Luffy of One Piece and GQ (Yu Jin Yi)

I guess it has been several years ago already, but one of the biggest selling
comic book series in Japan (which means in the world), One Piece celebrated its ten
year anniversary. The series published on (also) one of the biggest selling newspaper
companies in Japan a ten-page-long advertisement to commemorate the anniversary,
each page covering one main character in One Piece, and it was a huge issue even in
Korea. It was almost an oxymoron to see characters from comic book spread out over a
newspaper.
Animations and comics in Japan assume a stronghold status. In Korea, access
to animations would mean going to the comic book rental store, watching television, or
just surfing on the Internet, whereas in Japan the access is just spread over the daily life.
So many of the stationeries or clothes have the animation characters on them, and things
like Costume Play (wearing costumes like that of a comic book character and pretending
to be the character him/herself), or Maid Café are a little more unfamiliar.
Animation is a children’s territory in Korea. It’s an exclusive property of
children. Not that it’s “wrong” for adults to read comic books—it’s just that it might be
a little embarrassing for adults in Korea to read comic books in subways or convenience
store like they do in Japan.
Maybe that is the reason, but most of the goods that use animation characters in
advertisement are targeted towards children. For instance, school backpacks, stationeries
or toys are usually advertised by famous comic book heroes or heroines—that is, at least
in Korea, it’s very rare to see an adult product to be advertised by a comic book
character. In Japan, nonetheless, the opposite seems to be the case. Animation characters
are frequently used in advertisements for adult products, and sometimes do even more
than that.
Recently, I went into a daily goods shop and saw the characters in One Piece
hold a razor—yes, the razor guys use to shave)—in their hands. I went ‘razor?’ and took
a closer look, which turned out to be an advertisement for razors (obviously). Moreover,
one of the famous magazines for adult male in Japan, GQ Japan, used Luffy (the main
character in One Piece) as their cover model. Also, it is not at all unusual for one to spot
tons of electronic goods sold with comic book characters next to them for advertisement
in places like Akihabara.
Unlike Korea, in which comic books are regarded as children’s property, Japan
has a unique view of considering the animations as something both the adults and the
children can and may enjoy.