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Anime: from Akira to Princess Mononoke, Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation
With the popularity of Pokemon still far from waning, Japanese animation, known as anime to its fans, has a firm hold on American pop culture. However, anime is much more than children's cartoons. It runs the gamut from historical epics to sci-fi sexual thrillers. Often dismissed as fanciful entertainment, anime is actually quite adept at portraying important social and cultural issues like alienation, gender inequality, and teenage angst. This book investigates the ways that anime presents these issues in an in-depth and sophisticated manner, uncovering the identity conflicts, fears over rapid technological advancement, and other key themes present in much of Japanese animation.
311 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 2001
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1209 people want to read
About the author
Susan J. Napier
9 books33 followersSusan Jolliffe Napier is a Professor of the Japanese Program at Tufts University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
June 24, 2010
I give it one star because it's a book about anime. I gave it another star because it attempts to "complicate' the reader's understanding of hentai. Noble effort, my friend!
That being said, it was like someone JUST finished a Critical Theory class in the Literature/Women's Studies/Pop Culture Studies track at a small private college in the Northeast and then wrote a book about anime. Every essay is so mired in critic-quoting and SO completely devoid of the glee I was expecting from a book about such an awesome topic. It's almost as if the author bought into the thinking that you can't write intelligently AND engagingly about a non-academic subject. Who cares? Your lit professor isn't reading this, I am!
That being said, it was like someone JUST finished a Critical Theory class in the Literature/Women's Studies/Pop Culture Studies track at a small private college in the Northeast and then wrote a book about anime. Every essay is so mired in critic-quoting and SO completely devoid of the glee I was expecting from a book about such an awesome topic. It's almost as if the author bought into the thinking that you can't write intelligently AND engagingly about a non-academic subject. Who cares? Your lit professor isn't reading this, I am!
April 29, 2024
Virsraksts šai grāmatai izsaka visu, publicēšanas gads vēl vairāk. Uzrakstīta tai laikā, kad anime popularitāte tikai sāka augt Rietumos, šī ir, ko es nosauktu par 'mazuļa pirmo kritiku'.
Pilna ar attaisnojumiem, kādēļ šis ir jēdzīgs temats, par ko vispār rakstīt grāmatu, ka anime mēdz būt arī nopietnas un nav tikai lieli pupi un jēla komēdija. Lai uztvertu sevi nopietni, viņa anime mēdz saukt par 'texts', no kā nes tāda smaka ar pretenciozitāti, ka grūti izturēt, it īpaši, kad viņa izdomā ik pa laikam analizēt hentai un sekli pakritizēt, cik Rietumu filmas, seriāli un animācija ir slikti.
Viņa arī bieži iebrauc pilnīgās auzās, analizējot daudzus darbus, kā, piemēram, Akiras krāteri, ko asociē ar zudušajiem un marginalizētajiem cilvēkiem Japānā... tāpēc, ka saista ar ānusu vai vagīnu. Pēdējais teikums šai citātā ir patiess, bet savilkt to atombumbas izraisīto bedri Neo-Tokijā ar ānusu ir pārāk liels domas lidojums.
Kādēļ tad trīs zvaigznes, par spīti šim?
Bija šādi tādi citāti, kas ietina vārdos to, ko es vienmēr esmu domājusi, bet nemācējusi izteikt, piemēram:
Autores lielākais sasniegums šajā grāmatā bija Ghibli filmu analīze. Tur viņas dotības piepeši atraisījās, nonāca pareizajā virzienā, un bija labāk izpētītas, nekā citas anime. Piemēram, šo My Neighbour Totoro aspektu nebiju pamanījusi. Nemaz nebrīnos, ka viņa ir atsevišķi izdevusi grāmatu ar savu analīzi par Ghibli filmām.
Pilna ar attaisnojumiem, kādēļ šis ir jēdzīgs temats, par ko vispār rakstīt grāmatu, ka anime mēdz būt arī nopietnas un nav tikai lieli pupi un jēla komēdija. Lai uztvertu sevi nopietni, viņa anime mēdz saukt par 'texts', no kā nes tāda smaka ar pretenciozitāti, ka grūti izturēt, it īpaši, kad viņa izdomā ik pa laikam analizēt hentai un sekli pakritizēt, cik Rietumu filmas, seriāli un animācija ir slikti.
