ANIME — current posts — Fantasy/Animation

Fan Service in Chinese and Japanese Animation

Originating in Japanese anime, fan service refers to elements in fiction, often of a sexual nature, added to please the audience and cater to fans’ desires by incorporating nudity or highly suggestive and erotic scenes. Keith Russell (2008) argues that fan service scenes in anime create an aesthetic of the “glimpse,” where panty shots, leg spreads, and brief flashes of breasts transform mundane moments of daily life into possibilities charged with desire. These anticipated gestures are briefly frozen in time, sustaining moments of sensory gratification where the body and imagination coexist, establishing a connection between gaze and desire (Russell 2008, 107).

EDITORIALMengxue WeiNovember 15, 2024ANIME, JAPAN, CHINA, SEXUALITY, REPRESENTATIONComment

Speaking to Impurity: The Preservation or Expulsion of Parasites in Iwaaki Hitoshi’s Parasyte

Parasyte is a Japanese sci-fi/fantasy/horror manga created by Hitoshi Iwaaki, serialized from 1989 to 1994, and continuously adapted over the last decade into multiple films, animations, and television series. Its enduring popularity is evidenced by the recent Korean film adaptation, which emerged a decade after the last, Parasyte: The Grey. Most versions of Parasyte maintain the same core narrative, focusing on a high school student named Shinichi and an alien parasite named Migi that burrows into his right arm. They gradually form a trusting alliance to combat other parasytes that have taken over human brains. Through his interactions with Migi, Shinichi begins to ponder the justice of survival among non-human creatures.

EDITORIALShao-Jie JhouMay 10, 2024ANIME, MANGA, ANTHROPOMORPHISM, REPRESENTATION, PHILOSOPHY, BODYComment

Divine Love in Animation: Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (2023) is a beautiful bewilderment. It is the auteur’s innermost introspection on what it means to live, or exactly, how we live. Miyazaki is no stranger to isekai (異世界) world-building with his idiosyncratic imagination. His films combine a sense of the real-world situation with irreal events. The Boy and the Heron is no exception. However, as many reviews have already noted, this film is not an easy ride.

EDITORIALBin Yee AngDecember 15, 2023STUDIO GHIBLI, FANTASY, JAPAN, ANIME, NATUREComment

Review: Early Japanese Animation (Barbican Theatre)

It is a rare privilege to witness the origins of a globally popular artform like Japanese anime, and even rarer to experience it with live musical accompaniment and traditional Benshi narration.

EVENT REVIEWDevon DouiebJune 10, 2022JAPAN, ANIME, HISTORY, MUSIC, NATIONAL CINEMAComment

Porco Rosso: How Hayao Miyazaki evokes emotional closeness through sensory stimuli

Porco Rosso (1992) is the sixth feature-length film in the colourful and expansive repertoire of Japanese animation giant Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki’s film is certainly an unsung masterpiece, frequently branded “underrated,” such as in Rob Bricken’s assertion that “it is unfairly overlooked in [Miyazaki’s] oeuvre.”

SEQUENCE ANALYSISTom NelMarch 12, 2021JAPAN, ANIME, STUDIO GHIBLI, HAPTICS, SENSORYComment

Review: Kotatsu Animation Festival - 10th Anniversary (2020)

During October 24th-26th 2020, the Kotatsu Animation Festival held its 10th anniversary festival. Sponsored by Japan Foundation London and hailed as Wales’ premiere event for Japanese animation, this year’s event was held online due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with showings of the festival films live on the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival YouTube channel and several Zoom Q+A’s and workshops were held.

EVENT REVIEWAnastasia Marika WilliamsNovember 20, 2020ANIME, JAPAN, CREATIVITY, CREATIVE PRACTICEComment

Modernity and Tradition in Japan via Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name (2016)

Makoto Shinkai’s animated film Kimi No Na Wa, translated as Your Name, was a critical and commercial hit when it was released in 2016. The film depicts the strange and wondrous journey of two high school teenagers, city boy Taki in Tokyo and countryside girl Mitsuha in rural lakeside Itomori, who are inexplicably swapping bodies with each other.

EDITORIALZhui Ning ChangJuly 17, 2020TRADITION, JAPAN, MODERNITY, ANIME, MUSIC, SOUNDComment