Week 5/6 Anime

Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006) discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West or somewhere else? The 1990’s saw a shift in cultural Japan, with the export of ‘anime’ – a Japanese abbreviation for animation. Although this concept was already considered a ‘popular’ or ‘mass’ culture in Japan, in America it was only deemed a ‘sub’ culture (Napier, 2005) but in the last decade it has been shown that this is starting to gain more and more popular in the Western world. Anime could have been popular in the Western world, before it was even understood that it was anime gracing our tv screens every afternoon (with shows like Pokemon and Sailor Moon). It is said to be an Easternised ‘Disney’ although the themes and elements would all be seen in ‘live action films’ rather than a characterised television show (Napier, 2005) something that Westerners could not perhaps wrap their heads around quite as easily as those in Japan who deem this great tv. Cavallaro puts it best when he mentions that the ‘themes are closely bound with Western culture due to literary and cinematography elements...(but are) distinctively Japanese in their use of tradition and lore” (2006). He makes aware that some of Miyazaki’s films (such as Princess Mononoke) should not be considered more Eastern or more Western just because the setting are more in one place or another. They are movies that, regardless of setting, are works which do not follow either uncritically or uniformly the Japanese...aesthetic (Cavallaro, 2006). I don’t think anime has a specific home in either the West or East culture. It is very much a Japanese idea but one that the Western nations are very quick and willing to add and adapt to everyday culture. References Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp. 5-13). London: McFarland & Company. Miyazaki, H. (Director). (2006). Princess Mononoke. Tokyo: Studio Ghibli Productions Napier, S. (2005). Why Anime? In Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp. 3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillen


 Is it a high or low cultural genre, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?

Napier (2005) suggests that Anime would be considered as a high cultural genre as he goes on to say - The culture to which anime belongs, is at present a popular or mass culture in Japan and in America is exists as a sub culture. Indeed in Japan over the last decade, anime has been increasingly seen as an intellectually challenging art form, as the number of scholarly writings on the subject attest. Furthermore, anime is a popular culture form that clearly builds on previous high culture traditions. Its is widely influenced by not only the medium shows from Japanese traditional art, but also makes use of the worldwide artistic traditions of the twentieth century cinema and photography. Napier (2005) He goes on to say; due to its popular reach they affect a wider verity of audiences in more ways then some less accessible types of high culture exchange have been able to do. So animepretty much clearly appears to be a cultural phenomenon worthy of being taken seriously, both sociologically and aesthetically Sub genres would include the ‘Mecha’ genre and cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a genre focusing on dystopian features in which humans struggle in an overpoweringly technological world where the difference between human and machine is increasingly amorphous. ‘Mecha’ or otherwise known as Mechanical genre privileges a favourite form from Japanese popular culture, the robot. Classics like Tezuka and Astro boy. references: Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’ Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillian.

 What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Shoujo- ‘little female’ It’s function in Anime is to allure the sense of the story “serenely dreamy…bathed in an atmosphere of magic and wonder”, which is admired by the audience of girls because of the ‘cuteness’ but also of Japanese men. NB. Shoujo in a metaphoricall sense can also represent “the transitionall stage betwee infamcy and maturity, and it admixture of sexiness and buding eroticism.” Cavallaro, D. (2006) The anime art of hayao miyazaki. London: McFarland and company