ORIENT: Japan Centre Seminar (Friday, 26 May, 12pm): Roald Maliangkay

[Shunichi Ishihara]

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Japan Centre Seminar Series
   - see:
http://asianstudies.anu.edu.au/wiki/index.php/Japan_Centre_Seminars

   Friday, 26th May, 2006, 12pm
   ANU, Faculty of Asian Studies, BPB E2.12
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Title: JAPANESE ANIME: ABOUT BOYS, GIRLS AND OTHER GENDERS.

Speaker: Roald Maliangkay, China and Korea Centre, Faculty of Asian 
Studies, The Japna Centre

Abstract: It seems that the Japan's mainstream anime industry has lost 
its power to critically engage social issues. The stylistic clichés may 
be partly to blame. Only trained eyes will be able to tell the 
difference between one popular 'artist' and another, as it has become 
tradition to try to reach a perfection of the standard, rather than set 
a new one. The drawings therefore encourage, perhaps, an increased 
emphasis on the storyline, but without the visual effects necessary to 
support these, generally comic books (manga) and their AV industry 
(anime) are ill suited to evoke, for example, truly gritty conditions. 
In Japanese anime there is, however, a preference for involving 
circumstances rather than creative near-stills, for literary rather than 
artistic skill. It seems that it is the interaction of the characters 
and the 'editing' of the actions that define the success of mainstream 
manga. So how does that affect its effectiveness in addressing social 
issues? In my lecture I shall focus in particular on the issue of gender 
and look into how it is generally portrayed in anime. Does the emphasis 
on (inter)action rather than realism allow artists to communicate their 
hopes and criticisms effectively? Is the playing with gender markers a 
form of social criticism expressing frustration over the forced roles 
people have to assume in society, or does it simply allow artists more 
freedom in creating tension between characters, and therefore, in their 
storylines? And if the former argument holds true, then why approach it 
through such a disengaged medium as manga? Isn¹t the argument in favour 
of change rendered mute by the medium chosen?

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Shunichi Ishihara (PhD, MSc, MA)
The Australian National University
Faculty of Asian Studies, The Japan Centre
Canberra, ACT 0200

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