Alice in Wonderland in Japan
Alice in Wonderland in Japan
by Zoe Burgess
(an extract from ‘The Representation of Alice in Wonderland in Japan’ to celebrate 150 years of Alice)
There has been a long tradition of classic western literature being translated, enjoyed and reinterpreted by Japanese audiences. During the Meiji era (1868 – 1912) a cultural exchange between Japan and Britain began. Japan’s scholars and writers were able to learn English from visiting diplomats and some in turn travelled to Britain to study literature. What was it about the ideals of Victorian Britain that appealed to Japan and why were they brought over to Japan? One work from Britain that has proven perennially popular is Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. What is it about Alice that has become so iconic in Japan and why is it continuing to grow in popularity?
Japan has come to romanticise the Victorian era as it allows them to explore a rigid social structure, repressed sexuality and emotional restraint without targeting their own social histories. It gives Japan’s creative minds a playground to explore themes found in Japan but through an imagined period of history. Japan’s representation of Victorian Britain does not always ring true as it is a society used to explore fantasy rather than realism. Japan’s Victorian England is a mythic and often magical place where characters have hidden powers and mythical figures such as the vampire exist or historical figures such as Jack the Ripper are supernatural beings. So while the values of these two societies see some overlap there is also a high amount of embellishing and invention by Japanese creatives in their portrayal of Victorian Britain.
One good example of Victorian literature that has captured the hearts of girls in Japan is that of Alice in Wonderland. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first written by British author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll in 1865 and is known as the genre ‘literary nonsense’ (Lecercle, Jean-Jacques 1994 ‘Philosophy of nonsense: the intuitions of Victorian nonsense literature’). Alice is the tale of a young girl who falls into a magical world where nothing is as it seems and the dimensions that rule our “real world” do not apply in Wonderland. There have been many adaptations of the tale and the character of Alice both in Western media and in Japan. Alice has enjoyed big screen adaptations in America, computer games and animated tales. Japan has produced manga and anime based on Alice such as Fushigi no Kuni no Alice; a 52 episode series based on the book aired on Japanese network NHK in 1983. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first translated into Japanese in 1909 and since then has had many unique and different reimaginings and retellings in Japanese media.
Alice in Wonderland represents an escape from the rigid and strict Victorian society, a society where a young girl had a restricted role. A young Victorian lady must be a good girl, ready to grow up to be a good wife and mother and therefore not concerned with fantasy and escapism. This is what Alice represents, a girl counter to the Victorian image, one that seeks out whimsy and adventure rather than pursuing interests that would better prepare herself as a wife.
Alice manages to escape into a world of adventure, into a society very much counter to Victorian beliefs. She is not expected to fulfil a set role and much of the story expresses this through its narrative. It is no wonder that Alice has such a strong impact on the youth of Japan as she, too, is faced with rigid social structure and a predestined role but escapes to fulfil her own destiny. Alice is also able to see adults as the confusing and the ridiculous beings they can be, as adult characters are almost satires of their Victorian counterparts. Female characters like the Queen of Hearts are not only strict and aggressive, but also vain and domineering. They expect Alice to listen to them despite their eccentricity and obey them, simply because they are of higher standing than Alice. In true Victorian fashion if a child does not listen to their parents or governors its corporal punishment and they are likely to be beaten, this is emphasised by the Queen’s desire to cut off Alice’s head.
This may be another reason why Alice has become so popular in Japan. Japanese youth are finding it hard to be heard within an adult society and don’t have a voice. With the increased pressure from parents and schools to work harder, get better results and be ready to become part of the backbone of Japan’s workforce, there is a lot of pressure to grow up and young people feel that they need the escape. Authority figures in society are confronting them and pushing them and they don’t have as much of a chance to enjoy their childhood. What an amazing treat if they could just escape into a Wonderland and be a child and see adults as self-important contradicting//contradictory beings and how they too can be irrational.
‘To their delight, his stories subvert adult hypocrisy…..Dodgson creates a child’s view of adult lunacy with this difference: in the course of events Alice grows large enough to dismiss these denizen of Wonderland for what they are, a pack of cards playing a game by arbitrary rules. They represent the kind of adult pretentions that always deserves to be laughed out of court.’ (McCartney, American Spectator)
But it’s not just Alice herself that has captured Japanese imaginations but also much of the iconography from the story has saturated Japan’s media and pop culture industry. From ‘Lolita’ cosplay(the art of costume and play) or ‘maids’ at maid cafes dressed in Alice-inspired costumes to grinning cat boys and attractive Mad Hatters in butler cafes, the characters at the heart of the story have enjoyed much attention in Japan.
Fig 1: Alice inspired Cosplay outfits.
It is not only Alice’s story and journey that is a source of inspiration for Japanese youth but also her very image. Japan has seen much fashion influenced by British and in particular Victorian society.
