Abstract
Supernatural creatures have always been an irreplaceable element of Japanese culture. Starting from the oldest collection of myths such as Kojiki to modern manga, anime and video games – they have always attracted the attention of people of all ages. However, modern yōkai have changed dramatically in terms of both visual representation and their role in the context of the work they appear in. The images of yōkai used in modern popular culture are re-created in various ways in order to appeal to tastes of different kinds of audience. Undoubtedly, the yōkai of today are not what they used to look like before: the element of fear may still be there, but after watching a TV series about yōkai both children and adults would most likely to refer to them as kawaī not kowai. To explain these changes, the author will present the yōkai image re-creation process taking place in Japanese animation on the example of the Yo-kai Watch anime TV series (the original Japanese TV series), the influence of which can be seen in modern contemporary Japanese culture.
Highlights
Introduction to the phenomenon of yōkaiThere is probably no culture in the world that would ignore the notion of the supernatural and unexplainable events or phenomena
Yōkai characters have witnessed various transformations varying from otherworldly creepy creatures in the form of picture scrolls and to yōkai as vivid and fancy-looking characters of popular culture
I believe that the strict differentiation between “high culture” and “mass culture” or “popular culture” hinders the perception of the latter as a culture that stimulates a ‘moral and aesthetic response’ by the audience and represents an ‘individual act of creation’ – the premises often attributed to “high culture” (Storey, 2009: 6)
Summary
ISSUE 1 – Between Texts and Images: Mutual Images of Japan and Europe ISSUE 2 – Japanese Pop Cultures in Europe Today: Economic Challenges, Mediated Notions, Future Opportunities ISSUE 3 – Visuality and Fictionality of Japan and Europe in a Cross-Cultural Framework ISSUE 4 – Japan and Asia: Representations of Selfness and Otherness ISSUE 5 – Politics, arts and pop culture of Japan in local and global contexts. Mutual Images is registered under the ISSN 2496-1868. As an Open Access Journal, Mutual Images provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
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