Weeks 5 and 6
Princess Mononoke
1) What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?
2) According to Lent (2000) what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (i.e. comparing Japan and China)?
3)Is anime a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?
4)Does Anime confront social issues? Gender roles in Princess Mononoke.
Week 5 – 6
ReplyDeleteHayao Miyazaki’s - Princess Mononoke
Shōjo is the Japanese word for “girl”. The word originates from a Chinese expression with the same characters (少 and 女) and it means young/little and woman respectively. Anime (and Manga) of this category are targeted to girls between the ages of ten and eighteen. Often focusing on romance and interpersonal relationships but does not necessarily mean they lack action and adventure (Wikipedia.com). From my experiences of watching anime, the girls portrayed in Shōjo anime’s seems to be portrayed as happy-go-lucky, full of life, but often seem submissive and physically weak. However, in Princess Mononoke we see many strong female characters from Lady Eboshi and San (Princess Mononoke) to the working women in iron town.
Wikipedia.com. (n.d). Shojo. Retrieved on August 22, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Djo
The animation industry in japan alone consists of 430 production companies (Studio Ghibli being one of them). Anime films represent a large part of the Japanese films in the industry (Wikipedia.com)
DeleteFun fact: Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited away” was the highest-grossing anime film of all time until it was over taken by Makoto Shinkai’s “Your Name” (2016). Both have incredibly beautiful animation and are amazing anime’s in their own right. Highly Recommend Your Name.
Lent (2000) states that Asia’s animation has been highly influenced by western animation. Prominently, Disney. Disney is actually partnered with Studio Ghibli for creation and distribution of their English dubbed movies. Lent (2000) continues by stating that over the years animation has worked its way in to Asian society such as being used to portray different messages. You can see how Miyazaki uses Princess Mononoke to portray his message of human’s vs nature. The concept of ‘humans are at war against nature’. Lady Eboshi and her town portray the stubborn, greedy, and short-sighted humans who wants to destroy nature for the prosperity of their town. San fights alongside nature to try and prevent the humans from destroying nature; her home.
Wikipedia.com. (n.d). Anime. retrieved on 22 August 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime
Lent, J. A. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. retrieved 22 August 2017, from AnimeResearch.com
Wikipedia is not a valid academic source.
ReplyDeleteavoid having "fun facts" keep to the question.
How does your reference of Lent and analysis of the film speak to question you have set out to answer?
You description of Shojo Characters from your anime viewing reminded me of the Hollywood film trope "the manic pixi dream girl," have you heard of this?
Revised Submission: Focusing question #1 – What is Shojo and how does it often function in anime?
Delete‘Shōjo’ is genre in Anime and Manga which originated in Japan towards the end of the 19th century (Toku 2015). Depending on the length of the vowel, Shōjo means either ‘virgin’ or ‘girl’ in Japanese (Lunning, 2011). It is a genre which is targeted to the female population particularly female high school students. And it grew popular through Shōjo manga magazines (Toku 2015). According to Lunning (2011) Shōjo is a culture which is complex and multi-layered.
Friberg (2006) explains that classic shōjo characters in anime are usually sweet young heroines that are cute. Who have freedom from social constrictions and poses the freedom to dream. However, seen as unproductive, useless, an/or silly. Not quite children but not fully adult women either. Friberg (2006) further explains that many of Miyazaki’s female heroines are classical ‘Shōjo’, in age, cuteness and sexual innocence. However, they also portray the characteristics of a masculine hero; they are adventurous, assertive and courageous.
From Princess Mononoke, San is not portrayed as the sweet, cute, and bubbly girl we see in typical Shōjo anime but she is strong willed and independent with the courage to fight for her beliefs. Likewise, for Lady Eboshi. Though lady Eboshi would be too old to be considered a Shōjo character.
