UDC 791.228.046:398.4:008](520)”19/20″(045
Illia Halushko
Kharkiv State Academy of Culture,
Kharkiv
ORCID: 0009-0007-0281-4613
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37627/2311-9489-28-2025-2.60-74
Keywords: Japanese culture, culturology, ideology, demonology, demonic images, anime, Anime Studies.
Abstract. The paper presents an attempt of culturological research of demonic images in anime as significant cultural markers of various ideologies. The purpose of the article is a comprehensive analysis of demonic images presented in anime works through the prism of ideological critique of Japanese culture of the 20th–21st centuries.
The methodological basis of the study is a culturological approach, the application of which made it possible to combine methods of historical, semiotic and hermeneutic analysis within the framework of the study of demonic images from anime as a significant cultural channel. The theoretical foundation of the study is based on C. Geertz’s theory of ideology as cultural system, Koichi Iwabuchi’s concept of brand nationalism concept, as well as iconoclasm and iconophilia as significant categories of interdisciplinary studies of images.
The key strategies for interpreting demonological images in anime of different periods (dehumanization, heroization, moeification) are highlighted. The final part of the article records the situation of the coexistence of opposing strategies of interpreting demonological images in 21st century anime. Due to the absence of a dominant ideology, demonic images could acquire the meaning of objects of both iconophilia and iconoclasm.
Author‘s biography
Illia Halushko, postgraduate student at the Department of Cultural Studies and Museology, Kharkiv State Academy of Culture, Kharkiv
t24820@ukr.net
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The article was received by the editorial office on 20.11.2025.
The article was accepted for publication after review on 15.12.2025.
The article was published on 31.12.2025.
Section: WORLD CULTURE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.