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Week 6: Brendan O’Neill

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?

Cosmicism is a philosophy that was developed by H.P. Lovecraft and had a significant presence in his work. The idea of cosmicism is “that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence.” That there were eons before us and there will be eons after us, we are just a temporary spec of dust on a planet (C. R. WILEY, 2017). Cosmicism is used very effectively in Lovecraft’s work to convey dread. 

The Shadow over Innsmouth was written in 1931 but publicised later due to Lovecraft’s issues he had with it. Despite Lovecraft’s dislike for the story it still conveys dread through cosmicism. The story has many implications that stick with the reader after they have finished reading it. The first is that Robert is able to let go of his humanity. At the end of the story despite knowing he is going to lose his humanity and become a Deep One, he is able to accept this and even look at it optimistically. It implies through cosmicism, that we as human beings are able give up on something that should be a core part of ourselves, that we are so insignificant, that an unknown force can simply take away our self worth and values. The next implication is that the deep ones are able to make humans betray each other, that our bond as a species can be easily broken by the unknown, and make us prioritize them over our own kind. The next implication is that Robert had no control over his life from the very beginning. It was an inevitability that Robert was helpless to stop regardless as to whether he found out about it or not. According to cosmicism, there is no god, and the other humans are more inclined to take the side of the deep ones then robert, meaning there is absolutely nothing that can save Robert from his fate.

This trend of cosmicism in lovecraft’s work continues in The colour out of space. Some of the implications here are similar to The Shadow over innsmouth when cosmicism is considered, such as the humans being powerless against the creature, Gardner is unable to protect his family, his livestock, or himself, and the people who go to the farm are equally powerless and all they can do is run away. The alien was simply able to impose itself on humanity without consequence. The humans being unable to perceive the creature, or not being able to process it without feinting is another returning feature. In this story we can only perceive the alien as being a color, no shape, or size or texture, a color is all our brains can process. The last dread setting idea is that the odds of what happened to the Gardners was a cosmically incalculable number, the meteor could have landed in another state, or country, or planet, or could have ended up in a completely different galaxy. Yet it landed in the gardners farm, the implication is that no matter how unlikely it is in the cosmic expanse, it could still happen to you. 

C. R. WILEY. (2017, August 24). Lovecraft’s Cosmicism: What it Is, How It Works, and Why It Fails. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/gloryseed/2017/08/lovecrafts-cosmicism-works-fails/

Lovecraft, H. P. (1927). The color out of space.

Lovecraft, H. P. (1936). The shadow over innsmouth

Week 5: Brendan O’Neill

What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Shojo means ‘young woman’ in english, and within anime refers to series that have young women as the target audience. It is the opposite of the medium’s most popular category, shounen. As the name of the category suggests, shojo anime are designed to be appealing to young women, and many conventions have become a staple of the genre because of this. Despite many Shojo anime being quite similar to each other, the category is quite difficult to define in terms what strictly is and is not shojo, if your manga is published by a shojo magazine, then your manga is a shojo, and that’s really it, outside of that the best way to analyse shojo is to highlight its common tendencies. 

Like many age categories the protagonists in shojo anime are often the same as their target audience, in other words the protagonist is a young girl, usually at some point in their time at highschool. Some of the most common traits 

Easily the most common and well known genre to fall under shojo is romance. There is so much romance in shojo that some think romance and shojo are the same thing, shojo are often about the protagonist’s romantic endeavors with one or several people. The love interest is a character with a few consistent traits as well, they are often the one to make all the moves in the relationship, and have some form of issue or trauma that the protagonist can fix. The setting is often based in the real world, and is often a school or some form of educational facility. The antagonistic force in your typical shojo isn’t an actual threat to the wellbeing of the protagonist, but rather is some form of romantic rival such as an ex, or fiance. 

Although the conventions I’ve highlighted do make up for the brunt of what can be found in the category of shojo, and I don’t believe it to be an unfair representation. I still don’t think it’s a sufficient definition for what shojo is and how it functions in anime. Which is why I will offer some broader appeals of the category.

