Impact of K-pop and Anime culture on the Ghanaian Culture.

Written by: Nana Kojo Mula and Bryan Benjamin.

Accra’s creative hub has been home to some of the trend-changing styles within the Ghanaian creative space. Almost any culture-defining change you see in Ghana’s creative area is mainly traced to a community, a collective or a person. The rise of Alté cultures in the country has catalysed the introduction of diverse trends and styles. In this article, we focus on the change in recent fashion trends which we believe are influenced by the growing K-pop and Anime cultures in South Korea and Japan.

K-Pop, to the many that are affiliated to it, represents more than just the music. For many, the lifestyle associated with it is just an extension of the music genre itself; which is a blend of different music genres around the world like Pop, Dance, HipHop, R&B etc. The daring nature of the music can be seen in the lifestyle and fashion style of the people that follow the sound. Their fashion is a blend of different brands which span decades and generations.

In some cases, they blend luxury goods with vintage brands from their accessories to shirts, pants and boots. Just like K-pop, one of Korea’s industry gems that can be attributed to the fashion style we see among Accra’s Gen Z is Anime.Anime is an animated movie/series from the South Korean/Japanese movie industry which has become a huge part of the cinematic universe in Ghana among young adults. While it means more than just animation to people, others have often referred to it as mere illustrations of ‘toys,’ generating a lot of back and forth on Twitter. The flashy, daring and nonconforming fashion styles seen in these movie series have been replicated by various consumers of the product in Accra.

While putting this article together, one question that kept coming up was if there was any correlation between the ‘Anime Culture’ and the ‘Alté Culture.’ To get to the bottom of this, we spoke to different individuals to help understand the K-pop/Anime culture in Accra. How influential is the culture to the followers in Ghana and by extension Africa? Is it limited to just a handful of people or it is bigger than what we see on the internet? By the end of this article, we hope to clarify some stereotypes or questions about the community and establish the similarities and differences between this community and the Alté community.

YouTuber Anisah describes Anime and K-pop as her safe space. She got into Anime at a very early age as far back as primary school. She took a long break from it and returned to it 4 years ago and has not looked back since. As a huge fan of one of the most successful K-pop groups, BTS, her love for the genre is built on her appreciation of the group’s music. She talks about how both communities have worked wonders in her life, personality and most importantly her mental health, saying, “It’s been influential. Anime made me find my love for art all over again to the point where I’m actively learning to draw and learn Japanese. When it comes to K-pop, as I’ve said before, I’m a BTS Army and when it comes to BTS, they’ve done wonders for my mental health. They speak about depression, anxiety, not being able to live up to expectations, wanting to be your person etc. They have such amazing personalities and constantly reassure their fans.” She also revealed how difficult it has been to incorporate certain aspects of the culture she has picked up to fit the culture she grew up in here in Ghana. The difficulty in her opinion is down to how people are unwelcoming to lifestyles that are not ‘popular’ in their books like the Western Lifestyle. Friends of hers are part of people that make it difficult as they would make a mockery of how expressive she is about Anime and K-pop. They think she’s delusional. “It’s very trying, not gonna’ lie. Anything that is not regarded as mainstream is looked at with a bombastic side-eye. People hate things they do not understand,” she added. Regarding the position of both communities in Accra and how sustainable the growth has been, she talked about the conscious effort being made to create spaces where people that align with both can come together and share in the love. She mentioned how the anime community held the very first anime showing at the cinema last year. That coupled with various activities like weekly Twitter conversations keeps bringing in more people. When asked about the similarities between Alté and Anime/K-pop, she had this to say, “No, I do not inherently believe so. Alté is a lifestyle. It goes beyond liking something. People who do like the two might; and this is a very shaky, might, fall into the Alté category but it’s more than just that.”

Speaking to YouTuber Awota Springs, also a K-pop enthusiast, she reiterated how it has served as a coping mechanism, turning a blind eye to the negative energy the culture has attracted from people that are ignorant of what it entails, among many other things. She admitted to the culture having some toxic traits despite the good it has served her. However, she added that, unlike others, she is influenced by Korean/Asian culture in general and not just K-pop. Summing it up perfectly, she says, “I was amazed at how talented K-pop idols were, but K-pop culture is a bit toxic. It’s more of the Korean/Asian culture that has more influence on me. Their food, clothes, language etc. I’ve just stopped listening to what people have to say and just wear whatever. I think it’s an exclusive community and honestly, I love it that way.”

