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Week 5 – Anime

What genre or genres is Princess Mononoke? How does it relate to its ‘prequel,’ Nausicaā ?

In terms of genre Princess Mononoke is a jidaigeki, the Japanese term for “era drama”, with many fantasy elements. It takes place in the Japanese Muromachi period and includes depictions of creatures inspired by Japanese mythology, but they are still unique creations from Miyazaki as he was “creating an essentially personal mythology” (Cavallaro, 2006). Within the historical fiction/jidaigeki aspects of the film’s genre, it is important to note that the Muromachi era of Japanese history is one where “in Miyazaki’s view, the fourteenth century is a period of historical transition from a world that was still in close contact with both natural and supernatural forces to a world that would become increasingly oriented toward the human.” (Napier, 2001). In this period of time Miyazaki believes the relationship between humans and nature shifted to one where humans began to shape nature around ourselves and our wants.

It is very early in the film that Miyazaki brings in the fantasy elements and tackles the main theme of the film, nature vs human technology. In Princess Mononoke the conflict is between the people of Irontown and the spirits of the nearby forest. The people of Irontown, in the pursuit of money and use of new industrial technology, are destroying the nearby forest and have angered the gods who dwell within it. Miyazaki’s conflicting love of technology and of nature is featured in most of his works, but none more than Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. While is was made before Mononoke, Nausicaa is almost a sequel of the themes shown within Mononoke.

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a post-apocalyptic fantasy about a post-apocalyptic war world where most of Earth’s eco-system has become toxic and the few human survivors live separated by a toxic jungle swamp called the Sea of Decay. The themes of this story are of environmental destruction and the collapse of civilisation. For Miyazaki, the inclusion of apocalyptic themes in stories about the relationship between us and nature is paramount. It is clear from his works that he fears the impact humans have on the environment and knows that our future generations will have to live with the consequences.

Both Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind showcase Miyazaki’s belief in the conflict of humanity against nature. Mononoke shows the point in history in which humans began to turn against nature rather working with it, whereas Nausicaa shows us a potential future living with the consequences of out actions.

Reference List:

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers.

Jidai-geki. (n.d.). Retrieved October 01, from https://www.britannica.com/art/jidai-geki

Morgan, G. (2015). Creatures in Crisis: Apocalyptic Environmental Visions in Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities 2(3), 172-183. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/614511.

Napier, Susan. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Week 4 – Anime

Is anime a high or low cultural medium, according to Susan Napier (2005) and what are some of its subgenres?

Many scholars would place anime as a ‘low’ cultural medium for its reputation of being about superficial topics and having an art style that resembles western children’s cartoons. This often leads people to believe that anime is only watched by children or Japanese people. Anime is a global phenomenon that is watched by millions of people in many different countries. It has gone from being a niche interest to having its own subculture.

On the topic of whether anime fits into the ‘high’ or ‘low’ cultural medium standard, Napier (2005) discusses how it ticks many boxes for being a ‘high’ cultural medium. There are many influences from Japanese traditional arts, such as Kabuki and woodblock print, but it also borrows from artistic traditions seen in twentieth century cinema and photography.

It often also includes many complex themes and issues that are explored in ‘high’ culture texts, from Japan and worldwide. From Akria’s themes of corruption and loss of humanity to Sailor Moon‘s themes of female empowerment and friendship, the messages are very familiar to scholars.

As it is an umbrella term for all animation made in Japan and aired for a Japanese audience, there are many subgenres of anime. However, anime will often blend many genres into one show, even when those genres are usually not seen together. Denison (2015) uses Cowboy Bebop as an example of this as the show falls into the space opera subgenre with western and film noir stylistics as well as the occasional trip into horror territory. Akira is another example of this blend of many genres as a cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic anime with elements from fantasy (the presence of people with supernatural abilities) as well as action and thriller. There are also many genres that are exclusive to anime, such as the maho shojo (magical girl) genre. This genre is predominantly about a young girl who discovers she can use some form of magic and uses it to protect the world from evil sources.

