anastasiashearer

Week 12: Anastasia Shearer

Can reality tv still be thought of as a genre given the high level of hybridity that exists?

Genre hybridity is the combination of two or more genres. For example, the film ‘Back to the Future 3’ combines the genre of science fiction with the western genre (Oxford Reference, n.d.). We have seen genre hybridity many times in the film industry with having romantic comedies and spoof horrors. Reality television is no different and has come up with many hybrids such as docusoaps, docudramas and docu-soap surveillance (Smith, 2020).

Over the many years that television has been in existence each genre has come further away from the rooted rigidness that once defined them. To put it in simpler words, all genres are at some level hybrid and what was once categorised has been interlaced (Wood, 2004). Woods (2004) wanted to study the hybridity of reality TV and began by dividing television four ways; fact, fiction, entertainment and advertising. Each way can and has created reality in their own way.

Fact, meaning factual programming refers to programmes such as “the news, current affairs, documentaries, practical advice shows and religious broadcasts” (Woods, 2004, p.47). These programmes focus on broadcasting evidence based national and international current affairs rather than opening the floor to interpretation (Woods, 2004).

Fiction, is exactly as it sounds like. These programmes often offer “television shows, drama, feature film, and some forms of comedy” (Woods, 2004, p.47). The characters and events that are in these sources of entertainment don’t exist in our world and only make sense in their own imaginary one.

Entertainment, show people who exist in and outside the source of entertainment. These people act how they usually would within the set of entertainment. Gaming shows, musical acts, talk shows, variety programmes, broadcast sport, and some forms of comedy (probably live comedy), are the entertainment side of television. Its reality but with a theatrical spin on it (Woods, 2004).

Lastly, advertising which is used to sell materialistic products in under 60 seconds. Every advertisement is designed to offer something that could live within your home and outside the television world. Advertisements shift reality and they redefine how our life would like with this product (Woods, 2004).

These four ways are further split and combined with other genres. Wood (2004) calls them reenactment, diversion, absorption and infomercial.

Absorption introduces the combination of reality and situational reconstruction. These reality tv shows include but aren’t limited to shows about law enforcement, medical and emergency services, dangerous stunt shows, natural disasters and the supernatural. The premise of this combination of fact and fiction is to present factual situations that have been reenacted to create more excitement and the lines blur between what is fact and what is fiction (Wood, 2004).

Infomercials are like advertisements except much longer. They will have people demonstrate and make testimonials around the product and why you should buy it. Infomercials combine advertisement with fact (Wood, 2004).

Diversions are people who are being themselves whilst in a seemingly normal setting. It combines entertainment and fact, for example, home video compilations, behind-the-scenes content and bloopers.

Lastly, re-enactments are films that are based on real people or real life events that use techniques often reserved for fictional pieces. The lines between reality and fiction blur as this hybrid takes creative liberties in constructing a narrative (Wood, 2004).

As shown above hybrids between genres is already bountiful in the entertainment industry. By showing how reality tv has hybrids between fictions, fact, entertainment and advertisement as well as divulging deeper into how modern day reality tv has developed through infomercials, absorption, re-enactment and diversion. It has only gone to further understand how genres and rigid categories are a system of the past and that maybe genres need to be expanded to encapsulate all the new types of entertainment being created.

References

New Zealand Television. Media, Culture & Society, 45-62.Oxford Reference. (n.d.). Hybrid genre. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20111108103413377

Wood, B. (2004). A World in Retreat: The Reconfiguration of Hybridity in 20th-Century

Week 9: Anastasia Shearer

Question 3: What are some of the problems around cosphotography in terms of various (potentially unwelcome) gazes?

