BODY — current posts — Fantasy/Animation

Maintaining Identity over Time in Animated Bodies during Metamorphosis Transitions

A character’s body in animation is believed to be a fluid form (Wells 1996) due to its ability to take on any intended form. Characters can manipulate their bodies to assume new identities, hiding, or losing their sense of self in the process (Clarke 2022), whether intentionally or not. However, when discussing identity in animation through the technique of metamorphosis, the body tends to be overlooked despite being mostly affected in these acts of transformation, as audiences are more focused on anticipating the outcome of metamorphosis (Torre 2010) rather than the transition between the two bodies and the reasons behind the way the body transitions.

EDITORIALRui Han TeoJuly 12, 2024METAMORPHOSIS, BODY, CHARACTER, REPRESENTATION, ABSTRACTComment

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

The ‘Unmasking Scene’ in the Student Films of Shofela Coker

Nigerian-born artist and illustrator Shofela Coker’s student films Oni Ise Owo (2007) and Iwa (2009) narrate tales of redemption at the intersection of divine will and the exercise of human agency. Iwa is a remake of the earlier animation completed as a Motion Graphics final project when Coker was an art student at the Memphis College of Art. This post reads a critical scene in both films to explore artistic creative agency at the intersection of traditional African art production and the digital provenance of animation.

EDITORIALMichael OshindoroApril 26, 2024SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, REPRESENTATION, BODY, TECHNOLOGYComment

Rotoscoping Female Subjectivity and Emotion Work in Undone

This blog post about Undone (Amazon Prime, 2019-2022) functions as a coping mechanism in light of Undone’s cancellation after two seasons, but also sets out to shed light on fragmented selves and multiverses, tropes that have been particularly prevalent in recent women-centric US TV.

EDITORIALSarah LahmJanuary 19, 2024TECHNOLOGY, ROTOSCOPING, GENDER, REPRESENTATION, BODYComment