- Is anime a high or low cultural medium, according to Susan Napier (2005) and what are some of its subgenres?
“Unquestionably a masterpiece of technical animation, Akira is also a complex and challenging work of art that provoked, bewildered and occasionally inspired Western audiences when it first appeared outside Japan in 1990.”
Napier, Susan (2005) p5
Napier (2005) states that some may argue Japanese Animation, or Anime as it is commonly referred, are short lived, low forms of art rising and falling around the demands of the marketplace and changes in popular tastes. She asks if Anime should in fact be compared to Haiku, woodblock prints and other high culture Japanese art forms or should Anime be analysed as purely social phenomenon?
Napier (2005) reflects the rise in Anime as an intellectually challenging art form. She states the rise in academic discourse around anime from the 1990s as evidence for its increased importance as a form of high art particularly relevant to aesthetics and sociological studies. Within Akira, we see the results of a post doomsday event leaving children orphaned and exploited.
Moreover, Napier (2005) argues that as well as anime being a form of entertainment with global reach, the medium also moves audiences and provokes viewers to consider contemporary political and social issues. An example of this is the corrupt military, police and political officials, in Akira.
She also suggests that the origins of Anime come from traditional high Japanese art such as Kabuki and woodblock. In Napier’s (2005)“The problem of Existence in Japanese Animation”, she discusses the evolution of anime originating from Kibyoshi, animated texts, which then evolved into Manga, graphic novels, and then to animation.
On the other hand Napier (2005) recognizes that animation is usually seen as a low cultural form of minor art worldwide, especially in Western culture. These societies associate animation, or cartoons, as used generally to entertain children, or as the occasional abstract arthouse piece of work. Whereas in Japan Animation has a long running track record of being created since post world two and is appreciated by multi generations as well as covering many sub-genres.
Some of the subgenres are as follows: Children’s cartoons, such as “Pokemon”, “No need for Tenchi” – Romantic Comedy, “Heidi”– Children’s Classic, Science Fiction with additional subgenres- Cyberpunk and Mecha (which is shortened for mechanical). This subgenre incorporates robots and androids. Another popular subgenre is Apocolypse, which be either of the material world or the interpersonal world. More subgenres are Sex, Festival, Elegy, Samurai sagas, as well as “Perfect Blue which incorporates the “schizo-psycho thrill machines” subgenre and finally the Post Doomsday Fantasy subgenre that is Akira.
In conclusion Napier refers to Anime as a fascinating medium that should not be assigned to merely “low” or “high” cultural attributes. She maintains that the modalities used to research and understand Anime are far more complex.
References:
Katsuhiro Otomo (1988) Akira
Napier, S. J. (2005). The Problem of Existence in Japanese Animation. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 149(1), 72–79.
Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.
Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Mountfort, P. (2020). Pop genres anime 1 Akira [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Pop Genres 2020 