Viņa arī bieži iebrauc pilnīgās auzās, analizējot daudzus darbus, kā, piemēram, Akiras krāteri, ko asociē ar zudušajiem un marginalizētajiem cilvēkiem Japānā... tāpēc, ka saista ar ānusu vai vagīnu. Pēdējais teikums šai citātā ir patiess, bet savilkt to atombumbas izraisīto bedri Neo-Tokijā ar ānusu ir pārāk liels domas lidojums.
Pyschoanalytically, the crater may be read in terms of both the vagina and the anus. Coded as the female organ, the crater evokes the dryness and emptiness of atrophy and absence, once again underlining the absence of the maternal throughout the film. Coded as the body orifice associated with excretion, the crater is a metonym for the status of the bikers and the mutants, children and adolescents necessary only as a fodder for the industrial and scientific demands of their dystopian world.
Kādēļ tad trīs zvaigznes, par spīti šim?
Bija šādi tādi citāti, kas ietina vārdos to, ko es vienmēr esmu domājusi, bet nemācējusi izteikt, piemēram:
As Paul Wells suggests in his book on animation, metamorphosis may be "the constituent core of animation itself." Since movement is at the heart of animation, animation can and does emphasize transformation in a way that simply no other artistic genre is capable of doing. Even contemporary live-action films with their superb special effects have a jerky uneasy quality when compared with the amazing fluidity of the animated image."
Autores lielākais sasniegums šajā grāmatā bija Ghibli filmu analīze. Tur viņas dotības piepeši atraisījās, nonāca pareizajā virzienā, un bija labāk izpētītas, nekā citas anime. Piemēram, šo My Neighbour Totoro aspektu nebiju pamanījusi. Nemaz nebrīnos, ka viņa ir atsevišķi izdevusi grāmatu ar savu analīzi par Ghibli filmām.
In an analysis of Totoro, Shimizu argues that the totoro fantasy is simply a product of the children's imagination, an instrument of comfort devised by Mei, permitted by the father and ultimately participated in by the older sister Satsuki as well. Pointing to the essentially forlorn situation of the girls, uncertain as to whether their mother will ever recover and come home, Shimizu comments on the comforting quality of the totoro, especially the creature's tendency to appear at particularly lonely moments.
January 18, 2020
I came to this book with entirely wrong expectations and should perhaps have researched the methodology first. I was expecting an in-depth behind-the-scenes first-hand report of the genesis and genealogy of anime. Look, I know that actually finding, and interviewing, decades later, the makers of such obscure works as Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend Book 1, or speaking to someone as famous as Rumiko Takahashi takes effort and a budget, either beyond my own means. But I would have wished for a scholarly work to actually fill this gap, instead of a cultural theory cop-out, supplemented here and there with glosses of interviews given to magazines. Again, this was my lack of awareness of the methodology involved. There are some interesting parallels pointed out here (such as both Ranma ½ (Ranma ½, vol. 1) and Akira (Akira, Vol. 1) having the theme of transformation, which is somewhat obvious) and comparisons drawn that I have not noticed before, but not enough to warrant any better rating.
The vocabulary of cultural theory is unnerving, less so because it's particularly arcane and academic, but rather because it misapplies terms ("text" for "artifact") and is essentially designed allow authors to gloss over explicating the actual relation between things by words like "as" and "linked" and "suggests". At the risk of using it to criticize itself, one of the few things Derrida has said that make sense to me is that if something is said to be "clearly" or "obviously" concludable from something, this often serves to obscure that the conclusion is not clear or obvious at all, and at the risk of using its own language against itself, the book seems to do what Blair Johnston said in his talk at the Library of Congress about Rachmaninov Sergei's "Symphonic Dances": it "dances with ghosts, in a way": there are expositions of counterfactuals, substitutions without loci, discordances between nothings. The frequent "suggestions", at least, are not unusual in being of nothings, even though the hypothetical things they supposedly point to are often absurd and the conclusions are specious: for example, the point is made that in the first part of Ranma ½, vol. 1, only male characters are transforming, which supposedly means that the masculinity is depicted as normal, whereas the female is depicted as just one of several abnormal forms, along with pandas and piglets. Now, why the focus on the "first part", that is, before the introduction of Shampoo, is needed for the conclusion is clear. But I do not think that it is in any way warranted unless one aims for drawing this particular conclusion. Conversely, had females dominanted the ranks of transformers, I am fully expectant, the author would have had pulled the converse move of claiming that women, by virtue of the depiction of some sort of proximity to the non-human or their instability, were depicted as abnormal, and males as normal. This is how these subjects work, after all - you cannot win.
