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To ordinary western audiences these days Japanese animation has grown to have a rather big reputation as principally being a children’s form of entertainment. This global identity which has become intimate with most parents was most likely the result of this distinguishable visual art form getting popularised through children’s television on weekend mornings. While this faith that Japanese animation is for the most part aimed at children is well known amidst parenting groups in the Americas and Europe, this is, for the most part, only half-true. Japanese animation, or plainly called anime, is in fact a lot more usual among teenage groups due to a majority of content having more adult appeal. As Susan J. Napier wrote in her book Anime: From Akira to Princess Monoke regarding Japanese animation’s popularity in both cultures “The “culture” to which anime belongs is at present a “popular” or “mass” culture in Japan, and in America it exists as a “sub” culture. However, as Treat’s point regarding the mercuriality of value suggests, this circumstance may well change. Indeed, in Japan over the last decade, anime has been progressively seen as an intellectually challenging art form, as the number of scholarly writings on the subject attest.” (Pg. 4). As the film making industry flourished in Japan for the duration of the years following World War II, so did it is sister medium of animation and became both a “mass” culture and a “sub” culture as discussed above. And while this style of animation had entered markets alien to Japan as early as the 1960′s it wasn’t until the 1980′s and 1990′s that it started out to grow as a major cultural export. As Fred Patten wrote when it comes to Japanese animation’s primary experience in North America for the duration of the 1960′s in his book Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews “Most viewers never realised these were not American cartoons. If they did, they ought to have concluded that animation was not general in Japan since there seemed to be so few programs. In fact, these programs were the early attempts of an immensely successful Japanese cartoon industry.” (Pg. 219). Although a lot of humans today will still view anime to be a type of ‘limited’ animation aimed at children, a immense majority of it is storylines and visuals involved postmodern settings and content which was seen as a welcome diversity in a country where Disney was largely usual in the animation field. Today anime has become embedded in our culture almost as much as it has in Japan and proceeds to influence animators and illustrators worldwide. With this ever growing fandom of anime it in all probability become easy to overlook how anime became a world-wide phenomenon in the introductory place. In the United States it seemed a lot of adult content had been focalized primarily on live action film making, and example being the futuristic dystopian set Blade Runner (1982, USA). Although there were a lot of film managers that have made animated films aimed at adults, a well-known example being Fritz the Cat (Ralph Bakshi, 1973), which to this day is the most financially successful independent animated film, most manufacturers probably didn’t see adult content cartooning having a wider appeal outside of it is underground roots and into the mainstream market, peculiarly with the regaining popularity of Disney animation. But while live action film making was just as usual in Japan, animation had become evenly mainstream (almost half of film releases in Japan from the 1970′s onwards were animated) so it seemed a lot of film makers saw their form of animation’s somewhat illustrative style would be a perfective suit for adult content and mature themes. A noteworthy Japanese film maker who not only applied animation in such a way but likewise helped popularise Japanese animation in alien countries is Katsuhiro Otomo. Otomo may be seen as an magnificent example of an auteur for we may see how he repeats his visual style and treatment of genre all around his films and even how he conveys his experiences and self imagery into the hand drawn line, which has been embedded in narrative structure, visuals, symbolism and just regarding any other aspect of film making. He in truth proves how flexible a stylistic medium such as animation may be in conveying his own self and experiences onto the screen. A outstanding way to take an auteurist approach to Otomo’s film making is to compare and contrast a few of them. Akira, Cannon Fodder and Steamboy are all good films to explore. The film that Katsuhiro Otomo is probably best known for is his animated epic Akira (1988). In any film the one thing that must become without delay apparent is the genre of the film. Otomo’s treatment of genre in his stories is consistent allround his work in the way that he’ll set it in a queer time amount of time and fantasise it in some way with a lot of postmodern elements. As Paul Wells