Week 6 Blog Post for Media in Japan
Anpanman
Flying Through History!
BTS and Anpanman in Collaboration to lead a new media genre of 'Newtroism'
"Is BTS's Anpanman the animation character from my childhood?"
"Yes, he is our hero, the nostalgic Anpanman that had lived through our memories."
When BTS’s song “Anpanman” was first released
in 2018, this was the very first question that came up to my mind. Based on an
interview with one of the BTS members, Jimin at a come backstage
interview in May of 2018, the song is said to had been written based on the
original story of Anpanman. Inside their song, the world’s most ‘weak’ but an
ordinary, pure, and loving hero is on his way to spread hopes and positive
energy to people who are going through difficult times and especially for the
youth.
In my latest blog, I had mentioned about the
unfortunate feelings toward our society’s ever growing individualistic
characteristics. Therefore, within the trend, the youth have been actively seeking
for ‘nostalgia’ in order to experience and bring back the heart-warming aspects
of life from the past. They had been the leading forces for this process to
reinterpret history and recreate them into different media contents.
Anpanman’s Contribution to Korea’s ‘Newtro BOOM’
Simultaneously, modernization and reinterpretation process of the concept ‘newtro’ had been greatly shaping the media culture/trends in Korea. It had originally derived from the Youth’s enthusiasm to rediscover and reform the vintage-tinted aspects of the past stems from the ‘virtue of slowness’ and a maximalist lifestyle. In the heart of ‘Newtrosim’ lies active allowance of old-fashioned aspects and flaws rather than ‘perfectionism’ and simplistic, minimalistic lifestyle.
BTS as a Leading Force for Newtro Culture
“Love yourself, Love others.”
Lyrics analysis: who’s going to be the hero? We can
all become heroes!
The song describes Anpanman as a ‘weak’ hero, and possibly the weakest one in history but the most altruistic icon of all times when it comes to love, affection, and willingness to sacrifice for others and in this sense, the character was able to live together through the lives of different generation. Unlike the typical superheroes such as batmen and superman that appear inside the Marvel movies, Anpanman does not have any supernatural powers but shows kindness towards people going through their difficult times, even offering his head (Anpan) for the others and continues to stay near them and protect them as ‘petit bourgeois’ heroes would do.
Motivated by these characteristics
of Anpanman, BTS express their strong hopes to give out enthusiasm through
their songs and performances to together live through the difficult times. Furthermore,
they are always willing to send positive message of hope that even the
physically weak heroes who do not have outstanding abilities can also be heroes
to spread happiness to others and contribute to the well-being of society. Here,
BTS conveys a core message: admitting that I, myself might not be perfect or strong
sometimes and just by having the internal strength/confidence to speak honestly
about it makes individual self-esteem grow.
Anpanman is listed inside the 2018 released album
titled “Love Yourself” which surely makes us to think about the deep correlation
between ‘loving yourself’ and ‘loving others’. We often think of the concepts
as being separate. However, I would like to think that loving yourself to love
others as well as the other way around, of loving others to love yourself is valid.
It would be a matter of improving ourselves through becoming strong-hearted, and
embracing heroes based on our inner fulfillment and care for ourselves.
References:
http://star.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/OhmyStar/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002440623
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