I'm not here to tell anyone what to like or not to like in a book. But if you, like me, are expecting some factual, researched information on the genesis of paradigmatic anime, or think "cultural theory" is for the most part omphalosceptic nonsense, with some glitters of hypothesizing for sociology, anthropology and ethnology to apply itself to before it goes into print, you will not have a good time with this book. Otherwise, you might.
The vocabulary of cultural theory is unnerving, less so because it's particularly arcane and academic, but rather because it misapplies terms ("text" for "artifact") and is essentially designed allow authors to gloss over explicating the actual relation between things by words like "as" and "linked" and "suggests". At the risk of using it to criticize itself, one of the few things Derrida has said that make sense to me is that if something is said to be "clearly" or "obviously" concludable from something, this often serves to obscure that the conclusion is not clear or obvious at all, and at the risk of using its own language against itself, the book seems to do what Blair Johnston said in his talk at the Library of Congress about Rachmaninov Sergei's "Symphonic Dances": it "dances with ghosts, in a way": there are expositions of counterfactuals, substitutions without loci, discordances between nothings. The frequent "suggestions", at least, are not unusual in being of nothings, even though the hypothetical things they supposedly point to are often absurd and the conclusions are specious: for example, the point is made that in the first part of Ranma ½, vol. 1, only male characters are transforming, which supposedly means that the masculinity is depicted as normal, whereas the female is depicted as just one of several abnormal forms, along with pandas and piglets. Now, why the focus on the "first part", that is, before the introduction of Shampoo, is needed for the conclusion is clear. But I do not think that it is in any way warranted unless one aims for drawing this particular conclusion. Conversely, had females dominanted the ranks of transformers, I am fully expectant, the author would have had pulled the converse move of claiming that women, by virtue of the depiction of some sort of proximity to the non-human or their instability, were depicted as abnormal, and males as normal. This is how these subjects work, after all - you cannot win.
I'm not here to tell anyone what to like or not to like in a book. But if you, like me, are expecting some factual, researched information on the genesis of paradigmatic anime, or think "cultural theory" is for the most part omphalosceptic nonsense, with some glitters of hypothesizing for sociology, anthropology and ethnology to apply itself to before it goes into print, you will not have a good time with this book. Otherwise, you might.
October 23, 2017
An academic (textual analysis) look at the development and trends of anime up to the early 2000s.
Video review/discussion: https://youtu.be/jUm_DqcEPXI
Video review/discussion: https://youtu.be/jUm_DqcEPXI
July 14, 2007
This book offers critical analysis of various mainstream anime films and books, such as Spirited Away, Ramna ½, Akira, Ghost in the Shell. It focuses mainly on the mode of different animes (carnival, elegiac, and apocalyptic) and analyzes them in light of identity theory and contemporary Japanese society. It’s enjoyable to skim through and to reflect upon, but like much criticism out there, this book is full of “interesting insight”, but leaves the big questions unanswered. There is no response to the question “so what’s the point of all this?” beyond cocktail and coffeeshop conversation.
April 6, 2008
An interesting book that touches on some of the most well-known anime titles. This is probably not the best read for those who have not seen the titles discussed. Think of this book as a series off critical essays analyzing the importance of various themes across the works. That being said, I am familiar with a fair number of the titles & really enjoyed reading. I'm especially fascinated with the exploration of contemporary Japanese identity.
September 8, 2020
This book isn't a comprehensive history of Japanese animaton and it shows. Since the introduction, Susan Napier makes it clear she wants to apply the tools of literary critique to anime and she tries to dissects them following these premises.
She starts from the distinction of anime in three different macro-categories or "modes": the apocalyptic, the elegiac and the festival. Then she mainly focuses on animation films and anime series aired between the second part of the Eightes and the first years of the Zeroes.
It was an intriguing reading and an interesting experiment, only partly successful. I appreciated the social and cultural perspective Napier used to analyze a range of stories that went from "Akira" to pornography (i.e. "Wicked City" or "Legend of the Overfiend") -though sometimes I think she underestimated the artistic legacy of some movies (see: "Grave of the Fireflies"), while giving too much credit to what appeared to be mere low-quality entertainment (see: the hentai movies).