A big problem around cosphotography is the sexualising and objectifying of cosplayers, especially female cosplayers. This is a common problem in Japan because the age demographic for cosplayers are astutely younger compared to other places in the world with 90% of cosplayer participants being females in their twenties. Furthermore, in Japan there are weekly hall events in which cosplayers can attend to be photographed, the problem being that the majority of photographers are male. However, the rules in Japan around cosphotography are stricter than they are in the west. Some cosplayers will already have cards that have photographs of them that they can give out to their fan base and which also helps them to further build up their following, whereas other cosplayers known as toreareta will want to have their photograph taken. However, they still have the right to be concerned about where the photographs will be displayed and will often only consent to be photographed by a small group of trusted contacts. Additionally, the Japanese cosplay culture has a social ritual involved in asking for permission to photograph someone that is more official and expected than in the west (Mountfort, 2018). This ritual involves the photographer politely approaching the cosplayer and asking for their permission to be photographed. If the cosplayer agrees they will go through a set of poses. The photographer will take one or more pictures depending on if it’s been specified. Both the photographer and the cosplayer will thank each other, and sometimes the photographer will give them the prints once they have been developed (Mountfort, 2018). It is rituals such as these that may make the cosplayer feel heard, respected and comfortable as they have given consent. As well as this, the ritual helps to protect the female cosplayers from being demonstrated to hentai lech (the Japanese way of saying pervert). Japan also corners off designated areas for female cosplayers to further prevent any uncomfortable interactions with said perverts.

Some female Japanese cosplayers have criticized this approach as they feel that when they cosplay they have the strength and empowerment to ward off any lurking eyes and unwelcome photographers. Some cosplayers have taken their publicity into their own hands and have started posting the photos themselves without the sexualised clickbait tagline. But it has also had the opposite effect, it has been shown that though many female cosplayers from east Asia enjoy the attention they receive whilst out in costume, the cosphotography can lead to feelings of insecurity about their appearance or feeling as though they are being publicly sexualised. This has shown to either make them stop cosplaying and participating in these events or at least stop attending them alone.

Sexualisation is not the only way in which cosphotographers and the public make cosplayers feel. Sometimes the photographers aren’t there to enjoy and appreciate the cosplayers efforts at all, instead they diminish and mock the cosplayers efforts. It was found that 10% of non-costumed attendees only go to these conventions to later upload the photographs and publicly mock the cosplayers (Mountfort, 2018). Many studies have been done around the detrimental side of social media, and that unfortunately does not surpass the world of cosplay. Fat shaming of female cosplayers, mocking of costumes and just general trolling is thrown upon the cosplay community both from inside and outside the cosplay community (Mountfort, 2018).

References

Mountfort, P. (2018). Planet cosplay. Intellect Books.

Week 10: Anastasia Shearer

Question 4: How does Dick use the I Ching and how did his views on the oracle and its role in the novel shift over time?

The Man in the High Castle is commonly regarded as Phillip K. Dicks most popular novel. The novel revolves around the main characters recurring use of the Chinese Oracle, namely the I Ching. The author was known to have heavily relied on the oracle to aid him in writing The Man in the High Castle.

The I Ching is among the oldest classic ancient Chinese texts. Traditionally when someone went to consult the I Ching a bundle of yarrow sticks were tossed but now they use three coins that are tossed six times to construct six lines of hexagrams. The I Ching is then used to figure out what each hexagram represents regarding the question that was asked. There are 64 possible configurations of the hexagrams and that is why Dick used this method. He used it because there would be an element of chance and many possibilities (Mountfort, 2016).

Dick referred to the I Ching whilst writing The Man in the High Castle whenever one of his characters used it. When a character would ask the oracle a question Dick would throw the coins and describe what hexagram lines they had got. This had an obvious effect on the direction the story could go and Dick was always adamant that whatever readings his characters received he used (Mountfort, 2016).

However, due to Dicks reliance on the I Ching throughout his writing he did not have any plot, structure or notes for himself to fall back on and hit a snag when the I Ching did not help him come to a satisfactory ending and so he left it unresolved. For many years Dick actually blamed the I Ching for not helping him come to a satisfactory ending. Dick and the I Ching had a falling out of sorts, as he refused to use it anymore referring to it as an evil book that had a malicious spirit (Mountfort, 2016). Despite that the rift between Dick and the I Ching reportedly did not last long and he went back to consulting the I Ching and deliberating on the different possibilities of how to better end his novel.

