Week 5/6: Anime: is it a genre or a media?

After having read both Napier (2005) and Cavallaro’s (2006) texts on Anime and the associated genres as well as the social and cultural contexts, I have come to appreciate it and move beyond the predominantly Western view of it ‘just being cartoons’ – which I used to associate with the likes of Pokemon and Digimon.  

Coming to a conclusion as to whether it is a genre or a media proves to be a difficult as there are many perspectives from which it can be argued and it holds elements of both and also varies as to whether it is being evaluated from a Western or Eastern stance. Within a Japanese context I feel that it more a media with associated subgenres. As both Napier and Cavallaro acknowledge, manga and anime are cultural staples in Japan that are appreciated by both children and adults alike – with different genres being projected at different age groups or sometimes, albeit less frequently it seems, with a universal target audience embodied by works like Princess Mononoke (Miyazaki Hayao).   

Another interesting aspect when arguing whether it is a genre or a media is the context from which anime has emerged. Japan is a largely pictocentric culture (Napier, p.7) with anime drawing influence from  Kabuki and woodblock prints, so the value placed on drawn mediums would be much more than in the West where cartoons and animation are largely regarded for children – or the more nonsensical shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and Beavis and Butthead. When compared to shows such as these, I come to regard anime as more of a high-culture media and art form while the West and Hollywood cast themselves in a more low-culture and consumable context. In fact, from what I have read, by stereotyping anime and associated manga into a category aimed largely at children and drawing comparisons to Disney insult and trivialise the art form and in doing so, exposes one’s ignorance (which, ashamedly, I will admit to having done so previously).

Napier sums up the art of anime on page 8: ‘…it is a richly fascinating contemporary Japanes art form with a distinctive narrative and visual aesthetic that both harks back to traditional Japanese culture and moves forward to the cutting edge of art and media’.

I think that trying to classify anime is like trying to classify fiction. Yes, fiction is a genre and so is anime. But the scope and reach within both categories is so far stretched, it is pretty much impossible to label anime as ‘just anime’ – or fiction as ‘just fiction’. It seems to me that anime and manga have become more a literature in Japan and hold far more social and cultural significance than comics and cartoons do in the west. Perhaps, in the case of Princess Mononoke and its message specifically, one can compare Miyazaki to James Cameron and Avatar and should be held in as high regard (if not higher).