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THE PERCEIVED IMPACT OF ANIME ON SCHOOL CHILDREN'S AGGRESSIVE

BEHAVIOUR

Conference Paper · October 2011

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1519.7608

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Proceeding at the LANCOMM International Conference 2011, 19-20 October 2011, IOI Resort Putrajaya

THE PERCEIVED IMPACT OF ANIME ON SCHOOL

CHILDREN’S AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR

Iza Sharina Binti Sallehuddin

Communication Department
Faculty of Modern Language and Communication
Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor

Faradillah Iqmar Binti Omar

Communication Department
Faculty of Modern Language and Communication
Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor

ABSTRACT

For centuries, television is being blamed for children becoming aggressive in later life
because of its content. Anime programme such as Naruto, Pokemon, Digimon, and
Astro Boy contain more aggressive behaviour compared to any other type of
programming. Therefore, this study identifies the impact of anime on school children’s
aggressive behaviour. In accordance to this perspective, the objectives of this research
are: 1) to investigate the children’s initial attitudes towards anime aired on television, 2)
to examine children’s acceptance on the aggressive character, characterization, and
storyline of anime aired on television, 3) to determine children’s aggressive reaction to
their surrounding after every episode seen, and 4) to ascertain children’s feeling after
they react aggressively towards their surroundings. This study was conducted on 135
students of Standard Six of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya, Balakong,
Selangor. Results indicate that most of the students say anime is fun because it has
interestingness, realism, humour, and also violence. The students believed that those
programme contributes to aggressive behaviour. Most of the students would learn and
imitate from their observation through those programme. However, they disagreed that
anime can turn them into someone else. If they feel being intimidated, the students
would hit, attack, or kick that particular person. This study also revealed that the
students most likely feel bad when hurting other people and therefore they would never
behave aggressively towards their surroundings.

Keywords: Perceived, Impact, Anime, Aggressive

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BACKGROUND OF STUDY

There is little question that the electronic media, particularly television play a significant
role in the development and socialization of children. Even as infants, children are
exposed to the media consumed by their parents. They begin watching television at the
very young age and are exposed to a variety of programme content. Many of today’s
school children watched various programmes that contribute a positive influence on
them. However, they also watched long hours of violence anime and other “less
desirable” programming.

Research studies report that mass media, especially television give a great impact on
children and adolescents. Television affects many aspects of human life such as health
and behaviour, and a matter of particular concern is the effect of television violence on
children. Much of the research on children and the electronic media points to a strong
modelling effect. Children learn from television on what their roles should be in society
and how to act toward other human beings. Of course, these lessons can be positive or
negative, depending on the models portrayed in the programmes viewed.

Television violence is responsible for the increase in childhood violence. Children’s

programming has been documented to be some of the most violent television
programmes currently on the air. Japanese animation (anime) causes confusion between
fantasy and reality. Some children really do think it is okay to use physical violence with
other children because their hero such as Naruto does and his character was shown as
the good guy. However, without noticing it, some of those scenes do include several
elements of violence. By letting and encouraging children to watch such violent anime,
we are actually teaching them that violence is funny and acceptable.

Because of these reasons, anime is growing popular in Malaysia, especially among

children and even adults. If at one time, children and teenagers only knew of American
cartoon characters and stories, now they are responding to something closer to their
home and culture. Dragon Ball and Naruto for instance, are the biggest hit. Watched by
young and old alike, it has crossed cultural boundaries like no other programmes. Named
it, whether on TV2, TV3, ntv7, TV9 or even in Animax (Astro channel services), anime-
style programmes may hold the majority of the time slots on the after-school, Saturday,
and Sunday morning schedules.

Statement of the Problem

Children have become much more interested in anime for the past years due to the
excellent characters, characterization, and the storyline portrayed in the programmes.
Typically, children begin watching anime on television at an early age of six months, and
by the age two or three, children become enthusiastic viewers (www.cfc-efc.ca). This
has become a problem because too many children spent too much on television and
even the anime that they are watching are having the elements of violence, and they
become addicted.

Japanese anime have a great impact on children including cognitive, affective, and
behavioural aspects. One of the behavioural aspects that attract a lot of attention
among the society, social activities, and scholars is violence. There are many cases
around the world related to children or teenagers and violence. A child psychologist, Dr.

