Surrealism, cafes and lots of cats: why Japanese fiction is booming

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/23/japanese-fiction-britain-translation

77 66 2 years ago

I personally believe the reason for non-western fiction gaining so much mainstream traction is quite simple: it provides a perspective almost entirely seperated from the reality most people face. Even simple scenarios, like running a small store or living life in a rural village, are so different from our usual experiences that it provides a way for our brains to release some of the pressure that comes from our busy day-to-day lives. The "isekai" genre (being transported to a different world, usually after dying an unfortune death) is an extreme take on this, where almost all connection to reality is removed entirely.

Compare those stories to most (not all) modern mainstream western fiction, and you'll find that a lot of it tends to take place within our existing world instead.

Jensson7• 2 years ago

Biggest reason is simply quantity, Japan churns out hundreds of animated stories from new authors every year, the west do barely anything in comparison.

When you create that much content some of them do become hits, and it also encourages more authors to create more content, while western studios only invests in franchises they can control themselves to create another marvel, while Japan just churns out content while the authors retain the rights.

Edit: Many western authors writes about other worlds etc, they just don't get anything animated since it is so hard to get anyone to invest in your story.

TheAceOfHearts2• 2 years ago

There seems to be some progress in the western animation scene. Dungeon Crawler Carl and Cradle are both getting animated adaptations.

The biggest tragedy is that even incredibly popular authors like Brandon Sanderson don't get a chance of having their own animated series. Mistborn would work perfectly as an anime adaptation.

Marvel and DC historically created way too much consolidation which really limited creative output. And by this point people seem pretty fed up with 'capeshit'. Western comics are also incredibly hostile towards new readers, especially when compared to managa where you can just pick up the story and binge read the whole thing without having to pick up a million other things.

corimaith4• 2 years ago

None of the japanese literature in this article is being adapted into animation, we're talking about literary fiction here as opposed to more pop fiction like light novels which exist more as mass commercial enterprises.

Elvie3• 2 years ago

Did you even read the article?

churn animated stories? WTF has that do do with an article about fiction books - NOT manga? or even anime?

TheAceOfHearts2• 2 years ago

There's a ton of great western fiction that does the same thing, it's just not usually gonna show up on traditional channels. Heck, that's not even entirely true since Travis Baldree's slice of life Legends & Lattes won Nebula and Hugo awards last year.

If you go on Royal Road there's tons of great fantasy stories. The West is just missing the Japanaese pipeline of web serials -> light novel -> manga -> anime -> live action movie. Although there's companies like WebToons that seem to be trying to get such a pipeline going by making comics based on popular western web serials.

I've read my fair share of both Western and Japanese light novels, and you can definitely find quality content everywhere. In Japan they just do a better job at capitalizing on success by giving every slightly popular light novel series a try with an anime season or two. As someone who usually checks out 1 or 2 episodes of most seasonal anime, I can tell you that most of it ends up being barely memorable slop though.

It's worth noting that the West seems to be catching up, a few popular series are getting animated series. Two big ones that come to mind are Cradle by Will Wight, and Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.

numpad0• 2 years ago

I think there are also issues of scale of investment and revenue splits - I can't find right now, but there was a rant tweet from a Japanese comic author that apparent typical compensation for webtoons was below labor cost of his team by couple digits, and I also remember seeing similar rants on topic of AI training materials that were off by even larger magnitudes(like $.25 per dozen images one-time vs $1k per use recurring).

So authors seem to be getting paid more, and that leads to an obvious question of how. One possible answer to that is maybe Japanese media contents - be it images or anime or light novel or classical novel - are still heavily subsidized by its strong and isolate domestic consumption. Average household expenditure on reading is about $120 per year in US and $325 in Japan[1], which IMO roughly coincide with this hypothesis.

If there actually is such a situation... maybe what's missing in Western media is just accelerated consumption. It's weird to think that Americans and Europeans might not be consuming enough media, but that could be it.

1: at current rate of 150 yen/dollar; raw value is 50k yen or ~1% average yearly income

NoboruWataya• 2 years ago

Murakami's works, at least, feel quite westernised. They are filled with references to western music and other art, the protagonists generally have jobs that are also common in the west, and (not sure whether this is down to Murakami or his translator) the characters always sound very American in dialogue. Nothing about them feels particularly alien to a western reader, except the surrealism itself (and, perhaps, certain aspects of his portrayal of women that is sometimes considered problematic in the west).

MilanTodorovic• 2 years ago

He provides a portal to the west as a Japanese person would imagined it to be, akin to an otaku romanticizing japanise culture.

GGfpc• 2 years ago

To be fair, Japan is westernized

torginus• 2 years ago

Honestly I don't remember any time when Japanese manga/anime/video games weren't popular.

