The Rise and Fall of Anime in the Middle East -Part 3

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How Arabs view masculinity.
The fall of Anime in the Middle East.
Post Modern Generation of Anime

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How Arabs view masculinity

The word “masculinity” has a huge and varied meaning depending on where you live, who you are, and the time period. Albert Resser says there are many ways to describe masculinity, including being muscular, strong, brave, and being in control when it comes to your mind. It is the opposite of femininity, which can be described as weak, soft, and emotional. When we see a crying man, we immediately come to think about his masculinity or lack of masculinity. When we see men who tend to be weak or not masculine, we would call them effeminate. We might be aware of masculinity when we see a very muscular body builder or a man who is eager to fight. We notice these types of excessive masculinity and see them as natural. We see the body builder who is taking the male body to an extreme level and the effeminate man who is naturally un-masculine.[1]

Albert Resser says that students during the European renaissance were shocked when they read about heterosexual men writing about their love for other men. They were even more shocked when they learned that the writings did not make the male homosexual in their social context, because the expression of male to male intimacy was more reaffirming to their masculinity. The nineteenth century was an important time for masculinity. A body which was deemed a work of art at that time appears to many in the twenty-first century as an incarnation of the made-up anti-masculine man. Some French men appear to be effeminate by other cultures standards, but this is not the main case. American students who travel to India are often surprised to see men walking together arm in arm, but this is normal in India even if it is not normal in western cultures.[2]

By looking at this and understanding the concept of masculinity, we see that masculinity was not created by one person or a group of people, but that masculinity is an ideology. This may seem to be associated with class status and politics, but it is looked upon mainly as an ideology. So when we see masculinity as an idea, then we perceive it as power. There are many viewpoints of seeing someone as masculine including seeing someone in the military, playing sports, or at the gym, but, is masculinity only about muscles and a strong personality? There are homosexuals who are masculine and have a strong personality, yet, they are in a man and man relationship. The main idea of becoming more masculine means to be less feminine, but is masculinity focused only on muscles and on who penetrates the other? We can possibly look at masculinity from the sexual point of view of a male having a penis and a female a vagina to differentiate between male and female. A male can be seen and understood by body, penis, body hair, muscles, and testosterone. So sex is realized by nature and there is a direct connection between the male body and masculinity.

Albert Reeser says that a man might see himself as homosexual and not strictly heterosexual since heterosexual and homosexual is just an unstable binary opposition and the line separating homosexuality and heterosexuality is absorbent. This is not to say that all men are bisexual but the category is more undefined in regards to the approach to sexuality, yet, in regards to male and male sexual relationships, there may be a fear of homosexuality in calling individuals faggots and bashing gays.[3]

Albert Resser points out that the aspect of sexual penetration is an aspect of masculinity, that of the giver and receiver it is a definitional aspect of the male body. The word manhood can be referred to as a penis with a certain symbolism of the penis being part of the male body thus its crossover with masculinity. This is of specific meaning to men as well as women because they believe that it symbolizes what a man is.[4]

Arabs see masculinity in a more conservative and traditional way. Others tend to blend masculinity with the religious context of what the Quran tells them based on the time when Islam reached the Middle East during the era of the Prophet Mohammad. During the age of Islam there were rules and a system based on the ways of life, politics, families, men, women, animals, laws, prayer, sex, etc. Islam also merged with Arab ideology and cultural values, especially regarding how men and women should be. In Islam it is prohibited for a man to mimic a woman as well as for a woman to mimic a man. Homosexuality and Lesbianism was especially forbidden and cursed in the Quran and Hadith.

The Quran states: “Would you really approach the men of yours rather than women? No, you are a (grossly) ignorant people!” (The Quran, 27:55).[5] Lut said to his people: “And (remember) you committed lewdness, like no people in creation (ever) committed before you. Do you approach men, and cut them off on the highway? Do you practice wickedness (even) in your councils?” The only answer his people gave was by saying, “Bring upon the wrath of God if you speak the truth.” (The Quran, 29:28-29).[6] “If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, take the evidence of four (reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them, and if they testify, confine them to houses until death claims them, or God ordains them in some (other) way” (The Quran, 4:15).[7] “If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, leave them alone, for God is oft-returning most merciful” (The Quran, 4:16).[8]

The base of the Quran and the Hadith, which formed the Islamic system, Middle Eastern countries, and countries that follow the Islamic religion, be it moderate, conservative, or liberal, still did not sign an Assembly Declaration of LGBT rights.