For Annabeth, Anime makes up a very big part of her life because she allocates some hours of her day to watching Anime or reading manga or a light novel. Having started at an early age with her sister with Letter Bee and Vampire Knight Guilty. She talked about how watching Anime and reading Manga formed a large part of her life by saying, “It has contributed a lot to my personality. I’d say I developed my bubbly and confident nature plus the ability to air out my opinions from the character ‘Usagi Tsukino’ from the Anime; ‘Sailor Moon.’ I also grew my persevering spirit and compassionate nature by watching how she always looked forward to being better and growing stronger without neglecting her basic human emotions of compassion.” As a Ghanaian, there is always that clash of cultures between what we do as Ghanaians and what the West does, but she believes in doing what the Romans do when in Rome. The foundation of her lifestyle (especially her fashion) is built considering the limitations in whatever environment she finds herself in. As such she does her best to avoid outer conflicts. “People have tried to make me feel like I’m doing too much when I dress up with my coloured wigs and my colour-coordinated outfits, but honestly, I can’t be bothered,” she adds. And then goes on to say, “I’ve seen a lot of cosplaying in other countries but it hasn’t become a thing in Ghana yet. I have seen signs of it developing and having a place in the Anime community here in Ghana but until then, it stays a foreign concept.” She also touched on some of the criticisms that come with aligning with the community and the various concepts that come with being a part of it. There is a twist though, unlike popular belief, the Anime community goes beyond Accra. Annabeth shares her experience as someone that lives outside Accra and how she can connect with the larger community, the connection between this community, and the Alté community amongst others.

In the case of writer Ella, K-pop has been a major source of entertainment for her since she first got into it back at the University of Ghana. It moved from being just entertainment to being a part of her everyday life. She characterizes this by saying, “K-pop is my major source of entertainment and a source of emotional support for me. There are times I feel no one understands me, but surprisingly, there’s that one K-pop artist who seems to be going through the same thing as I am.” She states further that, she “started watching Korean dramas back in the University of Ghana like ‘Sorry Sorry’ by Super Junior and ‘Genie’ by Girls. Very influential! I say about 20 Korean words or phrases daily. Additionally, it has taught me patience and tolerance.” As someone that grew up being the odd one out in a lot of situations, she did not have any problem fitting in with the K-pop culture. But as someone that works in the media space, she has faced a few criticisms here and there. “When a person wants to take it to the extreme, they attack the fact that I’m not that proficient in any local African language but studied Korean,” she says. She believes that K-pop culture around these parts is not limited to just the community and it is gaining growth within Accra, especially through music because there is a “Korean equivalent” in every genre of music we listen to.

It is important to point out that, while we initially believed the community was mainly in Accra, we would come to find out through Annabeth that others outside Accra are part of the growing community. In other parts of Africa like Nigeria, we speak to Amirah, who shares with us how the community in Nigeria is also thriving, saying, “Maybe the K-pop community still has a lot of catching up to do, but it’s still prevalent. For the Anime community; multiple hangouts are being held yearly, where you get to cosplay any character of your choice or just come and swap Anime and make friends. It is even easier to get merch than it was in 2018/2019. The K-pop community is also slowly rising too.”

In conclusion, whether it is Anime or K-pop, one thing is for certain; these two are positively impacting people around us. As such, it is gaining a lot of recognition as the community grows not just in Ghana but in other parts of the continent. With its growth comes its impact on our art space as we can already see in the fashion space. For anyone trying to get into anime, it’s suggested that you start with ones which do have long seasons like ‘Attack on Titan,’ ‘Demon Slayer’ and ‘Chainsaw Man.’ If you are interested in K-pop you can start with BTS, Exo and old K-pop music. You can also connect with the Ghana anime community via their handle @animeghooficial on Twitter.