This study saw Korean animation as a kind of cultural concept and value established through discourses in the late 1990s, and compared the discourse on Korean animation and that on Japan’s. It was in the mid-1990s that animations were intensely dis ...
This study saw Korean animation as a kind of cultural concept and value established through discourses in the late 1990s, and compared the discourse on Korean animation and that on Japan’s. It was in the mid-1990s that animations were intensely discussed in both nations. Thus, in Korea, the discourse on animation, which established itself as arts in the 1990s to early 2000s, and the discourse thereof afterward were different.
With nearly no previous studies on the subject, the following two things were preliminarily examined. First, how was Japan discussed in the discourse on popular culture in Korea in the 1990s? Because it was in the 1990s that discourses on animation began and developed in Korea, and with Japan being positively recognized again, discourses on animation as a popular culture were established. Second, how were cartoon animations discussed in Korea before the 1990s? This is because the continuity and discontinuity between before and after the 1990s had to be determined.
In the course of preliminary studies, presuppositions of this study had to be somewhat changed. It had been assumed earlier that discourses on animations of both Korea and Japan would have influence each other since the 1990s regardless of chronology. But it turned out that, since the mid-2000s, Korea's discourse on animation has begun to be directly influenced by Japan's discourse on animation.
The biggest difference in discourses of both countries is the attitude towards reality. While the OTAKU discourse, seen as an aggressive turnaround in Japan's discourse on animation, moved to resolve realistic problems - caused by the twisted recent-modern history - through the fictitious world, Korea's discourse on animation directly faced problems, raised by the recent-modern history, in reality. Specifically, Korea's discourse on animation argued that Korea's animation development was imperative; provided that such imperativeness was presupposed by efforts to tide over problems of creativity being removed by subcontracting industries in relation with reality. Right in the 1990s when Japan's discourse on animation with OTAKU as a keyword emerged in earnest, Korea's discourse on animation, which emerged through the country's opening to Japan's popular culture and the promotion of cultural industries, attempted to improve areas - left unattended by the distorted recent-modern history - in reality not in the fictitious world.
In other words, Korea's discourse on animation focused on discussing the past and present of the country's animations, analyzing overseas works, policies and systems, and thus discussing the future of Korea's animation. In this process, viewpoints were established that Japan's popular culture was discussed with OTAKU as a keyword, and that the OTAKU culture was regarded as a successful cultural industrial model.
In contrast, Japan's discourse on animation focused on connecting the conflict structure of works with the country's recent-modern history: ① Wars and conflicts in works were linked to the real war defeat, ② The U.S. overshadowed Japan, and ③ Japan awakened to its popular culture which began to have a worldwide influence. Japan's discourse on animation has two viewpoints mixed; one is the position of minority, immaturity and victims, and the other is self-consciousness as powerful culture producer. These discourses agree that they are conscious of power and authority relations. The characteristic of Japan's discourse is such argument that fictitiousness can be skillfully linked to realistic problems, by taking advantage of their worldwide power. Also, sexuality is an important subject matter of Japan's discourse on animation.
In summary, while Korea's discourse on animation developed in the way that, based on outstanding foreign works, the direction for Korea's animation development should be established and structural problems should be discussed, Japan's discussion on animation developed in the way that, being conscious of the strong influence of the country's animation, it now realized the country's imagination and dreams - lost in war defeat - in reality.
In addition, while Japan's discourse on animation was developed as it led social and cultural theories, Korea's discussion on animation was dominated by enjoyers of animation and the animation academia. Korea saw discourse only on the scope of animation being developed.
This study analyzed books, theses, and articles on Korean and Japanese animations published from the 1990s to the late 2000s in both countries, and derived keywords and sub-keywords, which is one of the main achievement of this study.