Should Western Audiences Adapt to Japanese Anime?

The Debate over Chiikawa’s Limited Release

There has recently been some discussion about Netflix streaming the Chiikawa anime only in Japan and parts of Asia. No official explanation has been given for the absence of Western markets.

Online, however, people have offered some fairly bold speculation.

“Perhaps they wanted to avoid demands for political correctness or changes to make the work conform to local values in the West.”

“I don’t want to see a Black Chiikawa.”

These are merely theories circulating online, not official statements.

The discussion reminded me of a sentiment attributed to a famous Japanese anime director:

“Anime should not adapt itself to the West. Western audiences should adapt themselves to Japanese anime.”

That is a forceful way to put it.

But I do not think the underlying idea is unreasonable.

If you watch Japanese anime, it is only natural that you will encounter Japanese culture, values, and forms of expression. If viewers insist that a work must be changed because it does not conform to their own culture, what is the point of watching something from another country in the first place?

Who Were the Ninjas in The Last Samurai For?

When culture travels abroad, it can be pulled toward the version of that culture the local audience expects to see.

The Hollywood film The Last Samurai offers an obvious example. In one scene, a group of ninjas dressed entirely in black attacks the protagonists. They look exactly like the “NINJA” imagined by Hollywood.

According to a well-known story from the production, Japanese staff raised historical concerns about the costumes, but the decision to show black-clad ninjas prevailed because that was the image of Japan Western audiences expected.

In other words, “the Japan Western audiences wanted to see” took priority over what Japan had actually been like.

For an American-financed entertainment production, that may be a perfectly understandable creative decision.

But if the same logic is applied when taking a Japanese work overseas—“Western audiences will not understand this,” “this does not fit our values,” or “this character should be changed”—the work can gradually stop being Japanese and become a Japanese work as Western audiences expect it to be.

Changing the Original Is Not Inherently Wrong

Reducing this issue to “the West altering Japanese culture” would miss the point. Disputes over adaptations have existed within Japan for decades.

Consider Ghost in the Shell.

Masamune Shirow’s original manga feels quite different from Mamoru Oshii’s animated film Ghost in the Shell. Motoko Kusanagi is more expressive in the manga, and the story contains considerably more comedy. Oshii’s version suppresses much of that, becoming philosophical, somber, and quiet.

It is a bold reinterpretation.

Yet Oshii’s film received worldwide acclaim and played a major role in introducing Ghost in the Shell to international audiences.

Changing an original work is not inherently bad.

A daring reinterpretation can produce a different masterpiece.

What ultimately matters is how the original creator feels about it.

Some Creators Say, “Do Whatever You Like”

Original creators take different positions on adaptations.

Some see an anime or film as a separate work and tell the production team to do whatever they like. With a creator like that, a director can make major changes to the setting or reinterpret the characters, and the result simply becomes another branch of the work.

Other creators have elements they absolutely do not want changed. There have long been stories of creators seeing a finished adaptation and becoming angry because it was nothing like the work they wanted made.

That is why I also disagree with the idea that every adaptation must be completely faithful to its source.

If the original creator approves, it is fine. If the creator objects, it is not.

I think it is that simple.

Even the Creator of Bocchi the Rock! Said, “So That’s What It Means”

There is an amusing story related to Bocchi the Rock!

When original creator Aki Hamaji visited an anime recording session, she heard the director explain to the voice actors what the story meant and how he wanted them to perform it. Hamaji reportedly found herself thinking, “Oh, so that’s what this story means,” and was strangely convinced by the explanation.

The person who created the story listened to the anime staff explain her own work and thought, “I see.”

Manga and anime construct stories in different ways.

A story told through drawings, panels, and text must be reconstructed for anime through voices, movement, pacing, and music. In that process, the director, screenwriter, animation team, and voice actors each interpret the meaning of the work and the intention behind individual scenes, then turn those interpretations into concrete performances and images.

When it works, the process can bring out a meaning that even the original creator had never explicitly put into words.

This much interpretation occurs among Japanese people speaking the same language, even with the creator close at hand.

Crossing an Ocean Naturally Creates More Friction

Seen that way, conflict is almost inevitable when a Japanese work travels overseas.

First, the language changes.

Some words make no sense when translated literally. Relationships may be conveyed through honorifics or a character’s choice of first-person pronoun. Japanese viewers also understand aspects of school, corporate, family, and religious culture that may require explanation elsewhere.

Different cultures also have different senses of humor and different attitudes toward violence, sexuality, and expressions considered discriminatory.

Translation alone already involves interpretation.

Once people begin saying, “Local audiences will not accept this,” “We should change this setting,” or “Let’s replace this expression with something else,” it becomes difficult to tell where translation ends and alteration begins.

Even within Japan, creators and anime production teams can interpret the same work differently. With different languages and cultures involved, the gap will naturally grow wider.

Who Exactly Is “Overseas”?

There is another phrase that bothers me:

“This kind of expression will not be accepted overseas.”

Who exactly is “overseas”?

It is not as if every American and European gathered to vote on the matter.

Perhaps a few loud voices on social media are objecting. Perhaps it is an internal rule at a streaming company. Perhaps it is an advertiser’s decision.

At the same time, many international fans watch Japanese anime precisely because it is Japanese.

They see Japanese school life, distinctly Japanese relationships, unfamiliar food, different religious assumptions, and jokes that may be difficult to understand.

All of that is part of Japanese anime.

That is what watching a foreign work should involve. If something is unfamiliar, you can look it up. Discovering that “this is how it works in Japan” is part of the pleasure of experiencing art from another culture.

Western Audiences Can Adapt to Japanese Anime

The same applies when Japanese audiences watch Hollywood films.

If we do not understand the Christian context, we look it up. When American high school life differs from life in Japan, we do not demand that the film change because “we do not do that here.” When a story portrays a society with guns, we do not insist that every character surrender their weapon to comply with Japanese law.

We enter that world and enjoy it.

That is what it means to watch a work from another country.

Of course, if the original creator decides that the work may be changed for an overseas audience, that is also their choice. As Ghost in the Shell demonstrates, a bold reinterpretation can become a different masterpiece.

So the real issue is not whether a work may ever be changed.

The issue is who wants the change.

If the original creator wants it, make the change.

If the creator does not want it, reshaping the work from the outside simply because “the overseas market will not accept it” puts things in the wrong order.

In that case, the work does not need to adapt itself to the West.

Western audiences can adapt themselves to Japanese anime.

If something is difficult to understand, enjoy that difference too.

That is part of what it means to experience a work from another culture.