Rather than being romantic, I think shojo is romanticism. Shojo is visually quite a distinct category, where both male and female characters look feminine, where the backgrounds are often abstract use of shape rather than a set piece, where the aesthetic of the anime is highly dependent on the emotional mood in the story (Jappleng n.d.) I call shojo romanticism because it is emotionally heightened and expressive, at least moreso than other categories. The mix of unique character art, shapes, and color creates what I call the shojo aesthetic, and it’s this aesthetic that brings us the question. Shojo, is a category, but it has also become its own style, one that can be applied to other categories as well. The function of shojo, is to introduce high emotion into a scene without messing with the overall tone of the scene, displaying that a character is angry in a funny scene, without turning that funny scene tense, is one of the primary applications of the aesthetic and conventions that come with shojo anime.                 

Jappleng. (n.d.). What is Shoujo / shojo and everything you need to know. https://www.jappleng.com/culture/articles/anime-manga/117/what-is-shoujo-shojo-genre-anime 

Week 4: Brendan O’Neill

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

Of any anime film to ever exist, there are none that even come close to Akira in terms of the impact that it had. It had a limited release in the US and caused a massive culture shock. Among the Disney releases that were all designed for children, Akira would have been one of a kind, and firmly sealed itself as a cult classic. The worldwide box office pull was a massive 45 million dollars, which led to the VHS release of the film by Manga Entertainment, a distributor that was created for the sole purpose of distributing Akira. Akira was also the biggest anime production of its time, with a budget of approximately 8-11 billion yen, since it was a collaboration between 7 media conglomerates. 

Essentially, Akira changed everything, the west became aware of what anime was, significantly boosted the popularity of manga and anime in the west. It led to the foundations of mass distribution of anime in America. Most importantly though, it began to deconstruct the notion in America that animation was a medium just for children. Anime as a medium today is on the border of gaining mainstream acceptance in the west, the volume and quality of anime productions have gone up as a whole, and it is now highly accessible in the west as well. As the west begins to consume more anime more westerners are beginning to work in the anime industry as well. All of this may still have been a few decades if not for the incredible effect that Akira had. 

But why is Akira so good? The film only takes from the beginning of the manga, and the end of it, with the middle point being a confusing mess, with core characters and themes being overlooked. The full story of Akira is not in the film, which would be impossible to achieve in two hours, so does Akira have any right to be this beloved? I believe so. The huge budget for the film is apparent when you watch it. The frame rate of the film is very smooth for the time with 12 drawings a second, and in some places, 24 drawings a second, a far higher rate than other iconic Japanese studios of the time such as Studio Ghibli. As a result, Akira is one of the few works of animation of the times that could compete with the top quality productions of Disney Studios. Where Akira may have Disney beat though, is in the detail and world design, in many scenes in Akira there so many moving parts that it is difficult to keep track of everything that is happening, giving the film a chaotic vibe, which is exactly the vibe one would expect when an entire city is being destroyed, or in the middle of a violent revolt. 

Without Akira making the impact that it did here in the western world, we may not have had to deal with annoying weebs. But that’s ok because at least the film is as good as it is heralded to be.            

Super Eyepatch Wolf. (2018, May 6). The Impact of Akira: The Film that Changed Everything [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqVoEpRIaKg&list=PLiiEr5EE-YgxqzcU1Yo_1aIF6ZvP7dCOi

Week 3: Brendan O’Neill

How and why have Tintin’s gender and sexuality been questioned?

No artist, dead or alive, has full control over how their work is interpreted. For Hergé this must’ve been an inconvenient reality, as the likely intentional lack of solid defining traits for Tintin as a character would backfire in the long run. It was to Hergé’s disgust after all, when people began to question Tintin in ways that Hergé would have never predicted. 

The first aspect of Tintin that has been brought to question is his gender. In terms of personality traits, Tintin doesn’t seem to strongly lean either way, for a character that exists within a ‘boys world’ he is surprisingly lacking in masculine traits. Furthermore, when in relation to Captain Haddock, Tintin begins to adopt feminine traits like being observant, silent, and tender. Tintin has the physical attributes of a teenager, despite almost certainly seeming to be an adult, since he provides for himself and is mostly independent, we never see even a strand of hair on his face or chest, and we have certainly never seen his genitals. The evidence that Tintin is a girl isn’t exactly substantial, and yet the same can be said for him being a guy. For a world that was designed to be for boys, that girls don’t belong in, Tintin doesn’t seem to entirely fit into that, and that is suspicious. The implications are that Tintin is a tomboy, rather than a real one, which may have some logic behind it. If I were a female journalist traveling the world in the time period of Tintin, I imagine I might dress as a boy to avoid prejudice. 

