Category: Week 4 Questions – Anime

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

Before Akira, several directors such as Hayao Miyazaki boasted considerable drawing style and production, but few of these Japanese theatre animations were exported from the West at that time. So Westerners were only watching Japanese TV limited commercial animations, so they thought that Japanese animators were nothing, unlike them who were making animations like Disney. But there is a work that changed their minds. It is Akira. Of course, Napier(2005) states “Unquestionably a masterpiece of technical animation, Akira is also a complex and challenging work of art that provoked, bewildered, and occasionally inspired Western audiences when it first appeared outside Japan in 1990.”
But Akira’s composition and directing were better than any other animation and attracted Western attention. So it creates a fandom culture like Otaku who finds and searches for Japanese masterpieces after Akira. Like this, Akira becomes a re-establishment of the status of Anime.

Also, Napier(2005) says “At the time of Akira’s first appearance in the West, animation was generally regarded as a minor art, something for children, or perhaps, the occasional abstract, art-house film”.
This tells us that Western animation has become a culture mostly for children. However, Akira’s story is about social problems that have not been dealt with in animation so far, so it attracts attention from children to various generations, creating a box office hit. Therefore, people’s views and evaluations of Japanese animation gradually change, and multiple works come in after Akira.

“As a cyberpunk genre depicting dystopia, Akira is hardly a whole new story”(Shin,n.d). The elements that makeup Akira, such as the boy who awakened his superpowers, the government’s conspiracy, and the forces against it, can never be said to be new. Nevertheless, Akira’s imagination was different from previous movies. The reason is straightforward. Akira is an animation. Akira showed the visuals that Hollywood and other American movies never showed in the 1980s. So, In the sense that Akira proved the status of Japanese animation, It is sufficient to occupy a principal place in the canon of anime greats.

References
Napier Susan, J. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle.

Shin, D. (n.d.). 재패니메이션의 마스터피스, 를 봐야 하는 이유. Retrieved August 21, 2020, from https://m.post.naver.com/viewer/postView.nhn?volumeNo=9312603

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

According to Susan Napier (2005), anime is considered a popular and dominating culture in Japan, however, in America it is seen as a “sub” culture. Often, anime is seen as a type of low culture depending where you are in the world, but at its roots, anime is a popular cultural phenomenon that inspires from previous high cultural Japanese traditions. Traditions such as Kabuki, woodblock prints, and martial arts can be seen as significant influences on a range of genres found in anime, as well as insights from worldwide twentieth century cinema and photography. The complex issues and narratives in high culture literature are also explored in anime, while entertaining the audience with its provocative visuals, as well as provoking viewers on a range of real-life contemporary issues. For instance, the ecological issues that can be seen influenced in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke and much of his other work.

Akira is a key animated film that brought a new perspective to the culture of anime when it first appeared outside of Japan in 1990. During the time of its release in the west, animation was typically viewed as a minor art form, reserved for children or abstract art-house films, and Japanese animation was further marginalized in comparison. With the popularity of Akira, it spurred the culture of Japanese anime into the more mainstream field of entertainment, and anime became an important figure in the global cultural economy. Akira even became a top selling video in the year after it was released in the UK, while also heightening its popularity in other European countries as well. Furthermore, Japan has been known for many of its “high cultural” products like haiku poems, Zen, and martial arts, however, animated films and videos became a bigger product in the 1990’s and remains as a big export. Thus, propelling anime from being a topic of smaller subgroups to a bigger marginal niche audience in mainstream media.

Moreover, unlike cartoon animations in the west, which has a larger focus on an audience encompassing mostly children, anime in Japan has viewers that vary from both children, to college students, and young adults. Napier (2005) describes anime’s pop cultural phenomenon in Japan as cutting across “generational lines to be embraced by everyone.” With different anime’s catering to different age groups, it also appeals to different contemporary issues and visual factors in the form of sub-genres. Cyberpunk is a popular anime genre with works like Akira, and Ghost in the Shell. Another popular sub-genre is Shoujo anime, which is targeted at an audience for younger girls, and often has a young, female protagonist. As can be seen, anime as a medium holds many different visual elements of generic, thematic, philosophical and psychological components to create a distinct and aesthetic world.

References

Napier, S. (2005). Why anime? In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.3-14). Hampshire: Palgrave/ Macmillan.  

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

Among the wide catalogue of influential anime, there is nothing more important to the development and popularity of the genre than Akira (Otomo, 1988). Akira is one of, if not the most important anime creations, it was the film that exposed many western audiences to the world of Japanese animation and as a result, the cultural impact of Akira was ginormous. Akira’s impact truly cannot be understated, Susan J. Napier mentions that “Akira is also a complex and challenging work of art that provoked, bewildered, and occasionally inspired Western audiences when it first appeared outside of Japan” (Napier, 2005, p. 5). The cult following that Akira acquire was substantial considering how unknown anime was to the western world earning over $80 million worldwide in VHS sales alone. Put simply, Akira showed the western world that Japanese animation existed.

 

Before Akira, animation in the west was predominately seen as a medium design for children Napier mentions how “animation was generally regarded as a minor art, something for children, or, perhaps, the occasional abstract, art-house film” (Naiper, 2005, p. 5). This is seen with how the vast majority of Walt Disney Picture films are designed for a much younger audience, specifically children. For western audiences that grew up children’s cartoons, Akira would have been genuinely shocking as it was radically different from what they would have been exposed to. Akira’s visuals, soundtrack, storyline, and other aspects were unlike anything western audiences would have seen at the time. Akira was uncompromising in this regard and is another reason why it had a massive cultural impact. This idea is true for a lot of anime, as Napier states “Its complex story lines challenge the viewer used the predictability of Disney … while its often dark tone and content may surprise audiences who like to think of cartoons as childish or innocent” (Napier, 2005, p. 9). Akira showed western audiences an animated film that did not stray away from graphic depictions of violence and sexuality, something that was virtually never seen before the advent of Akira.

 

Akira was also influential in the creation of the subgenre, Japanese cyberpunk, popularizing the subgenre after the Akira manga series started it. Without Akira some of the most influential and important anime simply would not exist, it paved the way for other important Japanese animation to make their way over to the west and further the interest in anime. Due to the monumental cultural impact of Akira, it has cemented itself as a key film in the great canon of anime alongside many other great works. A reason as to why Akira established itself as one of the greats in the anime canon is how it has remained culturally relevant even 32 years after its creation. This is due to the poignant themes and imagery in Akira resembling a lot of the continuous struggles that people face against corrupt government systems.

 

References

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

Otomo, K. (Director). (1988). Akira [Film]. Tokyo Movie Shinsha.