Ahmad Abutaleb, age 21, from Kuwait says, “Masculinity is looked at based upon the type of person the male is rather than what he looks like, but of course his looks are a very important aspect of masculinity, for example, Guyver heavily influenced me through his body structure. He is not muscular but when he gained powers and used it, it showed if he had masculinity or not. In regards to religion and culture, Arab society is influenced by religion and cultural views on how a man should be or act, so if there is anything that goes against this that is found in anime, not everyone could accept that. Even if there was something in regards to femininity. In religion, there are differences on what a man is and what a woman is, and they are not supposed to imitate each other, even before Islam, Arabs had the idea, based on their culture, of what a man was and what a man should be. Finally, what I look for in an anime character is his trait of masculinity and that he must do everything and all in his strength to protect the people he loves.”[9]

Salah Suroor Salem, age 25, from Kuwait, explains, “Masculinity’s meaning in itself means that a man must be a man, he must keep his word, and defend his honor and family, and this is important in addition to what he looks like. I don’t see a problem if a woman has a hint of masculinity, if she also keeps her word. I wouldn’t say that women are maids. In regards to religion, I won’t let my religion forbid me from learning something new, because my religion tells me to pursue knowledge and to use my brain. The anime of this generation has no masculinity and if they do have masculinity it’s like, “You want a man, well then here is a man.” There is no thinking or dedication or story line. Anime now has become awful and degraded. The problems you see in anime now are mostly childish problems, and not real problems, and the scenes and problems you see today are like casual things that I am dealing with today or any day in my life. I don’t want to see the problems in my life in anime. I want to watch anime that moves me and motivates me. I want new things. I want something with a strong story for action and adventure. Anime today has no philosophy or storyline, and when they start the anime they don’t know how to end it. It has become child’s play. In regards to an anime character that has masculinity, of course it would be beneficial to the anime to have a hero who is masculine, but why should masculinity be on the male side only, and not on the female side? People should understand and discover the answer to this question. My opinion about people who complain about the female side of masculinity is to stop whining. For example, in an anime called “Lain”, the main character knows what she wants to do. She’s making a computer and she wants to go into the system. In other words, she is not whining and there is no whining in the storyline. Be it a man or a woman, and even if a male looks female, right now the plots are very childish. Evangelion is another example of another anime that had the potential to become successful, but the main character Shinji was extremely annoying, weak, and childish by the time the anime ended. The message it gave me made me sick and I hated Evangelion even though it’s one of the best robot anime’s ever made. It just threw me off a cliff because there was not a direct conclusion to the story.[10]

Aziz Al- Suhely explains, “Masculinity is a person who is able to do something he promised to do, or complete a requirement. For example, he must finish the requirement or mission will all his willpower, even if he was suffering, in the end he would not give up. The traits’ of a masculine person is of someone who leads and leads others because others depend on the leader. The man also must keep his word and not break his promise. Even if he makes a mistake, he must fix it and try to continue to the end. If he was able to complete his task, then he is a man of his word, and if he died while doing it, he still kept this promise. The main point is to complete something and not give up. Religion does play a part in masculinity, but its main focus is based on the personality of the person and why that makes him a man. This is the reason for the viewpoint of the male and female. The female loves being a female and the male loves being a male because he is male. This is a normal and logical thing because in Arab society, the person views himself as the main person in control, and he holds these rules as his own. Therefore, if he is a man, he must be strong, solid, and not weak and soft and wear clothes that have many colors like in a rainbow. Look at old movies and the view is that the man is strong and that the strong person survives, and the weak person doesn’t. A man in the Middle East sees himself as having goals and determination, so when Arabs watch anime, they see the anime characters that depict them. If the anime does not have masculinity, then Arabs in general would not watch the anime. As for anime characters that have masculinity, their appearance has no connection with masculinity. Masculinity is just based on events that the character has taken place in and that will form his masculinity. Furthermore, the character cannot be masculine if they are a rapist, liar, or if that person is not a good person. If the director wants to later change his story and personality, he can’t because he cannot change his appearance. In the Middle East we consider the first impression very important. So in anime, it’s not good to initially ruin the image of a character because if you do, and then you try to change it, people will still remember the part of what happened to this character.”[11]