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Stephen Garber says that the realistic-type violence which always being portrayed in
movies and in other situations will affect certain kinds of children who cannot tell the
difference between reality and fantasy (www.aber.ac.uk). For instance, a 14-year-old
boy in Kentucky killed three teenagers and wounded five others in a shooting spree
inspired by a dream sequence in the film "Basketball Diaries." As much as we are query
about the anime programmes showed on television, our child are acting more and more
aggressively and unethically (www.allsands.com).

In Malaysia, we can see the uprising trends in anime aired on our local television
channels. For example, we have Animax channel on Astro channel services that have
influenced children of all ages on the genre. As many have known that this genre
incorporates sex and violence in their content which contribute to the aggressive
behaviour and their involvement in which have been supported in David Morley’s (1980)
literature on the nationwide audience. In local context, some of the children who are very
much ‘involved’ with anime programmes would do as what they have seen on the screen.

As for the above mention phenomenon, this study tries to seek answers for several
research questions as stated below:

1. What are the children’s initial attitudes towards anime aired on television?
2. How the children accept the aggressive character, characterization, and storyline
of anime aired on television?
3. How aggressive the children react to their surrounding after every episode seen?
4. How do the children feel after they react aggressively towards their surrounding?

Research Objective

The purpose of this study is to understand the perceived impact of anime on school
children’s aggressive behaviour.

Therefore, the specific objectives of this study are:

1. To investigate the children’s initial attitudes towards Anime aired on television.

2. To examine children’s acceptance on the aggressive character, characterization,
and storyline of Anime aired on television.
3. To determine children’s aggressive reaction to their surrounding after every
episode seen.
4. To ascertain children’s feeling after they react aggressively towards their
surrounding.

Scope and Rationale of the study

It is important to note that this study and its findings only represent Year Two (Standard
Six) school children of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya, Balakong, Selangor.
The target group would be on students’ age 12 years old. This age group were chosen
because they best represent the primary school children and the respondents were of
multi races. The rationale of choosing this topic because it is important to understand the
perceived impact of anime on school children’s aggressive behaviour by referring to
several examples of anime programmes that shown on local television.

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Significance of the Study

There are numerous researches done about the impact of television violence towards
children and teenagers. However, most of the researches were targeted towards the
western audiences, and only few on south eastern Asian, particularly Malaysian
audiences. Hence, it is important to conduct this research to find out whether Malaysian
school children will respond in the same way as the western children or not.

Furthermore, this study is important as the body of knowledge either in theory aspect or
for any practices. This study is believed to be able to contribute to future studies that
suggested children’s programme does contained violence and give impact to young
children as stated by Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, (1980). In addition, this
study would also verify the Social Learning Theory as this theory is very important as it
will be further explored during data collection and data analysis. The researcher hopes
that the results from this study will further expand the understanding of the theory as
explained by Albert Bandura (Bandura, 1963).

The analysis and the findings from this study will reveal the perceived impact on school
children’s aggressive behaviour towards violence in anime. Therefore, may the result
from this study give some ideas to programme producers, whether for TV2, TV3, ntv7,
and TV9 or even Astro - especially to go in depth in order to be more alert and careful in
showing children’s programmes.

Social Learning Theory

Developed by Albert Bandura in 1965 and 1977, Social Learning Theory emphasized on
the importance of rewards and punishments. This theory identified that children can
learn new behaviours in one or two ways: by direct experience through trial and error or
by observing and imitating others in their social environment. Bandura (1994) stated that
observational learning eventually is more efficient than trying to discover everything on
your own. Children can and do learn from other people in their environment, including
parents, siblings, peers, and teachers. Children can also learn from characters and
people that appeared in the mass media (Sparks, 2002).

According to Bandura (1965), if a child watched a person on television who seemed very
attractive and who received rewards for acting aggressively, then the child would be
more likely to imitate that character's behaviour. On the other hand, if a child saw a
character who received punishment for acting aggressively, then the child might refrain
from acting out any aggressive desire in real life. However, his theory was not just about
television. It was a general theory about the way people learn behaviours. The basic
principles could explain how children learn to help people as well as hurt them.

Bandura’s (1994) studies helped researchers to understand a number of things about

television violence and children. First, viewing television violence could cause children to
behave more aggressively, particularly if the violent characters were attractive and
received rewards for their actions. Second, in many of these studies, the effects
emerged most strongly for boys not girls. Many researchers interpret this finding in the
context of biological differences between the sexes. Throughout the animal kingdom,
nature has programmed the male of the species with a tendency to behave more

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aggressively than the female. The researchers thought that perhaps this aggressive
tendency resulted in boys being more sensitive to the impact of media violence. As it
turns out, some studies on media violence show that the effects extend to female as well
as males.

