the event were a given, hell a requirement for the running of the vessel they find themselves in.
it can have those same feelings of fearing the unknown when you travel where no one has before. Or through space that you lack control over.
alien biology can seem completely illogical. Allien biospheres uninhabitable.
while it's not the norm I do feel that more sci-fi focusing on the smaller scale should exist.
Edit:
also as far as Dune and star wars it does open the discussion of where do we draw the line between sci-fi and fantasy. It's commonly viewed as a simple time thing but I think that your correct in asserting that fantasy can be high tech, or far in the future
Id argue that sci-fi distinguishes itself in that everything has to follow similar rules. That while it may not be understood or explained yet it always can be.
Colosseum is not strictly Italian but Roman which is found all over the place. Spain has a number of amphitheatres so its not something out of place on that One Piece island.
exactly! “roman” could refer to anywhere from south britain to nothern africa because of the vastity of the roman empire. plus it would need more precision because rome was founded in 753 BC and fell technically in 1453 DC. that’s a fuckton of years
The depiction in One Piece is pretty clearly the colosseum in Rome though
Colosseums are neither italian nor roman. The Etruscans have been building Colosseums for centuries way before romans even existed. romans learned architecture, literature, civilisation etc. from Etruscans and then the very same romans as a gift, destroyed theirs 🤦♀️
We must give the credit to the Etruscans instead of praising the thieves.
@@jokerquinn9057if you’re gonna yap like that at least get the name right. They’re amphitheatres not “colosseums” the colosseum is a specific very large amphitheatre in Rome
Amazing video. From how Western cowboy films and Japanese Samurai flicks continue to influence each other since their inception , to how European artists' fascination with eastern art was a contributor to post-impressionism, to even John Wick, Matrix, and Scorcese and Tarantino films drawing heavily from Hong Kong cinema, I'm endlessly fascinated with the back-and forth flow of inspiration between the East and the West 🙌🙌
broo i remember watching heidi and that one blonde girl who turns flowers into professions. i remember wanting a hay bed, finding every attic nook with a drafty hole that the sun would peer through, would run outside barefoot trying to find every flower and be whoever anyone i wanted to be. Living in the countryside really just elevated it all to such good fantastical times.
Did you mean the Anime "Nobody's Girl"? 😊
Same ! "i remember wanting a hay bed, finding every attic nook with a drafty hole"
Miyazaki said that one of the movies that inspired him the most was a french cartoon called "le roi et l'oiseau" (the king and the bird) that he saw as a child. There are many similarities between this movies and the work of studio ghibli. That may be one of the reasons why he is facinated about Europe.
Japanese anime/manga was inspired by Disney.
@@peterc4082 Tezuka was but Tezuka is not the root of every manga lol
Miyazaki and Takahata were definitely more inspired by European animation
@@Insaneronald Do you think Miyazaki would be impressed by Hegre, creator of Tintin? Especially Tintin and the Blue Lotus?
That's right and that's one of my favorite films (the english title is precisely "The king and the mockingbird")
YEEEES I was waiting for someone to mention this movie!!! It's excellent, I must have watched it 30 times growing up (and still today). It's by Paul Grimmault also! (with texts from Jacques Prevert, he's a really good French poet)
Short Version: Because Europe is beautiful.
I'm from Europe and I confirm this statement.
Australia, even Australians think it's hell @@Hello-uk5xp
i think of it as echoes of the waight it pulled from late medieval to early modern. i taught that writing fantasy in medieal european setting was an unwritten rule
@@Hello-uk5xpAfrica
@@Hello-uk5xpNo idea but in terms of which one I’d like to visit the least, its South America. Won’t catch me lacking in South America anytime soon. I’m staying the f away from that.
Anime is often obsessed with Europe because Japan has been obsessed with European culture ever since the late 19th Century Meiji Era when Japan adopted many European cultural and technological innovations as part of the program to "modernize" Japan in order to to be competitive with the West. This obsession with "everything western & European" has remained a continuing feature of modern Japanese culture. Similarly, many westerners are obsessed with "everything Japanese." It's a mutual idolization.