Abdullah Khodor Attar explains his point of view when it comes to masculinity: “In regards to appearance and masculine features, it’s extremely hard to find, but it does appear in rare cases. Masculinity comes in many forms. It can be appearance, an event, or maybe even a character you thought was weak in the beginning but a certain event happened that now makes you say he is a man. True masculinity is only found in the old generation. Now in the new generation, the focus is more towards events than appearance.” I replied to Abdullah, “In the beginning, when people saw “Berserk”, and its main character “Guts”, they all loved the anime in the Middle East. But an event happened that shocked people and that was when Guts was raped at the age of 12. Later, after he discovered who the person was that raped him, he killed the rapist and through time Berserk became stronger after fighting many enemies and even sacrificed his own eye and arm to save Casca, who is Gut’s lover. So in the end he was a man and regained his masculinity.” Abdullah said, “Listen, what’s gone cannot be returned, this is something we know, but through the events, what Guts did was masculine, I agree with you, but is he really masculine? This is hard to debate.” I replied, “In regards to that he was raped?” Abdullah replied, “Listen, raped or not, if he was able to kill him the next day then he could have tried to stop him from the beginning. For example, if he waited until he grew up to kill him, then we could feel sorry for him. But I do appreciate that Guts cut off his arm and sacrificed his body to save someone that he loves, but in the end, he gained masculinity but did not retrieve his old masculinity.”[12]

 

A person by the name of Whittaker Wignar Harpel explains in his thesis project “Conceptions of masculinity among Arab Americans” that even Arab Americans who live in the United States of America keep their Arab masculinity and tradition. Some of the main points are that Arab-American masculinity is international and a mix of both Arab and American qualities and other important Arab elements of public and private spheres and shame and honor continue to this day. However, the way Arab-American masculinity is considered and practiced is a changing dynamic among women. One of the results of this is that honor and shame as well as private and public are being reconstituted in the transnational setting. So, Arab-American men are responding to the changing of women by regurgitating traditional boundaries and expectations, and modifying it to fit within the transnational setting. Harpel explains that the Arab-American man is imagined as a person who makes decisions, takes care of himself, is married and has children he supports and provides for. This is not that different from the perception of Euro-American masculinity. [13]

Arab-Americans see themselves as a leader, provider, and a family man. These are the same ideas of Arab manhood, however, they lead not through force but through reason, and they provide more than just money and food, but also ideas, activities, and ways to live, echoing parts of Euro-American masculinity. However, the major way in which Arab-American masculinity deviates from Arab masculinity is in the differences and disagreements on how they conceive and approach women. Women generally have more say in the home, in the public domain, and have a broader range of opportunities in the US compared to those in the Middle East. In principle, Arab-American men possess the idea of both Arab and American masculinity. In other words, Arab-American masculinity is hybridized. This hybridization is important because Arab-American masculinity is not always either Arab or American, often times it’s both. For example, while Arab-American masculinity is concerned with the shame and honor dichotomy that has dominated discussions of gender within the Arab world, it mediates this shame and honor through the “lens of choice” rather than simply through authority. This “lens of choice” is present in how men teach their children to be active and to make their own choices and not to do shameful acts. It is also present in how men are encouraged to choose a wife from their homeland who will respect tradition. In essence, honor and shame in the Arab-American culture is about avoiding shame through choices rather than by mere authority, and preserving honor through the use of reasoning and logic. However, although Arab-American men have a hybridized masculinity and are more open to Euro-American perspectives, at their core lies the traditional patriarchal views of the Middle East, which are reconstituted by men to maintain traditional aspects of masculinity.[14]

