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The Effects of Watching Anime Extensively on the Behavior of Egyptian Adolescents

Final Paper

Mohamed Ahmed Ali Salama 19105743

Hamza Ahmed Mohamed 19105496

English Department, Nile University

ENGL201

Dr. Amena Mahmoud Elshafie

January, 2022
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Table of Contents

Literature Review......................................................................................................................................3

2.1 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3

2.2 Definition of Anime.........................................................................................................................3

2.2.1 History of Anime.......................................................................................................................4

2.2.2 Different Anime Genres...........................................................................................................5

2.2.3 Target Audience for Anime......................................................................................................6

2.3 Reported Effects of Watching Anime.............................................................................................6

2.3.1 Behavioral Effects.....................................................................................................................6

2.3.2 Mental effects............................................................................................................................7

2.4 Conclusion........................................................................................................................................8

References................................................................................................................................................10
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Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Anime and manga have been rising in popularity among adolescents from all over the world

within the past few years. According to Mahasth (2018) the Japanese pop culture which includes

anime, manga and different Japanese art has been growing and attracting the attention of

everyone in the past few decades. Similarly, Sallehuddin and Omar (2011) stated that anime like

Dragon Ball or Naruto have grown in popularity and attracted the attention everyone from

different age stages. However, the rising in popularity of something does not necessarily mean

that it is a good thing. The growth of anime popularity being a good or bad thing should depend

on the content that is being displayed. Sallehuddin and Omar (2011) emphasized that the rising

popularity of anime might be a problem, as school students spend most of their time watching

anime which mostly contain violence and they are becoming addicted to it. This shows the

importance of monitoring the effects of watching anime on them. Therefore, this portion of the

paper will review the existing literature which will include the definition of anime, the history of

anime, find the different anime genres and their target audience and finally investigate the

different effects that have been discovered so far. This part will give us an insight on what we

should focus on while investigating the effects of watching anime extensively on the behavior of

Egyptian adolescents.
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2.2 Definition of Anime

Anime is the Japanese-equivalent word for the English word cartoon and anime itself has

the first syllable of the English word animation. According to Yusof et. al. (2021) anime is

derived from the English word "animation". Similarly, Denilza and Ginting (2018) state that

anime is an abbreviation of the word animation which Japanese pronounce as (anime-shon).

Thus, we might use the definition of cartoon to define anime. Cartoon is simply a sequence of

2D images that are drawn or made by software. A similar definition of anime has been made by

Joon (2010, as cited in Alsahlly et al., 2021) which refers to anime as making a movie by moving

images fast enough to give an illusion of movement. Thus, we can see that anime-which is the

Japanese animated cartoons- and cartoon-which is the American animated cartoons- share many

things in common. In fact, one of them might have influenced the other to exist.

2.2.1 History of Anime

Anime got influenced by so many factors since its first days, and the most influential

factor was US cartoons. Perez et al. (2017) stated “Anime history has been considered a global

phenomenon and the US, seems to have drawn most of the attention” (p. 10). Anime and cartoon

share some similarities between them and according to that, the United States had the most

significant influence on anime.

2.2.1.1 The Influence of Cartoon on Anime

Since cartoon and anime are similar in many aspects, it is not strange that it got affected

by it during its early days. According to Perez et al. (2017), in the 1960s, the US had some

famous cartoons released which might have influenced the production of anime during that
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period. This indicates that Japan saw the success of the US animated cartoons and tried to

borrow the new type of art and mimic it in their own series.

2.2.1.2 The Influence of Manga on Anime

Whenever someone searches for anime, there is a chance that she or he gets results

related to manga. Manga is the Japanese-equivalent word for “comics”, which had its influence

on the development of anime. According to Yusof et al. (2021), “manga is a comic created in

Japan, or by Japanese creators in Japanese as well as adhering to the style developed in Japan in

the late 19th century.” (p. 7). The difference between cartoon/anime and comics/manga is that

the first has animation and movement and the latter does not. According to AbdRahim et al.

(2013), the first appearance of anime was influenced by manga. Similarly, Yusof et al. (2021)

added that manga’s growth in popularity around the world influenced the start of anime. After

the huge success of manga, anime studios started animating more series as they got influenced by

that success.