In broad strokes, Europe has a rich long history and culture to draw inspiration from;
but I’d prefer more series like Golden Kamuy or The Apothecary Diaries which take place in eras and locations I’ve never really seen stories about before
Golden Kamuy is a trip
Apothecary diaries is i think insipired from China. So you do have a lot of Chinese anime covering that period. Unfortunately you need to learn mandarin to even find them which is too bad XD
Yeah both series are incredible and Id love to see a modern anime on the story of the Monkey King. This is a myth we often see depicted in anime, games and other media but I have never heard the actual story before.
Same here. I've been on the hunt for media based on cultures that we hardly see given spotlight, such as native american, african, and south asian cultures. And personally as someone who's from a country that's been colonized by europeans, it does get tiring to only see my colonizers' cultures be given any proper representation.
I'd be happy if they were just more original with the world building of fantasy settings. If they allowed themselves to get more creative. Sure be inspired by various cultures but still mix it up into something new and different, rather than always have the same stereotypical takes and character clichés.
I love that you mentioned vinnland saga. I fucking love the show and manga. One of the best parts of the manga for me was reading the notes Yukimara put in the back of the books where he talked about the history the manga was based on, and his philosophy
This is so closely tied to who I am, as a half Swiss half Japanese anime fan, whose mother came to Europe because of her obsession with it. And now I have a girlfriend, who is obsessed with these old world masterpiece anime, and came to Germany to study. Maybe these anime put that idea in her head. She actually told me today that she is rewatching Heidi
Anime (and Manga) are Japan's most successful cultural export. That and the tech and automotive industry
Is your gf Japanese?
@@ryana5435 We both are
I grew up with Heidi, such a masterpiece of art.
I'm sure Whasians lose their mind over this stuff 🙄
The director of Heidi is not Hayao Miyazaki, but Isao Takahata. Takahata had his focus on realism, unlike Hayao Miyazaki who had his focus on fantasy.
According to Wikipedia, Miyazaki did the scene design, layout, and screenplay.
So from what you are saying, I can not trust anything in this video because the opening premise of it is based on falsehood?
@@RThyrring You shouldn't trust anything in any video until you look up the sources and confirm for yourself.
That's pretty much exactly what the video said
So you can't read and you misunderstood that part? Because he never said he directed it and Isao name is written on top too.
Thanks for the research. I have learnt so, so much in 25 minutes. Congrats, and a big hug from Portugal.
Here in Mexico Heidi was huge too, also the Sans Famille anime (known here as Remi) was a huge hit and it is still a cultural reference to this day.
My french ass can't ignore Lady Oscar ❤❤❤❤
I moved to Germany last year,
during the vacations we went to visit the old city of Nördligen (one of the places that inspired Attack on Titan, but i didn't knew that until i looked it up after seeing so many references carved or written in the walls)
No wonder why it felt so familiar, now it's the best experience i got as an anime fan
Even on a general look, old cities here always look like those "generic Isekai towns" and when some random musician plays the accordion on the street, that nails the atmosphere 😂
And another amazing thing about the town of Nördlingen, is that it's built inside of an ancient meteorite impact crater!
I’m only 8 minutes in and this is one of the most interesting video essays on anime and its history I’ve seen in a long time. Amazing job covering an often overlooked, integral part of its history - shoujo.
It's a very nice and well researched video! Thank you so much! I'd just like to add, that at least in Germany the anime hype did not actually start with heidi but with Vicky the Viking (1963) written by the Swedish author Runer Jonsson. He won the German literature prize and afterwards it was produced as an anime in Japan on behalf of the German channel ZDF and the Austrian Channel ORF.
I’ve tried so many times in so many ways to describe why I love Studio Ghibli so much, but your video essay helped me nail one of the main things! The way that the Japanese animation style is combined with the European aesthetics, architecture, and clothing, creates that perfectly other worldly feel you described, because those two completely different cultures have never existed in a melting pot blend like that. And it does make me feel nostalgic for a “fantastical, sweet European fantasy past”.