Edward Said explains in his work on orientalism about the power and influence of European prejudices and assumptions regarding the Arab world. He emphasized that European ideas about the Middle East relied on false and romanticized views of the Middle East, which showed a prejudiced, narrow, and limited view of the Arab world. His views opened many studies which changed western ideas of the Middle East, South Asia, and Colonial eras. The orientalists’ view is of the hyper sexual Arab, importance of harem, and the backwards ideology of women, a view which continues to dominate the concept of the Arab world, especially after 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The feminist theory is that Arab-American masculinity is both patriarchal and intellectual with women. This is in response to the changes in women’s roles, behaviors, and practices, which are influenced by the external pressures and conceptions about male behavior. Much of the idea and practice of masculinity is censored on controlling, directing, and organizing women, but at the same time, masculinity is reacting to the changing ideas of femininity and of women’s roles by reconstituting and reestablishing the ideas of honor and shame to fit within this new transnational setting. The reason for this is that women’s roles are changing more radically than masculinity in the multinational area, and in the case of Arab-Americans this means that honor and shame are being rebuilt in response. So my main argument is that the changing roles of women and women’s attitudes mean that Arab-American masculinity responds by appealing and returning to tradition in order to tolerate patriarchy and men’s status and leadership.”[15]

The fall of Anime in the Middle East

 

The rise in sales of VHS tapes ended after the rise of high speed internet which was available to citizens, as well as the creation of anime servers, namely Napster, Kazaa, and Torrents.

This has brought the impact of not only being able to download anime for free, but being able to watch it in privacy using a computer and not a television, saving the files and sharing it with your friends, and getting the latest anime that had been translated by anime fans and watching it the same day it was aired in Japan. The creation of the internet has allowed people to finally be able to watch and read uncensored cartoons including manga for the first time ever being translated from Japanese to English, and watch unlimited hentai (adult anime) cartoons.

This has brought a strong Japanese cultural impact to the Middle East. Due to Japanese technology, movies, anime, and games, people in the Middle East have become very fond of it, much so that they pursued to study the language and cosplay in order to be like their favorite anime character.

As time moved on, anime changed regarding story line, main character masculinity, as well as there being a heavy increase of Fan Service (sexual adult content) from about the year 2000 or 2005 and onwards. Anime has been divided into two generations of OTAKU. The first generation is known as the older generation, and the second generation, which is the new generation of people who are mostly interested in loli girls, female heroes, weak heroes, and sexual fan service story plots. Due to this fact there has been a heavy decline of anime being watched in the Middle East, since the Arabs believe that a man’s role is to be strong, masculine, and dominant, and not weak and pushed around by a female or protected by a female. It’s the saying that in S&M the male is the sadist and the female is the masochist from an Arab’s viewpoint. Now anime has been turned around in the new generation, and the male has become weak and the female has become strong, thus the gender role has switched.

Hayao Miyazaki, one of the most famous and influential anime directors of all time, has talked about how anime has changed and is currently suffering. He did not elaborate on the current state of sexuality, but instead talked in regards to how anime has changed and is not focused on story but how anime corporations have mainly focused on otaku culture.

He talked to his fans about how he feels about the anime industry in a television interview. The retiree explained that anime is suffering because the industry is only focused towards otaku who don’t spend time watching real people and are people who can’t stand looking at other humans. He explains that animating people can only be achieved by spending time observing others, something he feels that the industry has ignored because it’s full of otaku.[16]

Patrick W. Galbraith expands on the idea that the word “otaku” means nerd, geek, fan boy, cult fan, or someone who is hardcore. Otaku is a word that means “your home” in Japanese, allowing the speaker to refer to the listener indirectly. It is used like the word “geek” was used in 1980s America, a word associated with people who deeply love manga, anime, videogames, and high technology. Though the word otaku is complex in meaning, it is like the young nerds who mostly stayed at home a lot, and were unable to communicate with other people or have social interaction. People called one another, “otaku” the same way their mothers (housewives) did with each other. Otaku has a different meaning than the one that mothers (housewives) used with each other.  The creators of the anime studio, Gainax, from the Tottori Prefecture, were the first hardcore anime company to use the term otaku as meaning “you”. Fans who stumbled upon the Gainax members might have used the dialect as slang. The word otaku was also used by the characters in Studio Nue’s seminal anime, Macross in 1982, and the language was quickly scattered among fans. Sadly a negative image of otaku appeared due to the Tsutomu Miyazaki incident (He was executed for his crime) in 1989 when he killed four little girls and was found to have a massive collection of VHS tapes, including anime. The media called him the otaku murderer. Yet, otaku also entered the English word, and it gained momentum at an anime convention in the early 1990s, and spread by the AnimeEigos translation of Otaku no Video in 1993.[17]

In the Middle East, the term otaku was considered to be as cool as an anime love, but Arabs who loved anime knew how otaku culture had changed the anime industry which had become less focused on story and masculinity, and more focused on femininity, de-masculinity, fan service and the data base, where anime had become repetitive and had no originality.

