VMCS2991 Introduction to Anime

Introduction to Anime

VMCS2991, Winter 2024

Mount Allison University

 Course Description: 

This course is an introduction to a critical approach to anime as a form of media, industry, and a cultural artefact. We will build upon our individual understandings of the Japanese style of animated film through discovery of a history of the medium and its place in Japan’s society. Importantly, we will also consider the transnational and transcultural dimensions of anime as a global form of media. Anime has had a strong impact on worldwide audiences, and we will take some time to better understand and explore the positionality of global fans and Japanese otaku alike. This course involves a critical understanding of anime as form and object, but it does not include instruction in the creation of anime or manga. 

Weekly Schedule & Readings:

  • Week 1 – Introduction: What is Anime? 
  • Week 2 – Anime History 
    • Readings: 
    • Watch: 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Condry, Ian. “Early Directions in Postwar Anime,” in The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story, Ian Condry, Duke University Press, 2013, pp. 96-111. 
      • Cholodenko, Alan. “Apocalyptic Animation: In the Wake of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Godzilla, and Baudrillard,” in Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Alisa Freedman and Toby Slade, Routledge, 2017, pp. 229-240. 
    • Screening: Attack on Titan (2013-2023). 
  • Week 3 – Genres within a Genre 
  • – Anime Overview Assignment Due – – 
    • Readings: 
    • Watch: 
      • AnimeEveryday. “The Stylistic Evolution of Anime,” YouTube, 10 April 2017.  
      • Mastar. “How Anime is Made – Inside the Studio,” YouTube, 17 September 2016. 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Horno-López, Antonio. “The Particular Visual Language of Anime: Design, Colour and Selection of Resources,” in Animation Practice, Process & Production, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, pp. 39-56.  
      • Denison, Rayna. “Approaching Anime: Genre and subgenres,” in Anime: A Critical Introduction by Rayna Denison, Bloomsbury Academic, 2015, pp. 15-30. 
      • McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. William Morrow Paperbacks, 1993. 
    • Screening: Gintama (2005-2021) 
  • Week 4 – Anime Girls 
    • Readings: 
      • Scateni, Ren. “Women Make Anime,” Sight and Sound, 3 July 2020 
      • Akiko, Sugawa. “Children of Sailor Moon: The Evolution of Magical Girls in Japanese Anime,” nippon.com, 26 February 2015 
    • Watch:  
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Tamaki, Saito. “A Genealogy of the Beautiful Fighting Girl,” in Beautiful Fighting Girl, Saito Tamaki, [2000], translated by J. Keith Vincent and Dawn Lawson, University of Minnesota Press, 2011.  
      • Yatron, Cassandra. “30 Years Later, Re-Examining the ‘Pretty Soldier’: A Gender Study Analysis of Sailor Moon,” in Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, vol. 3, 2022, pp. 1-33. 
    • Screening: Sailor Moon (Toei Animation, 1992-97) 
  • Week 5 – Adapting Anime 
  • Week 6 – Otaku & Society 
  • – Anime Analysis Due – – 
    • Readings: 
      • Osmond, Andrew. “A New Decade of Anime: A History with Author Jonathan Clements,” Anime News Network, 7 September 2023. 
      • Jenkins, Henry. “Otaku Culture in a Connected World: An Interview with Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuni (Part Three),” Pop Junctions, 27 April 2012.  
    • Watch: 
    • Sample FanVids: 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Napier, Susan. “Introduction: New Formulations of the Otaku,” in Mechademia, vol. 14, no. 2, 2022, pp. 1-6. 
      • Sigley, Alek. “Next It’s Japan’s Turn: Nation and Otaku Masculinity in My Hero Academia,” in Mechademia, vol. 14, no. 2, 2022, pp. 77-98. 
    • Screening: My Hero Academia (Toho Co Ltd., 2016-2022) 
  • Week 7 – Transcultural Fandom & Positionality 
    • Readings: 
      • Roberts, Martin. “‘I’m Riding a Panda‘: Japanese Cult Media and Hipster Cosmopolitanism,” Flow, 2 April 2009.  
    • Watch: 
      • Utica Public Library. “Anime in America: From Analog to Digital,” YouTube public lecture with Dr. Lori Morimoto, 21 August 2021, start at 18:04 
      • The Guardian. “Anime Gets Blackness Wrong, Here’s How Fans are Fixing it,” YouTube, 1 October 2020 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
