As a research subject, Japanese animation or anime is like a nue, an imaginary Japanese bird that has the head of an ape, the torso of a raccoon, the tail of a snake, and the limbs of a tiger. Depending on the perspective from which you are looking at it, and what you want to see in it, you can academically approach anime from numerous angles. Furthermore, contemporary anime is increasingly and inextricably entangled with other media, such as manga, videogames, novels, and live-action films in terms of content, distribution, and consumption. As such, it is very difficult to single out anime as a research subject. The global popularity of anime in the past twenty years adds a further twist by introducing numerous voices from fans and scholars from different parts of the world as well as Japan.
This volume edited by Masao Yokota and Tze-yue G. Hu and this monograph by Ian Condry attempt to approach this nue from different angles: geographically, Yokota and Hu from an East Asian perspective, Condry from a North American; disciplinarily, Yokota, Hu, and their contributors from various different areas such as gender studies, history, visual art, and psychology, among others, Condry from media studies and cultural anthropology. However, at the core of both books seem to lie the same questions: how can or should we conduct academic research on anime as something that has its origin in Japan but is now consumed globally, and even more fundamentally, what is anime?
The issue of the definition of anime is already visible in the title of Yokota and Hu's edited volume. Instead of “anime,” it uses the term “Japanese animation.” Hu makes it very clear that “[t]his book . . . is not about anime per se” (p. 3, italics in the original). Instead, it “seeks to present a well-rounded study of Japanese animation as a whole consisting of a collection of essays written by scholars and practitioners originating and residing in Japan and the East Asian region” (p. 3). The works of animation and the creators covered in the volume are not limited to contemporary works, but include prewar ones as well. Together with the East Asian focus, that makes this book innovative by allowing the reader to access information that was not previously available in English despite its significance, especially the history of Japanese animation before the days of television animation that began in 1963 with the broadcast of Tetsuwan atomu (Astro Boy).
The table of contents of the book looks like a program of an academic conference that consists of panels to which individual papers are assigned. The six main sections of the book are linked fairly loosely. Two chapters by the editors in the introduction are followed by six sections. The first section, with papers by Nobuyuki Tsugata, Tze-yue G. Hu, Masashi Koide, and Hiroshi Ikeda, focuses on the history of animation and animation studies in Japan. Section 2 has three chapters on prewar pioneers of Japanese animation contributed by Akiko Sano, Yasushi Watanabe, and G. Hu. Section 3 turns attention to Osamu Tezuka, as explained in the next paragraph. That is followed by the fourth section, with chapters by Akiko Sugawa-Shimada and Joon Yang Kim, which focuses on female characters and transnational identities. Chapters by IKIF and Masao Yokota in section 5 are on artistic animation. As practitioners, IKIF details the use of 3-D computer graphics in animation, and Yokota discusses late puppet animator Kihachirō Kawamoto's first and last films from the perspective of clinical psychology. The final section has only one chapter by Hiroshi Ikeda on the creation of Flying Phantomship (1969).
The themes, methodologies, and disciplines of the papers, as well as the authors' backgrounds, vary widely. This is most evident in section 3, which is on late manga artist Osamu Tezuka. While Makiko Yamanashi emphasizes the significance of the city of Takarazuka and the all-female revue company based in the town in Tezuka's depiction of gender, Dong-Yeon Koh's fascinating chapter describes the sociohistorical context of acceptance of Japanese animation in postwar South Korea as well as the continuing influence of Japanese animation from the 1960s and 70s on contemporary Korean art. That is followed by researcher and creator Kenny K. N. Chow's theoretical and comparative analysis of Japanese haiku poetry, Chinese handscroll painting of the Gu dynasty, and manga and anime by Tezuka.
Actually, Hu states in the introduction that “[t]he essays assembled in this publication were not preplanned at an early stage nor were they tailored to meet certain predefined criteria. However, through the course of reviews and submissions, it became obvious that the contributors' works share a common relevance, interest, and involvement. Based on these, contributions are divided into six sections” (p. 9). While the diversity of the authors and the themes makes this book quite unique, at the same time it seems to compromise the thematic integrity of the book to some extent because, apart from the fact that the contributors (almost by chance, as it appears) share an interest in these particular areas, it is not clear why the areas discussed were chosen over other possible topics. It also looks odd that the final section of the book on Toei Animation Studio has only one chapter, which is based on lecture notes prepared by Hiroshi Ikeda. This section could have at least one more research article on Toei, given the significance of the studio in the history of Japanese animation.
