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Animal Crossing and the Empty Core of Globalization

The central myth of globalization, that humans are at the end of history, has been

internalized deeply by the characters of the Japanese animated film Dōbutsu no Mori (henceforth

referred to by the presumptive English title, Animal Crossing). It can easily be argued that the

movie, based on a video game of the same title, is merely an advertisement for a globalized

product. But, while globalization may not have powerful external challengers, it contains the

seeds of its own refutation at its “empty core” (Weber 120). In the course of Animal Crossing, its

protagonist and its underclass come to realize the short comings of neoliberal capitalism’s ability

to fulfill personal needs and thus the myth of globalization loses its truth to them.

For Cynthia Weber, globalization is unique among international relations theories

because, while all IR theories are permeated with “conscious and unconscious ideologies”,

globalization theories claim that “ideological struggles are over” (Weber 104). This is what the

central writer of globalization theory considered in Weber’s text, Francis Fukuyama, is referring

to when he writes, “The End of History?” (Weber 104). Globalization became a “craze” and

appeared truest at the end of the Cold War, a situation “made possible by the absence of any

credible rivals to liberalism (Weber 104). What globalization means is an intense point of

contention, leading globalization to be called “a floating sign of many different problematics”

(Weber 104). Luckily, the most prominent of these problematics are easy to identify:

“neoliberalism and historical materialism and their expressions of globalization” (Weber 104).

Because neoliberal “expressions of globalization are by far the most influential” and “seem to be

the most ‘historically accurate’” in the present, this paper will consider Animal Crossing with

these neoliberal expressions in mind (Weber 106). This neoliberal conception of globalization is

constructed partially by a belief in the harmonious nature of economic relations, especially

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internationally. This harmonious nature is characterized by economic processes that are

beneficial to all involved parties. Furthermore, in the neoliberal expression of globalization,

economics “drive politics” (Weber 104). This means that neoliberal thinkers believe that the

harmonious economic relationships that permeate the globalized world are conducive to a

political structure they also find beneficial, usually democracy. Globalization, according to the

neoliberal thinker, promotes “cultural universalization” as well, as a third and final main reason

that neoliberals find globalization to be ultimately good (Weber 105). Thus, because neoliberals

see globalization as “an unabashed victory of economic and political liberalism”, it is, for them,

the “end point of mankind’s ideological evolution” (Weber 108).

Even globalization proponent Francis Fukuyama admits that, because there are “no

‘living’ ideological challengers” to neoliberal globalization, a “post-historical” world would

mark the beginning of “centuries of boredom”. So, if the globalized world is drably devoid of

any engrossing conflicts, one would expect a film consistent with the myth of neoliberal

globalization to be devoid of an engrossing plot. Indeed, Animal Crossing is a movie with little

plot to speak of for long stretches of time. The film begins with Ai, the young, female human

protagonist, riding in a Taxi packed with all her belongings. The taxi brings Ai to her new home,

Animal Village, a small hamlet populated by a diverse bunch of anthropomorphized critters. Ai is

welcomed by Mayor Tortimer, a turtle, and lands a job with her new landlord, Tom Nook, a

raccoon. She finds two close friends, Sally, an elephant, and Bouquet, a cat. One day at the

beach, Ai finds a mysterious letter in a bottle foretelling a miracle at the coming Winter Festival.

That event is probably the closest to a real plot point in the film to that point, but even that event

is quickly forgotten among more scenes of mundane life until the festival arrives with the film’s

finale.
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Fukuyama admits to “an empty core of liberalism”, and Weber says this weakness is tied

to the “trick to making liberalism work”, which is “to delay any sense of disappointment its

subjects experience when economic desires fail to satisfy personal desires (Weber 120, 119). The

characters of Animal Crossing appear to have this trick mastered. Ai’s rainy cab ride to begin the

film causes her to mention that she loves rain specifically because it gives her a chance to wear

her favorite boots and use her favorite umbrella. Thus, her emotional attachment to rain is linked

to her economic attachment to designer goods. Central to the neoliberal myth is the idea that “all

who participate in economic processes benefit”, and Ai is quickly sold this myth by Tom Nook

(Weber 105). Nook says, “The quickest way for you to get used to your new life

in Animal Village is by working; while working you can introduce yourself to all the residents;

it's two birds with one stone” (Dōbutsu). Ai protests weakly by saying, “well, that might be true”

(Dōbutsu). But Nook is adamant: “It’s not ‘well, that might be true’, it’s yes, that is true”

(Dōbutsu). Animal Village is thus at the end of history, because any ideological conflicts are

quickly disarmed and dismissed.