The second aspect of Tintin that is in question is sexuality. Not once does Tintin show any kind of sexual or romantic desire towards anyone, which leaves it up to the reader to speculate. The lack of any kind of carnal desire from Tintin would immediately suggest that perhaps he is asexual, but there is still another option. All of Tintin’s strongest relationships are with men. As I mentioned before, Tintin’s personality had a slight change after he met Captain Haddock, and the two of them sometimes live together. There is also the strange scene where Haddock attempts to uncork Tintin, some saying this is Haddock symbolically penetrating and screwing Tintin. The character that Tintin seems to emotionally care about the most is Chang. Tintin dreams of Chang, cries out his name in waking, and weeps for Chang (Mountfort, 2020.)               

Ultimately the actual arguments for Tintin being a girl or being gay or asexual are not particularly convincing, but it is equally impossible to prove that Tintin is a heterosexual male. The reason that these aspects of Tintin are questioned so intensely then, is because Tintin, by complete accident it seems, is an unidentifiable unknown, a puzzle with no intended solution.

Mountfort, P. (2020). Tintin, gender and desire. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2020.1729829

     

Week 2: Brendan O’Neill

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

If the term ‘aged like milk’ has any accuracy, then the flavour of the older Tintin albums is at times remarkably sour. Over the long course of the series Hergé has built an impressive roster of cultural stereotypes that have been the cause of criticism in modern days. The first example appeared in the very first volume Land of the soviets where the Chinese are depicted with eyes so slanted, they are literally just lines on their faces, with pig tale haircuts that are about to torture Tintin. Arguably the most outrageous case comes in the second volume Tintin in the Congo. In this volume, African people are depicted with comically oversized rounded lips that are a bright red in colored versions, large eyes relative to other characters, speaking in broken english, wearing western clothing incorrectly, and having low intelligence. Tintin educates the natives about Belgium, a reference to the ‘Belgian Congo’, the Belgian colonial exploits of Congo, in which the natives were exploited and exposed to violence, while also given little in the way of healthcare and education. As Hergé explains it, The inclusion of this in the comic was meant to be a reflection of his paternalistic feelings in regard to the colony. This is the first example of Hergé’s misguided attempts at including race in his work. Not only is the profile of the natives in the comic highly stereotypical and degrading, but Tintin is also in the unfortunate role of the white man that fixes their problems and becomes their ‘master’. A year later in Cigars of the Pharaohs the artistic depictions of Africans still remain consistent. Hergé’s depiction of native Americans was a slight improvement, with the primary goal of his third entry Tintin in America being intended as a critique of American capitalism and treatment of Native Americans. The Native Americans in the comic are written to be sympathetic, but Hergé still depicts them as gullible and naive, as well as less intelligent than the white characters. With the fifth volume The Blue Lotus the visual depictions of the Chinese characters have toned down from their depictions in Land of the Soviets which may be due to the fact that Hergé’s view of the Chinese in this story was sympathetic unlike in Land of the soviets. This maybe explains why his depiction of the Japanese antagonistic force in The Blue Lotus was more questionable, with his visual depiction of the character Mitsuhirato being suspiciously similar to anti Japanese war propaganda. Whether Hergé chooses to view other races in a paternalistic or sympathetic manner, their depictions still are more often than not problematic. I do believe that Hergé is not a racist and that the messaging of his work is well meaning, but ultimately misguided in execution. This is best illustrated by Tintin himself, who educates the Congolese and solves their problems, because they need him to. Who nearly gets killed by Native Americans that were easily tricked and imposed on by the ‘bad whites’. Who saves a drowning Chinese boy, and treats him as someone he needs to protect. Hergé’s paternalistic and sympathetic views on other races resulted in depictions of these races that required a smart competent white man to help them, and that is why the early volumes have aged like milk all these years later.