2.2.2 Different Anime Genres

Anime is like any other source of entertainment, and as mentioned before, it is a kind of

movie that tells a story. Anime is suitable for all ages. However, different anime genres might

have different target audience (Denison, 2015, as cited in Cho et al., 2018). Similarly,

Sallehuddin and Omar (2011) added that if an anime is presenting gore, violence, or

inappropriate scenes, it will influence the children and will make them more aggressive.

Therefore, it is clear that if it has no inappropriate scenes for children, it might be suitable for all

ages.

2.2.2.1 Shounen and Shoujo as Anime Genres

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Shounen is the Japanese word for ‘boy’. In this genre, the story revolves around a young

teenager that has a dream which he is willing to fulfil. According to Cho et al. (2018) Shounen

genre anime is targeted for young teenagers and often feature fighting and a male protagonist.

Therefore, we can note that there is a relation between the genre name and the audience it is

intended for. Similarly, Shoujo is also a Japanese word which means ‘girl’. This genre is very

similar to the previous one, but it has some minor differences. Cho et al. (2018) in contrast with

Shounen, here the protagonist is a young female, and the story is mostly romance. Therefore, we

can see that Shoujo is mostly aimed for young girls.

2.2.2.2 Seinen and Josei as Anime Genres

Similar to Shounen and Shoujo, Seinen and Josei are also Japanese words. The first

means ‘young men’ and the latter means ‘women’. According to Cho et al. (2018) Seinen is an

anime genre that targets more mature audience. Moreover, it usually describes an anime with

complex plot and mostly contains violence scenes. On the other hand, Josei is an anime genre

that is targeted for women. Cho et al. (2018) adds that Josei is focused on romance like Shoujo.

However, the portrayed romance is usually more realistic than the one in Shoujo.

2.2.3 Target Audience for Anime

Anime is like any other source of entertainment, and as discussed above, it has so many

different genres. Each of these genres is targeted for a specific audience which covers all the

different ages. According to Cho et al. (2018) there are 175 different anime genres that have

different audience. Therefore, anime is not specific for a certain age. In fact, anyone can find an

anime that is suitable for their age and preferences.

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2.3 Reported Effects of Watching Anime

The rising popularity of anime has gained the attention of researchers to investigate the

different effects of watching anime for a period of time. According to Fennel et al. (2012) Anime

is becoming more recognized, and researchers began to consider it to be worthy of study. Most

of these studies mainly focused on the negative effects and focused on these effects vary between

mental effects and behavioral effects.

2.3.1 Behavioral Effects

Adolescents are the future of humanity. However, in that age, they tend to be reckless and

willing to explore, so they start committing and being part of different social problems. These

social problems include criminal acting and aggression. According to Yusof et. al. (2021)

“During this period, teenagers often want to attempt something that can sometimes trigger social

and anti-social conflict in their actions.” (p. 8). This is why it is important to discuss the different

effects of watching anime on adolescents’ behavioral effects.

2.3.1.1 Aggressive Behavior

Unlike adults, adolescents are intolerant to aggression and can be easily influenced
by it, and as discussed before, some anime genres contain fighting and aggressive scenes
that can easily affect their aggressive behavior. According to a study conducted in Malaysia
by Sallehuddin et al. (2011) “Anime programme such as Naruto, Pokemon, Digimon, and Astro
Boy contain more aggressive behaviour compared to any other type of programming.” (p. 1).
The same study continues to find a relation between aggressive behavior and watching anime.
They found that most of the anime that students watch contain aggressive scenes which
encourage them to try and copy the fights in the scenes. However, another study in the same
society which is Malaysia that has been conducted by Yusof et al. (2021) found that “it can be
concluded that the low level of anime exposure does not affect the behavior of adolescents who
are exposed to anime watching.” (p. 12). These two studies were conducted in the same
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society. However, they have completely found different results, which could justify the need
for conducting similar research in different cultures

2.3.2 Mental effects

Adolescence is one of the most important phases of the human development, as in that

period we tend to be affected easily by what we hear and see. A study showed that adolescence is

a crucial stage in our life, as we experience most of the hard times and stresses in our life (Ratasi,

2015, as cited in Yusof et. al., 2021). According to Yusof et al. (2021) anime might be

considered a minor addiction. They showed that it has no negative effects on mental aspects if

watched for enough time. However, watching it for longer time might have some negative

effects.