Sharon Kinsella (1995), in ‘Cuties in Japan’, outlines how many of the maid-style Victorian-inspired fashion trends in Japan grew out of interest in more general infantilization of women’s fashion, known as kawaii or cute culture. It is from this milieu of Victoriana and romance-inspired fads and trends (Mulhern 1989) and fantasy anime that focus on women’s domestic work [notably seen in Hayao Miyazaki’s films, perhaps most obviously Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)], that the manga for Emma (the Victorian romance manga by Kaori Mori, 2002–2006, 2006–2008) emerged in 2002. (Denison, 2010)
Much of the gothic Lolita fashion found in areas such as Harajuku is Victorian influenced. Alice’s iconic dress later made even more so by the blue dress of the Disney’s animated feature is now a staple of the Lolita style as well as of the maid uniform seen in Akihabara’s maid cafes.
Fig 2: ‘Alice maid’ from a Maid Café in Tokyo.
Specific fashion brands such as Alice and the Pirates have been created in Japan based on Alice in Wonderland and those that take their fashion inspiration from Lewis Carrols book. Japan also has Alice in Wonderland-themed cafés and restaurants such as Alice in Labyrinth that allow you to escape to the magical world of the novel.
Fig 3: Alice-themed restaurant in Tokyo.
The popularity of Alice as a fashion icon in Japan has led to magazines with articles on how to achieve the Alice look.
Fig: 4. Image from girls magazine on “How to achieve the Alice look”.
Alice’s look and image of innocence has been adopted by media personalities such as the popular girls band AKB48 who have a song Suiyobi no Alice (Alice on Wednesday) in which they are dressed in Alice-inspired costumes and sing sweetly and innocently. Even popular Vocaloids (a generated character pop idol) have released a song inspired by ‘Alice in Wonderland’ that is a very distorted and inverted version of Alice. In this version the Vocaloids sing about how this is a Wonderland not for the “goody, goody”. Here they invite you into a world of torture and the characters are all horrific and disturbing. This takes the message even further that the adult world is a place of lunacy, as well as a scary place for a child giving a harsher Wonderland for Alice to try and survive through. The Vocaloids released a number of ‘Dark Alice’ songs giving Wonderland a grim undertone as a place where people went to live out their ideals and become the perfect Alice but their own greed and ambitions destroyed or killed them. This set of songs serves as more of a cautionary tale and warns that even though you think you’re innocent, given the opportunity to live out your fantasies, they can corrupt you.
Fig 5:
Vocaloids invite you to be the next Alice in their nightmarish vision in Wonderland from the video, “Alice of the Human Sacrifice”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6MltGHO-lE
Alice has seen herself, her story and its iconography represented in many manga and anime over the years. Works such as Deadman Wonderland (follow the White Rabbit into a death row prison named Wonderland), Pandora Hearts (fight alongside the White Rabbit to save humanity) and Rozen Maiden (there can only be one Alice and it’s a fight to prove who has the characteristics to survive the alive game) have all drawn from the various aspects that make up Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Many artists have used Alice as a motif and Japan is full of iconography from Lewis Carroll’s work.
One particular team has a strong passion for Alice and frequently uses its iconography. This is the studio of CLAMP, the all-female company of manga artists who produce works in the shoujo genre; they write, illustrate and produce manga as a female team. CLAMP have their own unique art style and their manga often deals with issues of gender, sexuality, coming of age, adventures into unknown worlds, mysticism, romance and fate. CLAMP is one of the most successful studios in Japan. CLAMP makes manga for girls and while they range from the light-hearted romance or magical girl formula of Card Captor Sakura, they also explore the darker side of the shoujo genre in the form of Tokyo Babylon. But what makes for interesting comparison is that, no matter what the genre, they have placed their characters within Alice-themed cosplay and iconography. CLAMP’s use of Alice in Wonderland as a motif has been very visible throughout their works even going as far as releasing animated shorts entitled CLAMP in Wonderland starring all the characters from their various mangas. But never has it been so obvious and such a different portrayal of the classic story than in CLAMP’s work Miyuki-chan in Wonderland.
Fig 6: Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland artwork.
In the omake, or afterword, of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, one of the four CLAMP mangaka remarks that “the constant battle against the schoolgirl uniform in Miyuki-chan is symbolic of women’s struggle against sexual oppression,” although, to be fair, the other three promptly and humorously point out that they just enjoy drawing the skirts. (CLAMP, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland 2003)
Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland is a one volume manga and thirty minute anime featuring the misadventures of Miyuki. Miyuki herself represents the innocent youth of Alice and is depicted as a sweet, kawaii and naïve girl. She is the typical portrayal of youthful innocence popular in Japan and while this may be the male agenda of teaching young Japanese girls to be innocent and pure, Miyuki-chan finds herself in a very non-male dominated Wonderland. While Miyuki embodies the traditional virtues and image of Alice, CLAMP’s Wonderland is a very different place.