writes in his book Animation: Genre and Authorship “At one level it is still easy to recognise a ‘horror’ film, a ‘western’, a ‘musical’ and so on, but such is the hybridity of generic elements in galore films that there are a lot of distinct elements of crossover and combining within established genres that in effect, new ‘sub-genres’ have been created. These intersections and adaptations means that any genre seldom operates in an exclusive way” (pg. 41). Akira is one of the most remarkable examples of the ‘cyberpunk’ genre which derives largely from science fiction. While galore cyberpunk stories will implicate computers and engineering science such as Ghost in the Shell (Mamuro Oshii, 1995, Japan), it is supernatural and psychic powers that play a more dominant role in this film. The film is set in Neo Tokyo forty years after World War III when an atomic explosion destroyed the old city. This atomic explosion is revealed to have been the result of the Akira experiment which becomes central to the plot. Otomo’s visual style is quiet distinct in a number of ways. Although he displays Neo Tokyo as a dystopian metropolis ruled over by corrupt politicians he focuses just as much on the culturally diverse population. The traditionalisti protagonists, including Kaneda and Tetsuo, are share of a group of delinquent bikers who expended galore time fighting another biker gang throughout Neo-Tokyo. The night scenes make a stark use of luminous colour versus hard shadows in the night scenes. But what’s noteworthy with regards to his treatment of colour is his use of red and green. His films may be without apparent effort recognized though the way he contrasts strong reds with cyan and green colours in an closely unorthodox way. Not only is this contrast plentiful in the environments but he likewise uses complementaries when representing the dissimilar groups of people. The biker gangs are many times dressed up in completely filled red and grey green costume while the authority figures are ofttimes shown dressed with blue and orange. Backgrounds were meticulously thought out in just with regards to each aspect to see to it depth and spatial relations were correct. The characters were also realistically proportioned rather than featuring the often times exaggerated body features that Japanese animation is for the most part known for commercially. The films soundtrack is likewise striking for it is seemingly minimum use of instruments. A majority of the introductory score comprises of bamboo drums. The vocals, however, are more dominant in the more primary and dramatic scenes. There’s a great amount of contrast amongst youth culture and the authority figures. The traditionalisti youths are shown as an almost retro biker gang, which is ofttimes called a BÅsÅzoku gang in Japan. The older figures above them are either elderly men who consist mainly of the political figures in the film, or more strongly built equated to them such as the Colonel and the police officer that consultations the kids in the crowded building after Tetsuo was taken in by the army. There seems to be a subtle amount of satire towards both ends as each are shown to have major flaws of egotism and arrogance. As for gender, neither gender seems to be highly sexualized. However, there is one highly fetishised scene in which Kaori is attacked by one of the bike gangs when her shirt is torn off revealing her breasts. Since females aren’t fetishised in other scenes this choice was perhaps done to raise excitement in the sequence. There may be an amount of psychological influence coming from the environments. Just regarding each street scene is shown to have graffiti and other vandalised and mistreated objects scattered across. Even the school is shown to be just as unkempt as the bar hang-out and alleyways. What drives the post progressed narrative structure of the film is it is themes, which consist of power, corruption and ego. All three themes are plenteous in the back story in which the Akira experiment became too much for the government to handle, hence the atomic explosion at the opening scene of the film. The same cycle seems to repeat itself only with Tetsuo being given telekinetic powers after he crashed for the duration of the turf war versus the clown gang. As his newly given power grows, so does his ego as he lashes out at Kaneda before having a nervous breakdown and being taken into custody again. The government’s actions to undertake and incorporate Tetsuo only prove to be futile as he becomes powerful sufficient to fight the oppressing army that seems to dominate the dystopian city. Symbolism also plays a major role in the film’s narrative. There is a religious cult surrounding Akira demonstrating in the streets in one scene, in a dystopian city where there is scarcely a place for religion. This religious cult is much more active in the later sequence where Tetsuo, with his wholly fledged powers, is leading protesters throughout the bridge to