90s kids grew up watching Dragon Ball & playing Metal Gear Solid and Super Mario 64.

vundercind2• 2 years ago

Video games, yes, but anime (aside from a couple things that played on normal channels, like dragon ball—seeking out more, though...) and especially manga were things only certain kinds of dorks enjoyed, among those whose high school years were in the '90s and '00s. Toward the veeeeery end of the '00s (as the kids right behind that group started reaching high school) it was changing, and what's remarkable now is how entirely normal it is, even manga. It's no longer unusual for the popular kids to like it.

It was kinda hard to even get anime in that time period, if it wasn't one of the few played on TV. Hell, even US TV shows had only recently started coming out as complete DVD sets, most still weren't available that way, and publishers were all over the place on what they thought a season was worth. You pretty much had to be into Internet piracy to be a fan, or know someone who was and would get stuff for you.

resoluteteeth• 2 years ago

The "isekai" genre (being transported to a different world, usually after dying an unfortune death) is an extreme take on this, where almost all connection to reality is removed entirely.
Compare those stories to most (not all) modern mainstream western fiction, and you'll find that a lot of it tends to take place within our existing world instead

When people draw conclusions like this it often seems like they're making apples to oranges comparisons. Most "isekai" stuff is light novels. The appropriate comparison with stuff published in the US would might be YA books which also have lots of stuff that does not "take place within our existing world".

I think there might be some confusion about how common different types of fiction are in Japan because people are comparing US literary fiction with Japanese genre fiction because Japanese "pure literature" fiction doesn't tend to receive attention in the US, but in reality I'm not sure the US and Japanese fiction markets are that different overall.

corimaith4• 2 years ago

This article is directly talking about Japanese pure literature, I think some posters just took off from the title only?

You're right that if we are comparing the wider body, there isn't really a distinction between "Western" or "Japanese", at least for enthusiasts, what matters alot more are the individual authors.

pjc50• 2 years ago

Literary fiction is a genre with tropes of its own. It's just one that its fans get extremely snobby about. But doesn't Murakami count as literary fiction?

some_random• 2 years ago

I think most attempts to rationalize why media from an entire culture is popular are going to fall short, and while this is better reasoning that usual it's still overthinking the problem. At the end of the day, every culture produces media, some percentage of that is going to be really good, and sometimes other groups end up really enjoying it because of quality and novelty.

rgrieselhuber• 2 years ago

There does seem to be a unique form of escapism in the aesthetics. I often think of it when I think about the jazz cafe phenomenon that is popular in Japan. It's warm and cozy but it can also be a cozy sterility (but hey we have cats!) that a lot of societies seem to be going through now (in the West as well). A sleepy existential crisis that plays itself out in quotidian surrealism. It's not unpleasant but also feels somehow like a miss on both an individual and civilizational level.

evanjrowley• 2 years ago

The point you make here is exactly why I often prefer to watch *anime. I think it also applies to my preferences for British period pieces.

As an American, British period pieces[0][1][2] obviously present a different world. I imagine they are more palatable to someone in my demographic because we are relatively disconnected from British culture, society, and history. Recently I became aware of the UK's New Man / New Lad gender stereotypes[3] and realized that the main characters of these shows fit. As a result of this awareness, I can no longer enjoy these shows without being reminded of cultural conflicts of the present day. A story about a social issue set in the 1960s used to be just that, but now it's more apparent to me that the narratives are meant to shape present-day perception of these issues.

It was nice not being reminded of the political struggles we face on a daily basis. Now I'm unsure if media consumers who lack this awareness are the lucky ones or the sheep. I wonder if British people have always felt this way about these shows and I'm only just catching up now. I also wonder if this dynamic is mutual with other cultures - for example, is Rings of Power considered non-controversial in SE Asia due to the cultural disconnect?

* My preference for anime has waned as certain tropes have become quite overused and tiresome.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foyle%27s_War

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inspector_George_Gently

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsomer_Murders

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Man_(gender_stereotype)#

bluefirebrand4• 2 years ago

I was putting a lot of thought into this just yesterday, talking with some friends about the "Thing: Japan" phenomenon

It's important to recognize that any discussion about Japanese media outside of Japan is more or less only receiving the media that Japan is exporting to the world. Yes there are exceptions to this, people going out of their way to fan sub shows and such, but for the majority of Western people who are experiencing Japanese media it is very mainstream popular stuff like Studio Ghibli films and the most popular anime

With that said, I think the approach Japan has towards making media is very different than Western studios, especially when it comes to depictions of real world Japan

American TV and writing is very cynical about America. Consider the common depictions of rural America in most American media (rednecks, racist, boring, dirty) to the common depictions of rural Japan in Japanese media (idyllic, colorful, spiritual, friendly)

Even compare how a fictional Japanese city is depicted in the Yakuza game series (where you play a criminal doing crimes) and how a fictional American city is depicted in the Grand Theft Auto series (where you play a criminal doing crimes)

I really think Japanese creators like Japan more than American creators like America, and it shows through their work by smoothing over a lot of the rough edges of Japanese society

ffsm82• 2 years ago

Yes there are exceptions to this, people going out of their way to fan sub shows and such,

I agree that the well known works are usually the better productions, but that detail is wrong. Crunchyroll puts out almost everything that's currently being released, including complete nonsense like reincarnated as a vending machine

And while I'd agree that most Japanese authors seem to have gigantic pride for their culture, it does get old because it's become such a trope to introduce Japanese culture/food as the best thing ever created...