References

Mountfort, P. (2016). The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s the man in the high castle. Science Fiction Studies, 43(2), 287-309. https://doi.org/10.5621/sciefictstud.43.2.0287

Week 8: Anastasia Shearer

Question: In what ways can cosplay be understood in terms of notions such as affect, transportation, transubstantiation and mediated fantasy?

Cosplay is the act of dressing up as a character from a film, book, video-game or other media including original content (OC). Cosplay is derived from the terms costume & to play and is the act of “taking on the habitus of a particular character through costume, accessories, gesture and attitude; it is therefore not simply “dressing up” but rather inhabiting the role of a character both physically and mentally.’”(Mountfort, 2018, p.4). Cosplay and cosplayers are typically seen participating in events such as conventions, or larping (Mountfort, 2018).

Cosplay allows fantasy groups across all different mediums to join together in appreciation of the content and the art of cosplaying itself. Cosplay allows these characters to exist in each other’s worlds and extends the possibilities that weren’t there to begin with. For example, a Harry Potter cosplayer could interact as Harry Potter with not only other Harry Potter themed cosplayers but also with cosplayers from different mediums such as Anime.

It also allows for an element of performance. Of course the act of dressing up and playing a part is a huge part of cosplayers performance. But cosplay performance is different from theatre performance in the sense that cosplayers do not script out an entire scene whereas they will begin a scene maybe beginning in something that has already happened in the story and improvise a short scene from there (Mountfort, 2018).

Cosplay takes a person and changes their mind-set in a sense that they become a character from either a source material or an original material. Cosplaying allows cosplayers to redefine that character that better fits them, such as changing the gender or different style of hair or clothing. A cosplayer can alternate between being in character and their real selves when it suits them and the moment that a cosplayer experiences whilst diving back into character is called transubstantiation. The overwhelmingly powerful desire to not only become this fantasy character, but to bring the character out of its narrative and give it a physical form often brings empowerment and a sense of belonging to the cosplayers (Mountfort, 2018). The idea of transportation is interesting, in terms of cosplay it does not work in just one way. Of course the people who become these characters are transported into an alternate mentality different from their own. But in a way the characters that they portray also get transported into our world.

Cosplay can bring in mediated fantasies where people will write guidelines and strict ways on becoming a character. They can have events related to such things such as competitions around who’s the best Batman or best dressed. Although many people enjoy these mediated fantasy events there are people who dislike it because it takes away some of the creative freedom and expression that they use in their own or others cosplay.

To summaries cosplay is widely used to express interests as well as and bring people together who share the same passions for many different types of mediums.

References

Mountfort, P, Peirson-Smith, A, & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect Books.

Week 11: Anastasia Shearer

How real is reality TV?

Reality TV as defined by Beressi and Nunn (2005) (as cited in Smith, 2020), is “[Reality TV places] an emphasis on the representation of ordinary people and allegedly unscripted or spontaneous moments that supposedly reveal unmediated reality”. Reality TV implements a diverse set of styles and techniques such as amateur actors/actresses, improvisation, and the use of hidden cameras, surveillance cameras and hand-held cameras to encapsulate the feeling that you are seeing the events unfold in real time (Hill, 2005). However, every reality TV show is different in which style and techniques they use and there is a vast array of shows to suit just about everyone’s interests. You wouldn’t say that The Kardashians were anything like the reality TV show Survivor. These shows are under strict criteria oftentimes by their audiences and what their audiences depict to be a realistic (Kilborn, 1994). Despite these differences all these reality TV shows boil down to the same thing. All of them want to claim a certain amount of authenticity on their show, as well as having the maximum entertainment factor.