In the 1980s, Bandura (1986) reformulated his theory for the reason that it had been
criticised as too behaviouristic, which was focusing mostly on the reinforcements and
how people act. The newer perspective, which was called Social Cognitive Theory,
acknowledges that cognitive processes such as attention and retention are involved in
observational learning. Children pay attention to different features of a model’s
behaviour, in which later they bring forth different experiences to interpret and evaluate
the model’s actions. Finally, they store that different information in memory. These types
of cognitive processes can be used to help explain why some children might imitate a
model but others do not (Strasburger & Wilson, 2002).

Social Learning and Social Cognitive Theory are useful frameworks for understanding
how children can learn new behaviours from television violence. However, these
theories tend to focus on short-term learning. Despite the criticisms, Bandura’s (1973)
social learning theory should be seen as important in the study and influences of
aggression and criminal behaviour formed in this. In order to control aggression, he
believed family members and the mass media should provide positive role models for
their children and the general public (Bandura, 1977).

Effect of TV Violence Towards Children’s Behaviour

Many of the statistics for the children’s programming were first established by George
Gerbner and his colleagues in their annual assessments of prime-time and weekend
morning television (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980; Gerbner, Gross,
Signorielli, Morgan, & Jackson-Beeck, 1979). In his studies, (Gerbner et al, 1979)
consistently found that children’s program were more violent than prime-time
programming by looking at the whole week of each year across the three major
broadcast networks. According to them, on average, over 90% of children’s
programming contained violence, compared to 70% of prime-time shows. In addition,
children’s programming featured a higher rate of violent acts, with 20 acts per hour
compared to only five acts per hour during prime time. Furthermore, Gerbner (1980) also
found that a vast majority of children’s programme (which is 79%) contained humorous
violence, while relatively few did in the prime-time hours (20%) (Wilson, Smith, Potter,
Kunkel, Linz, Colvin, & Donnerstein, 2002).

Violence is far more prevalent in programmes targeted to children, in which clearly all of
those are cartoons or anime. Given example, seven out of 10 children’s programmes
contained violence, while six out of 10 non-children’s programmes did (Wilson & Smith,
et al., in press). Researchers also found that children’s programmes were significantly
more likely than other types of programming to portray unrealistically low levels of harm
victims compared with what would happen in real life. Furthermore, children who are
more aggressive themselves seem to prefer violent television and their parents who
rated their children as aggressive also rated them as more interested in violent anime or
cartoons (Cantor & Nathanson, 1997).

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Based from National Television Violence Study (NTVS) in 1997, violence can be
generally defined as any intentional or accidental action that causes physical or
psychological harm (as in the case of verbal abuse) to oneself, another person, animal,
or at times, an inanimate object (Wilson et al., 1998). Negative characters portrayed by
either cartoon or anime programme contain harmful element to children. Studies on
content analysis of prime time programming which done by Potter and Warren (1998)
indicated that in comedy shows, violence was more likely to be verbal than physical.

Krcmar and Hight (2007) also found that young child who watched an action cartoon or
super-hero image, as opposed to young children who watched neutral video clips or
animated characters, were more likely to create aggressive story endings. These
findings supported the argument that a schema for aggression may be activated as a
result of having viewed aggressive acts (Anderson & Carnagey, 2004). Furthermore, a
report in 2006 by The Kaiser Family Foundation’s examined children and the electronic
media in which indicated 68% of parents of children six years of age and younger
reported having seen their children imitate behaviours shown on television with 24% of
these behaviours identified as aggressive (www.kff.org).

The purpose of the present study is to assess fully aggressive acts in anime
programmes targeted to child audiences. Though previous research gives the
researcher some idea of the extent aggressive acts in these shows, the figures are
incomplete. Furthermore, this study seek to establish new and more comprehensive
level for the amount of aggressive acts in children’s show especially anime programmes
as well as assessing for the first time the nature or context of these portrayal.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The aim of this study was to ascertain the perceived impact of anime on school
children’s aggressive behaviour. Therefore, this study was conducted using the
quantitative method, whereby this method requires that the variables under
consideration must be measured. The data was collected by using self administered
survey method, in which it was done through the distribution of questionnaires in
classrooms. A survey method was chosen because it offered higher degree of
predictability and was easier to generalise the results from the data collected to the
population as a whole.

