Pop Comsopolitanism

In Thursday’s reading “Pop Cosmopolitan” by Jenkins he talks about Japanese culture and how it was brought into American Culture. He further talks about how various aspects of the culture are being brought to the United States and how they are Americanized by changing small details, like in the example he gives, in Pokemon. Media Producers of Pokemon changed the Japanese dumplings to Americanize doughnuts. They do to this because they want to make the show feel more accustom to American people viewing it. He also talks about how media companies are doing this less and less as we become more openly accepting to other cultures.

This article was interesting to me because I guess I wasn’t aware that media producers changed details of shows or movies to make them feel more “American”. To me I don’t think it would make the difference of using dumplings vs. doughnuts like in Pokemon, it not like you don’t know that it isn’t Japanese. I feel as if we are always borrowing ideas from other cultures, American is made up of immigrants, so my question is… What is truly American?

Also I find it interesting that American media producers feel the need to alter the media they are taking from other cultures, but many of those cultures don’t alter American made media other than language. I went to Mexico and they had all the same movies as in America, but what shocked me even more was they were viewing them in English, they had them in Spanish as well, but my Mexican cousin said that many preferred to view them in English because they were unaltered and actually in the actor/actresses voice, as where the other was in a translators voice.

I think a lot of our media uses aspects from Japanese culture. For example, in class we watched Boondocks. The show very much reminded me of anime because of the its style. First it was a cartoon with very exaggerated features like large eyes and heads, much like the style of anime. I think producer found Amine worked well in the US with certain groups and used a similar style to appeal to others and even people who like anime style.