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Rock Lee uses nunchakus in Naruto Movie 3

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Text Sample 1 - East Asian Cultures (E) - Chinese Martial Arts Elements

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Text Sample 1 - East Asian Cultures (E) - Chinese Martial Arts Elements

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​​Bhattacharyya, D. K. (2010). Cross-cultural Management: Texts and Cases. Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Bowe, H., Martin, K., & Manns, H. (2014). Positioning the Other. In Communication across Cultures: Mutual Understanding in a Global World. 155-61. Cambridge University Press.

CBR (2020). Naruto: 10 differences between the Japanese & US versions. https://www.cbr.com/naruto-japanese-vs-us-version/

Geller. (2017, June 18). Asura - Mythological Hindu Lord Beings. Mythology.net. https://mythology.net/hindu/hindu-creatures/asura/

Holmes, Janet, & Meredith, M. (2005). Narrative and the construction of professional identity in the workplace. The Sociolinguistics of Narrative.

Kishimoto, M. (2002). Naruto [Anime].

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Merminod, G. (2019), Narrative analysis applied to text production. AILA Review 33.

Piller, I. (2017). Chapter 1: Approaching Intercultural Communication. In Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction, 1-12.

Spencer Oatey, H. (2008). Face, (Im)Politeness and Rapport. In Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory, 11-47. Bloomsbury.

Statista Research Department,. (2021, April 15). Japan: male smoking rate by age 2018. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/741056/japan-male-smoking-rate-by-age/

Stelter, G. (2016, October 4). A Beginner’s Guide to the 7 Chakras and Their Meanings. Healthline; Healthline Media. https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness-exercise/7-chakras

Toshiyuki T. (2006). Naruto movie 3: Gekijyouban Naruto daikoufun! Mikazuki shima no animal panic dattebayo!. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ANw3Fqxn8

Zhang, W. (2018). Naruto movie: Boruto. https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1020821620087185408/pu/vid/1280x720/UNEYDpsQFQ6Dft0i.mp4?tag=3

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2D painting by frame in Naruto Movie: Boruto

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Animation is a form of expression and is especially sought after by younger audiences for its exciting stories and colourful designs. At present, mainstream animation is generally divided into 2D and 3D.

2D animation refers to drawing each frame of each scene in the animation. Most animes adopt this method due to stories originating as manga (Japanese comics).

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Text Samples 1 -  East Asian Cultures (A)

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Text Samples 1 -  East Asian Cultures (A)

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The themes of Naruto and all it represents is in a sense an amalgamation of East Asian Cultures with an emphasis on Japanese culture. The world in which it is based in draws a lot of parallels to feudal Japan, where political entities maintain peace through power and often sign treaties as a means of temporary peace.

The references throughout the anime takes elements from both Asian pop and folk culture. An obvious Japanese popular culture reference would be ninjas. In Naruto, ninjas make up the government and military entities since they are perceived as powerful—the more power the better your political position.

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Some words in Japanese culture are difficult to translate because they are formed in the inherent cultural background and language of Japan. This includes the use of formal addresses and honorifics.

Examples of Japanese honorifics in Naruto:

せんぱい（先輩）[senpai] (addressing someone older than you or someone you look up to);

さん [san] (word of respect and friendly added to a person's name)

ちゃん [chann]（used after a person's name, which shows they have a very close relationship).

The words raised and the sentences end with ですor ます(which they called honorific).

In Japanese culture, these linguistic features "are critically important for constructing roles" (Bowe, Martin, and Manns, 2014). They index powerful relational dynamics which are not easily translated into other languages.

Global audiences who experience anime in English dub may miss the important relational nuances established through these linguistic cues in Japanese culture (Bowe, Martin and Manns, 2014).

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Text Samples 3 - International Censorship (A) - Smoking and Cigarettes

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Text Samples 3 - International Censorship (A) - Smoking and Cigarettes

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Smoking is quite common in Japan, especially amongst men; however, it is still associated with trying to be cool or a delinquent. In anime, characters that are perceived that way are frequently seen with a cigarette in their mouth. In Naruto, that character is Asuma Sensei.

In the original Japanese dub, Asuma is always depicted with a cigarette that is evidently lit and smoking. Conversely, in the English dub that aired in America the orangish glow on the end of the cigarette and the smoke were both digitally removed, making the cigarette look more like a toothpick or lollipop.