2.4 Conclusion

In conclusion, anime is a Japanese art style which shares many similarities with the US

cartoon. anime started to grow in popularity in the past few years, and it started to spread to all

the countries around the world. The US cartoon had the most influence on anime, as they have

many things in common. The success of cartoon in late 19th century have influenced the Japanese

studios to start and produce their own version of animated movies at the beginning of the 20 th

century. Japanese studios started by mimicking the famous genres from cartoon. However, they

started to make their unique genres like Shounen, Shoujo, Seinen and Josei. These different

genres have different storytelling and target audience. The vast majority of these genres are

targeted for teenagers. However, for every different age stage, there is an anime genre that is

targeted for this specific stage. This means that anime is generic and cannot be limited to a

specific age stage. The spread of anime around the world among adolescents does not necessarily

be a good thing. Watching anime for long periods of time might have some negative impacts on
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the behavior of the audience. Some of these impacts might be behavioral effects or mental

effects. Some studies were conducted to find the relations between watching anime for long

period of time and the mentioned effects. There are two studies that has been conducted in

Malaysia. One of them found that there is a relation between watching anime and aggressive

behavior. However, the other study showed that low exposure to anime will not affect the

behavior at all. These studies were conducted in the same society and found different results.

Their results might have been affected by the traditions in their area. Therefore, we cannot rely

on their findings and relate it to the Egyptian society, since we might as well show different

result for our society.

To summarize, this research paper aims to answer the question “How does watching

anime extensively affect the behavior of Egyptian adolescents?”. This will help us inform

Egyptian parents about anime, and if they should be concerned about its effects.
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References

AbdRahim, N., Mamat, R., AbHalim, H., Sujud, A., & Roslan, S. N. A. (2013). The Influence of

Online Anime towards Children. Online Journal of Communication and Media

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(ojcmt.net)

Alsahlly, S. A. S., Algmrawi, S. K. M., Alshehri, A. S. A., Alotiby, N. T. N., Arshad, M., &

Deshwali, S. (2021). Anime affection on human IQ and behavior in Saudi Arabia. GSC

Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences. 14(02), 143-154.

DOI: 10.30574/gscbps.2021.14.2.0031

Cho, H., Disher, T., Lee, W., Keating, S. A., & Lee, J. H. (2018). Facet Analysis of Anime

Genres: The Challenges of Defining Genre Information for Popular Cultural Objects.

45(6), 484-499. DOI:10.5771/0943-7444-2018-6-484

Denilza, I. A., Ginting, R. (2018). Cultural Perception on Anime Fans in Medan City.
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Retrieved from: [PDF] Cultural Perception on Anime Fans in Medan City | Semantic

Scholar

Fennel, D., Liberato, A. S. Q. Hayden, B., & Fujino, Y. (2012). Consuming Anime. 14(5), 440-

456. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476412436986

Hassan, N. A., Sallehuddin, I. S., & AbdulAziz, N. N. (2016). Study on Anime and Its Impact

Among University Students. Retrieved from: (PDF) Study on Anime and Its Impacts

Among University Students (researchgate.net)

Mahaseth, H. (2018). The Cultural Impact of Manga on Society. 1(3), 1-5.

DOI:10.9734/AJL2C/2018/45673

Perez, H., Corstophine, K., & Stephans, D. (2017). Cartoons vs. manga movies: a brief history of

anime in the UK. Retrieved from: Cartoons vs. manga movies : a brief history of anime in

the UK - University of Salford Institutional Repository

Sallehuddin, I. S., Omar, F. I. (2011). THE PERCIEVED IMPACT OF ANIME ON

HIGHSCHOOL CHILDREN’S AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR

DOI:10.13140/RG.2.1.1519.7608

Yusof, N. A. (2021). Anime and Social Disorders among Secondary School Adolescents.

Journal

of Social Science and Humanities. 4(2), 06-13. DOI: 10.26666/rmp.jssh.2021.2.2

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