What's Going On Here?

Media imperialism is a term describing the homogenization of international media due to America’s heavy influence on foreign media. Almost no country has been able to develop a unique media product, except for one: Japan. Japan has strict regulations on import and export, and this has allowed Japanese media, especially Japanese anime, to develop as an unique cultural product of Japan, devoid of much American influence. Due to its uniqueness, Japanese anime has become incredibly popular globally, especially in America, where it has developed to over a $4 billion industry.

What is this research all about?

But, before we Americans can consume anime, it must be translated to English. There are two distinct ways in which this happens: through a process called dubbing and another one called subbing. The dubbed version of an anime is stripped of all its Japanese dialogue and music, and is replaced with an English soundtrack. However, when an anime is dubbed, various parts of it are changed, including the characterization, the plot, and the animation itself. The purpose of these changes in the anime is to make the anime more American.

Now, on the other hand, the subtitled version of the anime preserves the original Japanese culture and soundtrack. Only English subtitles are added to the original Japanese anime, this means that there are no significant changes between the subtitled and the original versions of the anime.

So, why is it even important to care about this? Now that is where my research comes in.

Like I described, a dubbed anime is changed to be more similar to American media. So, my research focuses around comparing the dubbed animes to the subbed animes, where the latter is a template for the original version of the anime. Analyzing the changes between the dubbed anime and the original anime gives us insight into the specific themes that are being changed during the dubbing process when an anime is made to be more American. The changes in the theme can show how America interprets Japanese culture and give insight into what cultural elements we value to be American and which ones we value to be as foreign. Further, these themes can be generalized to see how American culture digests other foreign cultures.