Abdullah Al- Kandari, age 23, from Kuwait explained, “I believe that anime after the year 2000 in regards to masculinity has degraded and has become feminine. The action changed, the story changed. Before 2005, there could be a man who wanted to save the world, and did what he could to succeed. Basically, the main hero was the man, and the female in the end was the prize. However, now we see ignorant, stupid, naïve, hard-headed men and most of the time boys or high school boys. They encountered a lot of problems they couldn’t solve, either with an enemy or a situation, and the girl takes care of the situation. Now it’s not about muscles anymore, it’s about events, personality, and fan service. For example, if a female anime character fights monsters during a battle scene, and an anime monster rips off her clothes showing her naked body, the main character looks to be enjoying it (having a nose bleed). An anime has good potential as well as a story line, but these extra scenes of fan service have actually killed the anime genre. For example, anime today is not Grendizer, Fist of the North Star, Mazinger Z, and Grappler. Now anime has been filled with weak high school boys, and weak incompetent men. For example, with the mixing of the anime “History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi” and harem stories. Anime of the old generation had men who were huge, muscular, and darker. The women were small and tiny in some anime, but now they are about the same size. The new generation of anime has had some rare success such as, “Attack on Titan” which was very loved in the Middle East, because even though the character did not have masculinity in physical appearance, his mental state showed of not giving up and depending on a female or supporters as he worked his way to the top. For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a female hero or a male hero, in the end all that matters is the story. I like a lot of anime with female heroes, such as “Air Master” which is one of the top manga’s, but as a guy I prefer a male hero, since I started in the beginning watching old generation anime which had masculinity. Now in regards to Sadist and Masochist, being if the male is stronger than the female or the female is stronger than the male, if the male character does not have any character development to pass onto the female character and the female character keeps beating the male character, I would not continue to watch the anime. As a matter of fact, if it takes a long time for the male character to develop, for example, more than 20-30 episodes, I don’t think I could handle it.[18]

Abdulrahman Bin Nasser, age 21, from Kuwait, said, “I believe that after the year 2000, main anime characters became more feminine, and they didn’t know how to act or take responsibility for their own actions. Most of the time in today’s anime, the main character would find someone who is older than him and ask if they could help him fix the problem of the situation he is in. The main character can’t make a decision on how to fix the problem in a masculine way. But now, that is popular. Most anime genres take place in high schools. The main character doesn’t know in God’s name what to do or why God put him there. There were some anime in 2000, such as Scryed, where the main character did have strong muscles, his personality was manly, masculine, and he took his problems into his own hands. I believe there is now more anime de-masculinity, and there has been a rise of main characters who are high school boys. I prefer a male hero over a female hero in regards to masculinity because the figure of a man is based on masculinity. In regards to the idea of the Sadist and the Masochist where the male is stronger than the female or vice versa, it would annoy me to see a female character become much stronger than a male main character, especially if his character takes a long time to develop. I prefer to watch an anime where the female character and the male character are on the same level, but the main character in the end must be stronger than the female.”[19]

Mehdi Al- Muswai, age 26, from Kuwait, said, “After 2005 a rise of degraded male main characters appeared. For example, you usually see one of these five types of heroes: He doesn’t care, he has a strong ability yet he doesn’t care and he is lazy, he is focused on his work and he doesn’t have an ability, he is loved by a million girls and he doesn’t care about anyone, or he has everything but he hates the world because of an incident that happened to him. The main heroes now have to have cool, long hair, a feminine face, and sharp eyes. There always has to be a female companion who dies after she fell in love with him, fell in love with someone else, and then hates him. To be honest I just watch anime now for the story. Now, anime is being replaced by MOE (an anime character that elicits feelings of affection), hentai, and harem (an anime where the male character is surrounded by females). Now, you are seeing an increase of female hero characters who drive big tanks, and hold big weapons. They are increasing in popularity in this new trend of anime.

