Conclusion

When I started this blog on Anime I questioned it. The questions were what makes Anime a Genre? What narrative conventions does Anime have? What stylistic conventions does Anime have? Is there sub genres of Anime? And all of these answers have been answered in my previous blogs through research.

I have found out more than I thought about Anime. It is a genre that is built on sub genres. For just about every genre out there, Anime has that genre too and more.

Anime is more than just a Japanese national cinema. It is becoming increasingly more popular around the world with the new generation of Anime like Spirited Away which has gained more fans than ever before.

From what I can see it is becoming vastly more distributed. When I went to the cinema a few moths back I saw a trailer for an Anime. The Anime was a Studio Ghibli production called Ponyo. This just shows how popular it is getting. The cinema was quite significant as it was an Odeon which is a high end cinema.


With games becoming more and more like film there is likely to be more Anime games around. Take the success of Pokemon for instance. Pokemon games are one of the most played on Nintendo Game Boy's and have been around for quite some time. There are a few Anime games such as Dragon Ball Z and Naruto which have game series. There is a game that is not actually based on Anime but is definitely in the style of it. It is called Trauma Center and there are a few of these games both for Nintendo DS and Wii in which you are in the role of a doctor that has to undertake surgery. It has not moving animation and instead has a comic book Manga feel and style. This shows that Anime is moving into the video game area and will continue to progress.


Above - Game play from Trauma Center: Under the knife.

One of the biggest problems I have had while writing these blogs is the lack of research material on Anime. There is a lot of material about certain Anime but not looking at the theory side of it. While it has been hard I have gained a lot of extra knowledge on Anime which I would not of had otherwise.

The brief history of Anime and how it became

Anime is animation that typically comes from Japan. The first Anime screened was in 1917 and was 2 minutes in length about a samurai testing out a new sword. Anime did not take off straight after this though, it took time. In 1937 Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a big hit and influenced many Japanese animators.

In the 1970s Manga became very popular and so they became animated. From comics to full feature length films, Anime became very popular after this.


Above - The first Anime recorded: Momotaro's Divine Sea Warrior

Osamu Tezuka was the first pioneer in Anime and 'is referred to as the “god of manga”, his contribution was enormous and influential' (Bryce, Davis, 2006:2). In 1963 Tezuka created the first hit Anime television series; Astro Boy. Astro Boy was such a hit that 1 year later it was being played on television sets in the US. Astro Boy has recently been made into a feature length film with big stars doing the voices such as Nicolas Cage. Astro Boy's big success opened many doors for Anime and is one of the reasons it is so big today.


Above - the original Astro Boy.
Below - the new film of Astro Boy.



Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime accessed on 25/05/10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Tezuka accessed on 25/05/10

M.Bryce & J.Davis. (2006) Manga/Anime, Media Mix: Scholarship in a Post-Modern, Global Community, CAESS

Sub-genres of Anime

Looking at my previous blog post on Narrative Conventions in Anime, it does not seem like there are set Narrative Conventions in Anime. This is mainly due to the fact that there are so many different genres in the Anime style.



Above a comparison to two different Anime's, Spirited Away and Death Note. These two very different Anime's are still set in our world but find a new dimension in which the story revolves around. Death Note is a psychological, supernatural, mystery thriller while Spirited Away is a fantasy. They are still Anime's but the story lines are what defines them.

In terms of sub-genres in Anime, there are so many! The list is endless from horror to porn! Yes porn! I had to check it myself and its pretty shocking! But in the end its what ever floats your boat. Bordwell quotes 'any theme may appear in any genre' (Bordwell 1989, 147). This very much applies to Anime sub genres.

There is an Anime genre for everyone. While there are a lot of children's based Anime where people to tend to jump to the conclusion that Anime is in fact for children because it is animated and looks like a children's cartoon they could not be further off the mark. It goes without saying that the anime sub-genre of porn (which is hugely popular around the world) is definitely not for children. There are many deep story lined Anime's that are very sophisticated. An example of this is Death Note. Death Note is about a young intelligent boy that finds a notebook. But this notebook (the Death note) is the deadliest weapon known to man. The holder of the death note writes the name of his or hers victim and they will die. The writer can even state how they die and even control them before so. As the series unfolds there are many twists that keep you glued to the screen. Not something for children!