Anime as a cultural medium is so complex and diverse it would be difficult to place it in either the category of ‘low’ or ‘high’. Instead, it likely sits in the middle or could fit into either depending on which specific anime show is being referenced.

Reference List:

Denison, R. (2015). Anime: A Critical Introduction. Bloomsbury.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Otomo, K (dir). (1988). Akira. Japan: Toho

Week 3 – Tintin

What gaps are there in Hergé’s representations of women?

Tintin is inarguably a male dominated series, with all the reoccurring characters being men. The biggest gap in Hergés representation of women is including one that is not a background or minor character. Any women seen in the Tintin comics are delegated to being mothers, wives of male characters, caretakers, or simply just standing around in the background. In fact, in the first ever comic, Tintin in the land of the Soviets, there are no women in the comic, with them simply being in the background.

Hergé was once quoted as saying that “women have nothing to do in a world like Tintin’s. I like women far too much to caricature them…” (Cited in Sadoul, 1989, p.93) This is blatantly false as any female characters, when his comics do feature speaking women, are very caricatured and stereotyped. They are the wives, mothers, and housekeepers of Tintin’s world. Not only that but “tears are an exclusively female predilection in the Adventures, reproducing nineteenth-century clichés of women as the psychologically ‘weaker sex’.” (Mountford, 2020) Only the female characters are ever seen crying, such as the Congolese woman in Tintin in the Congo who is crying for her sick husband. The women are also depicted as being in distress, for example in Cigars of the Pharaoh (1955) a woman is depicted as being in trouble and Tintin swoops in just in time to catch her as she faints. And, in The Crab with the Golden Claw (1943) Mrs Finch, Tintin’s housekeeper, is clearly distressed as she recalls to Tintin watching a man being kidnapped. This is an event that would likely not have caused Tintin much distress and Tintin would likely have chased after the kidnappers as he is the hero of the stories.

The only female character to have a seemingly fleshed out personality is Bianca Castafiore. She is loud, spontaneous, consistently interrupts conversations, and is quite materialistic. In this way she is a caricature of a typical celebrity. While she is one of the most fleshed out female character’s in Hergé’s work, she is far from the ideal feminist representation. Her character has been criticised for being reduced to a sexual symbol or object. Especially in The Castafiore Emerald in which she is the main character. There are multiple references to sexuality within the comic, McCarthy (2006) discusses the emerald as being one of the most obvious references to sexuality. Another reference is seen on page 24 where Castafiore has Haddock smell a rose and when he is stung by a bee she places the rose’s petal on top of his nose. Flowers are common symbols of female sexuality and this is a very obvious reference to that.

Tintin is a man’s world, and Hergé has shown this to his audience by creating female characters with little to no influence on the plot. They sit in the background or exist to cry and give Tintin the chance to be the hero. In the rare case of Castafiore they are comic relief with sexual undertones. Despite his claims of not caricaturing women, Hergé’s ladies are not representations of real women.

Reference List:

McCarthy, T. 2006. Tintin and the Secret of Literature. London: Granta.

Mountford, P. (2020): ‘Tintin, gender and desire’, Journal of Graphic Novels
and Comics, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829

Sadoul, N. [1975] 1989. Tintin et Moi: entretiens avec Hergé (Tintin and Me: Interviews with Hergé). Tournai: Casterman

Week 2 – Tintin

What issues do his albums raise in terms of representation of ‘race’, and particularly ethnic and cultural stereotyping?

As with many narratives created in the 1930s, the Tintin comics are products of their time. They feature many examples of representations we would now consider to be unacceptable to be seen in any type of fictional media. One that stands out, in particular, is Herge’s representation of race in the Tintin comics.