I mean I'm more likely to watch an anime then the woke garbage the west is currently producing, but I think the main reason is because our own productions have so massively dropped in quality.

There just hasn't been another series such as Dexter, Breaking Bad etc in over 10 yrs now... If there were, I think anime would be a lot less relevant right now.

n1b0m• 2 years ago

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a startling book with a rather disturbing wartime scene that has haunted me for years.

Currently I'd recommend Yakumo Koizumi and Natsume Soseki for more old school Japanese writings.

Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea is another great read, despite the author being an extremely disagreeable person.

criddell2• 2 years ago

I've read a few of Murakami's books (including Wind Up Bird) and enjoyed them. They certainly have their flaws and if you ever browse through a thread in a books subreddit, they will be pointed out with glee by one person after another. The primary complaint seems to be how he writes women.

You'd think a books subreddit would be a place for people to celebrate books and writers but it mostly seems to be a place for people who dislike particular books in particular ways to vent and rant. They don't like book X and they don't want you to either.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm going to check them all out.

PrismCrystal3• 2 years ago

The primary complaint I have seen about Murakami in internet books forums, is how repetitive his writing ultimately became. His treatment of women that strikes many as problematic, is just one of the things that get repeated.

A_D_E_P_T2• 2 years ago

Mishima's Sea of Fertility tetralogy was excellent. The second entry in the series, Runaway Horses, is in my opinion the 20th century's best novel. The fourth, with its surprising conclusion, was also astounding.

Much to my surprise, I've found that the books actually read better in English translation than they do in Japanese. Mishima was inordinately fond of using complicated, and sometimes archaic, Chinese-style (kanji) characters that even native Japanese readers have trouble with. His books flow a little bit more smoothly in English, and they don't seem to lose much in translation.

PrismCrystal3• 2 years ago

It has been years since I read the Sea of Fertility, but I remember one Western scholar of Japan claiming that the fourth volume was a shoddy work compared to the previous three, written hastily as Mishima was preparing for his death. Since the English version didn’t obviously strike me as so flawed, I wondered if the translator had done some rescue work. Sadly, I’ll probably never be able to read the book in its original Japanese.

taraparo• 2 years ago

Reminds me a bit of the latest video of Chris Niebauer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_Dq5512MIE where he talks about the mind wandering upgrade through smart phones and social media. with the help if these tools the brain can offload the task of simulating/imagening things into the real world.

tropicalfruit• 2 years ago

"book, japan" (˚0˚)

rasengan• 2 years ago

There is no mention of ranobe or light novels which is where a significantly large portion of the Japanese fiction movement is spawning therefrom.

I highly recommend checking some out if you need to decompress some stress. :)

sourcepluck• 2 years ago

https://archive.fo/MDeKf

dfxm122• 2 years ago

When I'm at the used bookshop, I always look for a Murakami book, Haruki or Ryu. I especially recommend Haruki's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World for this crowd, as data encryption plays a role. Ryu is probably best known for his horror novel Audition because it was adapted for film by Miike Takashi. Both would be classified as surreal. Haruki's novels famously always have a cat in them, but not always in a major role.

criddell2• 2 years ago

Murakami and Yoshimoto have something else in common: both were criticised in a 1990 essay by Kenzaburō Ōe, the Japanese Nobel prize-winning author. Their works, he said, “convey the experience of a youth politically uninvolved or disaffected, content to exist with an adolescent or post-adolescent subculture”.

I don't know the context of the quote and this wouldn't be the first time the Guardian puts a weird spin on something, but is there a problem with politically uninvolved protagonists?

jmyeet• 2 years ago

Some time ago somebody pointed out to me how the superhero genre really took off after 9/11 and I can't stop thinking about that because I think it says a lot about how people think, what they want and also how consent is manufactured.

9/11 pierced America's sense of safety. Perhaps Pearl Harbor was similar. Historically the Gauls sacking Rome in the 4th Century BCE was probably similar. So people were attracted to media where somebody would save them, protect them.

