Hayao Miyazaki is one of the famous directors
in Japan and has created many popular animations. Miyazaki began his animation
career in 1961 and worked in various roles in the animation industry and was
able to direct his first film Lupin III: The castle of Cagliostro. When we see
Miyazaki’s animation, we see many collages of images and the exploration of the
setting. According to Cavallaro (2006), there are graphic styles immortalized
by Japanese art from the Middle Ages to the end of the nineteenth century.
We see Miyazaki’s magnificent ideas
through his animation; the settings are presented by Western styles imagery
(Cavallaro, 2006). For example, the action of Lupin III: The Castle of
Cagliostro (1970) is pictured in a peaceful European duchy and Howl’s Moving
Castle (2004), has the European background of tall buildings and European
looking architectural components. In Mononoke, the setting is on the forest and
the human world where it shows the relationship between the nature and the
human world. Miyazaki’s films bring diverse time scales by showing the concern
with the eco system. As a fan of
Miyazaki’s animations, I love the different characters that are important in
the film. For example, Princess Mononoke has characters living in the forest
and also the human world; it shows their relationship and how they are
enemies. The features like ‘deer God’
shows their meaning of life and how they respect honour their God, and from the
human world, all they want is power and wants to destroy the forest as fast as
they can. According to Cavallaro (2006), shoujo means ‘little female’ and is
used to designate girls aged 12, 13. It is age frame where infancy and maturity
takes place. Shoujo stories are focused in an atmosphere of wonder and magic
between their adulthood and childhood. The character shows their power and
powerlessness also awareness and innocence. Comparing with Western cultures,
shoujo stories are much more popular with Japanese males whereas in Western
societies the teenage girls life can be drawn different from the Japanese
culture. According to Reid (2009), in the late 1960s and early 1970s many of
female mangaka began to be rise rapidly in the public eye. I believe that many
Asian females and males are interested in cute styles of characters and shoujo
market has been popular for many years. It is likely to be the first steps of
having interests in boys and girls in their teenage years and also manga shows
the process of this.
References
Cavallaro, (D). (2006). The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. Lomdon:
McFarland & Company.
Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s moving castle. Hampshire: Palgrave/
Macmillan.
Reid, R.A. (2009). Women in science fiction and fantasy. Westport, USA: Greenwood
Press.
I am also an Asian and I do agree with you. 'Shojo' character in Asian culture is often drawn as cute and small. It was interesting to see both Lady Eboishi and San appeared as very strong and wild character in the film Princess Mononoke.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really see much Western anime but I have found that most of the western manga/anime, they are male centered.
yea I think in this anime, the women had strong potential in the story wanting to win the battle between the human world and the forest. Like other animations we can see the 'Shojo' characters where it is often cute, pretty, weak teenage girls, however, in Princess Mononoke it was different to the female audience. The Lady Eboishi had certain powers to rule the land and also it showed that women power could be stronger than men.
ReplyDeleteAs a woman, I agree that it's refreshing to see female characters who are strong and independent! Can you tell me some ways in which the characters of Eboshi and San subvert the traditional expectations of females? Thanks
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