Japanese Aesthetics and Anime: The Influence of Tradition

209 Pages·2013·0.85 MB·English

by  Dani Cavallaro

Japanese Aesthetics
and Anime
ALSO BY DANI CAVALLARO AND FROM MCFARLAND
Kyoto Animation: A Critical Study and Filmography(2012)
CLAMP in Context: A Critical Study of the Manga and Anime(2012)
Art in Anime(2012)
The Fairy Tale and Anime: Traditional Themes, Images
and Symbols at Play on Screen(2011)
The World of Angela Carter: A Critical Investigation(2011)
Anime and the Art of Adaptation: Eight Famous
Works from Page to Screen(2010)
Anime and the Visual Novel: Narrative Structure, Design and
Play at the Crossroads of Animation and Computer Games(2010)
Magic as Metaphor in Anime: A Critical Study(2010)
The Mind of Italo Calvino: A Critical Exploration
of His Thought and Writings(2010)
Anime and Memory: Aesthetic, Cultural and Thematic Perspectives(2009)
The Art of Studio Gainax: Experimentation, Style and
Innovation at the Leading Edge of Anime(2009)
Anime Intersections: Tradition and Innovation in Theme and Technique(2007)
The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki (2006)
The Cinema of Mamoru Oshii: Fantasy, Technology and Politics(2006)
Japanese Aesthetics
and Anime
The Influence of Tradition
D C
ANI AVALLARO
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
ISBN 978-0-7864-7151-5
softcover : acid free paper
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
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© 2013 Dani Cavallaro. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, i ncluding photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without p ermission in writing from the p ublisher.
Cover art © 2013 Hemera Collection
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Paddy, with infinite gratitude for his heroic devotion
and inspiring advice—without which I would never have
had either the motivation to write this book or the resolve to
see it through to completion—and for just about everything.
ƒ
To Dr. Ian Cole of the Primrose Hill Surgery,
with deep appreciation for his ongoing
encouragement, patience and trust.
ƒ
To Betsy, in recognition of her
mercurial efforts to do her best.
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Contents
Preface 1
1. Philosophical Perspectives 5
2. Creativity 54
One. Cultural Background 54
Two. Expressions of Creativity in Anime 73
3. Nature 127
One. Cultural Background 127
Two. Interpretations of Nature in Anime 146
Filmography 187
Bibliography 189
Index 197
vii
The person who is a master in the art of living makes little distinction
between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their
mind and their body, their education and their recreation, their love and
their religion. They hardly know which is which. They simply pursue
their vision of excellence and grace in whatever they do, leaving others to
decide whether they are working or playing. To them, they are always
doing both.—Zen Poet
Preface
To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least
important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be
derived.—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
ƒ
Imagination encircles the world.—Albert Einstein
This study engages with the relationship between Japanese aesthetics,
a field of study steeped in philosophy and traditional knowledge, and
anime, a prominent manifestation of contemporary popular culture, on
the basis of three interdependent premises:
• the abstract concepts promoted by Japanese aesthetics find concrete
expression at the most disparate levels of everyday life;
• the abstract and the concrete actively coalesce in the domain of
visuality, attesting to the eminently visual nature of Japanese
culture at large;
• as a major form of visual creation and expression, anime can
help us appreciate many salient aspects of Japan’s aesthetic legacy,
in terms of both its theoretical propositions and its tangible
aspects.
The legitimacy of proposing the existence of a bond between a time-
honored discipline like aesthetics and a transient product of popular culture
like anime is granted by the fact that over the centuries, Japanese culture
has tended to apply its aesthetic precepts to all sorts of artistic and artisanal
activities in a pointedly non-hierarchical fashion. It is therefore quite logical
for those same ideas to reverberate in the context of a contemporary popular
art form like anime. Given the supple adaptability of Japanese aesthetics
1