What is probably the real limit of this book - more than choosing only a perspective, the one of a literary critic who tries to address the faults in Japanese patriarchy and how much it can permeate the writing of a series and the characterisation of its protagonists - it's the fact that Susan Napier chose to ignore how anime are created and how much the anime industry is able to condition the making of an anime.
Nevertheless, this was still an enlightening reading, a good academic experiment and a valid starting point for people who want to know more about anime and don't limit themselves to a simple "chronicle of events".
She starts from the distinction of anime in three different macro-categories or "modes": the apocalyptic, the elegiac and the festival. Then she mainly focuses on animation films and anime series aired between the second part of the Eightes and the first years of the Zeroes.
It was an intriguing reading and an interesting experiment, only partly successful. I appreciated the social and cultural perspective Napier used to analyze a range of stories that went from "Akira" to pornography (i.e. "Wicked City" or "Legend of the Overfiend") -though sometimes I think she underestimated the artistic legacy of some movies (see: "Grave of the Fireflies"), while giving too much credit to what appeared to be mere low-quality entertainment (see: the hentai movies).
What is probably the real limit of this book - more than choosing only a perspective, the one of a literary critic who tries to address the faults in Japanese patriarchy and how much it can permeate the writing of a series and the characterisation of its protagonists - it's the fact that Susan Napier chose to ignore how anime are created and how much the anime industry is able to condition the making of an anime.
Nevertheless, this was still an enlightening reading, a good academic experiment and a valid starting point for people who want to know more about anime and don't limit themselves to a simple "chronicle of events".
August 27, 2016
(3,5/5)
Para mi cumple con creces el que me parece que es su objetivo: mostrar que el anime es un medio narrativamente sofisticado que a menudo se presta a diversas (y legítimas) interpretaciones más allá del escapismo.
Es un texto académico pero accesible. Aunque se centra en un repertorio limitado de obras no me parece que eso sea una debilidad del libro. En cambio, sí que podría serlo el centrarse casi por completo en el contenido “textual” y pecar (aunque sin dogmatismo aparente) de sobreinterpretación. O tal vez me lo parece a mi por su abuso del psicoanálisis como herramienta de análisis crítico, algo que me toca las narices con facilidad. También es propenso a analizar las obras en clave de género y sus roles en la sociedad japonesa, pero eso sí que me ha resultado interesante.
Lo que está claro es que transmite el cariño de su autora por el medio. Eso y el rigor con el que escribe me ha atrapado. Recomendable para cualquier aficionado al anime interesado en ver cómo acercarse a el desde el punto de vista de la crítica.
Para mi cumple con creces el que me parece que es su objetivo: mostrar que el anime es un medio narrativamente sofisticado que a menudo se presta a diversas (y legítimas) interpretaciones más allá del escapismo.
Es un texto académico pero accesible. Aunque se centra en un repertorio limitado de obras no me parece que eso sea una debilidad del libro. En cambio, sí que podría serlo el centrarse casi por completo en el contenido “textual” y pecar (aunque sin dogmatismo aparente) de sobreinterpretación. O tal vez me lo parece a mi por su abuso del psicoanálisis como herramienta de análisis crítico, algo que me toca las narices con facilidad. También es propenso a analizar las obras en clave de género y sus roles en la sociedad japonesa, pero eso sí que me ha resultado interesante.
Lo que está claro es que transmite el cariño de su autora por el medio. Eso y el rigor con el que escribe me ha atrapado. Recomendable para cualquier aficionado al anime interesado en ver cómo acercarse a el desde el punto de vista de la crítica.
December 21, 2010
This is a great read for any anime lover. The woman who wrote it teaches Japanese language and culture so she provides historical and cultural context to a few chosen movies. And she talks about themes that apply to anime in general as well as talk about its influence on Western culture. I've seen most of the movies she talked about which made the book a better reading. But I also learned about others I am now curious to see!