The protagonist was illustrated in her school uniform, as that provided the team with more fan service opportunities during action scenes. In retrospective, the team felt that the manga acted as a showcase for Mokona’s “sexy, female character designs”, writing: “It was fun, but a little hentai.”(CLAMP Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, 2003)
Fig 7: Miyuki-Chan and the other major characters of Wonderland.
CLAMPs Wonderland is a fetishized and female-dominated world where all the characters appear to be lesbians and are attracted to Miyuki’s sweet innocence and naïve charm. While this may look like a male fantasy, one must remember that CLAMP is an all-female team who write for girls, even when the Queen of Hearts is presented as a buxom dominatrix whose subjects don’t fear her but instead desire her and wish to be whipped by her. As Miyuki escapes from various advances by sexualised female interpretations of Carroll’s characters she never is disgusted by them. Miyuki is embarrassed and blushes as the “Mad Hatter” puts her hand up her top but she is too naïve to really understand these advances and just wants to return to her world where things make a little more sense.
CLAMP have become well known for their notion of ‘pure love’ and how it is not constrained by gender, age or anything outside the form of the hetero-monogamous couple. So it hasn’t been the first time that lesbian relationships have been displayed in their work. A sub-genre of the shoujo genre is that of shoujo ai or yuri. These are stories that depict romantic and sometimes sexual love between girls. Much like its male counterpart Boys’ Love (shounen ai and yaoi) these stories are marketed towards girls and they are considered romances and a genre that falls firmly into the sphere of ‘for women’. What does this say about the target audience for CLAMP’s Miyuki-chan? In a society where girls’ stories are no longer a tool to teach proper female behaviour but an invitation to escape the society’s pressure, is CLAMP also giving an outlet to minorities such as lesbians in Japan? While this may be the case, CLAMP themselves have admitted that part of the reason for this story was a chance to showcase their artwork of the female form. Miyuki-chan gives female readership a chance to further remove themselves from the constraints of female identity in Japan. CLAMP have with Miyuki-chan able to continue the work on creating women for women, to take the gaze away from the male and allow women to look at the beauty of the female form and appreciate it. Readers of CLAMP’s shoujo works are the new generation of girls that evolved from those reading Hanamonogatari. Miyuki-chan in Wonderland has used the iconography of Alice and her story to tell a tale for girls that invites them to appreciate the female form and alternative sexuality in an environment where the male gaze doesn’t intrude.
Fig. 8
CLAMP themselves are continuously evolving their vision of Alice, with a recent animation using this motif being ‘Nunnally in Wonderland’. This work takes the characters of the highly popular anime series Code Geass and populates Wonderland with them. Iconography and tropes such as Alice in Wonderland still target female audiences but now instead of trying to educate them, they are being sold to them. There is a thin line between creativity and consumerism and Alice finds herself dancing around this. While she is a source of inspiration and a mode of escapism for Japanese youth the darker side is not the “dark wonderland” with its ‘careful what you wish for’ tale but the very fact that Alice has become a marketing tool.
Anime and other popular culture goods continue to use themes and iconography from Alice in Wonderland, evolving the meaning of the story and repositioning the ‘child’ or ‘woman’ in Japanese society. It will be interesting to see what other mangas, animes and aspects of popular culture Alice in Wonderland will inspire if her story will continues to represent aspects of changing Japanese society.
Resources
Official home of CLAMP [online] Available at : <http://clamp-net.com/>
AKB48 ‘Suiyobi no Alice’ [online] Available at: <http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xte8da_pv-akb48-team-suprise-suiyoubi-no-alice-stage-juuryoku-sympathy_music akb48 >
Vocaloids, ‘Alice of the Human Sacrifice’. [online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn3UO5_Hzl8>
Vocaloids, ‘Alice in Wonderland Dark Fairy Tale’. [online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6MltGHO-lE>
‘Deadman Wonderland’ anime Opening. [online] Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzBZU1hKIzg>
‘Pandora Hearts’ anime opening. [online] Available at: <http://youtu.be/DqkR5A3mdkM>
‘Rosen Maiden’ anime opening. [online] Available at: <http://youtu.be/bB0RloVyLBM>
‘CLAMP in Wonderland 1’ anime short. [online] Available at: <http://youtu.be/wC0Dbk4pyyk>
‘CLAMP in Wonderland 2’ anime short. [online] Available at:
Recent Alice-themed Manga
Alice in the Country of Hearts and Alice In the Country of Clover (shojo) Quin Rose
Are You Alice? Ikumi Katagiri & Ai Ninomiya
I Am Alice: Body Swap in Wonderland (gender-bender) Ayumi Kanou
