Hey guys - some more questions to discuss:

1. Is anime a genre or a media? Is it a branch of film or another mode?

2. According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing Japan, Korea, China)?

3. Is it a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)?

4. What are some of its subgenres?

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

6. What is the ‘shojo’ (also spelt 'shoujo' or 'syojyo' in English) and how does it often function in anime? How does Miyazaki challenge the stereotype?

7. What genres/subgenres of anime can you identify?

8. After viewing Howl's Movinng Castle, what are your impressions of the film? Any surprises?

Feel free to widen the discussion to talk about works of anime you have viewed and enjoyed (or not, as the case may be!).

Look forward to reading yr comments ^_^

Is anime a genre or a media?

First of all, there’s a possibility that both genre and media are both quite similar and both a kind a related.May be some of you might disagree but
as you all know, a genre is a type of style of art or literature and a media is a type of medium that communicates to people e.g. television and etc. But in my own opinion Anime is short for Animation therefore I think it’s come s from a visual environment rather then from a written grenre. Never the less from reading Napier, S. (2005) Chapter1 Why Anime? An anime is the terms for Japanese, Graphic, novel and cartoon. A very “popular culture” that is the most growing culture in Japan. According to Napier, He describes Anime as “Japanese cartoons”.
And because of its popularity, America has adapted this new culture which he uses the term as “Sub” culture.

Q) Is it a branch of a film or another mode?

Anime could be both, but it depends on how people look at it don’t you think?...
I think anime is another approach to visual cartoon with technical challenges never seen or done before. I think it’s a different style that must be considered in the film industry because there are some things that an anime can achieve that a film can’t. According to Napier (2005), he describe that in, 1997 Princess Mononoke also Spirited Away and Laputa has became the highest grossing animated film in Japan. Animation in the area of cinematography leads to film which makes it just as a part of film.



Q) According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian Societies?

Anime has penetrated in Korea and as well as Taiwan but the influences are not as convincing as it is in the west like in United Kingdom and all over in Europe.
America of cause has become a part of this phenomenon culture.

Hey Bloggers!!!

Just wanted to comment on " Grave of the Fire files"

It is a Japanese animated film by Isao Takahata in 1988 who adapted form the semi-autobiographical novel of Akiyuki Nosaka.

I enjoyed watching this Anime. It's such a powerful story. I hope im not the only one that will admitt of crying on some few scenes. If you want more information about the Film it self, just search through wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies.

Once again it such a moving and powerful story seen in eyes of Seita the main character in the story.

Mmmmm - time to join Voluspa with some comments, guys.

Voluspa, I don't know anyone who can watch GYFF without breaking down; it's one of the saddest, most moving films ever made. ;_;

So, yes, you're not alone.

Hi Erica and Dr Paul (and everybody),

I think that I’m more than qualified to join in the club of people who cried when watching ‘Grave of the Fire Flies’. In some scenes when I thought it could not get any sadder but it proved me wrong scene after scene, I was hyper-ventilating when I first watched it (it might sound a bit dramatic but it’s not far from reality).

On the other, I borrowed ‘Steam Boy’ from Dr Paul and watched it the other night with my flatmate and within half an hour into it, my flatmate was already snoring on the couch! I thought to myself: “let’s give it a little more time, it can’t be that boring, can it?” well I have to say it didn’t leave a very strong impression on me after I struggled to finish watching the whole movie (bow to the power of strong coffee!!!). All I can remember was the main character, James Ray Steam, flying around and around with the steam ball and the annoying character of spoiled Scarlett O’Hara, granddaughter of the chairman of the O’Hara foundation. I was shocked to my core (though it was quite a long time ago and I was much younger then, hehe!) when I watched the anime, ‘Akira’, also directed by Katsuhiro Otomo; the story itself was far more complex and gripping than ‘Steam Boy’ and it just got me thinking seriously about the horror and tragedy that the Japanese people had to endure after the atomic bombing. I am not a support of wars, they’re senseless killings of innocent civilians and are stupid show offs of arms by leading countries. I’m sorry but ‘Steam Boy’ did not get my blood flowing to my head and think though I have to be fair it did portray the ignorance of people in power chasing the vague dream of control the world; the anime itself just wasn’t working for me. Or maybe it wasn’t as graphic and brutal as some scenes in ‘Akira’ which triggered my senses to an extent that got my blood boiling.

Both Katsuhiro Otomo and Hayao Miyazaki are highly respected masters in Japanese animes but if I have to choose, Miyazaki’s creations will always come out on top.

What do you guys think? Watched any unforgettable animes so far?

Cheers

Alby ^_^

Question 3:

According to Napier (2005), anime is a form of popular culture gaining rapid growth in its global popularity. It also reaches across numerous overbearing artistic boundaries and “strike significant artistic and psychological chords” (Napier, 2005, p. 14). And the three modes that Napier (2005) used to analysed anime are superior to any distinction between “high” and “low” culture. The first major expressive mode that he used was the apocalyptic mode; it is not merely restrained to the meaning of material destruction but also refers to both spiritual and pathological apocalypses too. Next is the mode of the festival or as theorized by Mikhail Bakhti using the term, “carnival” where the usual norms are briefly reversed, which was explained by Napier (2005) as such: “the weak hold power, sexual and gender rules are broken or reversed, and in a state of manic intensity replaces conventional restraint” (Napier, 2005, p. 13). Anime as a medium fits effortlessly “to the extreme and sometimes grotesque mode of the festival” (Napier, 2005, p. 13) with its visual flexibility, ability of figures, shapes, and space transformation and its rich palette of colours. The third mode in Napier’s (2005) article is the elegiac mode. In Japanese anime, the elegiac mode refers to a sense of mourning of a fading traditional culture.