January 29, 2024
A level-headed and thoughtful look at the themes and threads of 20th century anime. It was interesting to read this perspective from the year 2001, just before Spirited Away was released. There are some ideas in here that still hold true today (the fantastic limitless expressive potential of animation, the various emotional modes of anime, some discussions about american appropriation of japanese culture, etc), but some that have aged less well, or even some glaring omissions from a 2024 perspective. For instance, there is little mention of the intense over-commercialization of anime, the working conditions that animation studios operate within, or even common character archetypes/tropes that are so ubiquitous in anime discussion today, but were only just beginning to form at the time.
I think a lot of this book holds up to a modern read, although it is a little bit limited in its scope, and maybe not as revelatory as it might have been when it was published. I am interested to check out the author's more recent work to see how her perspective and tastes might have changed since then.
I especially liked the appendix at the end where she details a survey of western anime fans.
I think a lot of this book holds up to a modern read, although it is a little bit limited in its scope, and maybe not as revelatory as it might have been when it was published. I am interested to check out the author's more recent work to see how her perspective and tastes might have changed since then.
I especially liked the appendix at the end where she details a survey of western anime fans.
July 18, 2025
The author analyzes how a number of anime expresses different aspects of Japanese cultural identity, from gender identity and nuclear bomb trauma, but often utilizes Western analysis without grounding these frameworks within Japanese culture and society--justifying why these analysis can be applied in their own. Their own self-termed "expressive modes" related to Japanese cultural identity (apocalyptical, festival, and elegiac) to analyze anime is grounded well enough in the introduction, but falters when they argue how specific anime fall within these modes cause they more often utilize literary analysis from a Western lens to make their point. I feel just further contextualizing and history was needed within each chapter and not just at the beginning. I don't think the justification is needed if the author was just analyzing how and why anime resonates with Western audiences, but they don't.
Beyond that, the chapters give a good overview of prominent themes tackled in anime and how various anime approaches or interprets them. Because of that structure, the author doesn't do like large deep dives into specific anime, which isn't their goal. (If ya want a deep dive, then "Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli's Monster Princess" goes into a lot of nitty gritty details about the production and inspiration and other prevalent themes within the the movie.) The text can be a good companion with other sources. While it was published two decades ago and even some of the anime covered now has remakes, a lot of the analysis is still pretty timely, especially anime around apocalypses and war trauma. (The gender studies does read pretty dated with the exclusion of LGBTQ+ community, especially with how Ranma 1 1/2 resonates with the LGBTQ+ community.)
Beyond that, the chapters give a good overview of prominent themes tackled in anime and how various anime approaches or interprets them. Because of that structure, the author doesn't do like large deep dives into specific anime, which isn't their goal. (If ya want a deep dive, then "Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli's Monster Princess" goes into a lot of nitty gritty details about the production and inspiration and other prevalent themes within the the movie.) The text can be a good companion with other sources. While it was published two decades ago and even some of the anime covered now has remakes, a lot of the analysis is still pretty timely, especially anime around apocalypses and war trauma. (The gender studies does read pretty dated with the exclusion of LGBTQ+ community, especially with how Ranma 1 1/2 resonates with the LGBTQ+ community.)
November 1, 2020
Very dense, very thorough, very academic, requires a background in critical theory to understand the meat of the analyses. Quite eye-opening! Covers a wide range of anime across the decades. References films from the western canon too.
Chapters I enjoyed:
3. Akira and Ranma 1/2: The Monstrous Adolescent
Very interesting takes on representations of the unstable/amorphous adolescent body
5. Ghosts and Machines: The Technological Body
The last part talks about NGE through a psychoanalytic and mythic framework to comment on how this anime subverts mecha conventions
6. Doll Parts: Technology and the Body in Ghost in the Shell
Paralleled comparison of GitS with similar films like Blade Runner
8. The Enchantment of Estrangement: The Shojo in the World of Miyazaki Hayao
The first half talks about Totoro as a “classic fantasy of compensation” and Kiki’s Delivery Service as straddling the line between the fantastical and the realistically economical.
Chapters I enjoyed:
3. Akira and Ranma 1/2: The Monstrous Adolescent
Very interesting takes on representations of the unstable/amorphous adolescent body
5. Ghosts and Machines: The Technological Body
The last part talks about NGE through a psychoanalytic and mythic framework to comment on how this anime subverts mecha conventions
6. Doll Parts: Technology and the Body in Ghost in the Shell
Paralleled comparison of GitS with similar films like Blade Runner
8. The Enchantment of Estrangement: The Shojo in the World of Miyazaki Hayao
The first half talks about Totoro as a “classic fantasy of compensation” and Kiki’s Delivery Service as straddling the line between the fantastical and the realistically economical.
