In December 2012, Japan 'once again' changed its Prime Minister. Shinzo Abe, who openly visits the Yasukuni Shrine, continued to take a tough stance on the Diaoyu Islands issue. He stated that Japan would never concede on the Diaoyu Islands and would 'fight hard for the Diaoyu Islands' — this pushed China-Japan relations to a 'historic low point.' Since the Diaoyu Islands dispute began, under widespread nationwide boycotts, Japan's automobile and electronics industries suffered heavy blows, and even the tourism sector was affected. According to statistics, in November 2012, the number of Chinese tourists traveling to Japan decreased by 40% year-on-year. Under such severe economic pressure, business circles in the United States and Japan have started urging Prime Minister Abe to improve relations with China. For Japan's second-largest economic pillar — the animation industry — although it has not yet been severely impacted, changes are quietly taking place.
Recently, two reports about 'Xia Lan' on the website and magazine of Japan's well-known anime media Animage, as well as the controversy over the banning of the Chinese original CG anime 'Xia Lan' on the Japanese forum '2CH,' have shocked the anime industries of both China and Japan. Unlike the confrontational hostility on the forum, Japanese anime media Animage, both on its website and in its magazine, highly praised 'Xia Lan' for presenting authentic Chinese elements, calling them 'the best cultural weapon for entering the international market.' The extraordinary performance of 'Xia Lan' at Cannes led Animage to commend it as 'a work that could change the global anime community's impression of Chinese animation.' On the other hand, the forum 2CH, which truly reflects the voices of local Japanese anime fans, directly cited the words of a local anime fan, 'Ban Xia Lan! Be wary of Chinese animation!' as the title of a forum post expressing its own opinion, which implicitly demonstrated Japanese anime fans' hostility and fear towards 'Xia Lan.'
In the field of animation, 'Xia Lan' stands at the forefront of the international market and has impacted Japanese animation, which is exactly what Japan fears. Next, let's analyze the reasons why 'Xia Lan' was banned by the Japanese anime industry!------------- Focusing on 3D, 'Xia Lan' Threatens the Status of Japan as a Strong Anime Nation
Animage belongs to the Animage Anime Group, and its magazine Animage, along with Animedia and Newtype, is known as one of the "Three Major Anime Magazines (Gosanke)". It is the oldest existing anime magazine and one of the most influential anime magazines in Japan. In Animage's magazine, the official publication rarely used the title "4 Hundred Million Clicks 3D Masterpiece: China's Best Annual Anime 'Xia Lan'", which is a high recognition of the Chinese anime 'Xia Lan'. However, beyond appearances, we can see that the true purpose of Animage recommending 'Xia Lan' is to alert Japanese anime companies: Chinese 3D anime has made a major push into the international market and is poised to have a significant impact on the Japanese anime market. By the time Japanese domestic companies realize this, Chinese original 3D anime, represented by 'Xia Lan', may have already captured the market!
Some foresighted individuals in the Japanese anime industry have already realized that a crisis is emerging! Japanese netizen Fujiwara posted on the 2CH forum, sharply pointing out the problem that Japanese anime will face: "It's very unfortunate that the most successful country in anime commercialization is not us, but the United States; in the 3D era, the country capable of mass-producing long 3D animations is not us, but China." Many replies to this post from Japanese netizens were filled with words like "ban" and "alert", showing the strong anxiety of Japanese anime fans. These evaluations and views of 'Xia Lan' undoubtedly illustrate the shock it has delivered to the Japanese anime industry, making Japanese media and netizens deeply concerned about the future of Japanese anime, and allowing both the anime industry and fans in Japan to keenly sense the threat from 'China'!
Originating from Chinese Traditional Culture: The Starting Point of 'Xia Lan's' Success
The Animage article mentioned the essence that distinguishes 'Xia Lan' from other domestic 3D animations: the soul of the story. "The overall design of 'Xia Lan' reflects the simple philosophical ideas of life and nature in ancient China; it also uses the universal connections of things and the dialectical thinking of mutual generation and restraint, making the whole plot both rich and full, while containing profound life philosophy, maximally provoking audience thought." 'Xia Lan' is rich in classical Chinese culture, and the resulting cultural impact and infiltration is also what Japanese anime companies fear. The economic benefits generated by anime culture are an important market that Japan can never afford to lose.As a representative work of China's new generation of original 3D animation, "Xia Lan" truly constructs a complete and powerful worldview and set of values. Previously, on the Japanese website 2CH, there were posts by professionals in the Japanese animation industry stating: 'Many Japanese animations draw material from Chinese culture. The Chinese animations I have watched in the past, on the other hand, were not very interested in making something truly Chinese, which allowed our Japanese animation to learn a lot from them and seemed more like our own originals. "Xia Lan" can directly find references from traditional Chinese culture, and I think it should do better than Japanese animation.'