Amazing video!
Also, the Zelda music playing in the background totally threw me off but was also perfect for the subject matter 😂
My favorite connecting trope is how in so many isekai, there's so often a hint of homesickness, whether an MC who becomes obsessed with finding or making rice, miso sauce, etc, or else there was another Japanese person sent to the other world in the past who founded a nation steeped in Japanese culture.
I've never seen an Isekai, which shows would you say are the best of the genre?
@@DaDunge Re:Zero, Konosuba, Overlord are good ones
The worse in when a MC makes it like the food in the new world is shit while is rice and tofu or ramen are better 💀💀 like bruh not all of us have british food 😂
@@DaDungeThat Time I Reincarnated As A Slime, Log Horizon and Grimgar: Ashes and Illusions are good ones
I laugh at the main character in Isekais, who always seems to build a hot spring bath house and "invent" soap. It always impresses the Euro/Fantasy people as they are too stupid to understand bathing.
Japan's compulsory education and high school education are strongly influenced by prewar elite culture.
In that culture, Western culture was collected and translated, and required reading for all students.
After the war, it was forbidden to use Japanese mythology as the background for stories, so Japanese writers often set their stories in Europe.
Since the 1990s, with the help of the United States, Koreans have established control over Japan.
Koreans have no interest in Western mythology, classics, or philosophy, so a manga like this will never be created again.
Yeah, exalting japanese culture isn't been a good thing since japanese defeat in ww2, mixed reception legacy. I recall Akira kurosawa being called out by Japanese Media as a fascist whereas the West was all ears embracing his movies with Orientalism narratives. The reality is Japanese politicians are afraid too much appreciation for japanese traditional culture would eventually put Japan back into the way of Ultranationalism once again, a political system not so tolerable of democracy speech and that would gradually strip most japanese politicians of their government positions...
And to say more. ANIME legally distributed worldwide is often dubbed in English, German and French, not in Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Thai or Vietnamese etc... Westerners are the largest market for ANIME outside of Japan... most japanese people don't care about ANIME at all, Japan's industrial successful in the postwar era would have never been possible the way it took if wasn't for the advanced economies of the west willing to purchase japanese imports...
@@Flymoki13 At the same time, I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate too many foreign tourists, as they still do fear colonialism.
@@GenerationNextNextNextcolonialism? They were the colonist! Japan was an imperial empire! Did you not read a single history book?
@@GenerationNextNextNext
Overtourism is also a big problem in Western Europe. Colonialism has nothing to do with it.
I’m African, I use to believe that anime was European as a kid 😅 I was shocked when I discovered it was Japanese.
Even the Euroeans from the alpine region thought the same.
@@gamekou3342何言っとんの？
@@InkLink-pt8yn安倍晋三
I don't even know Heidi was an anime and I grew up with it. And it is more shocking that Heidi was by Miyazaki sensei. From India.
I find it hard to believe the popularisation of the Europe fantasy setting comes from D&D as it relates to games and therefore anime. Fantasy had existed in the past in the form of ancient and often religious epics. But modern fantasy, which is associated with Europe, was birthed by predominately English authors in literature. They combined bits from the medieval period and European mythology. Tolkien is said to have been the one to have popularised it. It’s disputed whether he influenced D&D to a great extent but ultimately D&D was influenced by literature. And I don’t know for certain but I’m going to guess that modern fantasy literature, such as the lord of the rings, had the bigger impact in pop culture to cement the fantasy setting, even as it relates to Japanese games and anime.
Yeah, D&D also borrowed heavily from Fritz Leiber's stories of Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser, from Jack Vance's stories about a post-apocalyptic Earth where magic is real (it's where they got the D&D magic system from) and also Lord Dunsany's stories (which predate Tolkien by decades).
