Rija Faisal

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

Shojo is a specific genre in Japanese comics and in animated films. Shojo means “young women”. The term is usually used to refer to girls aged twelve and thirteen. Shojo can also refer to young girls making the transition from childhood to adolescence, and the word can also symbolically refer to the changes one goes through, from childhood to adulthood, powerlessness to power and innocence to awareness.  

In Japanese manga, the Shojo genre is primarily aimed at a young female audience, for instance, teenage girls, and it is characterized by the focus it places on romantic and personal relationships.

The Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki uses the concept of shojo in his works as a way of portraying female characters who are strong. His shojo girls are portrayed as very independent and are often quite assertive. Strong female characters give young girls an idol image to look up to, providing them with a sense of power and leadership.

Miyazaki’s female characters are also very ‘shojo’ in their physical appearance. Take the heroin of the Japanese animated film Spirited Away: Chihiro. At the beginning of the movie, Chihiro is portrayed as a typical little girl. She embodies what we can call the stereotypical image of the Japanese ‘shojo’ girl. She is young, cut and sexually innocent. Through her experiences and the time she spends in the fantasy world, Chihiro comes across and interacts with different characters, she grows as a character and becomes ‘mature’ in a sense, reaching a new level of understanding and self-confidence that previously may not have been there.  

So Miyazaki’s female heroins display the ‘shojo’ traits in their age, cuteness, innocence, their love for cute animals, etc, but at the same time, they are also endowed with the more ‘masculine’ characteristics: Courageous, adventurous, assertive, etc.

Miyazaki’s females experience and go through a progression. He uses the stereotypical image of the ‘shojo’ girl to mould and shape his characters into stronger, more ‘developed’ versions of themselves.

References:

Freda Freiberg (July 2006) Miyazaki’s Heroines Senses of Cinema. Retrieved from: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2006/uncategorized/miyazaki-heroines/

Rija Faisal

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

Before the release of Akira in 1988, Japan and its culture (art, food, animation, etc), was alien to the western world.

In making the film, a lot was borrowed from what was then popular in classic as well as contemporary western cinema. The combination of what was presented to the audience in the form of the film Akira ( the combination of cyberpunk dystopia, the alienation of youth, philosophy based on science), all of which were already a big part of the sci- fiction genre in the western world during the 8os, helped to elevate the film’s appeal to its audiences.

Akira marked the first time the western world engaged with Japanese culture on a large level. It left quite the impact on its audiences. The film’s influences can still be seen in the modern world. We can see how Akira helped to shape the modern science – fiction genre. Films such as Inception and Chronicle are good examples. Stylistically as well as thematically, both borrow from Akira.

A similar theme to that of Akira can also be seen in the popular TV series Stranger Things, which is based around the character of Eleven, a child trained to use her telekinetic powers as a weapon. In Akira, this theme is apparent in how the government is planning to use telekinetic people as weapons.

Akira has had major influences on western culture since its release back in 1988. Through its introduction into the US and the UK, it opened up new routes for both anime and Japanese culture to be accepted by the western audience.  

Akira is a film which is still considered to be one of the best films in the anime canon. It opened up the opportunity for cultures across the world to understand and show that social issues could be addressed. The futuristic style of the film, from its intrinsic details of cityscapes to its tale of power also inspired a whole new generation of works, as well helping to shape and morph the sci-fiction genre into what we know and recognize it to be today.

References:

Max Covill (April 3,2017) Akira is Frequently Cited as Influential Why Is that? filmschoolrejects.com Retrieved from: https://filmschoolrejects.com/akira-influence-12cb6d84c0bc/

Popular Genre 2020  – Week  1  

1. How has the academic reception of popular genres changes over time? 

We all have different tastes and by academic standards popularity is no indication of good storytelling that comes now in the form of cartoons, comic books, science fiction, fantasy, detective stories, film noir, graphic novels, television series and anime. Even though many people enjoy this type of entertainment it was often not considered as ‘serious’ or ‘high’ literature by the academic elite who tended to be white, male and English speaking. We are now a more literate society than at any time during the past and nowadays authors can reach a wider selection of the public.  

Serious literary works, unlike popular genre fiction, had not transitioned well into the age of digital media. Universities offer courses now that reflect this change to examine practices associated with popular genre to examine humanity that has become part of the cultural gestalt.  

2. What might the value be of studying them? 

The value of these courses is potential future employment. By exploring the foundation of popular genre gives one an insight into development of structure, characterization, setting, context, mode(s) that contribute to an audience’s understanding of a composition, use of technology and other literary devices to reach readers in all corners of the publishing industry. Additionally, works by writers from different backgrounds eg gender, ethnic, sexual orientation or other marginalized group gives different perspective, themes and messages the author wishes to impart that maybe more pleasurable relevant and tell us more about society today than do literary classics. 