This book has other problems that are also related to a lack of consistency. There are a number of places where the use of macrons in the romanization of Japanese names is inconsistent. For example, in Watanabe's chapter in section 2, Kenzō Masaoka 政岡憲三 is romanized as “Masaoka Kenzo,” while in the next chapter Hu uses “Masaoka Kenzō.” In addition, these two chapters give different English titles for Momotarō umi no shinpei (1945). While the issue of macron use is prevalent in many English-language articles and books on Japan, and also it is true that there is no set English translation for Momotarō umi no shinpei, in the case of this book, the lack of consistency can be particularly problematic. As Hu writes in the introduction, the book is intended to “make research in this subject area less daunting as well as far more accessible, and create fewer chances of misunderstanding and misreading” by enabling the readers to refer to primary research sources in English (p. 4). If this book is for those who, like Hu herself, “did not come from the traditional discipline of Modern Language and Literatures Studies where sufficient training in a foreign language is often supported and required” (p. 4), this type of inconsistency may potentially lead to more confusion among the readers, especially if they are students. I strongly hope that these editorial issues are addressed in a future edition of this book, which, despite its shortcomings mentioned above, is still full of viewpoints and discussions previously not available in English.
At first glance, Condry's monograph also gives an impression of being loosely knit. The topics range from participatory observation at animation studios to a discussion of piracy outside Japan. However, upon reading the introduction, it becomes very clear that Condry is trying to offer a theoretical framework that can highlight and also relativize contemporary anime in relation to other media, and also Japan as the origin of anime and the rest of the world where it is consumed, in the form of “collaborative creativity, which operates across media industries and connects official producers to unofficial fan production” (p. 2). He continues: “Put simply, [global] success [of anime] arises from social dynamics that lead people to put their energy into today's media worlds. This collective social energy is what I mean by the ‘soul’ of anime” (p. 2).
The book consistently focuses on collaborative creativity. Chapter 1, based on participatory observation of the production of Mamoru Hosoda's feature film Summer Wars (2009), compellingly shows us how the creator manages the project and highlights the significance of collaboration in the process. In chapter 2, through the observation of the production process of a five-minute television anime series called Zenmai Zamurai (2006), Condry discusses the importance of characters (kyara) and worlds (sekaikan) in the creative process of anime. While Japanese scholars such as Hiroki Azuma and Eiji Ōtsuka tend to approach the issue mainly from a theoretical perspective, placing emphasis on sociocultural aspects and also the audience, Condry's interest is firmly focused on the significance of characters and worlds in the collaborative process and the energy among the creators. Chapter 3 introduces a historical perspective by looking at early postwar Japanese animation, namely Toei Animation and Tezuka's Astro Boy. Chapter 4 focuses on the formation and operation of anime franchises featuring robots, such as Mobile Suite Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion, to reveal that “[t]he interactions among businesses, sponsors, fan cultures, and genre conventions” rather than “underlying Japanese cultural foundations, the vision of individual auteurs, or economic determinism” are key to the success of anime today (p. 134). Chapter 5 examines how different anime studios with different types of products and cultures operate in creating new works. Chapters 6 and 7 shift the focus to Japanese and non-Japanese fans, paying attention to bilateral dynamics between fans and society as well as fans themselves. Chapter 6 analyzes the “fansubbers” who form a quasi-industry in which fans subtitle and upload the latest episodes of anime series to the Internet, competing over quality and speed of translation. Condry provocatively argues that behind the global success of anime is the “dark energy” of fans “that is largely unseen when the focus of debate hinges on questions of property, piracy and law” (p. 162), and the fansubbers “in effect theorize an alternative approach to fair use that hinges on the recognition that the industry often fails to serve the public” (p. 184). In chapter 7, in a discussion about a Japanese fan who petitioned for the legal right to marry a 2-D character, Condry claims that a case like that should not be dismissed as ludicrous or viewed narrowly through the lens of otaku and otaku culture, but should be seen as “the effects of virtual worlds and the value of an internalized, immaterial consumption” (p. 202) on the society.
Condry analyzes different aspects of production and consumption of anime using the concept of collaborative creativity. Although many have pointed out the significance of unofficial texts and activities by anime fans,Footnote 1 Condry's emphasis on anime as media and his combination of fieldwork and extensive research make this book different from existing research on anime and otaku culture in English and also Japanese. Condry's book is especially noteworthy in that it pays great attention to the production process of anime rather than anime texts and fan activity.
The concept of the “soul of anime” enables analysis of different aspects of anime-related culture, including fan activities and the production process using one simple but effective theoretical concept. It also critically questions the significance of Japan as the bedrock of anime culture by arguing that the core of anime's global success is not a sociocultural essence specific to Japan but the “soul of anime.”
In this book, Condry sees media not as “something we simply watch, listen to, or consume,” but as “something we do” (p. 212). He sees and analyzes anime from such a perspective, and in my view, it works well when we think about anime as media and phenomena rather than text. At the same time, one question arises: don't other types of media such as manga, “light novels,” and videogames that are closely linked with anime also have the “soul of anime”? (Actually, references are made to manga's production process in chapter 3.) If so, is it appropriate to call collaborative creativity the soul of anime? If not, why and how is it unique to anime? Thus, we are again faced with anime research as a nue.
These two books show how difficult and also fascinating Japanese animation as a research area is. They should be useful both for research and teaching, especially to critically reflect on anime and Japanese animation as a research area. These two books provide us with new tools and also vantage points to tackle this nue, which is growing bigger and bigger.