I don't see how it could possibly be disputed considering that D&D copy pasted Tolkien's fantasy wholesale and there's a big and pretty obvious difference to pre-Tolkien and post-Tolkien fantasy. Also, just reading Tolkien it's obvious how heavily all RPGs including D&D drew from his work as his world is very RPG ready from the get go. Just reading it it seems obvious where RPG mechanics (loot, combat, gear, race and combat class etc) would slot in.
@@Dendarang There are no words in any language capable of describing just how absurdly influential Tolkien was.
What is D&D?
@@_Atreides_Yeah, if I remember correctly, D&D used the term "hobbit" in their first editions, but got slapped by the Tolkien Estate, which is way we have halflings now. And moreover, the depiction of elves in particular makes it all kinda obvious how influatial Tolkien's work was. Of course there are plenty other sources of inspiration, but for the core fantasy of D&D, you can just say it's essentially Tolkien's influence.
We all have that "Europe" in our hearts. Whether it is with our obsession with the landscapes, of knights and honour, of magic and witchcraft imaginary europe is just the perfect setting.
The closest of that imaginary europe today is switzerland and some parts of germany, The alps, the vast woodland of hungary and the quietness and stillness of fjords.
and ancient greco-roman past?
You guys should bring it back.
Visited paris and london some time ago and it's like someone ransacked it.
Only prague, krakow and vienna truly feels "Europe".
@@AeneasSaturn i recommend our very own Bergen for you to visit, a quiet place with stunning view.
Magic and Witchcraft is still prominent in Africa
@@AeneasSaturn
Yup, it's quite bad.
You might find better things in wealthy smaller cities (avoid the poor ones tho, they also are full of problems).
I am from Bordeaux, and my city is still gorgeous without the same level of problems there is in Paris.
I have been waiting for someone to do a video on this. Great research! you got yourself another subscriber.
What an amazing video! A lot of the anime from the 80s and 90s are nostalgic to me, I'm glad there are so many others who watched them as children too.
Japan and anime's obsession with Europe always fascinated me since I was younger. I remember first getting into anime thinking most of the settings would look foreign and Japanese to me, only to find that a LOT of what I saw felt familiar, both culturally and aesthetically. Not to mention modern fashion and clothing in Japan looking so Westernized and European, it really made me wonder what the origin of Asia's fascination with Europe came from!
I mean, Japan has ever since the mid 1800ds sent their elite to study in European schools. It was verry much understood that Europe was superior and that Japan needed to adapt. If you listen to Japanese (or Korean, Chinese whatever) patriotic music from the 19th and early 20th century you will find it's all european style band music.
@@NativeNordmannwhere did you get the information about sending their elite to study in Europe? I don't think it was popular
A lot of time the writers don't even think of it as Europe. it's just Fantasy novel or manga that they create a lot of elements from other western fantasy books or RPG like this video mentioned. Most manga is still based on Asia settings.
There are some American settings mangan like chrono crusade, Baccano!. there is not much old literature about the US anyway. No work to copy from like greek vs norse myth. They do have anime about mayan mythology
As a German I also wish Germany was what Japan thinks it is
Get rid of multiculturalism, immigration, LGBT, feminism, sexual deviancy, modernism, modernist art, atheism, secularism, immorality, etc. Problem solved.
@@orvos1459whats wrong with lgbt and atheists?
Are you just gonna make people who think or do different things than you illegal or kick them out?
@@orvos1459Feminism was never the issue. it's something endemic to northern European culture specifically that other countries can't handle because they do not carry the same cognitive abilities and spirit that northerners have. The issue is the genuinely soul-sick (()) and ethnics who seek to destroy our prosperity out of sheer envy and banality.
attack on titan is based on germany
The Japanese image of Germany: A history of great science and technology. Smart people. People who love China and have secretly built relationships with fu◯k China since ancient times, even when they were allies in World War II.
One of my favourite shows ever is Nils Holgersson, its about a kid that got cursed by a gnome and goes on adventures with a pack of geese. This depicts several adventures, folklore, stories and the eventual industrialisation in Europe. It shows the fascination Japan had with Europe, similiar to Heidi, exactly as u said in the video. This was one of my first pieces of media and it will stick with me forever.