January 25, 2021
Caveat: I haven't actually read the whole book, but I've read enough of it to write the kind of review I typically type up about books like this. I used this book as a text in a freshmen writing class I taught. The class used "cartoons as a reflection of society" as its focus, and for that purpose (a month on Japanese animation) this book was perfect. It's more accessible than other similar books I've read, but still challenging enough for college freshmen. I don't always agree with Napier's points, and sometimes she makes the error of assuming authorial intent, but that gave my students something to work with.
November 17, 2022
interesting academic book about a handful of anime classics
especially enjoyed reading analyses about some of my favourite anime films (nausicaa, princess mononoke, etc)
but sometimes i feel like the author didnt expand on certain aspects of those animes in order to make her overall arguments more coherent (eg the antithesis of nausicaa is also a very independent female…, a bunch of eva subtext, etc)
am not particularly drawn to some of the psychoanalytical analysis but the book aint bad, quite an interesting read for me to kill time in my quarantine hotel
especially enjoyed reading analyses about some of my favourite anime films (nausicaa, princess mononoke, etc)
but sometimes i feel like the author didnt expand on certain aspects of those animes in order to make her overall arguments more coherent (eg the antithesis of nausicaa is also a very independent female…, a bunch of eva subtext, etc)
am not particularly drawn to some of the psychoanalytical analysis but the book aint bad, quite an interesting read for me to kill time in my quarantine hotel
October 13, 2022
Really interesting analysis of the anime industry and thematic concepts prevalent in films/series mentioned in the book. I have loved anime since my teenage years, and the book provided new recommendations to watch based on the thought-provoking analysis. Would recommend it to those interested in anime and would love to read into deeper discussions regarding certain shows and their symbolism.
July 31, 2019
Amazing book, for scholars and general audience. It’s so interesting and never looked down on any anime. It gives the cultural tendencies and background seen in anime in the last 30 years, and is a precious book.
October 1, 2019
It was an interesting read, but I read this now in 2019 and you can tell it's definitely a dated book. Also, the parts on your typical "anime" person are a bit cringy in my opinion, but overall I enjoyed this book.
June 5, 2022
...and those who are too incompetent to actually do the thing teach it.
And while the people who worked on Akira have to work for a living, Napier gets to live well off the taxes collected on those who create. The sweet stench of abuse.
And while the people who worked on Akira have to work for a living, Napier gets to live well off the taxes collected on those who create. The sweet stench of abuse.
June 5, 2025
A necessary book in the study of Japanese anime and science fiction. The chapters are thematically organized and well structured and impart information on everything from the representation of gender to key turning points in the history of anime.
August 3, 2017
Only read the Mononoke chapter, but want to revist to read the whole thing
August 31, 2018
Accessible and oh so easy reading. Has me wanting to get into media studies now -_-
December 30, 2019
This book is full of spoilers so you should see the Anima before reading if you can.
March 2, 2021
Now dated.
Read
January 24, 2022very good plot
Want to read
October 3, 2022A hard copy of a book like this is always going to need updating, but definitely one of the better -written books on anime out there
May 4, 2023
lost count of how many times napier refers to sequences as "arresting" but generally writes in an engaging manner. some of the analysis is very kids' first approach and i'm unsure how much of it convinces me, especially the penultimate chapter on apocalypticism (one paragraph describes how legend of the overfiend's sporadic sexual orgies represent the "financial orgies" of the post-bubble economy) - and i too often find psychoanalytic reasons and hypersexual analysis uncomfortably tenuous and off the mark. that being said, there are a lot of concepts here that if not interesting in how napier applies them, are interesting in the implications drawn from her insistence to apply them in the first place; as a foundational text on anime scholarship, you could do worse. some observations from this:
- metamorphosis [in animation] as a legitimization of spatial liminality.
- ranma 1/2 and the instability of gender performativity in the festive mode vs. pornographic discontinuity.
- the grotesque (uncanny) as displaced heterogeneity/the abject and postmodern identity.
- idealism in mecha anime (especially in apoalypticism).
- the displacement of shojo.
- power of externalization in romantic comedy.
