Samurai from outer space: understanding Japanese animation

Abstract

from Outer Space provides a discussion of the suddenly popular genre of Japanese animation. Japanese animation, also known as anime (pronounced Ah-nee-may), is gaining devoted fans of all ages and nationalities. A few years ago anime was something of an oddity. Now it is poised to become the biggest cultural import since PBS discovered the BBC. There are anime fan clubs on college campuses across the country, as well as anime fan magazines and anime sections in video stores. To enter the world of anime is to enter a world of fantasy in which all of the following have keen known to happen: a college student orders out for a pizza, gets a wrong number, and winds up with an immortal Norse deity for a roommate (in Oh My Goddess!); a black-haired boy named turns into a curvaceous redheaded female, whenever he gets splashed with cold water (in Ranma 1/2, a series which also features a character named Dr Tofu); and a 21st century juvenile-delinquent biker, roaming the earth after World War III, gains apocalyptic powers and an overwhelming desire to blow up Tokyo (in Akira). book contains insights that will help readers understand the many questions and often obscure conventions in anime, for example: why does Japanese animation look so different from American animation?; why do the characters look Caucasian and have such huge, oversized, round eyes?; why did 50 Japanese animators send a letter to Walt Disney Studios concerning a controversy surrounding The Lion King; when a male character in anime suffers a nose bleed, why does this symbolise sexual arousal?; how are flashbacks signalled in Japanese animation?; and what do the science fiction anime featuring androids, cyborgs and other automatons reveal about the Confucian and Shinto views on organ transplants and genetic engineering? Anime is created by Japanese for Japanese. While subtitles and dubbing can help American viewers overcome the language barrier, to fully understand anime requires knowledge of Japan's prehistory, its Ninja myths and Samurai legends, its Buddhist and Shinto religions, artistic traditions such as woodblock printing, and philosophies such as Confuciansim. Antonia Levi looks at anime from two perspectives. First, she examines the roots of anime in Japan's history, mythology and culture. Second, she discusses why American audiences react as they do to an art form that was never intended for them. Japanese views of truth, the universe, reason and reality are very different from American ones.