Population and Sampling Techniques

The sample known as the respondents, whereby these respondents were chosen
randomly from each class with the same main characteristic: enjoy watching anime
programme. In terms of the simple random sample, each subject or unit in the population
has an equal chance of being selected. The respondents were chosen by using
proportionate cluster sampling. This sampling is most suitable for this study as it define
the data collections from small group of population or categories (Wimmer & Dominick,
2006). Therefore, this small group will be parallel with the information needed.

The advantages of proportionate cluster sampling are that, only part of the population
need to be identified. Furthermore, the costs are reduced if the clusters are well defined
and cluster parameters can be estimates and compared to the population.

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The subject of this study were on multi races students’ age 12 years old who studied in
Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya, Balakong in which the population of
Standard Six students were 210. Therefore, the total sample based from the Krejcie and
Morgan’s Table (1970) were 100% (n=135) students of Standard Six.

Instrumentation

The questionnaires were divided into five parts; A, B, C, D, and E. In Section A, the
respondents were asked about their gender, age, race, favourite pastime and hours
spent on watching anime. Section B asked the respondents about their initial attitudes
towards anime while Section C asked about their acceptance of aggressive character,
characterization, and the storyline of anime aired on television. While in Section D, the
respondents were asked about their aggressive reaction towards other people after
every episode seen on television and last but not least, Section E asked about the
respondents’ feeling after they react aggressively towards their surroundings.

Data Processing

The data were processed and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Science
(SPSS Statistical version 17.0) and as reported according to the research questions
which can be seen in the next page.

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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

a. Respondents Demographic

There were 135 respondents conducted in this study, in which 47.4% were male
respondents while 52.6% were female respondents. All respondents were from age
group of 12 years old (n=135, 100%). Majority of these respondents were Malay, being
94.8%, while 2.2% were Indian, and 3.0% of the respondents were from other ethnicity.
Please refer to Table 1 and Table 2, for more information.

Gender Frequency Percent

Male 64 47.4
Female 71 52.6
Total 135 100.0
Table 1. Gender of the respondents

Race Frequency Percent

Malay 128 94.8
India 3 2.2
Others 4 3.0
Total 135 100.0
Table 2. Ethnicity

Looking at the hours spend on watching TV, majority of them (54.8%) spent about three
to four hours per day, 33.3% spent about one to two hours per day, 5.9% spent less than
one hour per day and 5.9% of the respondents spent more than four hours per day
watching television. Meanwhile reffering to hours spend on watching anime programme
per day, a majority of the respondent (61.5%) spent about one to two hours per day,
20.0% spent about three to four hours per day, 15.6% spent less than one hour per day
and 3.0% of the respondents spent more than four hours or others per day watching
anime programme. Amongst the respondents, majority of them watch television with
their siblings (60.7%), while 22.2% watch television with their family and 16.3% of them
watching television alone. Last but least, only 1% amongst the respondents watcthing
television with friend. Please refer to Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5.

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Frequency Percent
less than 1 8 5.9
hour
1-2 hours 45 33.3
3-4 hours 74 54.8
others 8 5.9
Total 135 100.0
Table 3. Hours spend on watching TV

Frequency Percent
less than 1 21 15.6
hours
1-2 hours 83 61.5
3-4 hours 27 20.0
others 4 3.0
Total 135 100.0
Table 4. Hours spent on watching anime per day

Frequency Percent
alone 22 16.3
family 30 22.2
siblings 82 60.7
friends 1 .7
Total 135 100.0
Table 5. Companion during watching TV

b. Initial Attitude towards Anime

In analysing the initial attitude towards anime programme aired on television, there were
several statements that revealed the respondents liking about anime. Majority (34.1%) of
the respondents strongly agreed that anime is fun because it has interestingness,
realism, humour, and also violence. Only 2.2% strongly disagreed that anime is fun,
followed by 21.5% who gave their views as neutral. When asked whether the
respondents enjoy watching anime, the results indicated that majority of the respondents
agreed, with 36.3% compared to 8.1% of them disagreed that anime is enjoyable. The
remaining 22.2% were neutral. This study also found that majority of them (12.6%) was
not too obsessed with anime programme compared to only 42.2% of the respondents
who obsessed with it. For more information, please refer to Table 6.

