Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation

By Susan J. Napier

Book Overview

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312238630
• ISBN13: 9780312238636
• Release Date: May 2003
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

exhaustive and thought-provoking

A wonderfully deep book that finely examines anime across all genres to explore the anime itself and what influenced it.

A deep analysis of Japanese Anime in general.

The author discusses the different anime genres (Mecha, fairy tales, fantasy, Sci fi, shojo, history, pornography etc). She examines the common themes like metamorphosis, merging of humans and machines, gender panics, masculine crisis, identity, disappearing shojos and the role of young heroins (shojos) across different animes. She attempts to explain how these themes fit into Japanese society, identity and culture both traditional and new. She uses examples from many different animes to illustrate her arguments. Animes used in the discussion includes Evangelion, Ghost in a Shell, Akira, Twin Dolls, Inuyasha, Wolve's Rain, Rouroni Kenshin, Ranma ½, Utena, Grave of the Fireflies and Miyazaki's work just to name a few. If you watch these animes, you might want to read this book to better understand Japanese anime in general. One whole chapter is devoted to pornographic anime. Since I am not allowed to watch these anime due to religious restrictions, I found her writing very informative. Dr Napier gave good explanations of the themes and genres in the context of Japanese culture and issues that challenge modern day Japanese society. I would recommend this book to anime lovers, students and researchers who have an interest in Japanese culture and literature. One star has been taken out because: 1. Japanese anime is a lot more than what was covered in this book. 2. I greatly admire Rumiko Takahashi, the author of Inuyasha for her definition of the word "demon". Through Inuyasha, the author demonstrated the very abstract post modern notion that a word (eg demon) has a fixed meaning in our minds only because humans/man defined it as such, our understanding of a word can be re-defined. I did not like Dr Napier's short and superficial analysis of Inuyasha although I agreed with her views. 3. I think at times, the author was so carried away summarizing the animes that the point she is trying to make becomes unclear. 4. My favourite animes in order of preference: Inuyasha, 12 Kingdoms, Samurai 7, Last Exile, Escaflowne, Evangelion, Gundam, etc most of which are not selected for discussion in the book. If you are die hard Miyazaki fan, you should love this book because a lot of focus is put on Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Nausicaa etc. Due to the omission of Ono Fuyumi's 12 Kingdoms, I wanted to give this book a 2 star rating. However, I'm grateful that Dr Napier wrote a very well researched book on Japanese anime, giving us an insight into different themes and how these fit into Japanese society and culture. "Napier Draws a rather complete picture of Japanese animation as a legitimate art form, and uses anime as a key to the culture that created it" Entertainment Weekly.

Finally, someone gives anime the attention it deserves

Here it is, one of the most serious, well thought out books on anime written by a single author (rare if you have tried to look for scholarly books in this area). Instead of writing to a bunch of fans in order to expound on the glories of anime, Napier writes critically and intelligently, and while I do not always agree with her reading of certain texts, she does explain her position well, articulating that position in well structured theory. I am thrilled to see that other people are doing this very important work, as anime has become a serious cultural phenomenon to consider--taking the West by storm. It is time, I think, to actually critically engage these texts and think through what we are watching and the effects that it this media has on our culture.

An excellent account of the genre

This is a definite must read for all fans of anime. It is especially good to novice otaku like myself who only really know of the things I grew up watching as a kid and a few releases here (Force Five, Star Blazers, Battle of the Planets, Akira, Princess Mononoke). It explores central themes around many different types of anime and warns you (indirectly) about what things to avoid. For exaple, no parent after reading this book will allow their children to go anywhere near the Hentai sections of an anime video store, though I did see Legend of the Overfiend a few shelves away from Sailor Moon at one store. BAD IDEA, Newbury Comics!!! If I have one criticism of this book, it would be that it is written in too scholarly a manner and the author's editor should have told the author to tone it down a bit. There was also to much of a repetition of certain phrases. As a reader, I got sick of the word "privelidge" by the end of the second chapter and there was lots more to come. Still, if it wasn't for this book, I never would have discovered such delights as Ranma 1/2, Nausicaa, or Ghost In The Shell; so I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in anime.

One of the most interesting books on the medium I've read

Well, I found this book to be a blast of fresh air. While nearly all english-language books about Anime that I've encountered before have simply been descriptive/critical accounts of various anime (Such as the excellent Anime Encyclopedia) or collections of facts about an anime/author/anime in general (Hayao Miyazaki : Master of Japanese Animation, Anime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know), this is a book which gives an interesting insight into the possible reasons behind anime's development, and in particular the development behind certain landmark titles - for someone like me, who's as interested in the "why" as they are the "how" behind manga, this book really engages. While there are some slight mistakes in the book (as mentioned in at least one of the above critiques), the general ideas brought forward are thought-provoking, and often (to my mind at least) ring true.I would, however, NOT recommend this to those who don't have a deep-seated interest in anime, or to those who haven't seen at least half of the anime discussed in the book - as (again) mentioned in one of the above critiques, there ARE some serious spoilers, plus you simply won't be engaged as many of the suggestions made unless you've seen the series/film yourself, and have been able to form your own opinions.In short, an excellent book for those who are truly interested in anime and the influences behind it, but not really recommendable to anyone else.