Above - The trailer for Death Note. I strongly recommend you watching Death Note!


Above - The trailer for Spirited Away.

Reference

Bordwell, David (1989): Making Meaning: Inference and Rhetoric in the Interpretation of Cinema. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press

Narrative conventions of Anime

Above: Howl's Castle from the Film Howl's Moving Castle

When it comes to Anime there are endless topics that have been used. Many people believe that Anime is for children. This is really not the case, in fact in some Anime's it would be advisable for children not not watch. Do not get me wrong there are many children's Anime but there are Anime's that have very deep storylines, violence, sex and drugs or a mixture of all three.



Above: an example of an Anime that has an adult storyline and has a 15 certificate - Ghost in the Shell.

I have to say I do not think there is a set narrative to Anime "Anime allows for understanding identity as not whole through its narrative and generic leanings". This is because there are so many different sub-genres of Anime that there can not possibly be a set narrative. I will go into possible sub-genres in my next blog post. I am not saying there are no narrative conventions at all but there are definitely narrative conventions in different individual sub-genres.

For example in the children's Anime such as Pokemon. The classic narrative storyline would be that the main characters face a dilemma which is generally solved by the end of the programme. This is just a vague example.

Reference

Caroline Ruddell - Breaking Boundaries - The Representation of Split Identity in Anime - 2007

Stylistic Conventions of Anime

Anime has a very distinctive stylistic conventions. From just a glance at an Anime on a television the viewer would quickly know it was indeed an Anime. Because Anime is an art form 'Japanese animators began to create their own work by 1915, animation as a commercial art form really got started' (Napier, 2005: 16). Unlike Disney animations which vary from a animation to animation, but hey this blog is not about Disney as a genre ay!


We will start with the the obvious things that grab your attention into thinking an Anime is in fact an Anime. Usually the characters eyes are the most distinctive as they are large and round (See image of Ash Ketcham at the top of the page), this was thought to show more emotion. Another distinction is large hair extravagant hair (See bellow).


There is often thick brush-stroked outlines and this is in reference to when the animation was in comic book form (Manga). Facial Expressions are a big part of Anime as this really shows what mood the character is currently feeling much different to western animation. This is again a reference to when it was in comic book form where the artist had to portray the characters feelings in one still frame with no audio. The facial expressions are usually exaggerated:


Usually an angry character may have a bulging vein or an angry female may materialise mallet (or any other weapon) out of nowhere and smash the person that has irritated them on the head. This is known as hammerspace.


Usually in exciting or tense moments this is emphasised with a flashing background:

In this case Pokemon is mostly about battling Pokemon and so when the battle starts the flashing background suggests the tempo rising.

Reference

Napier, S. (2005) ANIME from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, New York: Palgrave Macmillion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime accessed on 21/03/2010

An introduction to my research on the Anime genre

I am a Film & Video student at Norwich University College of the Arts (NUCA) and for Critical Studies we have been asked to create a blog on a specific genre of our Choice and address why it is a genre and what makes it a genre. I chose Anime as I enjoy watching it. Enjoy!

Anime is the name given in English for Japanese animation. Most of the Anime seen today is based on Manga (a Japanese comic). Manga has also influenced the look of Anime a lot as it gives a distinctive look.


Above: A scene from the Death Note Manga Comic
Bellow: A scene from the Death Note Anime series


In the next coming weeks I will research what makes Anime a genre and what makes it different to other animations. These are the main points I will be looking at:

• Anime vs Disney - what makes them different
  
• The constant evolving Anime world
  
• Its history and how it became
  
• The conventions that define it
  
• Possible sub-genres in Anime

I will watch several animations to aid my research. Anime that I will watch are Death Note, Ghost in the Shell, Pokémon, Howls Moving Castle, Spirited Away and any other Anime I can get my hands on! Non-Anime that I will watch are Fox and the Hound, The Lion King, The Jungle Book and any other Disney animated film I can get.