I prefer a male hero rather than a female hero. One of the best examples of a male character in an anime showing us masculinity is from an anime I deeply love called “The School of Men”. If it’s a male hero, he would rarely go naked in order to please the fans. By using fan service or sexual content, it would ruin the storyline. As for Sadist or Masochist ideology, on who is stronger, the male or the female, I would not watch an anime where the female is stronger than the male, but if the male character has potential and has an original ability and if he would later become a masculine character and rise higher than the female, then I would watch it. If the male character is abused by the female character, I would not watch it.”[20]

Fahad S. Oraifan explains, “Yes, I believe anime has changed due to the pathetic reasons of wanting to please a certain group of people, these people being the otaku’s. Otaku people are the type who are sick, demented, and who have a complex mental issue with society. They tend to close themselves away from society and they fear it. Anime companies only try to please them because they know they will buy their products. Now anime as we know it is being poisoned and destroyed. The anime industry will slowly be destroyed if companies only focus on otaku who are only interested in moe anime and if they only focus on a specific market rather than a global market. They need to focus on the storyline based on the masculinity of the main character. As for the character being weaker or stronger than the female, my view is there is a difference when a female is stronger than the male, and there is a difference when a female is the guide to the male. For example in Evangelion, the commander woman was guiding the main character, but if the man is weak and a masochist, I would never buy that anime or even bother to watch it. Even if one of my friend’s would let me borrow the movie, and told me to watch the anime, I would first ask him about the anime. If he tells me that the hero is weak, I would immediately delete the anime as soon as he leaves from my home. If the man is stronger than the woman and defends her with justice and doesn’t abuse her, then I would support the anime and watch it.”[21]

Aziz Al- Suhely explains, “Sadly, the anime industry today is only focused on getting easy money and that is by simply listening to otaku’s. They won’t focus on masculinity. They only focus on what otaku’s want since most of their customers are otaku’s. Even if we look at today’s society, there aren’t many masculine people. Men are not like in the past when they thought about masculinity and when they had to protect their rights and honor. Due to globalization and the equalization of men and women, there isn’t much of a distinction between men and women. For the majority of people in the Middle East, the man is only seen as a man because he was born a man. There is no unique quality that says this person is a man. He is simply seen as a man because he was born with hair on his body and has a beard, and that’s it. If the female character is stronger than the male character, then there must be a specific reason for this. If there isn’t a reason, and the main character is simply a pussy, then this isn’t good. But if the male character is stronger, but she is stronger than him because she is an angel or has magical powers, I would accept that, but if he is a pussy, this is something I would never accept in any animation. The man must be responsible for becoming strong and fixing his own problems and not asking for help from another person or simply running away from his problem. They must have at least equal strength and he must succeed her. What’s also important is that he must not become weak minded and only follow what the female tells him to do, and after she does the first step he simply continues to finish the second step. That is something I would find unacceptable. Overall, the man must become stronger because that is normal, and whoever thinks that it’s not normal has a problem.” [22]

Post Modern Generation

Hiroki Azuma explains that during the society age in Japan, Japan went through three phases: Modern society, Post Modern 1, and Post Modern 2. He explains the shifting ideology of the old generation in Post Modern 1 to the new generation ideology in Post Modern 2.

Azuma explains that the ideology of modern society was based on the 19th century grand narrative period, that everyone followed an ideal view, source of values, having a father as a symbol of manhood. After World War II, Japan followed a changing period of modern society to post modern society where from 1945 to 1970 they followed modern society ideology due to the economic growth that Japan had. From 1970 to 1995 Japanese people became loose, and less tense due to reaching a peak of economic growth, where in the first postmodern that grand narrative has become fiction.[23] Yet, still in this period that was the ideal human image of masculinity that you could see in anime and manga. The stories also became more important, therefore during this time there was the appearance of many famous anime such as Grendaizer, Fist of the North Star, Devil man, etc. These were some of the anime that brought a whole new dimension of enlightenment and acceptance to the Middle East market due not only to the masculinity, but to the story as well.