    • Screening: Cowboy Bebop (1998). Available on CrunchyRoll. 
  • Week 8 – Globalization & Marketing to the West: Studio Ghibli 
    • Readings: 
    • Watch: 
      • Centre for Japanese Studies, UEA. “Beyond Japan Ep. #4: Anime in the Arts with Dr. Rayna Denison,” YouTube, 15 July 2020, start at 14:50 
      • Accented Cinema. “Princess Mononoke: Writing Humanity | The Director Project,” YouTube, 7 December 2020,” 
      • FilmJoy. “Lessons Animation Taught Us – Movies with Mikey,” YouTube, 18 May 2018, just the Spirited Away section (8:18-11:56mins) 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Denison, Rayna. “A Disappearing Kingdom: Studio Ghibli’s Legacy in the Ni no Kuni Franchise,” in Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History by Rayna Denison, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 193-212. 
      • Carter, Laz. “Marketing Mononoke: The Daihitto Becoming Disney,” in Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli’s Monster Princess edited by Rayna Denison, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 151-172. 
    • Screening: Spirited Away (2001). Available on Netflix. 
  • Week 9 – Anime and the Japanese Film Industry 
  • – Fan Creation DUE – – 
    • Readings: 
    • Watch: 
      • Beyond Ghibli. “Beyond Ghibli – A Look at Japan’s Best Anime Directors,” YouTube, 13 March 2017 
      • AnimeEveryday. “Anime’s Digital Revolution,” YouTube, 23 November 2017 
      • CrashCourse. “World Cinema – Part 1: Crash Course Film History #14,” YouTube, 20 July 2017, First section on Japan only (approx. 5 mins) 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Denison, Rayna. “Introduction: The Industrial World of Studio Ghibli,” in Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History by Rayna Denison, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 1-30. 
    • Screening: Your Name (Shinkai, 106mins, 2016) Available on CrunchyRoll. 
  • Week 10 – Anime Labour 
  • Week 11 –Boys Love, the Female Gaze, and Sexuality 
    • Readings: 
      • Landa, Amanda. “Beautiful Girls as Beautiful Boys; Transcultural Shoujo Subgenres and Gender Performance,” Flow, 4 September 2009.  
      • Zhou, Coco. “Girl as Sign: Epistemology of the Shojo,” Flow, 22 November 2015.  
    • Watch: 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Wood, Andrea. “Boys’ Love Anime and Queer Desires in Convergence Culture: Transnational Fandom, Censorship and Resistance,” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 4, no. 1, 2013, pp. 44-63 
      • Chang, Jiang and Hao Tian. “Girl Power in Boy Love: Yaoi, Online Female Counterculture, and Digital Feminism in China,” Feminist Media Studies, vol. 21, no. 4, 2021, pp. 604-620 
      • Rattanamathuwong, Bancha. “Queering the Harem: Queerness in Reverse Harem Manga and Anime,” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 12, no. 5, 2021, pp. 1034-1047 
    • Screening: Ouran High School Host Club (Bones, 2006) 
    • Other shows that you may want to watch in relation to this topic: 
      • Sasaki and Miyano (2022-present); Available on CrunchyRoll. 
      • Yuri!!! On ICE (2016). Available on CrunchyRoll. 
  • Week 12 – The Future of Anime 
    • Readings: 
      • Petit, Aurelie, ed. Anime Streaming Platform Wars: A Platform Lab Report, The Platform Lab, 2021.  
      • NOTE: This is a 34-page report. You do not have to read the whole thing! Please read the Introduction and then skim the rest of the report. 
    • Watch: 
    • Other Readings (Not Required): 
      • Davis, Northrop. “The Future of this Hybridity,” in Manga and Anime go to Hollywood by Northrop Davis, Bloomsbury Academic, 2016, pp. 327-356. 
      • Gazi, Jeeshan. “De/facing Race: Towards a Model for a Universal World Comics,” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 8, no. 2, 2017, pp. 119-138
    • Screening: Aggretsuko (CJ ENM Co., 2018-2023). Available on Netflix.  

 Course Evaluation: 

  • Participation 20%
  • Anime Overview Assignment 10%
  • Anime Analysis 15%
  • Fan Product 25%
  • Final Argument 30% 

 “Anime’s media ecology relies on the television broadcasting networks and home video infrastructures, the companies producing anime and the audiences at home watching” – Rayna Denison in Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History (2023, pp. 7-8) 

“What good are dreams if all you do is work? There’s more to life than hitting the books, I hope you know” – Tamaki Suou, Ouran Highschool Host Club