Week Two

Anime: From Akira to Howl's Moving Castle

Chapter 8:

A good auteur is one with unique enough of a visual style that their work is immediately recognizable to the viewer. Miyazaki's works, Napier argues, can be defined by two elements in particular: his rich fantasy worlds and strong female characters. The worlds he creates, down to the minute details, exhibit both "what is lost" - a world where nature has not yet been dominated by humanity - and "what could be" - a world in which nature is still an independent force to be reckoned with. As a result, many of Miyazaki's films are either post-apocalyptic or pre-modern society in their settings. The protagonists he chooses to inhabit these worlds are generally young females who, in contrast to the typical shojo, show many traditionally coded masculine characteristics: independence, courage, competence, and strength. Though he draws on traditional Japanese fairy tale elements (e.g. most of the girls are orphaned or in situations without parental guidance), Miyazaki also breaks down norms of what constitutes femininity by making his girls curious and assertive in the fantastic world and situations they find themselves in. It can be argued that he uses such characters because, as children and young women (meaning they will not be in the situation of existing as potential future rulers as a young man would), they can perceive the world differently. Yet, he also makes his female protagonists essentially human: they fight with one another (as in "My Neighbor Totoro"), fail at their tasks (as in "Kiki's Delivery Service"), and lose control of their emotions (as in "Nausicaa"), meaning that, while strong characters, they remain flawed too, creating believable characters within the confines of Miyazaki's narratives. His characters not only defamiliarize the viewer from what they think of reality as, but provide a unique perspective that is critical and hopeful at the same time.

Freud: "Totem and Taboo":

Freud's article looks at the instance of animism amongst "primitive" cultures of people, a phenomenon which he sees as the precursor to religion and, finally, science in a hierarchy of belief systems. According to Freud, animism likely developed as a reaction to issues like death, wherein primitive man, unable to control it, relinquished some of his omnipotent control over his reality to the idea of "spirits", which were also a convenient way of rationalizing grief. Every emotion was externalized into reality, in the form of "good" and "evil" spirits. It is essentially a narcissistic set of beliefs, argues Freud, with man believing not only that things are governed by spirits but that, by abiding by a certain set of rules, one could obtain mastery over them. Perhaps one can even master death, negating the need to acknowledge its supremacy over mankind. Hence the close association of animistic beliefs with magical beliefs, where one can effect an outcome through personal use of magic. Says Freud, animistic belief naturally evolves into religious belief, in which man relinquishes more power into the idea of a god or multiple gods, a concession that will, with time, give way to a faith in science.