In Weber’s understanding of the globalization myth, she predicts that a neoliberal world

will constantly attempt to fulfill personal desires by providing material substitutes. Thus, Animal

Village, if globalized, should see its citizens’ “desires for history and ideology satisfied with

consumable substitutes” (Weber 119). Under Tom Nooks employ, Ai begins to serve this function

in Animal Village by delivering mail-order goods to the citizens around town. Her first recipient,

Bouquet, becomes ecstatic when she receives the dress that Ai brings. Bouquet thinks that the

dress is the source of her happy feelings, but when she asks Ai for her opinion of the dress, it

becomes clear that the source of Bouquet’s happiness is not the material dress, but the approval

won from Ai. Yet, Bouquet is not merely interested in consuming goods, but histories as well –
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she inquires of Ai what brought her to Animal Village. Before Ai can respond, however, Bouquet

has already concocted a history for Ai claiming, “You are running away from your former home

in order to forget him and to heal your broken heart, and finally, you have arrived at this far-off

village. Has to be it. I also want to be taken away by my prince on a while horse” (Dōbutsu).

Then, before Ai can deny this wild fantasy, the front door is shut in her face. Because, as a

globalized subject, Bouquet is more interested in consuming histories than confirming them, Ai

has become a space upon which Bouquet can “safely project [her] desires for history and

ideology” (Weber 119). Ai’s motivations for coming to Animal Village are never revealed

because, in a post-historical town, they are too boring to matter – Ai is more valuable as a blank

slate to be written upon by each successive character. Ai’s next package recipient is Halberd, an

Alligator. Halberd, like Bouquet, is desperate for consumable substitutes for history, and his

package is a box of five hundred pies. Pies are not merely objects of sustenance for Halberd, but

a historical experience: “Just remembering the taste by indulging in the smell coming from this

box – it’s like I’m about to be enchanted into a dream”, says Halberd (Dōbutsu). Nearly every

character in Animal Village is obsessed with creating and harvesting histories in order to stave

off the boring, “empty core of liberalism”. Yū, a human boy from a neighboring village, is

constantly wearing costumes corresponding with his new false history du jour; he’s first a ninja,

later a pirate, finally a rabbit. When he’s not creating histories for himself out of sheer boredom,

he’s digging for fossils with Halberd. The biggest building in town, the central focal point of the

village, is a museum, complete with an observatory, where viewers can look billions of years into

the past. Thus, Fukuyama’s boring prediction for post-history has been realized in Animal

Village, a “de-ideological” world where the citizens devote themselves to “the perpetual

caretaking of the museum of human history” (Weber 112).

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One event in particular depressingly illustrates the way in which the neoliberal myth

places economics above personal relationships. It’s Sally’s dream to become a clothing designer,

and she wants “people all over the world to wear her clothes”. But, Animal Village is far from

Madison Avenue, so Sally is forced to leave town for a bigger city to pursue her dream. Sally

tells everyone in town about her departure beforehand, except for her best friend, Ai. Ai is

heartbroken by this development. In her melancholy, she begins a relationship with a walrus

painter, Seiichi. It’s a purely economic relationship – Ai cooks rice for Seiichi and he eats it.

Then he promptly disappears without a goodbye. Yet, Ai looks longingly at Seiichi the entire

time, clearly, Seiichi’s approval of Ai’s goods is enough for a loving relationship. Just as

neoliberals in favor of globalization believe that a functioning bilateral economic relationship

will inevitably lead to a positive relationship in politics and culture, Ai believes that an

economic, material relationship is symbolic of a deeper relationship. Indeed, Seiichi says, “When

you are hungry you become sad”, thus illustrating how the myth of neoliberal globalization can

cause people to conflate economic desires with emotional ones. Globalization does this when

tied to capitalism because its message “is that economic enjoyment can equal personal

fulfillment so long as one keeps on consuming” (Weber 119). After Seiichi leaves, a pelican

delivers Ai a letter from Sally in which she explains her abrupt departure. Sally explains that, if

she had talked to Ai about her departure, she would not have been able to go through with it. In

other words, Sally would not have been able to fulfill her material desire to create clothing if she

was reminded of her personal ones. Sally realizes the contradiction at the “empty core of

liberalism”, that economic gains are not a substitute for personal relationships, when she pleads

with Ai to “please forgive my selfishness” (Dōbutsu). “What it takes for liberalism to appear to

be free of internal contradictions is the endless deferral of individual encounters with liberalism’s
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empty core”, so when Sally comes to grips with this failure of liberalism, it shows that while

liberalism might not face external threats, it certainly faces internal ones in its failures to provide

a “good life” (Weber 120). In the final scenes, it is revealed that the miracle of the Winter