Azuma explains that after 1995, Japan entered the second postmodern stage, where during this time there was no ideal anime and that anime companies just made what they thought would sell well. In the second postmodern period, the ideas from the past, during the modern society, had disappeared and a new trend of ideas appeared which only catered to what sold well and had no strong value. In this new period there were many parallel worlds and the freedom to choose. For example, there were mini stories which would combine to form the main story, but there was no background or explanation to the stories. During this time period there was the creation of moe characters, and these moe characters had fetish elements.[24]

An interesting fact that Azuma mentions is that society is always in a shifting of time periods and that it is inevitable and cannot be stopped. But I believe that you can stop the change of something you are displeased with and you do not have to allow or permit it to be part of your well-being because culture should be of more value than the flow of globalization. For example, after World War II, Japan had a dynamic change in accepting western values, technologies, and capitalism. Masculinity (Ideal Figure of The Modern Age) had also changed in Japan. Compared to the Middle East, they accepted globalization from America and also accepted capitalistic western values, but they still preserved traditional cultural values. Some countries in the Middle East may be conservative, while others may be moderate, with some countries pushing the flow of liberalism, but they still tend to hold onto their cultural values and religion. The Middle East is not fully ready to yet accept a dynamic change until the new generation of Arabs, who were educated under the American system, chooses this, but the old generation of Arabs who are holding governmental positions of power have the control in deciding whether or not to accept liberalism.

Azuma explains that after the new generation of otaku appeared after 1995, there was a new invention of games. This was called “Girl Game”, in which the main characters can choose from many types of parallel choices. It was a creation where postmodern reality and games became connected, where situations were similar. After 1995, there became many postmodern values in which you could choose, but you could only choose one, and the idea of grand narrative had disappeared.[25]

Conclusion

Anime was created after the fall of Japan after World War II. This was the start of a new era in which Japan focused on development of its own country and formed a Democratic system of its own by following the lead of the west to globalization. The globalization of Japan led to many Japanese products exported throughout the world, especially in regards to anime. Though anime made its breakthrough during the old generation, it had changed due to technology and because of its fans and anime companies. This was called the new generation. The internet opened new doors for the anime industry. People could now download anime onto their own computers. As technology grew, video stores in the region had to shut down since they could not compete with the internet. Anime during the old generation was focused more towards masculinity and story, this was the reason anime became as famous as we know it today, but as time changes, the anime industry is slowly closing its borders in regards to globalization and is focusing more towards satisfying the otaku preference for anime. Throwing away the concept of masculinity and changing it into femininity, and focusing on moe, fan service, and un-original ideas to create stories and not giving great manga artists a chance to showcase their talents in the anime industry.

During the 1980s and 1990s, anime had reached a dramatic peak in regards to its story, art, and especially in regards to having a strong, confident hero with a masculine body in some anime. This enticed many anime viewers to want to watch more anime. The main focus of masculinity in masculine anime was mainly action and adventure, rather than comedy, love comedy, or romance. Examples of such anime included Grendaier, Igano Kabamaru, Combattler V, and Dragon Ball Z. These were some of the anime that people watched during its golden age. From the 1990s, as anime increased in market popularity, more anime were created which had dynamic stories. These included JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Slam Dunk, Fist of the North StarM, and Guyver. The word “manga” is known in most areas of Kuwait due to its widespread popularity by anime fans. Arabs saw them as being masculine, strong, brave, and sadist, with the female as the masochist. Arabs view on the sadist is that they must be a strong-minded person who is not weak or controlled by emotion. There is a certain concept of a king surrounded by harem women. For example, lavish women tend to obey his orders and every command due to the superior power of his masculinity and his lust for sexuality, and in order to not lose this power or his harem control, he must not throw away his masculinity, honor, or give into his emotion of becoming weak. As Evangelion appeared in Japan and became a hit, it grabbed a new wave of otaku that viewed themselves as the main character of Evangelion, one who is weak-minded and whines, and where his masculinity goes from masochist to sadist. People might call them masculine in Japan, but in the Middle East, the main character is weak-minded and childish.