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Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq (%)
Anime is fun
3 2.2 14 10.4 29 21.5 43 31.9 46 34.1 100
(n=135)
Watching anime is enjoyable
9 6.7 11 8.1 30 22.2 49 36.3 36 26.7 100
(n=135)
Never missed watching
20 14.8 36 26.7 48 35.6 21 15.6 10 7.4 100
anime
(n=135)
The feeling of enjoyment
32 23.7 32 23.7 21 15.6 23 17.0 27 20.0 100
seeing someone being
beaten
(n=135)
Owned a various collection of
35 25.9 31 23.0 18 13.3 34 25.2 17 12.6 100
anime merchandised
(n=135)
Obsessed with anime
17 12.6 11 8.1 23 17 27 20.0 57 42.2 100
(n=135)
Fighting is normal for
14 10.4 13 9.6 20 14.8 53 39.3 35 25.9 100
everyone
(n=135)
Table 6. Respondents fondness about anime

The study also revealed that majority of the respondents (48.9%) agreed that anime
contributes to aggressive behaviour with 29.6% of them agreed and 19.3% strongly
agreed. Barely 27.4% were neutral. Another 23.7% of them viewed that anime did not
contributes to aggressive behavior with 14.1% disagreed and 9.6% were strongly
disagreed. Overall, this results shows that although they were enjoyed watching anime
but at the same time they believed that anime will contribute towards aggressive
behaviors. Please refer to Chart 1 for the details.

35
30
25
20
Percentage
15
10
5
0
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
disagree agree

Chart 1. Anime contributes to aggressive behavior (n=135)

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c. Respondents’ Acceptance on the Character, Characterization, and

Storyline of Anime Aired on Television

There are many skills and new things that the respondents could learn based from their
observation through anime programme. Majority of the respondents agreed and strongly
agreed that anime’s character shows great skills of fighting, being 40.0% and 35.6%
respectively compared to only 7.4% of them disagreed that anime’s character shows
great skills of fighting. Another 11.9% of the respondents were neutral. This study also
found that among the 135 respondents, majority of them (31.1%) disagreed that they
identified themselves as the main character; while 17.8% of the respondents agreed that
they identified themselves as the main character. The remaining 29.6% were neutral.

Since most of the respondents like to watch anime, majority of the respondent (10.4%)
agreed that anime showed the things that they also like to do. However, another 30.4%
were strongly disagreed that anime showed the things that they also like to do and the
remaining 28.1% were neutral. For more information, please refer to Table 7.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)
Anime’s character
7 5.2 10 7.4 16 11.9 54 40.0 48 35.6 100
shows great skills of
fighting
(n=135)
Identified myself as
22 16.3 42 31.1 0 29.6 24 17.8 7 5.2 100
the main character
(n=135)
Anime shows things
41 30.4 36 26.7 38 28.1 14 10.4 6 4.4 100
I like to do
(n=135)
Naruto is cool and
12 8.9 18 13.3 19 14.1 30 22.2 56 41.5 100
have great skills
(n=135)
Still remember of
21 15.6 23 17.0 45 33.3 24 17.8 22 16.3 100
last weeks’ episode
(n=135)
Table 7. The best thing that the respondents like about anime

The results also revealed that majority of the respondents (72%) strongly disagreed that
they feel like wanting to hit the person next to them when watching aggressive scene
compared to only 8.1% of the respondents strongly agreed that they feel like wanting to
hit the person next to them. As a result, in term of the acceptance of aggressive
character, characterization, and the storyline of anime, the respondents would copy or
imitate the aggressive acts they seen from the programme regardless whether they were
boy or girl. As mentioned by Bandura (1965), this explained that children who were
exposed to a violent model are more likely to act aggressively than children who had not
viewed such violent. However, most of the respondents disagreed that anime
programme makes them aggressive and they also disagreed that anime can turn them
into someone else. Please refer to Table 8 for more information.