At a higher level, the superhero genre feeds into pushing an idealism narrative. Idealism here simply means some people are the good guys and other people are the bad guys. Inherently. Compare this to materialism, which is a philosophy that there is a feedback loop between a person and their environment, of each affecting the other. There is no good or evil. People simply respond to their circumstances. A Song of Ice and Fire (the books more than the TV show, particularly the later seasons) is a superb example of materialism in fiction.

So what does the rising popularity of Japanese literature (note: the article is about that and not about anime as I think some who simply read the headline assume) say about society?

I think we have a crisis of despair in society. The cost of living, particularly housing, is out of control. You have a generation who thinks they'll never own a home or ever be able to retire. They don't feel like they have the security to have children. Is it any wonder that escapism thrives when the real world seems so bleak?

I see this as yet another symptom of the crisis in capitalism. Sure there's a fascination with Japanese culture. This isn't new. But why? We're also seeing more Chinese fiction (eg Three Body Problem). It's hard for me not to see this trend as anything other than a failure in our society to provide hope to people whose dreams are very mundane.

Cthulhu_2• 2 years ago

Likewise, Japanese media was affected massively by WW2 and the nukes hitting Hiroshima / Nagasaki; think Godzilla as the most famous one, starting as an anti-nuclear message - although in recent iterations, Godzilla is a protector against similar monsters.

WW2 had a similar impact on both the US media - as heroes, liberators, etc - and European media - often more historical in nature.

PrismCrystal3• 2 years ago

People often consider the 2000 X-Men film to kick off the explosion of superhero films in the new millennium, and that was pre-September 11, so I’m not sure that correlation is causation here. Moreover, a lot of European artists in the early–mid 1960s remarked how superheroes were oddly prominent in American pop culture, and at that point the USA was still on top of the world and hadn’t been shamed by Vietnam.

anthk3• 2 years ago

Then you had Don Quixote where the Enlightened materialism made fun on the old-fashioned, Middle Ages' idealist Don Quixote (and vice-versa on Sancho Panza, a common hick) until they complement each other along the journey.

hx82• 2 years ago

I think one reason that Japanese fiction is beginning to see pickups in western audiences is because Japanese companies are improving their skills at exporting culture to the west. One aspect of this is translation, where they spent decades building a workforce that is capable of quality translations. Another aspect is that of this is that Western culture is beginning to inspire Japanese creators. This allows Japan to create cultural artifacts that more resonate with Western audiences and inspire them. This is a virtuous cycle, which is good for business, international relations, and human creativity.

bluefirebrand4• 2 years ago

Another aspect is that of this is that Western culture is beginning to inspire Japanese creators.

I just want to mention that "beginning to" is selling it short a bit

Japan has been influenced heavily by Western culture for a very long time

Dungeons and Dragons was huge in Japan for a while and inspired things like Record of Lodoss War. Famous composer for Final Fantasy Nobuo Uematsu has talked about one of his biggest inspirations being Elton John. Many episodes of Cowboy Bebop are titled after popular American classic blues-rock songs, and the whole show is very "American". After all, Cowboys and Blues Rock are very American

This may be becoming more prevalent as time goes on but it's been a shift that is happening for a long while

hx82• 2 years ago

I agree "beginning to" is the wrong phrase. After all, Pokemon is 25 years old and among the most popular fictional worlds. I actually mean they are increasing their consistency in being able to successfully export media.

cy0• 2 years ago

I've been on a Japanese literature kick for a while now.

For me the characters are the main difference from American literature. The article mentions this briefly, but I find that in the novels I've read (admittedly translated), Japanese novel characters have much more depth. They're flawed people often with selfish motivations, and it's much more reflective of real life.

Plot structure is very different as well with most of these novels not having a true setting > rising action > climax > falling action style plot like American literature tends to have. The books often just end without much resolution at all.

Probably the biggest reason I've been reading them though is that I'm just tired of "young adult" books that have so much popularity here in America. It's like a tag you can throw on to shield your bad writing. It feels like everything popular here is written with 6th grade grammar. Maybe this phenomenon exists in Japan too, but we have the filter that translation provides. Presumably most translated novels are at least somewhat successful and well written, or else they wouldn't have been translated.

For reference, of the translated fiction I've read, I'd recommend -

Lady Joker by Takamura

Devotion of Suspect X by Higashino

Out by Kirino

Breasts and Eggs, Ms Ice Sandwich, and Heaven by Kawakami

Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings by Murata

The Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and Kafka By The Shore by Murakami

Snow Country by Kawabata

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Kawakami

No Longer Human by Nazai

I am a Cat by Netsuke

The Memory Police by Ogawa

kippel• 2 years ago

For some reason, when talking about Japanese authors we (almost) always forget about: Ryunosuke Akutagawa [1], author of short stories like Rashomon or In a grove [2] (this actually the story that inspired Kurasawa's Rashomon)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABnosuke_Akutagawa [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Grove

Surrealism, cafes and lots of cats: why Japanese fiction is booming

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