WEEK 5/6 ANIME

Week Six

According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing China and Japan)? 

Animation is at the epicentre of Asian popular culture. It was inspired in the first instance however, by cartoons of the West i.e. Disney, Felix the Cat etc. According to Lent (2000), as animation gained notoriety in Asia, less imitation of western cartoons occurred, replacing a Disney-esque style with a distinct animation variety of their own. What has resulted is an idiosyncratic way of animating that incorporates, rather, embodies the customs and culture that they illustrate. 

Asian animation has become a societal cycle: Reality influences animation, which influences manga, which influences reality and so on and so forth. On a large scale, we can apply this theory to Asia as a continent, but looking closer we notice the slight but distinctive differences in anime style between countries:

Culturally, animation embraced local narratives throughout Asia; including folklore, fairy tales and fantasy. Technically as well, the style of animation developed to shape itself around native artistic techniques. In Japan, animation displayed evidence of origami; China exhibited ink and wash and paper-cutting.

In an attempt to identify the societal place of animation in Asia we can see already that before subject matter, animation had taken on a life of its own, in a new form: anime.

For the Japanese, anime began as a subculture that morphed into the mainstream. Anime presented itself as a porthole to an alternate universe; ethical messages thinly veiled by epic adventures. We can see this in Miyazaki’s Princess Monnonoke, her quest to save her town and the Forest Spirit a metaphor for Japan’s expansionist reputation and alleged disregard for the environment. Ultimately, anime provides a distraction from reality by establishing an alternate reality. 

Unlike western animation, Asian anime is void of much of the cloying sweetness and light made famous by Walt Disney’s “Golden Years” productions. Instead, the anime industry has been wrought with international attacks on the explicit sexuality and graphic violence portrayed in some films.

In contrast, Chinese anime has taken on a more bureaucratic role. Anime evolved while under the autocratic rule of Chairman Mao. Unable to slow the momentum of anime’s success, Mao ruled that the only animation produced was to “educational, technically sound using characters with human traits, and varied in subject matter expressing a national character and the originality of Chinese culture.” From a stifled start, Chinese animation has grown in its role; today animated police officers on MDF signs line the streets of Beijing telling pedestrians to stop littering and use the assigned street crossings.

Animation in Asia has diversified popular culture by bringing an alternate reality by evolving from a sub-genre and reclassifying itself as the alternate reality it animates. Globally, the industry is thriving and Westerners are watching with increasing interest. Regionally, anime continues to grow according to its of country of origin; the anime snowball amassing with every film, manga and computer game.