Festival is the return of Sally to Animal Village, when Sally learns to, at least temporarily, place

friendship above economic gain. Once Sally returns to her, Ai remarks that it is the “first time

[she] felt like part of animal village” demonstrating her realization that her extended economic

activity in the area was not sufficient to produce an emotional attachment (Dōbutsu).

Fukuyama identifies religion and nationalism as the only remaining threat to liberalism –

neither of these are present in Animal Village; there are no religions; there are no nations. Animal

Crossing, being a product of globalization, contains neither because they are inconsistent with

the trajectory of “cultural universalization” set by neoliberalism (Weber 108). However, while

communism may be labeled by Fukuyama as a dead challenger to liberalism on Earth, one scene

of Animal Crossing contains a semblance of a Marxist critique of neoliberal globalization. While

Animal Village has no economic classes, Mr. Resetti, a mole, is a member of an underclass in

that he literally lives under the other villagers. As Halberd and Yū carry on their neoliberal

globalist search for history in the form of fossils, their digging begins to collapse the tunnel

network that forms Mr. Resetti’s home. This matches the historical materialist assessment of

globalization that finds that capitalist economics make the rich richer and the poor poorer,

because each nugget of history captured by the liberal boys is another devastated home for

Animal Village’s underclass. In this situation, as a historical materialist would hold, “economics

does drive politics”, because it is the search for history made necessary by the globalist view that

creates the conflict between Mr. Resetti and the boys (Weber 105). Globalization is bad for Mr.

Resetti, because it leaves him without a home, and thus an unequal distribution of wealth tilts
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toward the boys’ favor, making the historical materialist interpretation of globalization appear

true in his case. Animal Crossing does not contain a complete communist critique of

globalization because it does not suggest that socialism or communism is the next and final stage

of history that will supplant the current capitalist stage. While Mr. Resetti does say “looking for

fossils is fine, but there has to be a better method”, he never suggests that the method involves

state control of the means of production (Dōbutsu). In this context, Mr. Resetti may be little

different than a bewildered WTO protester, unhappy with the exploitation of neoliberalism but

unsure of any alternatives. When Mr. Resetti begins to lecture the boys on the immorality of their

actions, they follow the neoliberal pattern by “defer[ing] and displac[ing]” the individual

encounter and they run away, refusing the acknowledge the contradiction with the capitalist

promise of their view of globalization, and they end up hearing no more of the diatribe than a

CEO might hear from a public protest (Weber 107).

While Animal Crossing was certainly constructed by a global capitalist company,

Nintendo, to create more profit out of a successful video game franchise, it’s portrayal of

globalization is no better than Fukuyama’s at addressing the core inconsistency at the heart of

neoliberalism, namely, its reliance on capitalist economics that frustratingly conflates emotional

desires with economic ones. For Ai, this conflation alienates her from her new home. Only when

her friend Sally holds Ai above economic gain does Ai feel truly loved and happy in her

community. For Mr. Resetti, capitalist economics creates a need for history and consumption that

compels boys to dig up his home much like a capitalist might destroy homes in search of oil. His

plight illustrates neoliberalism’s failure to provide the “good life” to all its citizens through its

ability to create economically disadvantaged and politically marginalized underclasses. Thus,

even in a simple children’s film created by staunch globalist neoliberals, the contradictions that
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make it clear that globalization, like other IR myths, only appears true in certain instances, are

readily apparent.
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Works Cited

Dōbutsu no Mori. Dir. Jōjin Shimura. Perf. Yui Horie, Misato Fukuen, Fumiko Orikasa, Yū

Kobayashi, Naoki Tatsuta, Kenichi Ogata, Shun Oguri, Yūichi Kimura. Nintendo, 2006.

Weber, Cynthia. International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge,

2005.