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The Rise of Cool Japan: The Representation of Japanese and American Athletes in Kuroko no Basuke: Extra Game

2023; Routledge; Volume: 40; Issue: 2-3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2023.2177276

1743-9035

Yann Descamps,

Sports, Gender, and Society

AbstractCalling on several disciplines from cultural history to media studies and gender studies, this paper analyses the representation of race, gender and culture in Japanese sports manga Kuroko no Basuke: Extra Game. First, it deconstructs the politics of sports manga and its representation of foreign athletes, as it allows Japanese mangakas to portray Japan as a rising cultural and athletic superpower. Then, it focuses on Kuroko no Basuke: Extra Game, in order to study the visual and textual representation of both American and Japanese athletes through the prism of race, gender and culture. Indeed, it draws a sharp contrast between American and Japanese masculinities. Also, it relays a deeply-stereotyped version of the myth of the Black Athlete. Last, this study focuses on the (soft) power of this cultural artefact, the duel of ethos which is relayed through it, and the signifying representation of bodies and emotions. In a nutshell, this work deconstructs Japanese sports mangas and their political dimension to assess the part played by these global cultural artefacts in shaping collective imaginations from Japan to France, via the United States.Keywords: Sports mangarepresentationdiscoursebodyethos Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Edwin O. Reischauer, Histoire du Japon et des Japonais. 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Une passion japonaise (Paris: Third éditions, 2021), 106–7.7 Bounthavy Suvilay, 'Le manga de sport comme récit de formation pour la jeunesse au Japon', Agora débats/jeunesses no. 78 (2018): 125–41.8 Jonathan Clements, Anime: A History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 42.9 Suvilay, Le sport animé ! 80.10 Inazô Nitobe, Bushidō. L'âme du Japon (Noisy-sur-École: Budo Éditions, 1997).11 David A. 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Exprimer et taire ses émotions (XVIe-début XIXe siècle) (Paris: Payot, 2007 [1988]); Félix Guirand and Joël Schmidt, Mythes et mythologies (Paris: Larousse, 2008 [1996]); Jean-Jacques Courtine, Déchiffrer le corps. Penser avec Foucault (Grenoble: Jérôme Million, 2011); Ian Buruma, A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Culture (London: Atlantic Books, 2012 [1984]); Philippe Pons and Pierre-François Souyri, L'esprit de plaisir. Une histoire de la sexualité et de l'érotisme au Japon (17e–20e siècle) (Paris: Payot, 2020).30 Nelson George, Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992); Todd Boyd, Am I Black Enough for You? Popular Culture from the 'Hood and Beyond (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); Todd Boyd, Young, Black, Rich, and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip-Hop Invasion, and the Transformation of American Culture (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003).31 Jean-Jacques Courtine, dir., Histoire de la virilité. 3. La virilité en crise ? XXe-XXIe siècle (Paris: Seuil, 2011).32 Michel Espagne, 'La notion de transfert culturel', Sciences/Lettres no. 1 (2013); Shiraishi, 'Bushidō as a Hybrid'.33 Naïl Ver-Ndoye and Grégoire Fauconnier, Noir : Entre peinture et histoire (Mouans-Sartoux: Omniscience, 2018); Tsuji Nobuo, History of Art in Japan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019 [2005]); Linda Nochlin, Representing Women (London: Thames & Hudson, 2019 [1999]).34 Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1955); Martine Joly, Introduction à l'analyse de l'image (Paris: Nathan, 2001 [1993]); Nadeije Laneyrie-Dagen, Lire la peinture. Tome 1. Dans l'intimité des œuvres (Paris: Larousse, 2002).35 Roland Barthes, 'Rhétorique de l'image', Communications no. 4 (1964): 40–51; Roland Barthes, L'aventure sémiologique (Paris: Seuil, 1985).36 Courtine, Déchiffrer le corps, 38.37 Raewyn W. Connell, Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987); Laura Mulvey, Visual and Other Pleasures (New York: Palgrave, 1989); Richard Majors and Janet Mancini Billson, Cool Pose: The Dilemmas of Black Manhood in America (New York: Touchstone Books, 1993); Raewyn W. Connell, Masculinities (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995); Ronald L. Jackson, Scripting the Black Masculine Body: Identity, Discourse, and Racial Politics in Popular Media (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006); Miles White, From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap, and the Performance of Masculinity (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2011); Kenneth Ghee, '"Will the 'Real' Black Superheroes Please Stand Up?!": A Critical Analysis of the Mythological and Cultural Significance of Black Superheroes', in Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation, ed. Sheena C. Howard and Ronald L. Jackson II (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013).38 Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London: The Open University, 1997), 1.39 Susan Birrell and Mary G. McDonald, Reading Sport: Critical Essays on Power and Representation (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000), 1–3.40 Daniel Durbin, 'Unwritten Rules and the Press of Social Conventions', Sport, Ethics and Philosophy no. 12 (2018): 416–34.41 Divina Frau-Meigs, Médiamorphoses américaines, dans un espace privé unique au monde (Paris: Economica, 2001).42 John Fiske, Media Matters: Race and Gender in U.S. Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 4.43 Susan Birrell and Cheryl L. Cole, eds., Women, Sport, and Culture (Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1994); Margaret Carlisle Duncan and Michael A. Messner, 'The Media Image of Sport and Gender', in MediaSport, ed. Lawrence A. Wenner (New York: Routledge, 1998), 170–85; Jim McKay, Michael A. Messner, and Don Sabo, eds., Masculinities, Gender Relations and Sport (London: Sage Publications, 2000); David J. Leonard and C. Richard King, eds., Commodified and Criminalized: New Racism and African-Americans in Contemporary Sports (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011).44 Olivier Esteves and Sébastien Lefait, La question raciale dans les séries américaines (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2014), 208.45 Sébastien Laffage-Cosnier, Christian Vivier, and Julien Fuchs, dir., 'Bande dessinée, jeunesses et activités corporelles', Agora débats/jeunesses no. 78 (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2018).46 Teixeira, Manga et sport.47 Suvilay, 'Le manga de sport comme récit de formation pour la jeunesse au Japon'.48 Christiana Costantopoulou, 'Body, Soul and Myths: On the Influence of Japanese Culture to the Contemporary Popular Culture', French Journal for Media Research no. 6 (2016).49 Nye, Soft Power, 11.50 Henning Eichberg, Body Cultures: Essays on Sport, Space and Identity (New York: Routledge, 1998).51 Interestingly enough, both teams are named after a poem by Lewis Carroll which was published in Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There in 1872. Jabberwock refers to a monster which is slayed by the Vorpal Sword. The use of these names reinforces the soft power element of the manga, as the Japanese are meant to slay the American beast.52 Den Sigal, Grapholexique du manga (Paris: Eyrolles, 2007), 105.53 Nouhet-Roseman, Les mangas pour jeunes filles.54 Jolivet, Japon, la crise des modèles; Nouhet-Roseman, Les mangas pour jeunes filles, 96–104.55 Kietlinski, Japanese Women and Sport.56 Clements, Anime.57 Nouhet-Roseman, Les mangas pour jeunes filles.58 Ibid.; Suvilay, 'Le manga de sport comme récit de formation pour la jeunesse au Japon'.59 Teixeira, Manga et sport.60 Fujimaki, Kuroko's Basket.61 Jolivet, Homo Japonicus.62 Connell, Masculinities.63 Nitobe, Bushidō.64 Connell, Masculinities, 77–8.65 Kietlinski, Japanese Women and Sport.66 Saitô Tamaki, Beautiful Fighting Girl (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011 [2000]).67 Tezuka, Les leçons particulières d'Osamu Tezuka, 23–4, 95, 126–9.68 Ichiro Takahashi, Kuroko's Basket Replace Plus (Paris: Kazé, 2017 [Tokyo: Shūeisha, 2015]).69 George, Elevating the Game; Boyd, Am I Black Enough for You?; Boyd, Young, Black, Rich, and Famous.70 Timothée Jobert, Champions noirs, racisme blanc. La métropole et les sportifs noirs en contexte colonial (1901–1944) (Grenoble: Presses universitaires de Grenoble, 2006); David J. Leonard, After Artest: The NBA and the Assault on Blackness (New York: State University of New York Press, 2012).71 Boyd, Young, Black, Rich, and Famous.72 Leonard, After Artest.73 Jackson, Scripting the Black Masculine Body, 24.74 White, From Jim Crow to Jay-Z, 5.75 Michel Foucault, Surveiller et punir (Paris: Gallimard, 1975).76 Georges Vigarello, dir., Histoire de la virilité. 1. L'invention de la virilité. De l'Antiquité aux Lumières (Paris: Seuil, 2011), 7–9.77 Boyd, Am I Black Enough for You?; Boyd, Young, Black, Rich, and Famous; John Hoberman, Darwin's Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and Preserved the Myth of Race (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997).78 Norbert Elias, La civilisation des mœurs (Paris: Pocket, 2003 ([1939]).79 Connell, Masculinities, 76–81.80 Élise Marienstras, Les mythes fondateurs de la nation américaine. Essai sur le discours idéologique aux États-Unis à l'époque de l'indépendance (1763–1800) (Paris: François Maspero, 1976).81 Fujimaki, Kuroko's Basket: Extra Game, vol. 1, 33, 85, 116, 124.82 Ibid., 23–27.83 Shiraishi, 'Bushidō as a Hybrid', 58.84 Carl Gustav Jung, Métamorphoses de l'âme et ses symboles (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 2010 (1953).85 Homi K. Bhabha, ed., Nation and Narration (London: Routledge, 1990), 1–3; Coldren, 'Literature of Bushidō'; Raoul Girardet, Mythes et mythologies politiques (Paris: Seuil, 1986); D.P. Martinez, ed., The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).86 Umberto Eco, De Superman au Surhomme (Paris: Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle, 1993 [1978]), 13–25.87 Eichberg, Body Cultures.88 Georges Vigarello, 'The Life of the Body in Discipline and Punish', Sociology of Sport Journal no. 12 (1995): 158–63.89 Clements, Anime.90 Tadatoshi Fujimaki, Kuroko's Basket: Last Game (Paris: Kazé [Tokyo: Shueisha], 2018).Additional informationNotes on contributorsYann DescampsYann Descamps earned his PhD in American studies from the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, and is now an associate professor of sport history at the Université de Franche-Comté. His dissertation deals with the representation of African-American basketball players in the American media and popular culture. He is currently working on the representation of sports, race and gender in popular culture, from videogames to comic books, manga and animated series.