So where did reality TV really begin? Documentaries were the beginning of the reality TV phenomena, the medium was evolved by a man named John Grierson who supported the making of realist-documentary types of film. Moving on to the 1950s and technology had been majorly upgraded. This meant it was easier for filmmakers to be less intrusive whilst filming and allowed them to film in the moment which often had no objective. There is a famous rockumentary about Bob Dylan shot in this style. Cinéma Vérité was yet another style of shooting these realist-documentary types of films. Although they too used the less intrusive method they took it one step further and presented a point of view and encouraged things to happen. Furthermore, they had someone behind the camera asking the subjects questions and interacting with them that way. Free cinema which was developed in Britain in the mid-50s started to look at just average everyday people. They didn’t yet focus on just the individual people, but on the lives of common people such as people in trades. This style of reality-documentary influenced social issue dramas such as the well known television show Coronation Street (Smith 2020).

‘Cathy Come Home’ was a groundbreaking television play as it was the first documentary type film that had been shot outside of a studio. It revolved around this young family experiencing poverty and homelessness and people had not seen anything like it before as these types of films were often reserved for current affairs (Smith, 2020).

Looking at what reality television is like today we can understand more clearly where the medium came from and what it was influenced by. In a documentary the film makers gather a lot of footage and have to cut it down to a watchable length, their subjects are often aware of being filmed and that may have impacted upon how they acted or what they said, questions being asked in interviews can be written a certain way to try and get a certain answer. The documentary makers really had a lot of control on what they filmed, who they filmed, and what they chose to leave in their documentary. So the audience only had access to what was presented to them, and how does that relate to how real reality television is today? (Smith, 2020).

Kilborn (1994) argues that present day audiences are far more aware that what they are watching on television is a “constructed reality” because of the advancement in technology meaning that images and footage can easily be altered to make things appear differently. Additionally, interviews with past participators have revealed the reality that a lot of reality television is placed in a very controlled environment, conversations and reactions are often filmed several times and that winners and losers are often fixed before filming begins. Despite reality TV not being real and more a constructed reality, there is still a lot of demand for these types of shows.

References

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, reality TV: Audiences and popular factual television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Kilborn, R. (1994). ‘How real can you get?’: Recent developments in ‘reality’ television. European Journal of Communication, 9, 421-439. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323194009004003

Smith, P. (2020). ENGL602 Reality Television [PowerPoint slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Week 7: Anastasia Shearer

Question 1: King (2010) describes Horror as being defined through three basic elements. Explain, using references, what these three elements are. Think of a horror story you’ve read/watched/heard that makes use of all three of these elements and show how King’s definition is at play in that narrative.

King (2010) describes Horror as being defined through three basic elements. These elements as classified by King in his book Danse Macabre, are terror, horror, and revulsion. King holds the element of terror with the highest regard, believing that if an author can do their part to imply the unknown they can leave the reader to conjure up something horrifying. King has been quoted to compare the feeling of terror with “when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there…” (Regal, 2019, paras. 5).

‘A Quiet Place’ (Krasinski, 2018) uses the element of terror generously. In the film they have these blind extraterrestrial monsters that are hypersensitive to noise. It’s not until the very end of the film that the audience sees what these monsters look like and so a lot of terror is built through the techniques of silence and the intensity of the small moments of noise that happen upon accident. There’s a scene at the beginning of the film where the youngest child finds a battery powered toy. The parents take the toy away from him and remove the batteries to prevent any noise, but the sister feels guilty that he’s not having fun and gives the toy back to her brother. However, he takes the batteries and activates the toy and the tinny toy sound is somehow deafening in the surrounding silence. The father starts running towards the son but resounding footsteps start competing with the fathers own and before the audience knows it the boy is snatched away and the brief image of the monster is hard to understand.