In the comic Tintin Au Congo or Tintin in the Congo (Herge, 1930-31) in English, Tintin visits the Belgian African colony of the Congo. This comic’s representation of the African people who lived there is a gross caricature of African stereotypes and has come under much scrutiny and controversy. It is not just the way that they are drawn that is considered racist but also the way that the character’s act compared to Tintin and the other white characters. The physical representation shows people with black skin and black hair, large noses, and large lips. All of the African characters also speak pidgin English, unlike Tintin who speaks “proper” English. There are multiple instances throughout the comic that are used to show how the native people of the congo are unintelligent or cowardly and are greatly helped by the presence of the Belgians. In her book, A Metamorphosis of Tintin (2010) Jean-Marie Apostolides discusses how in the comic the Africans are represented as children while the Belgian’s are the ‘adults’. The African’s are shown to be unintelligent, cowardly, and immature. Thus, the more mature and able Europeans must set the example and impose their rules and beliefs on the Africans. Much like a parent would do to their child. This type of caricature is a way of justifying the Belgian presence, as it says to the reader that the Africans would be hopeless without the Europeans to guide them.

There is the argument to be made of whether or not Herge could have known the negative implications of this caricature and pro-colonialist stance. It was the common belief at the time, and without a large enough anti-colonialist audience to challenge those beliefs it is understandable that Herge may have not realised that this was wrong. However, the existence of Tintin in America challenges this argument. Herge’s depiction of the treatment of Native American’s by the colonists is very critical. Herge uses “explicit representation of American Indians as victims of colonial and ongoing oppression at the hands of capital, backed by the US army.” Mountford, 2012. This is a stark contrast to the way that the colonisation of the Congo is treated. In the Congo Tintin was the ‘white saviour’ of the immature African’s whom he saved from a life of savagery and stupidity. The archetype of the ‘white saviour’ is one that is described by Seekford (2017, p.3) as being a white character who “bring the issues and concerns of black characters to the fore and consequently serve as their advocates (and) make black characters palatable or sympathetic to a white audience.” In the case of Tintin in America he also plays the white saviour as he advocates for the Native Americans against the English colonisers.

Because of this critique being used so soon after the publication of Tintin in the Congo it can not be argued that Herge’s beliefs were a product of the time. It is clear that he simply turns a blind eye to the same issues when they are caused by Francophone colonisers. Herge’s critique of the treatment of Native Americans is more of a critique of England than a firm anti-colonisation stance.

Reference List:

Apostolidès, J. M. (2010). The Metamorphoses of Tintin, Or, Tintin for Adults. Stanford University Press.

Hergé (1931-32) Tintin in America

Hergé (1930-31) Tintin in the Congo

Mountfort, P. (2011). ‘Yellow skin, black hair… Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of popular culture, 1(1), 33-49.Mountfort, P. (2020).

Seekford, B. (2017). ‘To Kill a Mockingbird, The Help, and the Regendering of the White Savior.’ James Madison University Journal

Week One

How has the academic reputation of popular genres changed over time and what might be the value of studying them?

In the past popular genres were not considered to be a legitimate form of literature for academic study. This is due to their often ‘informal’ nature, as what was considered to be ‘proper’ literature was written mostly by men and almost entirely by upper class people. Especially in cases of ‘genre fiction’ or mediums such as animation and comic strips, it was believed that the stories consisted of a basic, predictable plot line with other wishy-washy themes of magic, robots, and some plot-armoured heroic figures. Thus, it was believed that there could be no academic reading of the genres, as they existed only to entertain. However, the narratives found within popular genres, while also being full of magic systems and sci-fi elements, are also deeply thematic and carry very strong messages throughout them that are worth looking at through the academic lens.

Although some academics still claim popular genres to be ‘not real literature’ that attitude has changed in recent years. More and more universities are introducing papers based around popular genres as they also are becoming more popular among general consumers. As more people are consuming popular genre media it is important that they are critically and academically analysed. When critically analysing a classical piece of literature we are only seeing the perspectives of the people who wrote at the time, mostly older and well educated men. Popular genres allows us to see into the world of those who were oppressed and unable to previously tell their stories. This is why it is important for these texts to be studied so we can understand the perspectives of people from alternative walks of life.