anime module 3

Shojo

Manga/anime for girls (makes up 30%)

Female leads are strong and courageous

Often deals with day to day struggles like trying to find a date

Complex plots like trying to find identity

Their cuteness is one of their biggest strengths

Rumiko takahashi

One of the best known artists

Made ranma 1/2, urusei yatsura, maison ikkoku

Urusei yatsura (image 15)

Sold more than 21 million copies

A popular show

First anime pinnup

Lots of comedy, puns and metaphors

Amazing art work

Alien fiancé, goes on lots of adventures

Oh, my goddess (image 17)

Created by kosuke fujishima

Ova series based off the manga of the same name

Accidentally summons a goddess, and the goddess grants him one wish

Goddess based off of Norse mythology

(Powerful but kind)

3 gods rule everything (gods of the past, present and future)

Clamp

All women manga group

3 of the 4 went to school together

Clamp meant “a bunch of potato’s”

Made rg veda, mystic knight rayearth

Each member does a specific task for the project, everything is done by them

Larger than life eyes, and magical girls

Fluid artistic art style but stories have dark tones and themes due to their love of horror

Magic knight rayearth (image 2)

Made by CLAMP

Made for younger people but older audiences also enjoy it

Lots of Japanese references

3 girls each have magic element power (water, air and fire)

All 3 end up in an alternate dimension, lots of magic and monsters

3 girl must come together to save this world

Aided by a large white griffin

Complex characters with interesting personalities

Masamuni shirow

Was a high school teacher before becoming a manga artist

First work was black magic m66

Inspired by aliens and terminator

Also made Appleseed (sequel to deus ex Appleseed)

Made ghost in the shell

Fantastic graphic artist (especially blades)

Satoshi kon

Realistic character designs

Made perfect blue (star is stalked by others, classic horror movie)

Blend fantasy and reality

Also made millennium actress

Made a miniseries called paranoia agent

Also made paprika

Paranoia agent (image 3)

Mini series made by satoshi kon

Main character is named “little slugger”

Story follows people who are affected or trying to find little slugger

Little slugger looks like a small kid smiling with a baseball cap and rides on golden skates and has a golden baseball bat

Examines the human psyche

Lots of street culture

Hayao Miyazaki

Absolute legend in Japan and America

Born in Tokyo

Graduated with a degree in art

Came from a well off family

Drew droga

Many of his early stuff is based off of stuff from the west

Made future boy Konan, animal treasure island and panda panda cub, laputa castle in the sky, nausicaa of the valley of the wind, Kiki’s delivery service, porco rosso, my neighbor Totoro

Met Disney’s “9 old men”

Disney influenced a lot of his early stuff

Love of the environment, aviation and classic Japanese heritage

First big break was nausicaa of the valley of the wind manga he drew while unemployed

Directs, animates and hand draws many things in the movies

Considered the Walt Disney of Japan, very well beloved

Nausicaa of the valley of the wind (image 7)

Created by hayao Miyazaki

Story of a spirit warrior princess coming of age in a future post apocalyptic world

At first didn’t want it to be animated but later made it into to a movie

Beautifully animated

Protecting the environment has been an important theme

A class used this manga as a text book

The castle of cagliostro (image 4)

Made by hayao Miyazaki

Slap stick action adventure comedy with sophisticated characters

Many later themes are found in this movie

Gentlemanly their and a princess in distress

Based off the mangas by monkey punch (lupon the 3rd)

Summery color tone

European style background based on Japanese dream of the fantasy Europe would be

My neighbor Totoro (image 6)

Created by hayao Miyazaki

Had a hard time making the movie

Played before grave of the firefly’s

O-Totoro became very popular (based off the Japanese raccoon called the tanuki)

Cat bus based on Alice and wonderland

Nature and religion plays a big part in the story

One of the best 100 films of all time

Tanuki

Japanese raccoon

Inspiration for Totoro

Princess Mononoke (image 8)

About a princess living in the woods with a savage beast

Similarities to beauty of the beast with lots of Japanese folklore

A young man goes out to look for a cure for a curse and meets princess mononoke who is fighting people who are trying to take her land

Epic struggle between gods and man

Themes: struggle of nature, eternal importance of life, struggle of lesser people against oppressors and the search for a utopia

Costed 20 mil to make, in the first 5 months in Japan, 12 million people saw it, made 160 mil in Japan and it was the biggest box office till titanic

Japans history and landscape were its biggest inspiration

Green was the main color palette

Each image was hand painted

Hero must go out into an unknown world (based on Gilgamesh)