To answer your question Mike. I had not heard ‘The Manic Pixi Dream Girl’ (MPDG). Doing further research though I did found that it’s described as a female character who is ‘bubbly’ and ‘shallow’ existing only to help propel the male leads lives in the particular text (Allison, 2016). I think some parts of Shōjo anime does present some elements of MPDG. Such as, the bubbly high school students whose ultimate purpose in life is to find a boyfriend and/or get married. But that might just be categorising it to a particular group of anime shows. As I’ve now noticed with most of Miyazaki’s female heroines and I’m sure with a other anime shows I haven’t seen yet.
Reference:
Journal/Book
Lunning, F. (2011). Under the Ruffles: Shōjo and the Morphology of Power. Mechademia, 63-19.
Toku, M. (2015). International perspectives on shojo and shojo manga : the influence of girl culture. New York, New York ; London, [England] : Routledge, 2015.
Articles
Allison, S. (2016). The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Complex and What It Means for Modern Women. Retrieved on 12 September 2017. From https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-manic-pixie-dream-girl-concept
Freiber, F. (2006). Sense of Cinema. Miyazaki’s Heroines. Retrieved on September 12 2017. From http://sensesofcinema.com/2006/feature-articles/miyazaki-heroines/
According to Lent (2000), " Over the years, animation was fitted to Asian societies and their mass media. Politically, filmed cartoons have severed governmental and bureaucratic goals. Economically, animation also found its own position in parts of Asia. Also, the enticement of foreign studios and their work-for-hire and co-production schemes brought in foreign money. Culturally, animation was moulded to Asia through the use of indigenous artistic styles and techniques." (Animation's fit to Asian societies) Throughout above, we could clearly feel the "invisible power" of animation that slowly coursing through the entire Asian world. it's a medium, that won the favour of people from various of social classes.
ReplyDeleteThe differences between China and Japan.
Even though animation has been generally accepted throughout the Asian societies, the places that anime is actually occupying within Asian countries are still quite different. As said in Lent (2000), " One thing for sure about early animation in Asia was the prevalence of a western(meaning Disney for the most part) influence. (Origins of animation in Asia, para.1 ) In terms of that, Disney animation indeed had dramatically influence on those Asian countries, because of that Asian countries started to seek for their own places inside of the animation world respectively.
Although Chinese animation has been living under the shadow of Disney and Japanese animation at the first stage and was practically put on pause for a decade due to Chinese cultural revolution, it eventually found it's own place in the Asian anime world. As Lent (2000) states: "In a Chinese film, one ought to have a story based purely on real Chinese traditions and stories, consistent with our sensibility and sense of humour… Also our films must not only bring pleasure, but also be educational."(Origins of animation in Asia, para.5) As a Chinese, growing up with both western and oriental animation has been one of the fascinating part of my life. Apparently Chinese animation were more featured in an educational way comparing to western animation which mostly aimed to be entertaining. For instance, the Chinese animation usually contains of Chinese historical stories and allusion, like the Chinese anime I watched when I was a little, was called "Little 8th Route Army", it was a story about a boy taking on revenge against the imperial Japanese Army, which was a portray of Chinese contemporary history.
Talking about Asian animation, Japan has been taking the leading place ever since the beginning of anime entered Asian societies. As stated in Napier (2005)," Through anime Japan has become an increasingly significant player in the global cultural economy. The Japanese products are popular in Korea and Taiwan, as well as Southeast Asia."(p.5) Furthermore, “cultural phenomenon worthy of being taken seriously, both sociologically and aesthetically.”(Napier, 2005, p.4) Princess Mononoke can be a good example of the great cultural impact on animation, the background of the film was set in the late Muromachi period which intangibly becomes a Japanese cultural publicity to the world. Also, the struggle which involved the gods of a forest and the humans is actually for warning people to pay attention to our environment. Overall, anime plays an important role in Asian societies coursing through different fields and has gradually found it's own position as well as keep bringing up positive changes to the societies.
Reference:
Lent, J. A. (2000). Animation in Asia: Appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. Retrieved September 4, 2017, from http://tlweb.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1100/jlfr11c.htm
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.
Well answered, Yimo. Personal recollection also good. But what of Korean or Vietnamese animation?
