Week One

Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle:

Chapters 1 and 2:

Susan Napier begins her book by answering a question particularly important when studying anime from a Western perspective: Why has anime achieved such a wide degree of popularity across such a diverse, multicultural audience of people in a way that Western animation has not yet? She introduces her answer to the question by first distinguishing between anime as an art form and other styles of animated art (particularly Disney). Napier argues that anime not only boasts an "arresting visual style" but a narrative form that offers a depth not found in predictable Western anime. In addition, its examination of themes and settings that are universal to all cultures, despite the obvious "otherness" of it as a Japanese art form, give it a broad-ranging appeal to most people in most places. Napier further argues that everything from character design to choice of locations (futuristic worlds or schools) makes anime works not synonymous with Japanese society, instead creating an independent space particular to anime itself. Anime, she states, is especially appropriate at the turn of the century, considering that many of its plot lines revolve around technology and fluid notions of gender and sexuality. However, Napier sees three themes - all of which mix traditional and modern elements of Japanese society - as being especially recurrent in the genre: apocalypse, festival, and elegy. Apocalypse stems from Japan's dark recent history and highly technological society, ranging from the optimistic to deeply pessimistic about mankind's future, and capturing many fears and disillusioned ideologies in Japan. The festival ventures away from anime's austere side to explore grossly exaggerated themes and visual imagery that picture what we can't experience in our own societies. The final theme, elegiac, concerns itself with more of a sense of melancholy and nostalgia for the past, celebrating as well as mourning the loss of many cultural traditions and norms in post-war society. These three themes, says Napier, are almost always present, in some form of another, in any animated work on the market.

Japanamerica:

Ronald Kelts' book, on the other hand, deals more specifically with the issue of why anime is so popular in America in particular, whether it is Japan or America or both changing that has led to the cross-pollination of Eastern and Western culture seen in anime (a topic only briefly touched on in Napier). From sushi to Pokemon, Japanese creations have become well-integrated into American popular culture. How is this possibly when the two countries hold cultural values that are almost diametrically opposed at times? Kelts argues that, at the very least, both cultures (albeit in different ways) value a sense of creative freedom (especially seen in the world of anime, where illustrators/directors are given almost complete artistic freedom as they rise in the ranks), making it very easy for American tastes to adapt to Japanese tastes (and visa versa). Especially considering America's current financial and political woes, the escapist pleasures of anime, combined with the sincerity of its characters' aims and feelings (as opposed to the often sarcastic nature of characters in American cinema), make the art form particularly appealing at the moment. Furthermore, Kelts makes an analogy between the effects of the atomic bombs on Japan and 9/11 in America, making our understanding and interest in apocalypse themes more acute. The appeal of the blurry line between good and evil (where Disney only pushes black-and-white characterizations of morality) is something Americans are more receptive to in our time. Even Miyazaki, whose films are still seen as "children's films in the U.S." and whose protagonists are almost always children, explores themes such as right, wrong, longing, and loss in such depth that adults can't help but be drawn in. In a nutshell, Japanese just feels a lot physically and culturally "closer" than it did before.