TransnationalAnimeJapaneseAnimationHistoryandTheory.pdfVIP

Transnational Anime: Japanese Animation History and Theory University of Oregon - JPN 407/507 - Fall 2014 Classes – Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00 to 3:20 p.m. in 122 MCK Screenings – Fridays 11:00 a.m. to 1:50 p.m. in 262 LIL Instructor: Michael ARNOLD (arnoldm@) Office: Friendly Hall 427 Office Hours: Tuesdays 2:30-4:30, Wednesdays 3:30-4:30 DESCRIPTION This class is an examination of the first half-decade of the commercial Japanese animated film and television industry, with a focus on the many transnational, transcultural, and trans- industrial exchanges that took place between animation studios, animators, and audiences in Japan and the United States. The history of anime in the U.S. is nearly as long as the history of Japanese animation itself. After World War II, Japanese animated films were aggressively sold and screened to American audiences. From the 1960s to 1970s, Japanese cartoon series and films played from coast-to-coast on U.S. TV networks. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, American consumers began to recognize Japanese cartoons (or “Japanimation”) as a unique style of cartoon and a particular form of national representation. That recognition stretched into the 1980s and 1990s, when screenings and sales of anime exploded in North America, supported by grassroots college fan clubs and independent VHS distributors. By the turn of the century, the Japanese government was openly promoting the distribution of anime and other “Cool Japan” products around the globe. Today, anime is an internationally-recognized Japanese moving image industry. Like the films of Ozu Yasujiro, Kurosawa Akira, and Mizoguchi Kenji decades ago, it appears that the cartoons of Miyazaki Hayao and media franchises like Pokemon have taken on roles as cultural ambassadors, promoting Japanese media products to foreign audiences while artistically illus