the Olympic stadium in a revolt versus the government believing that Tetsuo is the second coming of Akira. Humorously, this religious cult is put an end to very speedily when Tetsuo destroys the bridge leading to the stadium. This percentage of the film is a good example of where films soundtrack is striking for it is seemingly minimum use of instruments. A majority of the introductory score comprises of bamboo drums. The vocals, however, are more dominant in the more crucial and dramatic scenes such as here, where the vocals are orchestrated to increase the drama, and accordingly heightening the demonstrator’s regard to Tetsuo as a sort of holy figure. Symbolism is exceptionally plentiful in the dream and hallucination sequences. As Tetsuo’s powers invent he has a hallucinogenic resourcefulness of three monstrous toys bleeding and spewing milk, widely considered to symbolise not only growth and fertility but the profiting of knowledge. They are later affrighted away by the sight of Tetsuo’s blood, a symbol of adolescence. This is an primary visual aspect to the film because it displays how Tetsuo’s growth of power is presently effecting him and also hints at his unhappy childhood Later in a flash back it is shown how Tetsuo and Kaneda befriended one another when Kaneda stole back a toy taken from Tetsuo by more spectacular kids. These dreams and flashbacks show the audiences the kinship among the two friends, even as their two egos grow in conflict. As Paul Wells writes in his book Understanding Animation “Symbolism, in any aesthetic system, complicates narrative structure because a symbol may be consciously used as share of the effigy vocabulary to suggest specific meanings, but equally, a symbol may be unconsciously deployed and consequently may be recognised as a bearer of meaning over and beyond the artist’s overt attention. In other words, an animated film may be interpreted through it is symbolism, whether the symbols have been used measuredly to facilitate a meaning or not. This can, of course, radically modify the understanding of the film, arguably making it infinitely richer in it is implications, or misrepresenting the project altogether” (pg. 83). These symbols and metaphors that Otomo has included in the film are critical to the viewer’s understanding of the narrative and messages in the film, in particular in a script that involves a lot of dialogue. Just as Tetsuo and Kaneda’s friendship is made clearer through the films symbolism, so too is the audiences understanding of the central plot, which is the reputation of Akira. It’s revealed that Tetsuo is experiencing the same victimisation of scientists using him to ‘play God’ in their experiments, and just like the atomic explosion at the begin of the film which destroyed Tokyo, Tetsuo causes the same effect and affect when he loses control of himself and metamorphosises into an organic creature. Akira was called on by the Espier children to put an end to it by repeating the same routine and creating another explosion which wipes out Neo-Tokyo, even though Kaneda and a few other characters survive. This is followed by another muted black explosion which gives rise to another universe. Tetsuo’s voice may be heard, implying that he has become a God like entity in another dimension. Underneath the film’s post innovative themes of power and corruption, one could interpret the atomic explosions shown in this film more like a ‘Big Bang’, which was said to be the beginning of the universe. In other words, with each apocalypse comes a new beginning and a new get started for any person that ought to survive. Tokyo was capable to rebuild itself and it could presumably rebuild itself again, just as it may be presumed men will undertake to achieve the power of a God again since they hadn’t learned from their errors the original time around and may not again. Considering Akira proved to be a milestone in animation due to it is unbelievable attention to detail in it is art form, this makes one of Otomo’s later films entitled Cannon Fodder (1995, Japan) a very interesting contrast, the third and final epidoe of his Memories film. Cannon Fodder’s treatment of genre is similar to how Otomo will normally give rise to a hybrid genre. It is mainly a steampunk story. It’s set in a walled city where giant cannons are built on top of the roofs of each building. The whole population’s livelihood depends on the working class citizens maintaining, loading and firing these cannons which launch missiles at the enemy city. The whole culture of the city is shown to be a working class population in a sort of socialist regime like communist Russia, so the look of the film largely copies the iconography of European culture for the duration of wartime, including stone streets, steam locomotives in train stations and even the costume the persons wear, who all seem to dress with helmets on. The city is shown in clouds of smoke and dust from their attack on the ‘enemy city’, which seems