from akira to princess mononoke review

Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animationby Susan NapierReview by: Joseph MurphyPhilosophy East and West, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul., 2006), pp. 493-495Published by: University of Hawai'i PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488041 .Accessed: 07/04/2014 08:47

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Hawai'i Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to PhilosophyEast and West.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 129.180.1.217 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 08:47:20 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOOK REVIEWS

Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese An- imation. By Susan Napier. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001. Pp. vii + 320. Reviewed by Joseph Murphy University of Florida

Certain progressions can be marked from Antonia Levi's Samurai from Outer Space in 1996 to Susan Napier's Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation in 2001. While both survey the phenomenon of Japanese animation as consumed in North America, the palpable underdog subcul- tural context and sense of mission in Levi's earlier work has given way to a confident mainstream appreciation in Napier's, with the term "Japanese animation" replaced in English by the naturalized anime (a-ni-me, pl. anime). In a fast-moving media phenomenon both were dated as soon as they were published; however, bolstered by the worldwide critical and financial success of Miyazaki Hayao's work, and contemporary with the exposure to youth by the rise of 24/7 cartoon networks and the run- away success of the card game-anime nexus, Napier's Anime finds itself still in the right historical moment. Though the book has limitations in terms of both its own systematicity and its treatment of potentially interesting philosophical themes in anime, it is a reliable and sometimes inspired guide to a new phenomenon that forms an increasingly important default in the background your students bring.

Napier is concerned not so much with accounting for the visual and perceptual properties of anime as with its narrative qualities: "Japanese animation merits serious consideration as a narrative art form and not simply for its arresting visual style.... Much of this book will be an investigation into the themes, imagery, and ideas of some of the most memorable anime created over the last two decades" (p. 10). The strengths and weaknesses of this book are nicely summed up here. Concentrating on narrative-a formal property of storytelling transposable across media-allows a broad and well-chosen survey of themes, images, and ideas. However, there is some question as to whether this will allow the reader to satisfy the ambition to "understand what makes anime the distinctive art form it is" (p. 10).

The book is comprised of twelve chapters in four parts. Part 1 is an introduction that argues for the importance of anime and sketches a quasi-Aristotelian method as the basis for Napier's taxonomy. Parts 2-4 cover major thematic divisions that char- acterize the particular obsessions, power, and drama of anime, and these are partic- ularly well-chosen to reflect not just the relatively palatable work deemed suitable for TV or subtitled for video distribution in the United States but also the anarchic diversity of the phenomenon as it circulates in Japan. Part 2 is on the essential theme of the changeable body and includes discussion of the monstrous adolescent body, pornographic anime, and the cybernetic body, and will allow you to catch up with classic anime like Akira (1988), Ranma 1/2 (TV version, 1990s), and Ghost in the Shell (theater version, 1996). Part 3 is on fantasy and romance as genres and the un-

Philosophy East & West Volume 56, Number 3 July 2006 493-495 493 ? 2006 by University of Hawai'i Press


usual space in anime for female leads, and includes discussion of Miyazaki's pasto- ral work and the comedy TV series Urusei Yatsura (1980s), Oh My Goddess (1980s), and Video Girl Ai (1990s). Part 4 discusses anime that have sought to make a self- conscious contribution to historical debate, including Barefoot Gen (1983) and Grave of the Fireflies (1988), on the bombing of Japanese cities in World War II, and Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997), which presents a multicultural picture of Japan's past produced in consultation with Japan's leading ethnologists. Discus- sions are balanced and entertaining, introducing the major auteurs of the last twenty years (Oshii Mamoru, Otomo Katsuhiro, Takahashi Rumiko, etc.) and creating the sharp impression that the genre of anime is not the same as the American concept of "cartoons."

Though the anime phenomenon raises interesting sociocultural and critical questions about narrative and image culture, it is not immediately certain that there is a philosophical issue to anime. One might seek this philosophical content within the medium itself or in a systematic quality to the critical approach. Philosophy is certainly a theme in anime, and, versus relatively pedestrian doubts about the evi- dence of the senses that famously form a plot twist for the Matrix series, the narration in anime often comes to a halt while characters embark on systematic speculation on problems of time (Urusei Yatsura), consciousness and artificial life (Ghost in the Shell), identity and networks (Serial Experiments Lain 11998]), and skeptical questions about illusion and reality (Perfect Blue [1999]). These stretches, though short, are often highly systematic and relatively sophisticated, and send threads through the rest of the feature, knitting its gags or action sequences with a net of ideas. These moments reflect a serious acquaintance with the underlying issues in auteurs like Oshii, Masamune Shirow, Kon Satoshi, and others, and unquestionably are valuable stepping-off points for more sustained reflection on the model of Open Court's Phi- losophy and Popular Culture series. In fact, someone should write that book. There are probably questions of perception and identity, though these are at the start more cognitive and neuroscientific than philosophical. In Narrative and Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 2003), John Bickle argues that the relation of narrative and identity is literal, and "the sense of self under scrutiny is supposed to be the full-blown, philosophically interesting one" (p. 195). In this sense, as the perceptual character of the media in which narrative is circulated shifts, the sense of self should shift, too. Hence, your students are not like you.