I'll say this: when I went to Japan, I saw plenty of shops and public establishments styled with a quaint "traditional" European esthetic. German bakeries, French cafes, Italian florists, etc.
As a European myself, I must say that I wish everything here was as charming and pleasant as the Japanese seem to see it. It was humbling and heartwarming to look at our continent through their eyes.
When I was little I remember we were supposed to read the book, Heidi, Girl of the Alps, for school, but I ended up watching the show instead :3
:3
I read somewhere that anime and manga is fascinated by Europe, particularly 19th and early 20th century Germany, because Germans played a big role with modernization of Japan after the isolation period ended. Their culture made huge impact of Japanese people and became part of their popculture which can be seen today in some anime with protagonists having german names, in some isekai you have spells that have german names, with parts of german history and myths being adapted into some stories. The biggest examples of this is AOT. But you can find traces of it in for example in Gundam, Eva and so on.
As a German who studied East Asian Art History i can tell you that assumption is false. Japanese Meiji Politicians took many diverse inspirations from European culture and political systems. Germany never played a direct role during the Meiji era. The modernization of Japan was solely on the Japanese elites and their own will to "develop" (aka the eurocentric belief in modernity) as they feared being colonized by Western powers. That is to say that they travelled and enjoyed european culture and fashion etc. but also changed their approach to them to fit their own tastes and needs.
@@_de_reve
I mean, Japan famously replaced their French military advisors with Prussian ones after 1871, and military culture is also culture. Additionally, German PoWs in WW1 were often treated more like exchange students you can learn from than enemies. So I wouldn't call it nothing.
But there were, of course, huge Britain and France fanboys in Meiji Japan as well.
@@_de_reve Ok, I stated "I read somewhere", so now I stand corrected ;) But also, quick look on the Wikipedia: "Japan modernized rapidly after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, often using German models through intense intellectual and cultural exchange". So maybe Germans never played direct role, but Japan prefered their models of industry. I watch a lot of anime recently and I see a lot of mostly German influences on the names of characters, geography of the lands and cities, the are even magic spells that have a german names (for example Zweit Sheild in The Rise of the Shield Hero), and shows that have german-sounding titles( Elfen Lied etc). Of course there are some influences from other countries and a lot of english-sounding names and titles, but specifically Germany around the 19th century and beggining of 20th century comes up very often in anime. It has to have some reason.
@@_de_reve Thats just not true, Japan modernized rapidly after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, often using German models through intense intellectual and cultural exchange.
I don't think there is a direct link there, Japan modernized out of necesity, to prevent be colonized or losing territory like China, not because of admiration, many were against it. Many westerners helped with the japanese modernization, not just Germans, the British helped them build their first few railways, the Dutch helped them to build their first steam war ship, later battleships were buit in England and France, the Germans along with the Americans and French helped modernized their military, the Germans also helped with things like teaching modern western medicine. They did have an impact but not bigger than other european coutries or the Americans. The good relations between Germany and Japan only lasted like a decade and half, because Germany was against Japanese expansionist in China and actually supported the Russians during the russo japanese war, they later fought in ww1, and in the 20s and 30s the Germans trained,helped modernize and equiped the Chinese KMT army to resist Japan.
I think it also goes back to Sound of Music, which was a huge hit in Japan and helped create an idealized version of Europe.
And the novels in which The Sound of Music was inspired were also adapted into an anime in the 80s, as well.
Ooooh Heidi ! I remember watching this as a child in the 2010s (in France), and being half Swiss myself, I always thought it was a Swiss or French production. Thanks for bringing up this part of my childhood, so many good memories ! I loved that show so much
This video is one of the most comprehensive and compelling stuff I've seen especially for an anime essay video. So much interesting informations being well presented. I only recently came up with the idea of Europe-centric Japanese media since I rewatched fmab and fantasy type shows & manga, & all the dots are connected perfectly with your video. Keep up the quality content man!