- othering through elegy and its spatialized expressions.
especially interesting how napier analyses modes and tone to arrive at conclusions of interacting social cultures within japanese society and western impositions (although this aspect lacks expansion and self-criticism).
- metamorphosis [in animation] as a legitimization of spatial liminality.
- ranma 1/2 and the instability of gender performativity in the festive mode vs. pornographic discontinuity.
- the grotesque (uncanny) as displaced heterogeneity/the abject and postmodern identity.
- idealism in mecha anime (especially in apoalypticism).
- the displacement of shojo.
- power of externalization in romantic comedy.
- othering through elegy and its spatialized expressions.
especially interesting how napier analyses modes and tone to arrive at conclusions of interacting social cultures within japanese society and western impositions (although this aspect lacks expansion and self-criticism).
January 23, 2009
While I had a passing interest in anime in the past, this book more than anything broadened my exposure and my interest in anime. First, anime is not a genre but a medium. And like any other medium, art can be organized into any number of genres.
Napier does an excellent job at analyzing the major categories of anime primarily in terms of Japanese culture rather than in terms of animation; that is, she focuses more on the cultural factors that influence the form of anime in a manner similar to any other form of art (say, painting) rather than comparing it with its American counterpart (Disney or Warner Bros.). If for nothing else, by making Japanese culture the implicit focus the book is much more interesting and relevant to a broader audience; compare this to Samurai from Outer Space, which takes a much less academic tone and implicitly treats anime as just another foreign novelty.
Napier does an excellent job at analyzing the major categories of anime primarily in terms of Japanese culture rather than in terms of animation; that is, she focuses more on the cultural factors that influence the form of anime in a manner similar to any other form of art (say, painting) rather than comparing it with its American counterpart (Disney or Warner Bros.). If for nothing else, by making Japanese culture the implicit focus the book is much more interesting and relevant to a broader audience; compare this to Samurai from Outer Space, which takes a much less academic tone and implicitly treats anime as just another foreign novelty.
May 7, 2022
An academic (textual analysis) look at the development and trends of anime up to the early 2000s. This book analyses various mainstream anime films and books, such as Spirited Away, Ramna ½, Akira, Ghost in the Shell. It focuses mainly on the mode of different animes (carnival, elegiac, and apocalyptic) and analyzes them in light of identity theory and contemporary Japanese society. It's enjoyable to skim through and reflect upon, but like much criticism out there, this book is full of "interesting insight" but leaves the big questions unanswered.
A fascinating book that touches on some of the most well-known anime titles. This is probably not the best read for those who have not seen the titles discussed. Think of this book as a series of critical essays analyzing the importance of various themes across the works. That being said, I am familiar with a fair number of the titles & enjoyed reading them. I'm especially fascinated with the exploration of contemporary Japanese identity.
A fascinating book that touches on some of the most well-known anime titles. This is probably not the best read for those who have not seen the titles discussed. Think of this book as a series of critical essays analyzing the importance of various themes across the works. That being said, I am familiar with a fair number of the titles & enjoyed reading them. I'm especially fascinated with the exploration of contemporary Japanese identity.
May 16, 2007
One of the few decent books on Anime that I've managed to find. There's alot of crap out there on the subject (mostly coffee table books and such). This is serious scholarship, and it's also fun to read (for the most part).
Napier does a good job of engaging history and critical theory - thus demonstrating that Anime is far from "low-brow" pop culture. There is much to gain from engaging this interesting subject matter as Napier demonstrates.
If anyone has any suggestions on other good literature on the subject, please let me know. The selection seems to be sparse of not non-existent....
Napier does a good job of engaging history and critical theory - thus demonstrating that Anime is far from "low-brow" pop culture. There is much to gain from engaging this interesting subject matter as Napier demonstrates.
If anyone has any suggestions on other good literature on the subject, please let me know. The selection seems to be sparse of not non-existent....
June 4, 2015
This is a beautiful work of art fit for only the finest and royal eyes. In other words, it's for anime geeks. I read it for the sole reason of it having the word anime on the cover. This is probably the only book which not only talks about anime, but teaches you new words. One paragraph (on page 22?), had so many words I didn't understand. I understand them now. Learning! Anyway, if you're interested in anime you should read it. Two of my favorite anime were mentioned, and after I read those sections, I had more shows to watch. Let me just let you know, not is all a sit seems.
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