With the popularity of Pokémon 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 such as 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.
Author(s): Susan J. Napier
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 336
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION......Page 10
CHAPTER ONE: Why Anime?......Page 12
CHAPTER TWO: Anime and Local/Global Identity......Page 24
PART TWO: BODY, METAMORPHOSIS, IDENTITY......Page 44
CHAPTER THREE: Akira and Ranma 1/2: The Monstrous Adolescent......Page 48
CHAPTER FOUR: Controlling Bodies: The Body in Pornographic Anime......Page 72
CHAPTER FIVE: Ghosts and Machines: The Technological Body......Page 94
CHAPTER SIX: Doll Parts: Technology and the Body in Ghost in the Shell......Page 112
PART THREE: MAGICAL GIRLS AND FANTASY WORLDS......Page 126
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Enchantment of Estrangement: The Shōjo in the World of Miyazaki Hayao......Page 130
CHAPTER EIGHT: Carnival and Conservatism in Romantic Comedy......Page 148
PART FOUR: REMAKING MASTER NARRATIVES: ANIME CONFRONTS HISTORY......Page 166
CHAPTER NINE: No More Words: Barefoot Gen, Grave of the Fireflies, and “Victim’s History”......Page 170
CHAPTER TEN: Princess Mononoke: Fantasy, the Feminine, and the Myth of “Progress”......Page 184
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Waiting for the End of the World: Apocalyptic Identity......Page 202
CHAPTER TWELVE: Elegies......Page 228
CONCLUSION: A Fragmented Mirror......Page 244
APPENDIX: The Fifth Look: Western Audiences and Japanese Animation......Page 248
Notes......Page 266
Bibliography......Page 300
A......Page 310
C......Page 311
F......Page 312
G......Page 313
J......Page 314
M......Page 315
P......Page 317
S......Page 318
T......Page 319
W......Page 320
