The paradox of Mr. DOB or the phenomenon of impersonation through the syncretism of kitsch and otaku imagery
Abstract
In Mr. DOB, a character from Murakami's work 727, classical and contemporary artistic influences are combined with more popular ones. It is a world of pastiche where traditional elements are paradoxically combined with more commercial forms, demonstrating how the weight of memory has become a resource for contemporary Japanese art. Taking the character in this work as an example, in this article we will analyse how this neo-Asian aesthetic incorporates conscious self-Japanisation as a creative foundation in the context of the politics of so-called soft power. A strategic hybridism that, playing with the tradition to which it belongs, explains how the survival of certain traditions in the hidden system of Japanese ideas has favoured the replacement of old idols with new cultural archetypes from pop, anime and manga.
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Crossmark
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