DeleteBlog Post 3: Princess Mononoke
ReplyDeleteAccording to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (i.e. comparing China and Japan)?
Animation in Asian societies got its start by influences from Western animation. The earliest Chinese animation (Uproar in an art studio) was inspired and used concepts from an American series called Out of an Inkwell (Lent, 2000).
Disney was one of the main influences in Asian animation due to its popularity. Its cartooning style and animation greatly inspired Asian animation (Lent, 2000). The differences between the Asian countries and their adaptation of western animation was their use of that new influence. The Chinese only adapted elements of western animation into their own work. They wanted to keep the story still based on Chinese tradition for education (Lent, 2000). This would allow them to entertain as well as keep their culture evident to teach young people. In addition to this, they would include their own art style (Lent, 2000). In contrast to China, Indian animations almost always borrow from western culture and don’t stick to Indian traditions, although, some Indian animators who have trained in a western tradition try and stick to their roots (Lent, 2000).
Animation in Asia, even though it started small with major western influence, started to grow much larger. Due to inexpensive labor and the art style Asia had (such as French influence on Vietnamese animation and traditional Chinese art) about 90% of all American animation is produced in Asia (Lent, 2000). Co-production agreements, with countries such as America and Australia, came about as sales of animation were difficult due to piracy. Asian animation would gain more widespread attention because of this agreement and the animators would gain a bigger role to play with larger projects and with more creativity (Lent, 2000).
This settlement gave Walt Disney of WDI international the rights to market some Studio Ghibli’s films whose animator is Hayao Miyazaki. One of these included Princess Mononoke. This provided Walt Disney with the entry into anime, who hoped to bring it to mainstream audiences (Lent, 2000).
Previously, Miyazaki was hesitant to allow rights for distribution due his worry of the altering his work (Lent, 2000). Another possible reason may have been how western culture would receive this type of animation with its heavy Japanese influence. Although anime evidently has a lot of Japanese influence, the western impact that started in the earlier days of animation in Asia make it far more relatable than one would think. For example, Princess Mononoke whose underlying story has multiple different understandings such as the relationship between man and environment or simply just the focus of Ashitaka and his journey. The western inspirations make it highly relatable to a wider audience.
Animation was formed to Asian traditions with their traditional art styles and stories. That combined with popular western animation gave a unique look. Anime is large part of western society today which is possible due to the convergence of both cultures.
Lent, J. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. [online] Tlweb.latrobe.edu.au. Available at: http://tlweb.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1100/jlfr11c.htm [Accessed 5 Sep. 2017].
According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (i.e. comparing China and Japan)?
ReplyDeleteLent (2000) provides details of the birth of animation in China. The early forms of Chinese animation were influenced by American cartoons, but were always adapted to fit Chinese culture rather than simply being a reproduction of American animation. Lent (2000) states that Disney was an influence on Chinese animation, but the impact was not overly dominant to the degree that it would have adopted the Disney ‘princess’ narrative. More importantly than the American influence, Lent (2000) describes how animation is in many ways an artistic style intrinsically linked to traditional Asian art, whether it be paper fold, ink and wash or shadow theatre. It could be said that the influence of American cartoons in the 1920s triggered the adaption of an artistic style already suited to Asian art.
With reference to more modern times, Lent (2000) describes the ‘work-for-hire’ production of animation since the early 1960s. Foreign studios would be attracted to the Asian countries due to inexpensive labour. He mentions the employment of young women, who were wanted for their delicate artistic touch. By Western standards, wages were low but within a local context were deemed to be competitive. This impact of this labour outsourcing can be noticed in the statistic that “90% of all ‘American’ television animation” was (in the year of writing, 2000) produced in Asia. Lent (2000) mentions Singapore as an example of a place which had recognized the advantages of animation on the economy, and as a result of this in the early 1990s introduced animation programmes in three polytechnics.
