Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, Updated Edition: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation | List Price: $19.95
Discount Price: $12.75
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Binding: Paperback
Release Date: 2005-11-24
A deep analysis of Japanese Anime in general. [Posted on 2006-09-04]
The author discusses the different anime genres (Mecha, fairy tales, fantasy, Sci fi, shojo, history, pornography etc). She examines the common themes like metamorphosis, merging of humans and machines, gender panics, masculine crisis, identity, disappearing shojos and the role of young heroins (shojos) across different animes. She attempts to explain how these themes fit into Japanese society, identity and culture both traditional and new. She uses examples from many different animes to illustrate her arguments. Animes used in the discussion includes Evangelion, Ghost in a Shell, Akira, Twin Dolls, Inuyasha, Wolve's Rain, Rouroni Kenshin, Ranma ½, Utena, Grave of the Fireflies and Miyazaki's work just to name a few. If you watch these animes, you might want to read this book to better understand Japanese anime in general. One whole chapter is devoted to pornographic anime. Since I am not allowed to watch these anime due to religious restrictions, I found her writing very informative. Dr Napier gave good explanations of the themes and genres in the context of Japanese culture and issues that challenge modern day Japanese society. I would recommend this book to anime lovers, students and researchers who have an interest in Japanese culture and literature.
One star has been taken out because:
1. Japanese anime is a lot more than what was covered in this book.
2. I greatly admire Rumiko Takahashi, the author of Inuyasha for her definition of the word "demon". Through Inuyasha, the author demonstrated the very abstract post modern notion that a word (eg demon) has a fixed meaning in our minds only because humans/man defined it as such, our understanding of a word can be re-defined. I did not like Dr Napier's short and superficial analysis of Inuyasha although I agreed with her views.
3. I think at times, the author was so carried away summarizing the animes that the point she is trying to make becomes unclear.
4. My favourite animes in order of preference: Inuyasha, 12 Kingdoms, Samurai 7, Last Exile, Escaflowne, Evangelion, Gundam, etc most of which are not selected for discussion in the book.
If you are die hard Miyazaki fan, you should love this book because a lot of focus is put on Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Nausicaa etc.
Due to the omission of Ono Fuyumi's 12 Kingdoms, I wanted to give this book a 2 star rating. However, I'm grateful that Dr Napier wrote a very well researched book on Japanese anime, giving us an insight into different themes and how these fit into Japanese society and culture.
"Napier Draws a rather complete picture of Japanese animation as a legitimate art form, and uses anime as a key to the culture that created it" Entertainment Weekly.
exhaustive and thought-provoking [Posted on 2007-03-20]
A wonderfully deep book that finely examines anime across all genres to explore the anime itself and what influenced it.
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