As a literary critic, Napier seeks to understand "what makes anime the distinctive art form it is." A gesture to systematicity is contained in a Northrop Frye-like taxonomy of genres, which provides part of the organizing principle of the book: "Such a protean art form as anime is impossible to completely sum up in a single book and I shall not attempt to do so. Rather, I intend to look at a variety of anime in terms of three major expressive modes that I have termed the apocalyptic, the fes- tival, and the elegiac" (p. 12). However, the point of Frye's Aristotelian method is that by stepping systematically through a series of permutations of relations among creator, material, and audience one can arrive at precisely a complete account. The three modes are rather descriptive and contingent. Though the categorical setup is

494 Philosophy East & West


Aristotelean throughout, this lack of explicit awareness (the Poetics is not cited in the bibliography) leads to some curious moments, as when the metamorphoses attending the final scenes of Akira (Otomo, 1988) are said to be, though hideous, "also truly spectacular (in the postmodern sense of spectacle)" (pp. 43-44). It is hard to know what to make of this, as spectacle is a key category for narrative in the Poetics. This exemplifies the piecemeal way in which positions are brought together.

This quality in Napier's theoretical choices does not vitiate the quality and ex- tent of the descriptions, and this is where the value of the book lies. In the Preface she tells of students from 1989 covertly approaching her after class to show her anime tapes they had gathered, subtitled by fans and circulated in an underground network that characterized early otaku (anime fan) culture. She has listened to her students, examining carefully the things they showed her, attending anime conven- tions with them, and following the discussion of anime in the American and Japa- nese popular press. Napier discerned the importance of anime five years before the rest of the academy, and retains a tonal accuracy and currency that academic accounts of subculture often lack. It is in thrall to the facts, but there are a lot of them, and they are very interesting. Don't look here for a clarification of the aes- thetic, cognitive, or sociological significance of this emerging cultural form. None- theless, read this book. What you will find is a reliable and very enjoyable elucida- tion of themes and a copious introduction of data. You will learn something about your students, who know this inside and out.

Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization. By Seyyed Hossein Nasr. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 2003. Pp. 224. Paper $9.71. Reviewed by Zain Ali University of Auckland

"Islam," writes Seyyed Hossein Nasr, "is like a vast tapestry," and in his book Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization he aims to survey the masterpiece that is Islam. The present work is part of a trilogy including Ideal and Realities of Islam and The Heart of Islam. Nasr states that the common theme in the trilogy "is the universalist perspective and respect for other religions" (p. xxiv). In addition, Nasr clarifies that his approach, as with all of his Islamic writings, is to write from an Islamic perspective, which he terms "traditional Islam" (p. xxiii). Nasr stands opposed to either the secular modernist or fundamentalist perspectives, both of which he regards as forms of extremism.

This book, initially published as part of Our Religions, edited by A. Sharma, is significantly revised and includes a new introduction and bibliography. It can best be described as a primer on Islam, consisting of eight chapters that focus on a variety of pertinent themes.

Chapter 1 deals with the self-understanding of Islam and the Islamic world. Islam, Nasr notes, sees itself as a return to the primordial faith of humanity, a faith that affirms the unity and oneness of God. This chapter also presents an overview

Philosophy East & West Volume 56, Number 3 July 2006 495-497 495 ? 2006 by University of Hawai'i Press


Article Contentsp. 493p. 494p. 495

Issue Table of ContentsPhilosophy East and West, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jul., 2006), pp. 367-518Front MatterRemembering Rev. Dr. Leroy Stephens Rouner (August 5, 1930 -- February 11, 2006) [pp. 367-368]A Memorial Tribute to Leroy Rouner [p. 369]Zhuangzi and the Nature of Metaphor [pp. 370-391]The Crow and the Coconut: Accident, Coincidence, and Causation in the "Yogavsiha" [pp. 392-408]Saying the Unsayable [pp. 409-427]The Tiantai Roots of Dgen's Philosophy of Language and Thought [pp. 428-450]Two Chariots: The Justification of the Best Life in the "Katha Upanishad" and Plato's "Phaedrus" [pp. 451-468]Feature ReviewsReview: What Does It Mean to "Speak Truth to Power"? [pp. 469-482]Review: Going to Our Happy Place: Idealism, Realism, and Nishida's Eutopia: A Response to Christian Uhl [pp. 482-486]Review: The Ways of Interpreting Dao [pp. 487-492]

Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 493-495]Review: untitled [pp. 495-497]Review: untitled [pp. 497-499]Review: untitled [pp. 499-502]Review: untitled [pp. 502-512]Review: untitled [pp. 512-514]

Book NotesReview: untitled [pp. 515-516]

Books Received [p. 517]Back Matter [pp. 518-518]

from akira to princess mononoke review

Documents