to be the basis on the society’s entire economy. Even posters displayed on the walls parodies the Russian alphabet. The whole narrative follows a school boy who aspires to serve in the war and his father who works on preserving the cannons. The narrative structure uses a technique a lot like the film Rope (Alfred Hitchcock, 19, USA) in which the entire film is one neverending shot panning and dollying throughout to dissimilar locations. As Gilberto Perez wrote in his book The Material Ghost “Telling is without doubt like counting, not in content, of course, but in form: a story is told in succession, one thing and then another and then another, as things are counted.” (pg. 50). Otomo may have seen this style of direction developed by Hitchcock as suitable to introducing the audience to the world in which the characters live in. The get started of the film, for example, opens in the child’s bedroom, follows him out into the kitchen with is filled with pipes and mechanics formulating steam showing the type of technology they have, pans throughout the kitchen and back, then follows the boy exiting his home with his father and follows them through the city brings us around their each day lives. Since the shots flow into one another (at least until the end of the second act) the audience will feel included in the world and a little less alienated as their point of view is following the characters. What is the most strange regarding the film is it is choice of animation. Instead of the meticulously, realistically proportioned reputation design like we saw in Akira, the characters are more caricatured and stylized. Not only that but they are drawn in a rough brush pen technique, including the backgrounds. I find this interesting. Since this film’s single camera set-up follows through a culture where war is glorified and a child aspires to fight in future wars, this choice of style in it is animation may be seen as being satirical of wartime propaganda that may be published in a children’s book. Even in Nazi Germany similar propaganda proficiencies have been applied while Hitler was in power and at the end of the third act of the film the boy has drawn a picture of himself in crayons, which turns into an animated sequence in itself showing the boys fantasies when it comes to serving his home by leading an army into war, all in his crayon inspired imagination. What’s more striking with regards to the visuals is how strong the usage of red and green is throughout, even more stark than what we’ve seen in Akira. Through the films themes of war and socialism, Otomo seems to make a subtle comment on the way such a society is structured. Although the entire population is completely accepting of their government’s commands, in spite of the ugly dystopia they live in, such a scheme seems to rely on such perfective behaviour from it is humans so much that it could effortlessly prove to be it is downfall. Towards the end of the second act of the film it is revealed that the father has been working on loading the missiles into the cannons. However, along the way he makes a fault resulting in the missile not being loaded in time. The firing goes in front as planned, with the father watching on nervously. It isn’t revealed whether or not the father has been punished for the blunder, but it was implied that the shot was unconfirmed to have actually hit the enemy city by the news reporter. Strictly speaking, if one fault is made in the governments conventional plan then the entire plan could fall detached merely because such plans are too perfectly idealistic. It may be seen as a representation of how a population may be programmed by it is media into seeing their home as being glorious and not questioning anything in regards to it. If none of the characters actually question anything with regards to their society or seeing anything wrong with it then Otomo has surely left his viewers questioning the very thing, not just in the surrealist world he developed but also in our own world. Could this only be used to a socialist government for the duration of a war or could one commence questioning their own society? It is a subtle remark on war and culture but it’s there. The themes in Cannon Fodder seem to lead into Otomo’s next (and to date last) animated feature Steamboy (2004, Japan). Its genre treatment is similar to Cannon Fodder, as the title implies, being another steampunk film. Here it is set in an substitute England for the duration of the industrial revolution in 1863, and the working class culture has taken enormous developments on steampunk-themed technologies. Although Otomo has set the film in a nineteenth century Victorian setting while copying the iconography of Europe for the duration of this period, he took the liberty of mixing in steam powered locomotives and tractor widgets with numerous contraptions and inventions such as clawed machines and even a type of ‘monowheel’, which is basically a steam powered bicycle. These