Amazing video, very well documented and put together. I learned something today .Hats down to you sir .
Howl was written by an European woman.. I'm surprised you left that out like if Miyazaki came up with the whole thing...when the European things are already ingrained in the novel
Welsh
It's simple to understand, European culture is, alongside japanese culture, one of the biggest cultural hits in recorded history. For us Europeans our culture is taken for granted and therefore non exotic and less interesting. For Japanese people, their amazing culture is taken for granted and therefore less interesting. So we Europeans marvel at Japanese culture, while the Japanese people marvel at Our culture.
European culture conquered the world, literally with arms, thsts why it's hegemonic world wide and it invades even the mind of a people with a strong modern culture like Japan
It's also a question of 'being out there'. For example the chinese culture was historically far more relevant for a much longer time than the japanese culture. But the China of today (of it being actually China or not is a whole different topin in and on itself) is so extremely closed off, you have to put in real effort to find things out. On the other hand, Japan has opened itself up to the world and the west decades ago. You can see a similar situation with South-Korea going on right now, k-pop specifically marketed for the western aka global market, it opened many paths for korean culture to pour into the minds of the world, and korean media is starting to conquer the world (k-pop and manhwa are already on par with japanese counterparts in popularity, if not beyond). And with that, always comes the interest of the culture and history that is behind it.
There's no such thing as 'European culture'. That's like saying 'Asian culture' or 'African culture'
@@nanashi7779incorrect lmao
@@nanashi7779 Maybe there is nothing like European culture for Europeans, but there might be an European culture for the rest of the world.
Europe has a very rich, varied and well known history. You can find tales of exploration, romance, wars and revolutions, mystical creatures and gods. It’s no wonder that a lot of fiction has influences from Europe. The scenery and architecture is also varied and beautiful, with castles, cottages, churches, coliseums etc. A lot of magic spells for example tend to use rune language as well. It’s definitely interesting
I always thought it was because we all love the armor of European knights and their capes, but now that you mention it and remembering Fullmetal Alchemist, I think they do feel a pretty deep admiration for Europe.
I'm not particular a person that watches much anime but I agree up with the "Anime" that was so blend in that I didn't knew it was anime until much after I watched it.
What I like most about anime depictions of Europe is that besides the inaccuracies that comes from the Anime drawing style the stories and environments behind them were told true to their origins or at least respectfully altered but never show them in a way that is disrespectful, false or in way that judges us from above without understanding.
I'm German, I know a lot of my countries and culture of my people outside of Germany and inside before there was even a Germany. What I noticed is that a lot of media uses our history to tells a story but often they don't try to understand the environment how these things happened or how they are depicted in the historic setting so that they look out of place e.g. what a lot of people forget that to be German you don't have to life in Germany a lot of people lived in German cities outside of my country.
What I also noticed is that while media tries to be more verbose these days (which is great) it does it more in a way that doesn't address diversity in a way that respects the story or addresses diversity in a way that is more diversity in the point of view of the country of origin of the media rather than to for example see that having people with different skin colors don't have to increase diversity or people with the same skin color but different cultural background decreases diversity.
Honestly I love how the West and Japan has just had this funny game of Ping Pong when they were inspired by each other for nearly a hundred years now. It's awesome.
Jojo's bizarre adventure was openly inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.
Avatar the Last Airbender was an open love letter to Anime both in art style and world-building.
Attack on Titan draws deep inspiration from. "All is quiet on the Western front." down to the design of a German city. And of course almost all the characters have german names.
The Disney Renaissance was very inspired by early Miyazaki and the way he portrayed women in a new way.
Miyazaki himself was very inspired by Norwegian author Astrid Lindgren and how SHE portrayed young girls in her books.
And it just goes on and on with the West and Japan playing ping pong with each other, and being inspired from each other to create new and amazing things, and I am all here for it. It's awesome.
Fist of the North Star is inspired by Mad Max.
And Star Wars is deeply inspired by "Seven Samurais."
It's so funny and so cool how we inspired each other like this.