 
REFERENCES  

Mountfort, P. (2020). AUT Blackboard. Popular Genres ENGL602. Powerpoint Week 1. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz 

Rija Faisal

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

While much has been said and addressed about the representation of race in Herge comics, what has often been neglected to be addressed is his representation of women.

Women play very limited roles in The Adventures of Tintin comics. Herge claimed once that women had little place in the Tintin stories. “Women have nothing to do in a world like Tintin’s”. The Tintin stories, Herge stated, were concerned with men getting themselves into misadventures rather than adventures, and that he found he simply could not mock women in the same way. “I like women far too much to caricature them. And, besides, pretty or not, young or not, women are rarely comic characters”.

It is not surprising therefore, given these statements and belief’s of Herge’s, that women are almost invisible in the Tintin series.

One of the few ways women tend to be used in the Tintin comics (when they are used at all, that is) , is as a background. They are visible among large crowds of people, such as in a scene set in a square or a marketplace, seen behind simple figures within the crowd, such as in Tintin and the Land of the Soviets. They do not stand out in any particular way, simply blending in with the background. In Tintin in America, as well, women remain creatures of the background, often being displayed with a child nearby, reducing their statues simply to that of a housewife or a mother.

Another way women are depicted in the Tintin series is by placing them within the small realm of labour. Characters representing female labour are portrayed as housewives, nurses, and mothers. This stereotypical portrayal of women serves to effectively limit the number of roles they can portray. White they are not being ruled out in this way, they are certainly being pushed into limited roles, e.g, that of an assistant or a stewardess.   

When viewed through the context and the mindset of the time period in which the Tintin comics were produced, this portrayal is easily understandable. Applied to the mindset of modern times, we can see why this portrayal would raise issues.       

References:  

Participation of Women in Tintin Adventures Tintinologist.org Retrieved from: https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=8&topic=5922

Student: Rija Faisal

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

And

What might the value be of studying them?

As a field of study on its own, popular genre has only recently started to be widely accepted and studied in universities. One can say, in the academic world, this branch of fiction was rather, “unpopular”.

The categories of popular genre include:

Anime.

Comics.

Science fiction.

Fantasy fiction.

For a long period of time, popular genre, or genre fiction as it is also known, was widely excluded from the literary and academic world. These works of fiction were not taken as seriously as classic literature, which is still considered to be a more “elevated” form of literature, and this perspective remained among the academic elite for quite some time.

Slowly, however, as these works of fiction evolved and advanced, they established their own place in the academic world.

Benefits of studying popular genre or popular fiction:

Broadens our horizons.

We get to learn about and come to understand people who are different from us.

Helps us to refine our own writing skills.

Teaches us about universal human experience.

References:

(n.d.). importance of studying literature e notes Homework Help. Retrieved from: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-study-literature-important-what-skills-do-408329

When it comes to critiquing Herge’s popular magnum opus with all its contextual vulgarities of Othering processed to anything but male Eurocentric centrism’s.

Another facet depicted of Herge’s problematization: the subtle Othering of women in his medium of fiction of Les Aventures de Tintin.

The portrayal of women protagonists in such a canonically widespread (and children’s comic) are often “semi-tragic sexualized objects”. to which such portrayal completely lacking any depiction is either infantilized or characteristically missing from the popular leaven pages of the medium whatsoever.

The iconic exception being here, of course, as Madame Bianca Castafiore (with her position within explored The Castafiore Emerald). her presence  does not excogitate the masculine centred narration vastly found throughout Herge’s medium. And is an embarrassment of note.

To which Herge’s replies reflect the recursive perspective reflects of garnered male privilege a neologism entirely  coined during the formative inception of the comic and reflected in the art form.

The grotesque social oeuvre applied to recent classical postmodern neologism applied as “Tintinology” has paid a careful study and attention to the widespread decadence portrayed through the medium.

A reflection of study, an examination of the early 21^st century of art form and vehicle of commentary and change.

Which brings forth the vicissitudes of the ethereal questions posited: Where are the women?

Why is there a complete lack of formative representation of the female gender? The promotion of gender and feminism during such early moments of the 21^st century? Where society in grand requisition, desperately needed such promotion, during such sexist points of time?

And why (if so characterized) are female characters from the ornate (and quite socially reflective) piece of the tablet so vastly, so poorly represented?

Comparative critics and studied contemporaries of Tintinologism have subsequently recognized the obvious academic discrepancies of Herge and his popular works.  

As a mainstream accessible modern genre carrying flaws, breaking through the assumptions of the adventures of Tintin being a  “timeless” or “a flawless classic” for “all ages” that patrons of its viewership cling unto its belief.

To which Herge himself presently orates his argument:

‘Women have nothing to do in a world like Tintin’s. I like women far too much to caricature them. And, besides, pretty or not, young or not, women are rarely comic characters’.