widgets are a lot like the kinds of machines that Leonardo DaVinci is known to have illustrated at his time, only technical limitations prevented further development to him. The appliances become more fantasised as the story progresses showing an army of men wearing steam powered armoured suits, aviation gadgets and even a massive drifting fortress powered by steam. The one device that’s central to the plot is the steam-ball, which was developed by Dr. Lloyd Steam and his son Edward to make an uttermost source of steam power. The Steam Ball’s creation was conventional at the get started of the film, which had shown the audience not only what the plot will centre around but likewise to introduce the type of engineering that will be displayed in the film. As Thomas Elsaesser and Malte Hagener stated in their book Film Theory: An Introduction Through the Senses in regards to the institution of a film “…a film’s beginning ought to lure the audience, i.e. it will have to prompt the necessary attention and suspense, it will have to plant necessary information, but likewise set the tone and atmosphere that prepares the film to come.” (Pg. 42). Otomo repeats his standard representation of gender with a lot of exceptions. Male characters are the most active allround the film as either the protagonists and antagonist or merely the hard laboured citizens in society, and women being less active. Not only that but Otomo hasn’t made either gender sexualised at all, nor is there any fetishism. One exception to this would be the most active female protagonist, Scarlett. Being from a higher class family and the granddaughter of the chairman of the O’Hara foundation she is for the most part dressed to look presentable and beautiful to a point. Even though there is a hint at being a love interest to Ray, no such romance seems to invent amidst the two characters. Scarlett is also shown to be the most arrogant and spoilt of the characters and behaves in a much more self-important way to the other male characters. The animation proficiencies shown are something of a step-forward equated to Akira. It uses highly elaborated and realistically proportioned characters with meticulously worked-out backgrounds in which details and spatial relations are conservatively planned out to accommodate the characters movements in a realistic manner. The hand drawn animation proficiencies are even mixed in with assorted CGI cuts in the backgrounds. The colour treatment in the visuals is similar in a few ways to Akira. Otomo still uses strong contrasts amongst completely filled reds and green, exceptionally in interior scenes where there’s furniture and pipe work. The reds and greens on occasion even act as a focal point in numerous shots. However, different from Akira, which employed a lot of bright and luminous neon style colours in it is backgrounds, Steamboy employed more desaturated browns and greys in it is backgrounds and even dark blacks on machinery. This is more suiting to it is nineteenth century setting and makes a strong contrast to the more futuristic appeal in Akira. The narrative in the film may also be equated in a few ways to Akira in it is themes of power. Ray meets ceaseless obstacles in the storyline all as a result of the conflict amidst both his father Edward and his grandfather Lloyd. The two men are in neverending dispute over what to do with their Steam Ball invention, and Lloyd has even admonished Ray not to concede the steam-ball to be acquired by Edward and the O’Hara foundation. After Ray was chased by members of the O’Hara foundation from Manchester to London, Ray comes to meet his father who has been building the Steam Tower in London, which he claims will end hard labour for men as it will invent energy to the entire world. Although Ray helps him in completing the tower initially, he meets his grandfather Lloyd again, who reveals that Edward actually wants to use the Steam Ball to formulate an arsenal of steam powered war machines. This is where Ray starts coming to terms with the morality and ethics of science and what it is aim ought to be. Later, Ray steals back the Steam Ball from the core of the Steam Tower and flees, and the next day while global leaders are given a live presentment of Edwards steam powered soldiers in what is explained to be ‘a war on Britain’, Edward is eager to demonstrate what the Steam Tower actually is and uses his other two Steam Balls to launch the Steam Tower into it is colossal flying fortress, dubbed the Steam Castle. Eventually, Ray confronts both his father and grandfather in the observation deck of the Steam Castle where the two dispute what their intents as scientists will have to be. Edward believes that he and the foundation are serving intention to the entire world through their scientific experiments and weaponry ought to be a part of that while Lloyd believes that science ought to disclose universal principles and not to be employed in ludicrous ways. A dissimilar reputation