Week 5

Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006), discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West, or somewhere else?

According to Napier (2005), one of the reasons that anime is so popular in Japanese culture is because of the relationship between anime and manga. Since manga is uniquely Japanese, and has a large following in Japan, it makes sense that anime, which is largely based on manga, is so important to Japanese culture (Napier, 2005). In Japan, they place more emphasis on visual mediums than the West do, and this dates back to the 1600’s where there is evidence of comics, woodblock prints and cartoons (Napier, 2005). Although anime is undoubtedly influenced by the Western world, I still think that the style of anime is something that cannot be found in Western cultures. As the Japanese culture becomes more westernized, it is only natural that the forms of entertainment they manufacture, such as anime, will because more friendly to the Western world (Napier, 2005). In doing this, they are expanding their market, and are able to attract viewers from all over the world. Although the Western world may not yet be largely familiar with anime, there is an increasing amount of interest in it, especially in the American market (Napier, 2005). The Japanese may recognize this shift, as some have stated that they feel anime is without a national identity, and in fact may come from neither East nor West, but “another world” altogether (Napier, 2005). This is portrayed in anime films were the characters may look Western, but it is set in a distinctively Japanese setting. To me, the whole genre seems kind of confused, but I do think that adds to the strangeness of the genre, and it makes those worlds seem more interesting in a way. It has been suggested that this is done by the Japanese to escape from their own nationality, by presenting characters who appear to be Westerners but clearly are Japanese in other respects (Napier, 2005). That always confused me when I was watching Pokemon or Dragon Ball Z as a kid, because in the back of my mind I knew that they were Japanese but they distract you so much from it that you forget it completely.


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

According to Cavallaro (2006), Shojo is a word used in Japan to describe a young girl, usually of 12 or 13 years of age. Shojo represents the passage between youth and adulthood, where there is a fine distinction between the qualities possessed by a girl and the qualities possessed by a woman. Shojo embodies innocence yet accents a girl’s “budding eroticism” (Cavallaro, 2006). Shojo in anime means a light-hearted narrative, usually with female characters and aimed at young girls, teenagers or creepy men (Cavallaro, 2006). Shojo is seen as having some element of wonder and tranquility, which contrasts from anime that is set in the war or in sci-fi narratives (Cavallaro, 2006).

In Miyazaki’s films, he uses young females who appear to be shojo, but do not have the passive, dream-like nature of a typical shojo (Cavallaro, 2006). The reason for this is that Miyazaki he disagrees with portraying girls like helpless play-things for men who like young girls, which is fair enough (Cavallaro, 2006). This is also one of the reasons that I like Miyazaki’s films so much; his female characters are almost always strong and active, even if they are very young. In Princess Mononoke, this is most prevalent, as shown in the characters of San and Lady Eboshi. San had been raised by wolves, and could be as vicious and as powerful as one of her wolf siblings. Lady Eboshi was a leader, someone who everybody looked up to, and was just as ruthless as any man could be (Princess Mononoke, 2006). There are countless other examples in his other films.

References

Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: McFarland & Company.

Miyazaki, H. (Director). (2006). Princess Mononoke. Toyko: Studio Ghibli Productions.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.