After Evangelion appeared, a new trend of anime took place from 2005. There were a wide range of weak heroes, moe, fan service, as well as a lack of focus on the story and instead, they got their ideas from their internet fan base. The anime market only focused on appealing to otaku fans and shrank their market to only focus on them, solely for profit, rather than on the global market. Otaku were the main group who would buy their products. This was the fall of masculinity in anime as well as the fall of stories, which were the reason that anime was famous in the first place. Masculinity in anime has declined and changed in the way we see the main character. Azuma explains that the ideology of modern society was in the 19th century, during the grand narrative period. Everyone followed an ideal view, source of value, and had a father as a symbol of manhood, but after World War II, Japan went to a changing period of modern society to post modern society, where from 1945 to 1970 they adapted the modern society ideology, due to the economic growth in Japan. But from 1970-1995, Japanese people became loose, due to reaching a peak of economic growth, whereas in the first postmodern that narrative had become fiction. Yet, still in this period there was the ideal human image of masculinity that you could see in anime and manga. In 1995 Japan entered the second postmodern stage where during this time there was no ideal anime and anime companies just made what they thought would sell well.

The anime industry should return to its roots and not only focus on otaku culture and ignoring the anime fans who have been watching anime since the 1980s. Japan has impacted the Middle East through its culture of anime, manga, and games, and through this, Arabs have displayed their love of these works by cosplay and holding game tournaments, and especially in following the footsteps of Japan by creating anime in the United Arab Emirates. Even the new age generation who has been influenced by the west and east and have studied in private schools, have changed their mentality to become less conservative and have followed the idea of wanting a Democracy and also tending to study the idea of sexuality on not just for keeping the masculine ideology, but in becoming less strict in regards to censored anime and learning to watch un-censored anime.

The existing literature on masculinity has especially been enriched by infusing a uniquely Arab perception of masculinity inspired through the literature and religious text of the Quran. This unique body of knowledge has had a direct impact on how the audience perceives masculinity, which in turn correlates with their experience on what constitutes masculinity in anime.

[1]Todd Reeser. Masculinities in Theory: An Introduction (Malden USA: Wiley-Blackwell), 2010. 1

[2] Idib., 2

[3] Idib., 51

[4] Idib., 74

[5] Quran, Riyadh, Saheeh International, 2010, 27:55

[6] Quran, Riyadh, Saheeh International, 2010, 29:28-29

[7] Quran, Riyadh, Saheeh International, 2010, 4:15

[8] Quran, Riyadh, Saheeh International, 2010, 4:16

[9] Ahmad Abutaleb, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, AUK, February 18, 2014

[10] Salah Suroor Salem, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, Fahads Home, February 21, 2014

[11] Aziz Al- Suhely, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, Fahads Home, February 21, 2014

[12] Abdullah Khodor Attar, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, Fahads Home, February 21, 2014

[13] Whittaker Wigner Harpel, “Conceptions of Masculinity Among Arab Americans,” August 2010, 1-2

[14] Idib, 2-3

[15] Idib., 4-5

[16] Lynzee Lamb, “Miyazaki: The Problem With The Anime Industry Is It's Full of Otaku”, Anime News Network, accessed June 6, 2014, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-01-30/miyazaki/the-problem-with-the-anime-industry-is-it-full-of-otaku

[17] Patrick Galbraith, The Otaku Encyclopedia: An insider`s guide to the subculture of cool Japan (New York, Kodansha USA, 2009), 171-172

[18] Abdullah Al- Kandari, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, AUK, February 24, 2014

[19] Abdularhamn Bin Nasser, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, AUK, March 2, 2014

[20] Mahdiy Al- Musawi, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, in Abdularhamn Bin Nasser car, March 10, 2014

[21] Fahad S. Oraifan, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, Fahads Home, February 21, 2014

[22] Aziz Al- Suhely, interview by Ahmed Al- Baroody, Fahads Home, February 21, 2014

[23] Hiroki Azuma, Japan Database Animals, Tokyo Bunkyo-ku, Kodansha, November 2001, 107-108

[24] Hiroki Azuma, Japan Database Animals, Tokyo Bunkyo-ku, Kodansha, November 2001, 131-140

[25] Azuma Hiroki, Game realism, Tokyo Bunkyo-ku, Kodansha, March 20, 2007, 282