King regards the element of horror as the second most important element. Horror occurs when an audience is exposed to something so horrifying and unimaginable that it invokes feelings of horror (Regal, 2019). In ‘A Quiet Place’ there are certainly many scenes that invoke these feelings. For example, there’s a scene where the main characters stumble upon a women’s body that has been mutilated by the monsters in an incomprehensible way. An older man is standing over her body crying and starts to scream in pain because he wants to die (Krasinski, 2018). This simple yet intense scene demonstrates feelings of such unimaginable desperation and horror in which none of us will hopefully ever experience.

Revulsion is the last element of Horror that King discusses. Simply put this element means to revolt the audience by using tactics such as an excessive amount of blood and gore (Regal, 2019). In Danse Macabre, King compares this to the ‘carny freaks’. He talks about a particular carny called the Geek who used to bite the head off live chickens whilst holding the still flapping now decapitated chicken in his other hand. It’s the urge to want to see something so revolting that there’s a component of something forbidden (King, 2010). In ‘A Quiet Place’ they have a scene in which a raccoon is making animal-like noises while walking through the cornfields, you see the monster’s arm come down on the raccoon and its body just explodes. Guts and blood are used to revolt the audience and further demonstrate the monsters freakish strength.

References
King, S. (2010). Danse macabre. Everest House.
Krasinski, J. (2018). A Quiet Place [film]. Platinum Dunes; Sunday Night Productions.
Regal. (2019, August 27). Stephen King’s 3 levels of horror. Regal Reel Blog. https://www.regmovies.com/static/en/us/blog/stephen-king-3-levels-of-horror

Week 1

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

Popular genres have consistently been rejected from the culturally accepted literary canon. Literary forms such as poetry, ‘high’ prose literature, and drama were considered the top classical genres and still hold a high status in today’s society. Genres such as science-fiction, fantasy, and comics are typically not considered as a serious work of literature. Popular genres have undergone many criticisms, some being that they often use formulaic plot structures, with an often predictable resolution to the complication at hand. Second being that characters are often criticised for being two dimensional or ‘flat’, and undergo little if any character development. Thirdly, popular genres make frequent use of visual or audio elements to bring their stories alive. Fourthly, popular genres are often recently produced due to their use of technology. Lastly, popular genres are often set in imaginary worlds, and therefore do not follow the guidelines of realism (Mountfort, 2020). However, according to writers such as Kathleen Gregory Klein “since canonical authors are generally male, conservative critics have misunderstood entire genres through their biased choices of representative texts” (Schneider-Mayerson, 2010, pp. 27–28).

Despite these criticisms there is value in studying popular genres. Although popular genres may have a tendency to be new that gives them power. They keep updated with current issues of its time where older classics will never be able too. They often bring about and acknowledge issues whether those be around mental health, politics, or economics that are relevant to their audience. Often when one reads a classic like Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë or Emma by Jane Austen which both are beautifully written books and are enjoyable in my opinion, but both are rather outdated. They are often wrought with sexism and issues that no longer pertain to present day society. Furthermore, classics often use language that is richly dense and often hard to follow unless you are a good reader. This can be really off putting for people who are either not strong readers or may have dyslexia or other issues that cause complications in reading. The use of audio or visual elements can initiate a whole new group of readers, and that in a world that is being taken over by technology can only be positive.

If we look at the prominent issue of mental health in our society at the moment we can see that there are many comics that are being developed to help children or teenagers go through that hard adjustment period. There is this wonderful series written by Raina Telgemeier, each comic focuses on either a typical issue for example, self-consciousness around having braces, or experiencing and learning about anxiety for the first time. These comics are more inviting to children and teenagers than a non-fiction chapter book about puberty may be, and it could help them feel less isolated and afraid.

These examples can be further continued on, not only do popular genres bring around fantasy, escapism, terror and adventure, but they encapsulate and emphasize contemporary issues and further educate their audiences in doing so.

References

Mountfort, P. (2020). ENGL602 Popular Genres: Introduction [PowerPoint Slides]. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

Schneider-Mayerson, M. (2010). Popular fiction studies: The advantages of a new field. Studies in Popular Culture, 33(1), 21–35.