named Robert, who was an intended recipient of the Steam Ball, told Ray earlier that science will have to merely be applied to ‘make humans happy’. On moral grounds, Otomo has staged two extreme views on science in the form of the conflict amid Edward and Lloyd while likewise giving a grey area for the protagonist to consider. Lloyd even attempts to shoot Edward in order to stop him from fabricating into a finish ‘monster’, just as the Steam Castle is with regards to to explode over the whole of London. Lloyd then tells Ray that he must “..save science from the wicked and preserve the future”. This may be seen as another comment on humanity and it is desire for power just like with Akira, though here power is concerned with science and technology rather than the conception of ‘playing God’. As steam powered engineering science has speedily innovative in this substitute universe for the duration of the industrial revolution it may be possible for such engineering science to advance beyond man’s comprehension or control. At the end of the film the pressure from the steam valves inside the Steam Castle’s core becomes too high to stabilise and as a result the fortress explodes over the river Thames. It’s closely like the same theme in Akira in regards to each disaster providing a new beginning. At the end Ray says to Scarlett that “The age of science has just begun”. Could there be lessons learned from Edward’s faults and arrogance permitting scientific development to gain mankind more, or could the same routine of man getting too convinced in his developments repeat again? Otomo has left a multitude of philosophies, ideals and ethics, which were discussed all around the story, regarding science and technology for the audience to think about, an evenly open ended closure to Akira. After studying three of Katsuhiro Otomo’s films, it has become even more comfortable not only to distinguish his repeated signature visual style but also his repeated treatment of genre. Like any other conductor he attempts to convey self-image into his own films and embeds it into a highly post progressed form of narrative structure with a focus on symbolism, visual imagery and other aspects. As wrote in his book Robert Stam in Film Theory: An Introduction “Post modernism is a discursive – stylistic grid that has enriched film theory and analysis by calling attention to a stylistic shift toward a media sense of right and wrong cinema of multiple styles and ironic recyclage. Much of the work on postmodernism in film has involved the positing of a post progressed aesthetic, exemplified in such influential films as Blue Velvet (1986), Blade Runner (1982) and Pulp Fiction (1994).” (Pg. 304) Like the brought up films in the above quotation a good deal of of Otomo’s work still proceeds to influence film making today. And while galore would try to replicate what he has been capable to do in Akira and his other films, his own visual identity will still stay his own whether it is his treatment of design, colour, lighting or even how he handles morality and symbolism in his narrative. It is no surprise that artists, animators and illustrators in both western and eastern cultures have cited Otomo as an influence as much as influences from American and European films may be seen in his work such as Blade Runner (1982). Its these western influences on Otomo’s work that may have become the reason behind Akira’s success outside of Japan since it still has a great amount of appeal to western audiences today. It is known, of course, that film making in Japan started to truely develop after world war two, and even animation made in Japan prior to the war appeared to be derived from Disney style animation, and yet Japanese film manufacturers were capable to develop an closely altogether dissimilar culture based on another culture. And even though numerous Japanese television programs were shown in North America since the 1960′s it is interesting how it is distinguishable style didn’t actually commence to take hold on the rest of the world until the 1980′s. To quote again from Susan J. Napier’s book “…it appears that it is the “Otherness” of anime rather than it is specific “Japanese-ness” that is one of it is rudimentary appeals to the fans. As discussed earlier, respondents systematically brought up how dissimilar anime was from American or Western products.” (Pg. 255) A handful of other Japanese animated films freed outside of Japan for the duration of the 1980′s and 1990′s have had just as much an affect on western culture as Akira, such as Ghost in the Shell (Mamuro Oshii, 1995, Japan) and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984, Japan) Anime seems to have grown to have a dissimilar number of significances outside of it is home country but whatsoever one’s interpretation of this style of animation may be it has surely offered a wealth of enrichment to artistic careers in both cultures. |
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