What does not change ultimately dies

Beauty and nature are the biggest themes

Jomon culture

A time in Japanese history where women had more freedom and played an important part in society

Pre-historic era of Japan

Uses simple language, people and things are named based on their appearance

Howl’s moving castle

Made by Hayao Miyazaki

Magic love story

Based off a welsh book

Meditation on old age

Ponyo

Made by hayo Miyazaki

His take on the little mermaid

Beautiful colors

From up on poppy hill (image 5)

Made by Hayao Miyazaki

Based in Japan after WW2

Main character is a teenage girl which is different from other main characters

Strong, courage and determined

Sea plays a big part in the story

Every day she raises a flag on the hill wishing ships safe passage after her dad a sailor died in the Korean War

Directed by his son

Arrietty

Made by Hayao Miyazaki

Based off the western book the barrower

Perspective of the world from someone who’s 4 inches tall

Classic love story

Arrietty realized her and the boy’s friendship can’t last

The wind rises

Made by hayo Miyazaki

A young adult male who gets the opportunity to design a special airplane

Love and aviation is a big theme like many of his other movies

Goes backs to Miyazaki’s families aviation roots

Not a fan of Japan’s military build up in the past (shown in movie)

Studio ghibli museum

Combines a kids museum, technology museum and fine art museum

Shows the work from the studio

Visitors can learn about the animation process

Sci-fi/mecha

Large robots fight in space

Rag tag group of hero’s that fight aliens

Total fiction

Meiji era

Rapid change happened Japan

“Modernized Japan”

Japan embraced western technology

Became a world power

Sent a lot of students abroad to learn from the west

People came to Japan to teach the Japanese students

Invaded much of Asia which helped start ww2

Ruled by emperor mutsuhito

Hiroshima

Atomic bomb dropped on this city

Killed more than 200,000 people immediately

More died in aftermath

Parks were built to symbolizes the importance of peace

Keiji nakazawa

Young boy who saw the bomb drop

Made a manga that shows the aftermath of the bomb through the eyes of a 6 year old boy

Loosely based off his own experiences

Advocate for world peace his whole life

Barefoot gen (image 9)

Made by Keiji nakazawa

Loosely based off keiji’s own experiences

Shows the aftermath of the bomb through the eyes of a 6 year old boy

Showed the life of the boy both before and after the bombing

His family is treated as traitors

Shows the death of most of his family, chaos and trying to find food

Despite the simple animation it is NOT a film for kids

Very visceral, very poignant story done in animation

Maus

Made by Art Spiegelman

One of the best well known graphic novels in the west

Based on the authors fathers experience

Jews are mice and nazis are cats

Tells the story of the horrors of ww2

Jin Roh (image 12)

Made by Mamoru Oshii

Screenplay

Set in a parallel Japan where it’s a police state

Armor looks similar to nazi uniform

Different look on terrorism

Main character must choose between the girl he loves or his unit

Girl tries to trick main character

Modern tragedy

Katsuhiro Otomo

Made akira

Film is different from the manga

Akira (image 13)

Made by katsuhiro Otomo

Help create a second wave of anime fans in the west

Quality of the animation is detailed and fluid animation

Cell animation

Themes: youth culture, Psychic powers, social unrest and post ww2 survival

Kid and friends ride bikes and get into trouble

One kid is kidnapped and gains powers

Main character and friend fights multiple times

Influenced movies like the matrix and set a high bar for animation

CGI

computer generated images

Catbus

Character in the film my neighbor Totoro

Depicted as a large grinning twelve legged cat with a hollow body that serves as a bus

Complete with windows and seats coated in fur

Large bushy tail

Inspired by Alice and wonderland

Kami

Nature spirits

Arsene lupin

Gentlemen thief

OVA/OAV

Original video animation

Allows film makers to experiment and make what they want

Can’t be normally made for the masses due to sex, drugs, etc.

Shonen

Stories made for boys

Yaoi

Boy love, homoerotic

Mostly women’s manga

Beautify drawn and beautify looking characters in complex romance stories

Almost always focused on male-male romance

From calm to very erotic stories Almost

Many are fan fics others are real stories

Some see it as liberating experience

Women often see themselves as one of the characters

Cyborg

Human machine interfaces

Popular in many movies in the west

Closer to reality due to modern tech

Harem comedy

A shy often needy young man is surrounded by many pretty women they can’t ever get

Oh my goddess, utena, ranma 1/2