Hey guys - some more questions to discuss:

1. Is anime a genre or a media? Is it a branch of film or another mode?

2. According to Lent (2000), what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (ie comparing Japan, Korea, China)?

3. Is it a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)?

4. What are some of its subgenres?

5. Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006), discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West, or somewhere else?

6. What is the ‘shojo’ (also spelt 'shoujo' or 'syojyo' in English) and how does it often function in anime? How does Miyazaki challenge the stereotype?

7. What genres/subgenres of anime can you identify?

8. After viewing Howl's Movinng Castle, what are your impressions of the film? Any surprises?

Feel free to widen the discussion to talk about works of anime you have viewed and enjoyed (or not, as the case may be!).

Look forward to reading yr comments ^_^

HI all =)
Finally the animation part!
I like anime as it was a motivation to study Japanese.
and still watching it through the internet that broadcasted in Japan just yesterday.It is really awesome though, sometimes it interrupts my studying Lol

Anime is can simply defined as “Japanese cartoons” gives no sense of the depth and variety that make up the medium (Lent 2000). According to Lent (2000), anime maybe the perfect “medium” to capture what is perhaps the overriding issue of our day, the shifting nature of identity in a constantly changing society. I know “anime” is a phenomenon of popular culture. As I grew ip with many Japanese and Korean animes, I guess the most of my ages are particularly familiar with anime. Anime texts entertain audiences around the world on the most basic level, but, equally importantly, they also move and provoke viewers on other levels as well, stimulating audiences to work through certain contemporary issues in ways that older art form cannot. They are also used for education, adornment, and, of course commercial enterprise (Lent, 2000).

Have you guys heard about anime Otaku which means rabidly fanatical fans?
I think this is one of evidences that anime is truly a main steam pop culture phenomenon in Japan. I would not say that I am an Otaku but from the early age of my life, I collected anime DVDs, figures and even pencils related my favourite anime. There are huge unimaginable products of anime which sometimes really really expensive than we are thinking. I guess animation industry in Japan had earned a lot of money not only with their anime but anime-related merchandises. Honestly, I still spend some money on it.

I also think Japan has build up the great cultural and national image through amine both in Japan and to the other countries. Images from anime and its related medium of manga are omnipresent throughout Japan. Japan is a country that is traditionally more pictocentric than the cultures of the West, as is exemplified in its use of characters or ideograms, and anime and manga fit easily into a contemporary cultural of the visual. Furthermore, through anime Japan has become an increasingly significant player in the global cultural economy (Lent, 2000).

I agree with you Binna,
Anime is medium. So every type of anime contains two elements; narrative genre and visual art, we could call the second element as a medium to present the first element. It has been influenced by many contemporary issues e.g. “the role of contemporary women”. Also, it has been influenced by high Japanese cultural traditional arts and has been and has built it form from them e.g. Kabuki and the woodblock print. For example, many of Miyazaki’s anime films have an historical Japanese setting. Anime in addition makes use of worldwide artistic traditions of twentieth century cinema and photography and explores complex ways. It has huge number of viewers from all groups of ages and from different countries all over the world including countries that not generous to foreign culture to be popular inside its land such as France. So because of its popularity it affects a wider variety of audiences more than other types of high cultural exchange. For example, Lents (2000) mentions that “Akira” crossed international borders to become a political statement in a European country to inspire Western audiences when it first appeared outside Japan in 1990 and its image used as an icon of political resistance in Sarajevo in 1993 when it appeared on a wall in the destroyed city. In addition Lents (2000) explains that Japan has become an increasingly significant player in the global cultural economy through amine as it became popular everywhere. Since anime include every that Western audiences are accustomed to seeing in live-action films-romance, comedy, tragedy, adventure, even psychological probing of a kind seldom attempted in recent mass-culture Western film or television. So it’s not a Japanese Cartoon, it is Japanese film. According to Lents (2000) animated works are a major part of the output of Japanese studios, and some of these works, such as “princess Mononoke” in 1997 became the highest grossing film of all time in Japan and remain to this day.

In relation to question 6 and what is shojo? Shojo is a term that is used to depict what in NZ we would call tweens, or girls between the ages of 12-13. These girls are innocent yet starting to question and wonder about sex. (to put it blankly) According to Cavallaro "literally means 'little female'...on a metaphorical level, however , it alludes to the transitional stage between infancy and maturity" he goes on further to state that "shoujo stories are serenely dreamy and bathed in an atmosphere of magic and wonder" (p. 11).
However Miyazaki's stories differ from the normal shoujo stories in that "Miyazaki's heroines are active, independent, courageous and inquisitive" this is in contrast to other shoujo girls who are "passive being suspended in something of a timeless dreamland" (p. 11).
I think it would be intersting to know how the average avid watcher of anime feels about Miyazaki changing the traditional portrayal. I have never watched anime, so maybe Binna can help on this one.