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Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)
.
The feeling of hitting
72 53.3 34 25.2 8 5.9 10 7.4 11 8.1 100
the next person to me
(n=135)
The feeling of being
17 12.6 26 19.3 35 25.9 27 20.0 30 22.2 100
on the edge of seat
(n=135)
Aggressive shows me
43 31.9 32 23.7 33 24.4 13 9.6 14 10.4 100
as a strong person
(n=135)
Table 8. The excitement while watching anime

d. Respondents’ Aggressive Reaction to Their Surrounding After Every

Episode Seen

Table 9 shows the results of aggressive reaction of the respondents towards their
surroundings. Majority of the respondents (25.9%) disagreed that they enjoyed fighting
with other children for fun while 8.1% of them were agreed. Amongst them, 16.3%
remains neutral. The results in this study also indicated that majority of the respondents
disagreed to hit the person who makes fun of them, being 11.9% and 7.4% respectively
whilst 28.9% of them strongly agreed that they will hit the person who makes fun of
them. It shows that they were really wanted to protect their pride and dignity. On the
other hand, more than half of the respondent (29.6%) strongly agreed that they will
attack the person who tries to take their personal things; while only 12.6% of them
disagreed to attack the person who tries to take their belongings. The remaining 25.2%
were neutral.

Nearly half of the respondent (65.9%) disagreed that fighting for fun with other people is
okay, with 40.0% disagreeing and 25.9% strongly disagreeing. Yet, 17.7% agreed that it
is okay to fight with other people for fun while another 16.3% were stated as neutral. In
addition, more than half of the respondents (50.4%) disagreed that they see themselves
as an aggressive person compared to 22.9% agreed that they see themselves as an
aggressive person.

By looking at Table 10, in term of the aggressive reaction towards their surrounding, this
study revealed that most of the respondents know what should be doing and what
should not be doing, especially towards other people. Nevertheless, there were
respondents who agreed that they have to be aggressive only if they were being
attacked first by their surroundings. Nevertheless, majority of the respondents are being
neutral in hitting a woman (31.9%), whilst 26.6% of them were agreed and 41.5% were
disagreed. For more information, refer to Table 9 and 10 below.

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Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)
Enjoy fighting with
54 40.0 35 25.9 22 16.3 11 8.1 13 9.6 100
other children
(n=135)
The feeling of
20 14.8 32 23.7 33 26.4 21 15.6 29 21.5 100
ashamed if I could
not fight back
(n=135)
To hit someone who
10 7.4 16 11.9 32 23.7 38 28.1 39 28.9 100
makes fun of me
(n=135)
To attack the person
10 7.4 17 12.6 34 25.2 34 25.2 40 29.6 100
who take my things
(n=135)
Table 9. The feelings that the respondents experienced if being angry or upset

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)
Fighting for fun is okay
54 40.0 35 25.9 22 16.3 11 8.1 13 9.6 100
(n=135)
I am an aggressive
31 23.0 37 27.4 36 26.7 23 17.0 8 5.9 100
person
(n=135)
Hitting friends who
6 4.4 18 13.3 32 23.7 32 23.7 47 34.8 100
behave badly is okay
(n=135)
It is normal to hit women
26 19.3 30 22.2 43 31.9 18 13.3 18 13.3 100
(n=135)
Table 10. Respondents’ reactions towards their surrounding

e. Respondents’ Feeling After They React Aggressively towards Their

Surrounding

It is human nature, to get involved in a fight or like to see other people fighting over each
other and they believed that anime contributes towards aggressive behavior as showed
in Chart 1 where 48.9% of them were agreed. In terms of hitting someone, normally
nobody feels good after hitting someone. This can be observed from more than half of
the respondents (69.9%) disagreed that they don’t feel bad about hitting other people.
However, only 10.4% of them agreed that they don’t feel bad hitting someone. On the
other hand, a majority of the respondents, or 68.1% of them disagreed that they don’t
feel regret involved in a fight, with 42.2% and 25.9% respectively. Only 17.0% of the
respondents agreed that they do not feel regret involved in a fight. The remaining 14.8%
were neutral.

Besides, this study revealed that most of the respondents (87.4%) agreed that they feel
sad seeing other people in pain, being 63.7% strongly agreeing and 23.7% agreeing;
while only 4.4% disagreed that they feel sad seeing someone in pain. The highest
percentages (55.5%) were recorded by respondents who strongly agreed that they will
never behave aggressively towards their surroundings. Meanwhile only 15.5% of the
respondents disagreed that they will never behave aggressively towards other people
and the remaining 28.9% were neutral.

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Therefore, in term of the respondents’ feeling after react aggressively towards their
surrounding, it is suggests that even though the respondents were exposed and
influenced with the aggressive behaviour shown in anime programme, they still can
distinguish between what is good or bad and what can be learn or not through this type
of programme. Please refer to Table 11 and Table 12 for more information.