Week 6 Question

Question (2): What is the philosophy of cosmicism and how is it used to convey a sense of dread in both The Shadow Over Innsmouth and The Colour out of Space?

The literary philosophy of cosmicism was brought into being by the American author H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft wrote horror stories, he specifically liked writing about occult phenomena, including such themes as spirit possession and alien miscegenation. This philosophy of cosmicism encapsulates this idea around humans being fairly insignificant compared to a much larger intergalactic existence. This knowledge causes humans to face just how unimportant and small they are compared to the entire universe and that realisation instills fear which typically causes a psychological transformation or breakdown to occur (Wikipedia, n.d.). Stableford (2007, p. 66) states “At first glance ‘‘cosmic’’ seems to be used here merely as a replacement term for ‘‘supernatural,’’ but the substitution also implies a particular psychological attitude to the supernatural”.

This philosophy of cosmicism is used to convey a sense of dread in the 2019 film adaptation of Lovecrafts ‘The Color Out of Space’. This film utilizes an unknown force simply named ‘the color’. This unknown force begins to control the Gardner family, making them act and do things that are unexplainable. For example, when Theresa is preparing dinner she absentmindedly chops off two of her fingers (Stanley, 2019). Many more inexplicable things happen, and due to unknown knowledge this leads to the family and extended town folk becoming more and more fearful for their lives. At the peak of the film ‘the color’ finally reveals itself as a thing that originates from another planet which is inhabited by intergalactic beings (Stanley, 2019). This narrative follows closely the philosophy of cosmicism and that sense of dread that the unknown brings. As Lovecraft (1934) once famously stated “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown” (The H. P. Lovecraft Archive, n.d.).

This philosophy of cosmicism also extends throughout many other works of Lovecraft’s notably ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’. In ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ Lovecraft utilizes the same kind of celestial beings that are unknown to the rest of the world but only known to residents of Innsmouth. The town of Innsmouth came upon some tough times and they began to sacrifice townspeople to ‘the deep ones’ as they are referred to in exchange for economic stability. However, these sacrifices were abolished and ‘the deep ones’ became angry and killed over half the village’s population. This led to the production of hybrid offspring (Wikipedia, n.d.). This is another common theme of Lovecraft’s cosmicism philosophy. This idea of cultic worshiping and the fraternisation between human and celestial (Stableford, 2007). Following on, after the main character learns the truth of this forbidden knowledge he manages to escape Innsmouth. It is not till much later in his life that he learns that he too has ‘the deep ones’ blood within him (Wikipedia, n.d.). This deliberately slow transition from human to celestial into something unknown is fear inspiring. This theme of the unknown instilling fear into the characters involved in his narratives is common of Lovecraft’s cosmicism philosophy.

References

Stableford, B. (2007). The cosmic horror. Icons of Horror and the Supernatural, 66-96.

Stanley, R. (Director). (2019). Colour Out of Space [Film]. SpectreVision.

The H. P. Lovecraft Archive. (n.d.). Supernatural horror in literature. Retrieved, September 2, 2020, from https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx

Wikipedia. (n.d.) Cosmicism. Retrieved September 2, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmicism#:~:text=The%20philosophy%20of%20cosmicism%20states,face%20of%20an%20incomprehensibly%20large

Wikipedia. (n.d.). The shadow over innsmouth. Retrieved September 3, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_over_Innsmouth

Week 5 Question

Question 4: Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006), discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West, or somewhere else?

