How an obscure Japanese anime made a genuine attempt to understand Pakistan
One of fiction’s most enduring appeals is the possibility of representation it offers.
There is this hope that you – the consumer of fiction – will get to see yourself in a story. This idea that your desires, frustrations and experiences will be reflected back at you. And not just your individual experiences, but also things that you consider a part of your identity – culture, language, nation, religion, and so much more. This desire is intrinsically human. Hence, entire industries are devoted to the craft of story-telling through various forms such as novel, comics, television and film.
Pakistanis are no different either. They too desire to be seen, represented and reflected in stories they consume, and in a way that aligns with how they perceive themselves. And not just to be seen in their own stories and on their own screens, but also globally. There is this implicit understanding that while your own stories matter, what others tell about you is also important and has tangible consequences.
Your perception abroad can significantly alter how the world treats you. How your story is told can make you either seem like a citizen of a pariah state or of a respectable country. Thus, many Pakistanis have felt deeply slighted whenever their country, culture and customs have been treated unfairly by foreign media or even media from across the border.
Pakistanis feature in global screens largely through the prism of a few limiting themes – terrorism, militancy, backwardness, poverty – that do not capture the rich cultural and social fabric of the country. It is in this context that I look at Yugo the Negotiator, possibly the first and only international anime set in Pakistan.