JAPAN — 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

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: The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)

Miyazaki Hayao’s newest film, The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dou ikiru ka『君たちはどう生きるか』lit. “How do you live?”) is a Studio Ghibli film about personal growth in a world you cannot control. It’s a tad amusing, too, if you are reading this review before watching the film. I cannot say whether knowing anything before viewing the film is better, as the studio intended, or if context (and warning) are warranted to level any preconceptions based on Ghibli’s and Miyazaki’s reputations or general hype. In either case, perhaps it is best to view the film free of expectations beyond the obvious: beautiful, hand-drawn Ghibli animation.

FILM REVIEWRosaley GaiDecember 8, 2023JAPAN, STUDIO GHIBLI, CHILDHOOD, FANTASYComment

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

Disability Is (Not) A Barrier – For Fantasy Heroes, or Commercial Success

I started researching the figure of Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman for specific reasons, which resulted in the book-length study, The Paths of Zatoichi (2021).

EDITORIALJonathan WrootMay 13, 2022JAPAN, FANTASY, DISABILITY, NATIONAL CINEMA, FILM HISTORYComment

Fantasy, Femininity and Heroism: A look into Miyazaki’s female characters

The representation of femininity within animation can sometimes indulge in and reflect problematic modes of gender representation. There is, of course, a long history of demonising forms of femininity, with stereotypical and socially constructed feminine traits including empathy, kindness, warmth and nurturance (see Kite 2001, 563). Not only are these traits often enforced onto women (Wing Sue 2010, 172), but are also conventionally considered signs of weakness (Windsor 2015, 893-897).

EDITORIALSabrina BessalemJuly 16, 2021STUDIO GHIBLI, GENDER, REPRESENTATION, JAPANComment

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

The fantasy of the Japanese family in Hosoda Mamoru’s Mirai (2018)

In a world of globalised animation, anime’s influence is ever expanding, ranging from adult Netflix animations like Castlevania (Warren Ellis, 2017-) to a wide variety of western children’s TV shows from Teen Titans (Glen Murakami and Sam Register, 2003-2006) to She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Noelle Stevenson, 2018-2020).

EDITORIALIssy MacleodJuly 24, 2020JAPAN, MODERNITY, FAMILY, STYLE Comments

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

Drawing Delicious: The Food of Spirited Away

To make the iconic French Provençal dish ratatouille, one must first prepare the ingredients, peel and cut the onions, chop the garlic, thinly slice the courgettes and the aubergines, de-seed the peppers and chop the tomatoes. To make animated ratatouille, one must simply pick up a pen.

EDITORIALMina TumayJune 26, 2020JAPAN, STUDIO GHIBLI, FOOD, REPRESENTATIONComment

Review: Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019)

Billed as the first “live-action” Pokémon film, Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Rob Letterman, 2019) adapts some of the franchise’s core themes and mechanics. The film also continues the endeavour of augmented reality game Pokémon GO (2016) – which on release sparked a sensation that saw players from all walks of life hunting Pokémon in the spaces around them via their mobile phones – to bring Pokémon into the real world.

FILM REVIEWJames C. TaylorMay 31, 2019ADAPTATION, ANIMATION, JAPAN, FILM NOIR, TRANSMEDIA, CGIComment

Review: Eyes Unclouded - The Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli

An academic conference on the key creative figures and animated feature films of renowned Japanese production house Studio Ghibli seems an obvious - even borderline ideal - candidate for working through the interplay between fantasy and animation. Our earlier podcast on their third cel-animated feature My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) - whose primary spirit character Totoro now functions as the company’s logo image (Fig.1) - suggested just how much there was to say not only about the adventures of the eponymous creature, but the studio’s origins and evolution, production practices, and their relationship to anime as a creative medium, if not Ghibli’s longstanding critical repute and ongoing commercial acclaim.

EVENT REVIEWChristopher HollidayMay 17, 2019JAPAN, STUDIO GHIBLI, ANIMATION, FANTASY, CHILDREN, CULTUREComment