Curatorial Statement
In this online exhibition, I would like to explain about the differences between Japanese super heroes with American super hero. The reason I chose this theme was because I found that many super heroes have the same purpose which is saving people lives and managing the world’s peace, but each super hero has a different way to fight for justice, and most importantly they look distinctively different.
The main visual difference between Japanese super heroes and American super heroes is that Japanese versions have a more technological look. After the World War II ended in 1945, Japan lost and surrendered to America and decided to stop any military activity and focus on technology. Technology in Japan has improved incredibly since the war in areas from electronics to automotive engineering and iconic companies such as Sony, Toyota, etc. They can compete technologically with other developed countries and maybe they are even better than them. So at that time, the artist in Japan created super heroes with high technological form to represent their country status as a high technology country. For example, the Sentai series show that they are using technological power to protect humans from enemies and when the enemy is defeated, it grows bigger but the Sentai can summon their huge robotic vehicles that can combine to form one giant robot.
In contrast, the design of American super heroes look more like masculine humans wearing biological costumes. I assume the reason is because during World War II, many Americans were inspired to build their bodies to become more masculine so artists drew the super heroes with very muscular bodies to show that Americans are strong and masculine humans willing to help anyone who needs help. This showed that America was a strong country.