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)
I feel happy hitting 59 43.7 38 28.1 24 17.8 10 7.4 4 3.0 100
someone
(n=135)
I don’t feel bad hitting 61 45.2 33 24.4 27 20.0 10 7.4 4 3.0 100
someone
(n=135)
I would not apologise 64 47.4 28 20.7 19 14.1 11 8.1 13 9.6 100
(n=135)
I feel excited seeing 57 42.2 25 18.5 28 20.7 12 8.9 13 9.6 100
people fighting
(n=135)
I won’t regret involved 57 42.2 35 25.9 20 14.8 12 8.9 11 8.1 100
in a fight
(n=135)
I feel weak if I could 51 37.8 18 13.3 38 28.1 11 8.1 17 12.6 100
not hit harder
(n=135)
Table 11. The feelings that the respondents experienced after behave aggressively

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Total

disagree agree (%)
Description Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%) Freq. (%)
I feel bad hurting
2 1.5 4 3.0 20 14.8 33 24.4 76 56.3 100
someone
(n=135)
I feel sad seeing
1 0.7 5 3.7 11 8.1 32 23.7 86 63.7 100
people in pain
(n=135)
I feel annoyed
26 19.3 12 14.1 61 45.2 9 6.7 20 14.8 100
watching programme
which contained
violance
(n=135)
I will never behave
8 5.9 13 9.6 39 28.9 28 20.7 47 34.8 100
aggressively anymore
(n=135)
Table 12. Respondents’ feeling towards their surrounding

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Most students of Standard Six of Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Cheras Jaya in

Balakong agreed that anime is fun because it has the elements such as interestingness,
realism, humour and also violence. Furthermore, some of the students owned a various
collection of anime merchandised such as school bag, stationeries, T-shirt, comic books,
and etc.

Despite that they enjoyed watching anime programme, the students believed that those
programme contributes to aggressive behaviour and that, some of them feel annoyed
watching programme that contained too much of violence acts. Most of the anime’s
character shows a great skill of fighting, in which most of the students would learn and
imitate from their observation through those programme. In addition, the students feel
that they are a part of the show while watching anime and therefore, being aggressive
shows that they are a strong person. The most likely aggressive reaction the
respondents would do was hitting, attacking, kicking, or hurting other people. However,
these were meant only if that particular people attack them first. They would fight for fun
or on purposed but the percentage of them is small.

Although it is human nature to get involved in a fight or enjoy seeing other people
fighting, the percentage of them were very small compared to those who feel bad if they
hurt other people. Furthermore, the respondents do feel bad and sad seeing other
people in pain and therefore, they would never behave aggressively towards their
surroundings.

Implications of Study

The theory adopted in this study is the Social Learning Theory, as illustrated earlier. This
theory identified that children can learn new behaviours in one or two ways: by direct
experience or by observing and imitating others in their social environment. Children can
and do learn from other people in their environment, including parents, siblings, peers,
and teachers. Nevertheless, children can also learn from characters and people that
appeared in the mass media, especially in the television.

However, as stated by Bandura (Bandura et al., 1965, 1973), the aggressive behaviour
does not necessarily imply to that particular child. Not every child who saw the
aggressive behaviour being rewarded behaved aggressively after watching anime
programme. Only some of the children who saw the aggressive behaviour being
punished acted aggressively at the same time. Television viewing was not the main
result for children to behave aggressively; however there are many other factors that are
important in determining aggressive behaviour at any given instance. Factors may be
from their parents, siblings, and also their surroundings (Bandura, 1973).

In the perspective of practicality, if we are looking in term of the cultural, the anime still
could not be called something closer to our culture because children only watched anime
for pleasure and were not highly influenced with it. Perhaps if our local animation
produced this type of programme, then the chances for the children to get influence and
imitate the aggressive behaviour would be high.

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Future Research Recommendations

This study can be extended by conducting qualitative research methodology where the
reactions and feedback of young children are observed. Furthermore, this study can be
conducted for children age below 10 years old and also for teenagers age between 13 -
19 years old. In addition, parents, teachers, and professional should be asked as well in
order to know their opinion about the impact of anime programme on children and
teenagers.

Closing

As a conclusion, students enjoy watching anime since it is fun and have many elements
in it. However, they can still differentiate between the good and bad examples shown in
the anime programme since they believed the programme contribute to aggressive
behaviour. However, they would most likely to hit, attack, or kick the person who
attacked them first.

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