Compared with the development trend in the Japanese animation industry, domestic Chinese animation is currently facing a lack of depth and intensity in exploring local cultural content, thus showing a state of 'difficulty in sustainable development.' Compared with racing for quantity, what Chinese animation should compete in is quality. In fact, Chinese anime fans have affection for domestic animation; this innate cultural connection requires creators to give domestic animation higher cultural content, creativity, and rich imagination. 'Chinese animators should have a sense of cultural responsibility, cultural self-reflection, and cultural consciousness.' "Xia Lan" is precisely such a work possessing a 'Chinese soul'—this is the essential difference that sets "Xia Lan" apart from other domestic 'Japanese-style' animations, and it is also the real reason Japan wants to block "Xia Lan," because the reverse export of Japanese culture has truly begun to scare them.
Technology determines success — Original patented technology showcases Chinese strength
There have been discussions about the production technology of "Xia Lan" multiple times on Japan's largest animation forum, 2CH. Among them, the post titled '驚いた!中国のアニメ‘侠嵐'からの脅かし' (Surprised! The Threat from Chinese Anime 'Xia Lan') can be said to provide an in-depth analysis of the current overall Japanese anime market and the impact of "Xia Lan" on it. The article mentions that if China can produce a large number of high-level feature-length animations like "Xia Lan," the dominant position of Japanese animation will be severely threatened! A Japanese netizen replied, 'In terms of the quality of 3D animation works, the United States has already shown great technical advantages. But the US mainly produces 3D animated films, whose impact is not continuous and does not pose a fundamental threat to the Japanese animation industry; what poses a major threat to us now is China, because they have already achieved high-quality production in feature-length 3D animation.'"Animage magazine's article also mentioned that the 3D technology used in 'Xia Lan' is very advanced. With the support of this technology, 'Xia Lan' has achieved mass production of high-quality 3D animation, which also means that 'Xia Lan' has accomplished the maximum level of cost control. Moreover, Animage was greatly impressed by the improvement in overall visual effects shown in episodes after the 104th episode. The article specifically emphasized that because from episode 104 onward 'Xia Lan' adopted new 3D technology, not only was there a significant improvement in visual effects, but thanks to this all-new 3D technology, the pacing of the story also became more concise.\ Through interviews with personnel from Ruosen Digital, the father of 'Xia Lan,' it has been learned that the highly anticipated new season of 'Xia Lan' will be broadcast soon. 'Xia Lan' has a good grasp of the characteristics of Japanese anime, is adept at storytelling, and has a good understanding of the pacing typical of Japanese anime. However, episode 104 showed us that it surpassed even Japanese standards in some aspects. With Ruosen Digital's unique 3D technology and distinctive production process, 'Xia Lan' is expected to have a huge impact on Japan's 3D animation industry in the next two to three years. By exploring traditional culture and mastering new technology, 'Xia Lan' has found an opportunity to develop in the global animation market!\ Standing on the front line of resisting Japan, Ruosen, the creator of 'Xia Lan,' calmly faces the ban from Japan.\ Recently, Chinese film superstar Donnie Yen faced a ban in Japan simply because Japanese citizens believed his latest film contained anti-Japanese elements that insulted Japan's dignity. Domestic Japanese opinions dismissing 'China-Japan friendship' have pushed the already chilly China-Japan relations into a more concerning situation. The ban on 'Xia Lan' is just the tip of the iceberg of Japan's self-deception. It is precisely because these works have been banned by Japan that the national hero image of 'Xia Lan' is highlighted. The Japanese animation industry refuses to accept 'Xia Lan' simply out of fear of its huge impact on domestic Japanese animation. It is also through the actions of Japanese forum users that we can see what Japan is truly afraid of: they fear the rise of Chinese 3D animation and the cultural influence of richly Chinese-based animations symbolized by 'Xia Lan.' Facing the widespread calls for a ban in Japanese forums, Ruosen Digital calmly used the achievements of their work to expose the hypocrisy, arrogance, and self-deception of the Japanese, demonstrating the strong animation production capabilities and high patriotic spirit of Chinese creators in front of the Japanese!\From Sina Anime Channel\ I just want to say that even self-deception should have its limits~
