Word: doraemon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...many Japanese-language students had their druthers, they'd probably want a pair of cool cats to helm their classes. In May, Japan designated Hello Kitty as a tourism ambassador, two months after Doraemon, the aqua-hued robot feline, was named the nation's first cartoon envoy. The designation of these two cat representatives symbolizes just how much Japan's overseas reputation is tied to pop culture. That's a connection that surely pleases Japan's new Prime Minister Taro Aso. The 68-year-old premier, who is a self-confessed manga addict, has called for Japan to pursue what...
...many Japanese designers, collaboration also allows them to piggyback on the success of already established street brands. Japanese are even more attuned than Americans to the iconography of consumerism. This is, after all, an animation-crazed culture in which characters like Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Pikachu adorn everything from refrigerators to boxes of seaweed sprinkles. Consumers, especially the key youth segment, prefer splashing out on recognizable icons?an almost Pavlovian response to a society awash in symbolism. No surprise then, that one of the details that Takizawa is most proud of in his collaboration with Champion...
Godzilla, however, is a special case. When one thinks of Japanese exports, one generally thinks of cars or electronics. Maybe sushi. But definitely not popular culture. There is one growing exception to this trend: Japanese animation, more commonly referred to as anime, from a children's series called Doraemon...
...more adult and more insidious than TV. Unlike the pulpy, stapled American product, manga are well bound and published in paperback size. The drawings are cinematic, displaying heroes and heroines in explicit sexual and military-war adventures. In recent years, manga have grown into a billion-dollar publishing venture. Doraemon, an atomic-powered robot cat, makes Garfield look like something the human dragged in. Created in 1970, Doraemon has now appeared in a 26-volume collection with sales of $50 million. In 1980 Akira Toriyama sold 15 million copies of his 17-volume sci-fi comic Dr. Slump. There...
| 1 |