Mountfort, Paul. (2011). Yellow skin, black hair … Careful, Tintin’: Hergé and Orientalism. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 1(1), 33-49. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.1.1.33_1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Lotus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_the_Land_of_the_Soviets      

Week 1: Brendan O’Neill

How has the academic reception of popular genres changed over time?

In previous era’s there has been an observable bias by academics towards what was at the time and occasionally now is referred to as ‘high’ literature. Poetry, prose literature, and stage dramas are classical genres that were often deemed to be superior to modern popular genres. For this reason popular genres were often excluded from academic study, and were not taken seriously in the academic space. Furthermore there existed aspects of popular genres that lead academics to be less favorable towards them. Popular genres often present formulaic narrative outlines that are easy to predict. Many characters in popular genres suffer from being two dimensional and lacking significant growth over the narrative, while also being easily categorised into different character archetypes within that genre. Popular genres as a concept were also new, and many texts came to by way of new technologies and mediums.

As time went on the academic perceptions of popular genres began to change, and popular genres began to to be included in academic literature programs. There are two main reasons for this change, firstly because of a steady increase in popularity for genre fiction, and secondly because of a more favorable reevaluation of popular genres in the academic space. Many popular genre works are accessed via new technologies and mediums, such as TV, film, and the internet, and with televisions still being a normal household item, and many films and series being available online. Popular genres have taken over as the more affordable and accessible means of entertainment. As these new technologies become more normalised and used by more people, this also increases the popularity of popular genres. There are also several factors of popular genres that made them more appealing in the academic space. Popular genres are newer then classical genres, and as a result often better reflect modern society as it is today. Popular genres also have qualities that literary classics lack, such as the implementation of both text and imagery in ways that enhance the work. Lastly there were several ways in which the notion that ‘high literature’ being superior to popular genre fiction was deconstructed. It became apparent that the perception of what was ‘high’ and ‘low’ literature was not only subjective, but were centered around the tastes of privileged and elite groups. Authorial intentions for texts from both classical and popular genres were also often indistinguishable, with the intentions for texts often being more than just for basic entertainment.

What might the value be of studying them?

Popular genre fiction often does not exist within the realm of realism. Locations, languages, creatures, races, items, and technology that do not exist in our reality exist within popular genre texts, and these ideas can have real world practical and cultural applications. Science fiction concepts like hoverboards from back to the future or lightsabers from star wars now have real world prototypes, and popular culture is heavily influenced by popular genre texts making it worthy of studying what other ideas could be implemented in the real world from popular genres. As mentioned above popular genre fiction is often a reflection of the society it was produced from, therefore studying popular genre texts can inform on aspects of societies in different locations and time periods. Popular genres have a larger consumer base then classical genres in modern day, by studying popular genres it could be found out why this is the case. 

Mounfort, P (auth). (2020). ENGL602 popular genres. Retrieved from

https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_96250_1&content_id=_5273101_1&mode=reset

Week 10: SciFi/Alt-History by Rachel Banks

Q2. What distinctions are there between alternate history, postmodern alternate history and uchronie genres?

Philip K. Dick’s (1962) The Man in the High Castle has proven to have a longstanding reputation as critically acclaimed piece of writing. Dick uses the prophetic Chinese Oracle I Ching or Book of Changes as part of his central plot device with which his characters interact to make choices throughout the story.

Critics have praised this work as exceptional example of the uchronie or alternate-history genre, however Mountfort, P (2016) argues differently, “The I Ching, I argue, is the device that, literally and figuratively, unifies the stylistic and philosophical dimensions of the novel, leaving us with a sophisticated postmodern fiction that explores the boundaries of text and world, their overlappings and multiplicities.”

Many academics have cited Dick’s (1962) work as being a formative example of alternative history, otherwise known as the French term “uchronie” whereby he takes on the notion of the Nazis winning WWII.

 “William Joseph Collins, elaborates three subcategories of uchronie: “pure uchronia,” consisting of one alternative world; “plural uchronia,” in which this and an alternate world existing in parallel; and “infinite uchronia,” in which there are many, even infinite parallel worlds” cited in Mountfort, P. (2016)

 “This notion of “critical disjunctions along the linear time line” is the stuff of the uchronie genre, but it is also a contingent function of the view of time implicit in the philosophy of oracular consultation, as per Everett and Halpern’s observation that “reliance on the I Ching introduces an element of chance, it suggests that alternative possibilities always exist, perhaps in different realities where other hexagrams were cast” cited in Mountfort, P. (2016)

In conclusion uchronie genres and alternative histories are similar. However when there are multiple outcomes of alternate stories Mountfort, P (2016) argues these moves into the realm of post-modern alternate history.