Lent (2000) gives examples of how animation have fit within various Asian societies, stating that in China, animations had a moral message, whereas in Vietnam in the 1960s, animation was influenced by themes of war. Additionally, he mentions the agreement between Disney and Hong Kong to build a Disneyland park, which opened in 2005.
The relationship between animation in Asian countries identifies differences while also creating an affiliation. Lent (2000) mentions the adoption and subsequent adaption of Japanese anime into live action films and TV shows in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Is it a high or low cultural genre, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?
To justify the position of anime with high culture, Napier (2005) relates the animation style to traditional Japanese artistic forms such as Kabuki and wood block print. Napier (2005) also mentions that the topics covered in anime are often similar to the issues addressed in literature regarded as contemporary high culture. Napier (2005) concludes from this that “Anime is a cultural phenomenon worthy of being taken seriously”.
Napier (2005) cites a Time magazine article depicts anime as a genre that covers many subgenres from kids cartoons to ‘post doomsday fantasies’, ‘schizo-psycho thrill machines’ and ‘sex and samurai sagas’. Additionally Napier (2005) lists romance, comedy, tragedy and adventure as well as mentioning the other popular sub genres of cyberpunk and ‘Mecha’ (mechanical).
References:
Lent, J. A. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. Retrieved 21 June, 2006, from AnimeResearch.com
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.
According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (i.e. comparing Japan and China)?
ReplyDeleteThe Wan brothers are credited with starting animation production in China with the release of their first work Uproar in an art studio in 1926. The work was heavily influenced by American style animation and took inspiration from the Out of the inkwell series by the Fleischer brothers. The brothers were also influenced by Disney cartoons such as Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat as well as works by the Fleischer brothers and Chinese shadow puppet theatre, among others (Lent, 2000).
Lent (2000) continues that while heavily influenced by American animation, animation in China only adapted parts of foreign animation that fit China’s culture rather than create full imitations of American works. This was very important to them more so than other Asian countries in the industry apart from Japan, as Lent (2000) quotes Wan Laiming; “In a Chinese film, one ought to have a story based purely on real Chinese traditions and stories, consistent with our sensibility and sense of humour....Also, our films must not only bring pleasure, but also be educational.” China’s first animated feature film Princess with the iron fan (1941) is a good example of this as it was obviously influenced by Disney but did not have the ‘usual dosage of sweetness and prettiness’ (Lent 2000) that is prevalent in Disney animation and was adapted from a Chinese novel, Journey to the west.
One of Japan’s first animators, Tezuka Osamu was influenced by Wan Laiming’s Princess with the iron fan when he watched it as a sixteen year old, where it led him to pursue a career in animation. Tezuka also idolized Walt Disney and had seen Disney cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Bambi many times, because of this, his own work The Jungle Emperor’s animation was heavily styled after Disney eventually leading to some controversy over the similarity to Disney’s The Lion King despite The Jungle Emperor being made three decades prior (Lent 2000).
Lent (2000) goes on to describe production of animation in Asia, and how foreign studios established and maintained production facilities due to the cheap labour costs of outsourcing production. Young workers, especially women were sought out for their “delicate touch” and the wages offered were low by western standards but competitive in a local context. Lent (2000) also mentions the statistic that 90% of all American TV animation was produced in Asia, highlighting the impact of outsourced production labour within the industry.
Animation in Asian society has various influences and messages to the people, such as in China where there is a stress on moral messages to the viewers, as opposed to Vietnamese themes of war in 1960’s animations. Japanese anime, while originally impacted by western animation is heavily influenced by Japanese culture, formed by traditional Japanese stories and art styles. The two styles are combined in a way that gives anime a unique look. Anime has also been adopted by other countries such as Hong Kong and Taiwan where they are made into live action film and television series (Lent 2000). Anime is now becoming a bigger part of western society also, where popular shows are dubbed into English and broadcast in countries such as America, it seems now there is more of a cultural balance as countries such as Japan and America share their works.
Lent, J. A. (2000). Animation in Asia: Appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. Retrieved October 26, 2017, from http://tlweb.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr1100/jlfr11c.htm