In terms of narrative structure anime does not abide by the same structure as western narratives typically do. In a western made movie, the character(s) will typically go through three stages in their journey. They tend to start with introducing the character and outlining the predicament they are in. Following on from this the character will go through a series of complicated events, and then end with those series of complications coming to a head and being resolved (Cavallaro, 2006). Whereas anime tends to span over several years or over a much longer timeline than a western narrative. Anime tend to be minimal in the amount they introduce the characters and where we find them (Cavallaro, 2006). Miyazaki described it best when he said “I gave up on making a happy ending in the true sense a long time ago. I can go no further than the ending in which the lead character gets over one issue for the time being” (Cavallaro, 2006, p. 6). The intention that Eastern narratives have is different from westerners. Anime is often focused on a target audience, Japanese audiences find messages within anime familiar and somewhat relatable. According to Alessandro Bencivenni, this may be why Akira was not fully appreciated by western audiences. The combination of what may have been ignorance or just detachment from some themes within Akira, and then the lack of explanation within the movie may have confused or deterred Westerners from enjoying Akira and therefore further anime (Cavallaro, 2006).

In terms of geography, anime is huge in Japan. In 1988, it is estimated that 40% of studio releases were animated, and by 1999 that had increased to 50% (Napier, 2005). As well as on film, anime TV shows were a big proponent to what was on during all times of the day, from kid friendly anime in the morning, to more edgy teenage anime in the later part of the evening (Napier, 2005). This popularity however has not always been around, it was properly established post war, with significant films coming out such as Astro Boy in 1963. Simply put, the West just does not have this history and wealth of anime that Japan and other Eastern countries have. This may be because the West has Hollywood and Japanese anime has to battle for a place amongst the oncoming onslaught of American blockbusters (Napier, 2005).

Despite the distinctness the West and the East can have around anime. A new theory has been posited. Maybe anime is borrowing elements of Westerners animation and film, and it seems that Westerners are being influenced by Japanese anime as well. For example, the Disney classic ‘The Lion King was seen to be heavily influenced by an anime called ‘Kimba the White Lion’. As well as Japanese animators and producers being influenced by Western culture and fashions (Napier, 2005).

References

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp. 5-13). McFarland & Company.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s moving castle. Palgrave Macmillan.

Week 4 Question

Question 1: What was the cultural impact of Akira (1988), and why does it occupy a key place in the canon of anime greats?

The release of Akira in 1988 marked a pivotal time in anime. This film was at the time seen as sophisticated for anime in Japan. This may be due to it being one of the most highly produced anime with around a billion yen being invested into it (Bolton, 2018). It set a new technical bar for anime. Furthermore, it popularised the art form for North American audiences (Bolton, 2018).

Before Akira, anime in America was present but was often seen as something for children or limited to Speed Racer which most people didn’t even recognise to be of Japanese origin (Napier, 2005). Then when Akira did come out in America in 1990, it was seen as a sophisticated, complex work of art that baffled and inspired its Western audiences. According to Peter Chung who was a director and animator in the 1990’s, he thought that one of the reasons Akira was unique was because they tried to make it appealing to an international audience (Chu, 2018). Due to this spark in popularity and influence Japan opened up a whole new market of animated films (Napier, 2005).

Apart from its groundbreaking animation skills and technical breakthroughs, Akira has strong political messages sewn throughout it. The atomic explosion that occurs at the start of the film is a nod to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs which were released in 1945. We later find out that the explosion was caused by Akira as she represents the famously destructive nuclear bombs, and Tetsuo who has developed telekinetic powers is the consequence of the explosion (Chu, 2018).

As well as these political messages, Akira has been seen to be an influence to many shows and films and other such media that audiences love presently. Shows such as ‘Stranger Things’, movies such as ‘Looper’, and Kanye West music video ‘Stronger’, all the way down to the clothes brand Supreme coming out with an Akira line have all been influenced by the movie (Chu, 2018).

References

Bolton, C. (2018). Interpreting anime. University of Minnesota Press.

Chu, H. (2018, July 14). Why the pioneering Japanese anime ‘Akira’ is still relevant 30 years later. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-the-pioneering-japanese-anime-akira-remains-relevant-30-years-later/2018/07/12/b7577c74-813f-11e8-b851-5319c08f7cee_story.html

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s moving castle. Palgrave Macmillan.