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Creative media is finding fanbases in a range of countries, animation as a carrier of culture has become widely popular. One example is the proliferation of Japanese animation AKA Anime in countries such as America, Germany and Australia. Naruto is a very famous Japanese animation, which tells the story of the main character Naruto and his friends growing up and taking adventures as ninjas.

However, content conceived and created in the countries of origin does not always account for the cultural values and practices or cinematic regulation codes of international audiences. An exploration of censoring of anime for international audiences can problematise acts of censorship that seek to adhere to cultural expectations and regulations. Of further interest is the effect of editing and dubbing on narrative inquiry and power, as the narrative and characters are altered slightly through these acts.

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From the perspective of Rapport management (Spencer Oatey, 2008), the omission of the honorific mentioned above may have the following consequences:

Face - In Naruto, there are differences in age and strength between the ninjas. The subordinate ninja mostly uses honorific to show politeness when talking to the superior ninja. For the Japanese audience, even they have no previous knowledge of Naruto, they can get a general idea of their identity by observing words used. This is based on cultural norms and expectations that translate into the text. Global audiences who do not have the schematic knowledge of this practice may not understand this rapport management technique and the power dynamic it implies.

Sociality rights and obligations - If all the honorific in Naruto is translated correctly into international versions, the global audience may gain a deeper understanding of Japanese culture. In Japanese society, honorifics have been integrated into Japanese national culture, and no one can break this rule. When talking to Japanese people, even if a foreigner does not use honorifics out of inadvertence, it is still very likely to cause misunderstanding.

Interactional goals - The omission of honorific in Naruto will cause problems to the audience’s understanding of the plot. There’s an interesting example of Sasuke. In the anime, he almost never speaks honourably to his elders. This deliberate rapport-threatening behaviour is designed to show that he is cold, proud and arrogant. However, international audiences who lack an understanding of Japanese honorific practices may miss this vital character-development technique.

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Text Samples 3 - International Censorship (C) - Sexual References

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Text Samples 3 - International Censorship (C) - Sexual References

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A popular character trope that occurs in Anime is the mischievous pervert. In Naruto that characteristic is given to Jiraiya Sensei which is much more evident in the original Japanese dub. However, this can be missed by audiences watching the English dub. In both Japan and overseas the anime is targeted to 7–12-year-olds but due to translation censorships and distribution channels, this characteristic can be lost.

In the English dub that aired in America, this line said by Jiraiya Sensai is changed to "I'm sorry but, you have such a beautiful pair of soft a lovely..er...hands. You really do have beautiful hands. How do you keep them so soft?"

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Text Samples 3 - International Censorship (B) - Violence and Blood

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Text Samples 3 - International Censorship (B) - Violence and Blood

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Anime is extremely well-known for its fluid and aesthetic fight scenes but fighting also increases the likelihood that there will be blood and/or gore. Since Naruto is based in the world of ninjas, there is no shortage of fight scenes. However, since the English dub went through distribution channels targeting 7–12-year-olds some fight scenes were heavily edited.

This fight happens in the early episodes of Naruto where the protagonist and his squad fight a pair of rogue ninjas. This is quite a violent fight that involves a lot of bloodshed which was heavily edited in the English dub for US audiences by digitally reducing or removing the blood.

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The difference between the English dubbed version and the Japanese dubbed version

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In this scene in the English dub, Lee's says, "No, stay back, this one is mine." However in the original Japanese dub he says: "いいえ、僕です。僕がやります。" [Iie, boku-desu. Boku ga yari-masu.]

He uses です [desu] and ます [masu] to form honorifics as a sign of his respect and manners.

Without the description of honorifics in the English dub, Lee's polite character can not be reflected.

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Culture
Cultural Reductionism: The problematisation of reducing culture to a stereotype based on limited information
Culture as a Process: A focus on the 'process view' of culture which treats culture as a verb (Piller, 2017)

Three Factors of Rapport management (Spencer-Oatey 2010)
• Face: sense of worth, dignity and identity; related to individual, group, relational identities

• Sociality rights and obligations: roles and social positions, conventions, styles and protocols, contractual/legal requirements

• Interactional goals: relational & transactional goals

What is a narrative?
Common features:
• temporal, chronological sequencing
• transition from one state of affairs to another
• Non-random events (causation)
• Approaches to narrative inquiry (Merminod, 2019)
i. Narrative configurations - what is told (the who, what, where and when of the story, the sequence of events (structure), the linguistic forms, the particular perspectives
conveyed in the story)
ii. Narrative situations - what happens when a story is told? (who tells what to whom, where, when, how, why and what for? Narrative as performance
iii. Narrative ideologies - how ‘cultural conceptions’ shape the stories told (what is tellable by and to whom, where, when, why, and what for) (Holmes, 2003)

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As mentioned in Text sample 3 both A, B and C, in Episode 70, 18 and 56, there are some censorship differences in Japan and US in smoking, violence and blood, and sexual references.