Question 4:

According to Napier (2005), some of the subgenres of anime are as follow-

•Kids cartoons (Pokemon and Sailor Moon)
•Post-doomsday fantasies (Akira)
•Schizo-psycho thrill machines (Perfect Blue)
•Sex and samurai sagas
•Romance
•Comedy
•Tragedy
•Adventure

These are the few points that I found from reading Napier’s (2005) article, feel free to add or comment guys.

Cheers

Alby ^_^

Question 8:

Another superbly done masterpiece from Miyazaki – Howl’s Moving Castle. Like a lot of his previous creations, Miyazaki’s fascination with flying devices is obvious in this animation; the wing flapping mini-airplane-like device that Sophie drove when they escaped from Madame Suliman. It tends to be a common feature in almost all of Miyazaki’s anime that the main characters are airborne either they posses wings like birds (Howl in Howl’s Moving Castle; Yubaba in Spirited Away) or they drive some kind of flying devices (Kiki flies with her broom stick in Kiki’s Delivery Service; fighthers planes in Porco Rosso) or they simply have the ability to fly (Totoro in My Neighbor Totoro; Haku turns into a dragon and flies in Spirited Away). And I found an explanation from Wikipedia in regards to Miyazaki’s obsession with flying:

“Flying

Flight, especially human flight, is a recurring theme in Miyazaki's films. He thinks of flight as a form of liberation from gravity and how it keeps you stuck to one place”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

hi guys

just answer to question three..

Yes it is regarded as a high culture as Napier (2005) points out that anime has roots in high cultural forms and may often be a challenging art form.

Hi guys this is my answer to question six.

Shojo is manga/anime with “a young girl with huge, intricately drawn eyes”.I think that many shojo stories are about romance with a young girl. In general, those young girls are cute and slim with long legs, and often we will see flowers or bubbles popping up in the scene. Also, shojo stories are connection the heart and mind through real human relationships.

Q1.I think anime cannot be categorised only one mode.It could be defined as a genre,media and branch of film because Napier(2005) says, "over the last decade, anime has been incresingly seen as an intellectuall challenging art forms....anime is a popular cultural form that clearly builds on previous high cultural traditions...perhaps the occasional abstrct, art-house film and anime simply as japanese cartoons gives no sense of the depth and variety that make up the medium."

hi alby,

just to give response for your answer on question four.

could it be drama, scine fiction, action,horror, game based is well?

Q5. Not from the text book but in opinion i think anime is more culcurally located in eastern countries like in japan, china and so on.

Question 1)

Anime transcends many genres, almost as many as traditional, live action cinema. Such genres include action, adventure, children's stories, comedy, drama, erotica (hentai), medieval fantasy, occult/horror, romance, and science fiction (I’m sure superheroes are included).
it can be both as well.

Question 7)

"Syojyo" means "a young girl" in Japanese.

Napier(2005) stated that, although Miyao Hayazaki makes anime films, which contains hopes and rebirth, other Japanese anime tend to be darker, focusing on the destruction of the society.

Also, although now, Japan has earned some kind of economic stability, there was a huge economic collapse in 1989, which still affects Japanese society.

Heyyy everyone!!

Erica, I liked the way you defined anime. I would also say that it's similar to media as well.

Wikipedia states that genre "is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance." Which basically says that genre helps you to identify what the type of text (or whatever it is) you are analyzing.

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/anime)

Erica you also said that Napier, S. (2005) Chapter1 Why Anime? An anime is the terms for Japanese, Graphic, novel and cartoon. A very “popular culture” that is the most growing culture in Japan. According to Napier, He describes Anime as “Japanese cartoons”.
And because of its popularity, America has adapted this new culture which he uses the term as “Sub” culture." I agree with and with Napier (2000) and with anyone else who thinks this.

In the free dictionary by Farlex, it states that anime is "A style of animation developed in Japan, characterized by stylized colorful art, futuristic settings, violence, and sex".

I read upto the part where it says that it is characterized by sylized colourful art with futuristic settings but when it ended with violence and sex? I was thinking...what the heck? But apparntly when I checked out five or six more sites they all said something similar to the the Farlex definition. But anyways to answer the first part of the question - based on the definition that I put in, I would have to say that it is a genre then.

depending on how some people see whether it's a branch, film or another mode, I would have to say that it is a branch. A branch from a culture. For example, I would have to draw culture as the main heading and then branched from that culture comes anime (animation)!

...and just to add to your comment about 'Grave of the Fire flies', it is an awesome movie! Even though I, myself didn't shed a tear, it was moving - like you said. Who could do that to their neiece and nephew, now that is jelousy and hate right there! POOR THINGS! I felt like jumping into the screen and slapping their aunty in and out, but anyways...it was just acting.
-anNiE:D