References
Mountfort, P. (2018) Science fictional doubles: Technologization of the doppelgänger and sinister science in serial science fiction TV, Journal of Science & Popular Culture. Volume 1 No.1 . Intellect Ltd

Mouuntfort, P. (2016) The I Ching and Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, The I Ching and the Man in The High Castle; Science Fiction Studies, Volume 43. pp.287-309.  

Week 12: Reality TV by Rachel Banks

Q1. Can reality TV still be thought of as a genre given the high level of hybridity that exists?

Since the conception of Reality Television it has morphed into multiple hybrids and sub-genres. Whereby the original concept of Reality TV was documentary style journalistic content it has become a genre in its own right and still deserves recognition as a genre. Reality TV is essentially unscripted content that is woven together to form a narrative. From its beginnings documenting “The Real World” on MTV, where a group of single adolescents shared a house with cameras filming their every encounter, it has transitioned into multiple sub-genres and hybrids.

Now Reality Television encompasses talent shows, cooking shows, following fringe jobs, romance, game shows, house renovations, docu- drama, lifestyle shows and more. While the multiple variations of Reality Television would suggest hybridization the audience has come to understand and expect certain aspects that are unique to the Reality Genre.  We expect either complete strangers chosen at random to be put through their paces for a prize, or people searching for love jumping through metaphorical hoops to secure the heart of the prize bachelor or bachelorette. We expect to be able to vote in talent shows which are based on personal likeability as much as talent. We expect to see people fight it out and strategize to survive the odds of game shows such as “Survivor” or “The Block”. We know we’re going to see unobtainable wealth, luxury, and conflict when we watch the “Real Housewives” franchise or “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” We imagine that our favourite recipe could compete on one of the reality cooking shows. We imagine that a friend or loved one may one day give us a “Surprise Makeover.” It’s these little hopes that keep us watching. We want to see how the other half live, even if it is mostly contrived.

Reality Television now is as well-known as a format as Drama or Documentary. There are multiple hybrids of these genres too. There are Romantic Comedies, Tragedy Drama, Psychological thriller drama, Medical drama, Crime Drama etc. Reality Television has created its own Genre and as creators keep coming up with new ways to create hybrids and subgenres it will still be relevant for years to come.

References
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In
Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Week 11: Reality TV by Rachel Banks

Q1. How real is reality tv?

Realty TV currently contains numerous subgenres. Gone are the days of hand held footage of behind the scenes action, documentary style, of law and order professionals or capturing the goings on in a busy hospital emergency department. These styles of filming are edited and made into stories with whatever footage became available at the time… The Real story.

Now, Reality TV is produced, scripted, planned and sold to sponsors before the people who are going to appear on screen stand in front of a camera. I have personally worked on a few Reality TV shows, X-Factor NZ, Dancing With The Stars, Finding Aroha, The Block x2, Hunt With Me and Married at First Sight. I’ve been on set, I’ve seen the way in which the stylists choose to portray a persona for the cast of characters. I’ve ushered in the marketing and sponsorship team to the best seats in the room. Basically I know how things work behind the scenes. Reality TV is not Real. Reality TV is contrived and planned like any other genre broadcast on the screens in our homes.

Reality Television has to make sure it can find an audience, advertisers and a broadcaster just like a documentary, journalism or drama series does. In New Zealand Mediaworks has aired a slew of Reality content one after the other both locally and internationally on TV3 and what was Four and is now Bravo. Why? Because reality Television is cheap to make, cheap to buy, and people watch it. People feel they can relate to the drama unfolding… because it could be them in the spotlight.  

What the general audience doesn’t realise is that the creators and producers are looking to fill an character or architype for each role on their Reality show. They are looking for opinionated people who will clash, create tension and cause conflict with others. Moreover they are looking for people who will perform, how they expect, when the television series throws challenges at them. They do this to sell solutions to the participants in the form on sponsors or paid partnerships. People would stop watching if everyone got along and things happened easily. It would be boring… like Real life.