Narrative situations - In the original anime, this also usually represents a kind of metaphor. The close-up of this shot may be just to show the setting of the character, so that the character image is more vivid. When it was introduced to the US, it did not intend to emphasize this point, so it adopted a process of obscuring this detail.

Narrative ideologies - Japanese animation often encounters various changes after being distributed to all over the world. Since the main target of Japanese animation is not only for children, when it is introduced to various countries, it will be changed to cater for the relatively young local audience. In order to ensure the physical and mental health of American children, all the violent and bloody scenes are gone. It is precisely because of the different audiences that led to the gap between the cultures of the two countries when anime was broadcast.

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Text Sample 1 - East Asian Cultures (B) - Japanese Folklore

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Text Sample 1 - East Asian Cultures (B) - Japanese Folklore

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Naruto has MANY power systems but the most popular one is the Sharingan, which is predominantly used by the Uchiha Clan due to genetics. Each Sharingan user has a unique pattern and ability. The name of the abilities given to Sharingan users is taken from Japanese deities from Shinto but also Buddhism or Taoism.

Names of Sharingan abilities taken from Japanese folklore: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Susanoo, Izanagi and Izanami.

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1. Do you think such censorship is still necessary, considering they target similar audiences around the world? Why or Why not?

2. Do you think altering content can take away from the cultural significance some animes can have?

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For those unfamiliar with the range of East Asian cultures, the blending of these cross-cultural elements may create a misinformed understanding of ‘large’ Japanese culture. It may also reduce Buddhist and Hindu cultural components to subsets of Japanese culture, rather than belonging to their own narratives.

It is worth considering the impact of these international cultural misunderstandings on perceptions of Japanese society. The international popularity of Naruto has led to the addition of "Ninja experiences" to the Japanese tourism industry. While it could be argued that these texts have furthered international appreciation of Japanese culture, the global understanding of Japanese culture may become reductionist, leading to stereotyping.

Animes such as Naruto also contribute to the emergence of a global cultural subset centred around anime fandom. This community is founded on texts that, while rooted in East Asian culture (and Japanese culture more specifically) now cross geographic boundaries.

Actors at various levels including anime writers, producers, and fans (both within Japan and internationally) are contributing to this continually-evolving anime culture. This demonstrates that culture is not static, but something that "people do, which they perform and... compete over" (Piller, 2017).

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Text Sample 1 - East Asian Cultures (C) - Hinduism and Indian Symbolism

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Text Sample 1 - East Asian Cultures (C) - Hinduism and Indian Symbolism

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The whole power system in Naruto is based around chakra, the more chakra a user has the more power and endurance they have. The concept of charka originated in India amongst yogis and other spiritual practitioners that referred to it as an energy force that runs through certain focal points within the body. The use of chakra in Naruto is much like its original concept.

Another integral part of the Naruto storyline is the reincarnation of Asura and Indra to Hishirama and Madara then Naruto and Sasuke. The names Asura and Indra originate from Hindu scripture where they are referred to as gods that had respective domains and abilities. Additionally, the concept of reincarnation is a fundamental belief of Hinduism.

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Hashirama Senju's Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands

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Text Samples 1 -  East Asian Cultures (D) - Buddhism

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Text Samples 1 -  East Asian Cultures (D) - Buddhism

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Throughout Naruto there are references to Buddhist symbology, an apparent one would be Hashirama’s Sage Art Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands, which is also referred to as Sage Art: Wood Style: Shin Sūsenju.

Senju is a reference to Avalokiteśvara/Senju Kannon, a bodhisattva–a person who has made a resolution to become a Buddha. Senju vowed to free all beings from Saṃsāra to end suffering and was blessed by Buddha with eleven heads and one thousand arms to aid him.