Heidi used to play in Greece up until 2012 or 2013
Rip ERT
why did they stop ?
@@belstar1128 the channel closed down
@@belstar1128 the channel closed due to the crisis
@Neo_Vandole yea and even the American ones have gotten worse now. i know anime got more popular among adults but tv tends to be out of touch these days .i rarely watch tv anymore so i am not sure what its like .
This video answered a very long thought question of mine! Thank you for making it
Heidi was big in the Philippines. Such a nice show when I was a Kid.
I hope you know that Howl's Moving Castle was based on a book by author Dianna Wynn Jones. Those fantastical elements you attribute to Miyazaki were literally in the book as well. Which is probably why it inspired him to make the movie in the first place.
Great video, well written and paced. You are really good at conveying your ideas, definitely deserve more subscribers. I hope you continue to publish content like this regardless of what it’s about.
'Heidi' was one of my childhood favorites! thanks for this video, well done! 👏
Can’t believe such a relatively small channel created such a great video! Will definitely check out your other videos
I was thinking the same thing. ITS DOING NUMBERS😂
Thank you for this well thought out and researched video. Appreciate the effort you put in!
Well done sir. I thoroughly enjoyed all the hard work you put into this. I learned a lot about a genre I love.
I was searching the answer of this question for a long time, "Why Europe".
Thank you for this video, it was really helpful ❤
Glad to see your video on this channel blow up svb! You put a lot of work into it!
I'm Japanese and I think it's more accurate to say it's an obsession with WESTERN Europe, not "Europe" as a whole. The nations of Europe that I personally like (Uralic peoples, Baltic peoples, Kalmyks, Belarusians, Crimean Tatars, Circassians) NEVER appear in anime with the exception of brief references to Finland (due to the popularity of Moomin) here and there. It's just Western Europe that's overrepresented (alongside Greece and Russia) and even within Western Europe just France, England, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. I can't name a single Basque character in anime even though one of the most influential figures in Japanese history (Francisco Xavier) was Basque. Nor can I name a single Cornish anime character and when Switzerland is represented the Romansh language is never featured. Meanwhile a lot of anime features gratuitous use of English (too many examples to name), French (e.g. the Gen 6 Pokémon anime), German (e.g. Spy X Family and Attack On Titan), Italian (e.g. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX), etc. but no European languages I like (or even the few Western European languages I find interesting such as Basque, Romansh, Cornish, Luxembourgish, or Northumbrian).
Also, Hayao Miyazaki is specifically an Italophile (he's even admitted to being one), hence why Porco Rosso is his prototypical example with all of his personal quirks and even the general European aesthetic he goes for has clear Italian influences.
That being said I do agree with what you said regarding how European settings being exotic allows an appeal to Japanese audiences while exploring unconventional themes. The isekai aspect I also agree with. I lived in Hungary and Estonia partly for similar reasons to the ones you named and enjoyed life there far more than in Japan. And the next European country I'd want to live in is Latvia, hence why I've been learning Latvian for more than 2 years. But sadly these countries are never represented in anime.
yo, circassian here
@@Patlichan Тхьапш уиныбжьыр? Джапан сыщыщ, адыгэ лъэпкъыр сикӀас. Джыдэдэм адыгабзэкӀэ сыгущыӀэрэп, ау зэзгъэшvэнэу сыфай. Тыдэ ущыщ?
well theres a bunch of vampire animes and vampires are from romania which is eastern europe
@@DP-mv7ph but no Hungarians, even though Transylvania was part of Hungary until 1919 and even now has many Hungarians
@@turulszervac1714is your channel named like that because of this liking for Eastern Europe?
European scenery is also heavily featured in bollywood songs especially older songs, so the fascination with Europe is not just limited to Anime.
In the Americas, Europe, specifically the UK, France, Spain, Portugal and Germany were viewed as the main evil in history, specifically Latin American history.
Great video! I've had this question for a very long time. I don't know why this showed up on my feed since I don't really follow anime content on youtube, but I'm glad it did!