References
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.

Week 5: Anime by Rachel Banks

Question 7: In what ways might Akira, Nausicaā and Mononoke be considered prescient?

Prescient can be described as insightfulness, prophecy or being able to have knowledge of the future.  Akira, Nausicaā and Mononoke can in some ways be seen as the creator’s psychic vision of themes that may come to pass or they could be complete fantasy? According to Mountford, P (2020) Hayao Miyazaki’s works of Nausicaā and Mononoke take on a tortured relationship between humans and nature. He suggests that the strong themes around ecology also raise existential themes of sustainability of the human race. So in this sense there could be a prescient view of global warming and the earth fighting back against humans?

Morgan, G (2015) discusses Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki choices of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic world to set his stories. She states, “Nausicaä is living in a post-apocalyptic world, unable to breathe without a respirator because of the large amount of toxic spores. Her world is portrayed as forever toxic, resulting from the God Warriors a millennium prior. Comparing her world with that of ours and the toxic chemicals that have been dumped into our atmosphere and environment, we can begin to see that there is a tipping point where we are slowly annihilating ourselves.”

Furthermore Morgan, G (2015) describes Princess Mononoke as a battle between humans and nature. She suggests we “begin to see our failings and fears in how we approach environmental problems. Just as Miyazaki shows the characters’ misunderstanding of the complete cycle of nature, we can begin to see our incomplete picture regarding climate change. Just as warring tribes in Nausicaä tackle the encroaching Toxic Jungle by different means, we can compare that with politicians and scientists squabbling over data findings about the existence of climate change and how we should take action to combat it.” Morgan, G. (2015)

The works of “Hayao Miyazaki emphasize ecology – both in the films’ representations of the nature and engagement in environmental discourse as well as their interest in the interaction of part and whole, self and society, humanity and the world.” Thevenin, B.(2013)

Akira is described by Chu, H. (2018) as a “frenetic cyberpunk anime”, showing that cartoons, across cultures can take on bigger social issues. He says the narrative is part allegory telling the story of the fallout from nuclear bombs being dropped in Japan during WWII. He suggests that “Akira represents the bomb and Tetsuo is the dreaded next calamity.”

Schley, M. (2018) regards the world in which Akira (1988) is set in Otomo’s Neo-Tokyo. It was filled with “hyper technology, urban sprawl, disaffection and unrest.” Schely (2018) says “the director was prescient not just about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the danger of religious cults.” This is in reference to the sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway.

Chan, M. (2015) suggests “the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor accident which occurred in Fukushima, Japan in March 2011 had wide reaching impact in terms of environmental pollution” and is indicative of Hayao Miyazaki’s eco-fable warnings.  

References:

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

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Frame of Reference. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.15-28). London: McFarland & Company.

Chan, MA (2015) Environmentalism and The Animated Landscape in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997). In: Animated Landscapes: History, Form and Function. Bloomsbury, New York, pp. 93-108.

Chu, H. (2018)Why the pioneering Japanese anime ’Akira’ is still relevant 30 years later. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from 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

Otomo , Katsuhiro (1988) Akira [Film]

Miyazaki, Hayao (1984) Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind [Film]

Miyazaki, Hayao (1997) Princess Mononoke [Film]

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, Volume 2, Number 3, Fall 2015, pp. 172-183. University of Nebraska Press

Mountfort, P (2020) [Video] Week 5 Anime lecture; https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/pid-5326019-dt-content-rid-12630385_4/institution/Papers/ENGL602/Publish/PopGenres_Week%205_Anime%20%232_Part%202.mp4

Schley, M. (2018) Akira: Looking back at the future | Deep reads from The Japan Times. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://features.japantimes.co.jp/akira-new/

Thevenin, B. (2013) Princess Mononoke and beyond: New nature narratives for children. Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture. 2013, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p147-170. 24p.

Usher, T. (2016) How ’Akira’ Has Influenced All Your Favourite TV, Film and Music. Retrieved November 19, 2020, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/kwk55w/how-akira-has-influenced-modern-culture

Wright, L., Clode, J.(2005) The Animated Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki. Metro. 2005, Issue 143, p46-51. 6p.