A conversation recorded by noted modern Tintinologist Numa Sadoul(Sadoul, 2003)

This oeuvre where such anti-egalitarian tropes were acceptable as “social norms” during regressively un-cultured and collectively remembered as indeed classified as  “primitive times”.

Tropes accepted have been, through have a processional re-examination of what is acceptable within his portrayal as “fiction” in a social contextual sense.

Because fiction, in the 20^th century, rose to become in itself (indeed a fact considered true today), a prominent place in society’s path and means of self-reflection, the issue is problematic and (in context of society vastly relevant) more important than appears by the non-tintinologists. A lesson is here to be learned.

A lesson is most necessarily requisite for academic reception to ensure we do not fail to learn from our histories and repeat mistakes of ignorance, prejudice or privilege. Our past is ours,  whether it be othered, socially reprocessed or antiquate unfairly represented – The future should encompass all without fail.

Bibliography

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular. Auckland: AUT.

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

Sadoul, N. (2003). Tintin ET Moi . Flammarion .

During the 21^st century Herge was undeniably an iconic and creative architect of the popular medium of comics.

A figure who seemed to (unwittingly, grossly unintended yet important) attracted and courted controversy in many forms.

His early connection with propaganda was both directly and indirectly manifested through for more than intended reasons.

The first controversy of propagandism we find is through autocratic fascism. – The Rexist party.

There is a social perception perused that during the 1930’s  Herge’s Tintin’s creator Herge became a social acquaintance with a Belgian autocrat: Leon Degrelle.

Leon was considered A contemporary of Hitler, Mussolini of the times (or of the “Blue-Shirts” of British fascists fame). Leon was an ambitious Rexist and an aspiring fascist for fascist representation in Belgium.

But who were The Rexists? Wikipedia further contemporaries into delineating a historical characterized definition:

The Rexist Party (French: Parti Rexiste), or simply Rex, was a far-right Catholic, nationalist, authoritarian and corporatist political party active in Belgium from 1935 until 1945. 

 Léon Degrelle, The Rexist leader, protégé of Hitler, and foreign correspondent of Le Vingtième Siècle, was acquainted with Hergé and sent him “local newspapers in which there were American strip cartoons. That’s how I came across my first comics.” (Hergé, in 1975)

During this time (the mid-1930s), Degrelle became acquainted with the cartoonist Hergé. In a volume published after his death (Tintin mon copain), the Rexist leader claimed that his years of journalism had inspired the creation of The Adventures of Tintin—ignoring Hergé’s statements that the character was based on his brother, Paul Remi.

Degrelle had been shipping Mexican newspapers containing American cartoons to Belgium, and Hergé did admit years later in 1975 that Degrelle deserved credit for introducing him to the comic “strip”.

The contact between them is a cast set in stone in history adding to controversy and taint that will forever foreshadow Herge.

Mountfort continues to eloquently  narrate the fascist connection with Herge:

Hergé’s early familiarity with comics was supplied to him from 1928 by Léon Degrelle, a foreign correspondent for the staunchly Catholic and conservative magazine, Le Petit Vingtième, where Hergé worked. Degrelle went on to found the Rexists, Belgian Fascists, becoming their leader in 1935. Disconcertingly, it was he who “introduc[ed] Hergé to the latest transatlantic developments in the strip cartoon”

(Mountfort, 2016)

However, this is not the full delineation of the scenery depicted or Herge’s traumatic encounters with propaganda and controversy. Second example:

Herge’s own presentation of Fascism and Propaganda within his album of the Adventures of Tinitn.

Propaganda extolled by Herge and his ancient regressive views on society

Later enacted social discussions are ineptly carried out through the medium in regards to social a changing world and changing political ideologies. The ideological stance is blatantly Euro-centric and (if considering the USSR as “eastern” obviously persists in subtleties of imperialist and centrist western propaganda )a s”Russian-phobiasms”

Example of propaganda:  Two portrayed contrasting viewpoints are introduced in Herge’s comic narration. The approaching the critique of Socialism Bolshevism in a revolutionary Russia ( and Early Laisse Faire Capitalism (Tintin en Amérique) is shown with contrasting yet subtle differences.

Within the discourse within Tintin in America,(Herge, 1932) a fair assemssnet is conducted: Social commentary is presently composition of Late Capitalism is arranged in reflected in the discourse.

A measure whereof prejudice.  Where any deviations from the normality of democracy or capitalism are attempted to vilify demonize

Any deviation of the norm is by the masses.

However While the phantasm and spectre Bokshevikism of revolutionary Socialistic Russia is feared by the masses and considerably Othered.

While the grand American experiment of late laisse fair System of Capitalism (in reverence of the genocidal conqueror and “discoverer” Christopher Columbus) is critiqued with different regards, but not feared or Othered to the extent of the dishevel fear mongering visibly appreciated in Tintin and the soviets.

Bibliography

Mountfort, P. (2016). Tintin as Spectacle: The Backstory of a Popular. Auckland: AUT.

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