The concept of cultural industry was first proposed by Horkheimer and Adorno of the Frankfurt School in Germany in their book Dialectics of Enlightenment.
O ‘Connor (2004) pointed out that the cultural industry includes first and foremost what we call ‘traditional’ cultural industries—radio, television, publishing, recording, design, architecture, new media—and ‘traditional arts’—visual arts, crafts, theatres, concert halls, concerts, performances, museums and galleries. Through continuous innovation and integration, the cultural industry not only promotes cultural development but also brings huge benefits and promotes economic development.
Detective Conan is the success story of the cultural industry that I will mention in this blog.
Detective Conan, created by Gôshô Aoyama, has attracted a large audience since its introduction in 1994 because of its interesting deductive story content, complex cases, surprising twists, and rich characterizations.
With the popularity of the original comic book, and the advancement of technology. The Detective Conan TV anime, which is based on the original manga and contains a lot of original content, has been on the air since January 8, 1996, produced by Yomiuri TV and TMS Entertainment.https://www.conanpedia.com/zh-hans/%E5%90%8D%E4%BE%A6%E6%8E%A2%E6%9F%AF%E5%8D%97%E7%94%B5%E8%A7%86%E5%8A%A8%E7%94%BB#1996%E5%B9%B4%EF%BC%881-42%EF%BC%89The emergence of animation and the emergence of film will Detective Conan in more vivid, and visual way to the audience. By now, more and more people of all ages are beginning to be attracted to Detective Conan. Diverse distribution methods broaden the audience for the work and further enhance its visibility and impact.
In addition to the popularity of animation and movies around the world, the commercial operation of Detective Conan is also one of the important factors for its success. Considerable profits are made by selling copyrights, designing peripheral products for work, and collaborating with other brands. Examples include comic books, animation DVDs, cinema box office theme parks, and co-branded products.
https://www.conan-portal.com/#newsContent
In general, by analyzing the evolution of the Detective Conan industry, it is possible to know the importance of the innovation of the work itself, the dissemination technology, and the commercial operation in the cultural industry. We also learnt that not only that, the success of the cultural industry also lies in the precise grasp of market demand and audience psychology, as well as the spirit of continuous innovation and cooperation among different industries.
Refrences:
- Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. W. (2006). Dialectic of Enlightenment . Stanford University Press. (Original work published 1947)
- O’Connor, J. (2004). European Cultural Industries and Cultural Policy.
- Zhang, K. (2021). Constructing and consuming space in detective fiction tourism: The case of Mystery Tour of Detective Conan. Journal of Popular Culture, 54(6),1355-1370.https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.13089
Hi, it’s Jack here! Wherever there is ACG, there is me (although I didn’t read or watch Detective Conan, I know it is a classic and legendary work)!
First of all, I saw you wrote Chinese in the first part of the blog; I wonder if you want to do so or accidentally; if not, please remember to fix it! 😀
I like how you mentioned the “Culture Industry” in a positive way. The original idea of the “Culture Industry” by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno is to critique the capitalism of using or max producing “culture” or art for profits, which is pessimistic. However, you mentioned that the “Culture Industry” is doing for profits, but it can also promote cultural and economic development, and using Detective Conan as a positive example. The art, “Detective Conan”, itself reproduced into other media formats, commodity goods, etc., not only brings the art into the international market but also promotes Japanese culture and tourism at the same time, which is using the tourism campaign by the Japanese railway company JR West as an example.
I really like the example of the tour package by the Japanese railway company JR West, which is an amazing point of view! Although I know about a lot of anime doing so to promote their work and local tourism, I never thought it could be linked to the “Culture Industry”. I can only think of the work reproduced into other media formats and selling licensed merchandise that can act as the “Culture Industry” but not the tourism campaign. Great job!
Through the successful case of Detective Conan, the blog provides an in-depth analysis of how the cultural industry started from comics and developed into a multi-layered multimedia empire covering animation, film, derivative merchandise and tourism. Combining Horkheimer’s and Adorno’s concepts of cultural industries, the article explores the role of culture in terms of development and economic benefits. It also uses a wealth of case studies to clearly demonstrate the success factors of the Detective Conan IP in terms of content creation, communication technology and business operations, and highlights how the work has broadened its audience and driven the international influence of Japanese culture through brand partnerships. The analyses were very comprehensive and gave me a better understanding of how the culture industry works successfully.