From Japan to the West and Back Again: a translation study of JoJo's bizarre adventure

Abstract

For the last 30 years, anime and manga have become a worldwide cultural phenomenon. What once was unique to Japan has now spread to other countries and influences other art and social interactions. Their popularity has flourished greatly, garnering a fanbase that went from a cult following to a worldwide community. This research explores semiotic tropes of Western hegemony, the importance of cultural symbols and the linguistic adaptation within the anime and manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. For this research, the semiotic theories of Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco are used. This research will illustrate some of the problems a translator faces when adapting this work, such as changing character names to avoid copyright infringement and how these changes affect their original meaning. Lastly, this work will examine how these medium and the translation of these texts has evolved with the aim to prove their academic value.