Weeks 5 and 6
Princess Mononoke
1) What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?
2) According to Lent (2000) what place does animation occupy in Asian societies? How different is this across Asia (i.e. comparing Japan and China)?
3)Is anime a high or low cultural genre/media, according to Napier (2005)? What are some of its subgenres?
4)Does Anime confront social issues? Gender roles in Princess Mononoke.
Does Anime confront social issues? 'Explore the' Gender roles in Princess Mononoke.
ReplyDeletePrincess Mononoke is an anime fantasy/drama movie made in 1997. The movie is about a prince who becomes involved with a forest princess' fight against mechanization. The film has twists and tales, and begins with the prince being infected with the evil of a forest monster. This than moves towards him trying to heal himself, thus his path intertwines with several dominant female figures (those being the princess Mononoke and Lady Eboshi). The story than flows towards the problems that different tribes are facing and how they come to solve them. The film comes across dramatically and breath taking when the films climaxes come around. When the end reaches, the two nemesis' (the princess and Eboshi) come to a mutual understanding and draw peace.
Anime itself definitely confronts social issues. It is just like any other genre, it has the power to portray a message and change peoples minds. It has the influence to captivate people on certain topics, and perhaps strengthen there own beliefs. For example in Princess Mononoke a social issue that stands out and is most apparent during the entire film, is deforestation. The forest is under attack by humans, and the 'Deer God' is the protector. Lady Eboshi is the threat to the forest and the wildlife as she is the owner of an iron ore. In the end she is the one that supposedly at the time kills the 'Deer God' which at the time symbolizes the forest and animals lack of defence against human greed. In the end, the 'Deer God' cannot be killed, but he brings life to the forest through his absence. Thus symbolizing that through policy and stance, complete annihilation of the forest is out of the reach of humans with basic common sense and morals. Industrialization has being one of Japans main tools in use for their ever powerful economy, whilst they have kind of integrated the industrial corporations within normal human life today. This movie reflects what Japan was in society and is more so like today.
According too Napier, S. (2005) the cultural identity of the Japanese people resonates firmly with anime, as one of anime's goals is to captivate the watcher and induce thought.
(Part 2) Gender roles in princess Mononoke are apparent while the movie sets its scene. In the beginning the film shows us the prince saving the town from a wild boar whom has being infected with an evil spirit. Thus telling us the foremost dominate figure in the scene so far is the young male prince. Whilst in the same scene, n old lady called 'The Oracle' is called to take quick care of the young man. This scene tells me that the oracle is the old and wise one (whom is taking care of a large bunch of old and tired men which need her help) and is in many forms considered the dominant figure, alongside the inured prince. Thus the start of the film tells us that our dominant figure is mainly a young male. Whilst the film continues, we soon see The wolf princess come into the scene. When they first meet, the prince yells out to the princess across a river and he gets ignored. This tells me that she has more things to worry about, and is kind of 'snubbing' him. Throwing our attention towards the princess, leading our thoughts to say that she could may be the new dominant figure. When the two finally get into an indirect scuffle whilst the princess is having a violent altercation with Lady Eboshi, the prince shows his real intentions. He wants to help her. He cares for her. He than puts on a show of apparent male masculinity and stops the fighting between the two dominate female figures bye disabling them both and knocking them out. He carries the Princess and walks out of the Iron factory (with a gunshot to the chest). Before the altercation begun, we became introduced to the group of women Lady Eboshi saved from the sex trade and gave jobs too, working in her Iron factory. Showing us that she had morals, good intentions and liked to help people. One of the main female gender roles (Lady Eboshi) was a good person at heart, but with clouded thoughts and intentions).
DeleteWhilst the movie continues, The Princess ends up saving the princes' life (because he had a gunshot to the chest and started to bleed out), and than the prince saves her life and vice versa, etc etc.
The gender roles stuck out to me in this film, as i enjoyed seeing the two dominate female figures battle and have opposing views and intentions. It was a nice to change to see in a film, rather than the usual complete male dominance you see in films these days, where the big man saves the weak women. The gender roles both had their problems in this film, and both had their tasks to complete. Whether good or bad. They had to overcome tasks, and thus build character in the process. To conclude, this movie was very enjoyable, and highlighted some social issues that many countries around the world face, how to deal with them, and some rather awesome implemented gender roles where put into the mix, making the film crisp, fresh and enlightening.
Sources:
Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.
Miyazaki, H. (Director). (2006). Princess Mononoke. Tokyo: Studio Ghibli Prodictions
A full answer, main points covered.
Delete4)Does Anime confront social issues? Gender roles in Princess Mononoke.
ReplyDeletePrincess Mononoke (1997) is a Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The story starts with Ashitaka a young prince of Emishi killing a rampaging boar God/Demon while protecting his village but in backfire, he gets affected by a deadly curse.To save his life, he must journey to the forests of the west. Once there, he's embroiled in a fierce campaign that humans were waging on the forest. The ambitious Lady Eboshi and her loyal clan use their guns against the gods of the forest and a brave young woman, Princess Mononoke, who was raised by a wolf-god. Ashitaka sees the good in both sides and tries to stem the flood of blood. This is met be animosity by both sides as they each see him as supporting the enemy.
McCarthy (2002), explains in Princess Mononoke, the gods are real and tangible. Humanity is still growing greedy destroying nature and burning lands. The most interesting relationship in the film is that of a man with nature. People may think Princess Mononoke about ecology but it is in fact about nothing last forever. In a thousand years, no-one will care who we were or what we did and that we should concentrate on making a difference where we can, with each other. In a way, this may sound nice but Miyazaki is making a film about love the extent to which love involves loss of many kinds.
According to Olowu (2013) Anime reflects several of Japan’s fundamental beliefs concerning the role of the female in society. Unlike in the West, where comics and cartoons are usually seen as vestiges of childhood, Japanese manga and anime target a national audience. Although various anime series and film studios have regularly produced shining examples of gender equality, the majority of anime is still dominated with rather backward, heavily chauvinist ideals. Anime is a medium in which comedic sexual harassment, damsels in distress and curiously short skirts are in ample supply.
McCarthy (2002), explains about San a young girl abandoned by her parents as a child. She encountered the wolf God Moro and was raised by her along with Moro’s own children. Moro has been a surrogate Mother to San and the other children as siblings. As her home and forest being destroyed by humans, San defends her home along with her family.
McCarthy (2002), describes Lady Eboshi a tough resourceful woman with a hard sheer will to accomplish her needs. Ironically she dresses in a manner reminiscent of a medieval Japanese prostitute. Miyazaki says in theatre program that she has a very tough life and has endured considerable hardships to get where she is., Lady Eboshi’s political and industrial genius bends many of the gender rules emphasized by Western society. Lady Eboshi is a beautiful, slender woman. Her indubitable femininity would suggest she play the subservient role of a distressed damsel. Ironically, of all the female characters in the film, hers most clashes with the western female stereotype. Her dominant and innovative character is epitomized by her military and economic role in the transformation of Iron Town. She is a complex character whose motivations and drives cannot be understood in terms of good versus evil (Olowu, 2013).
Reference:
McCarthy, H. (2002). Hayao Miyazaki master of Japanese animation: films, themes, artistry. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press.
Olowu, K. (2013). Deconstructed gender norms in princess mononoke. Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Retrieved from: http://digitalcommons.imsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=fall2013
Wikipedia: Princess Mononoke, Retrieved 19 September 2017, from: https://en.wikipedia.or
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDoes Anime confront social issues? Gender roles in Princess Mononoke.
ReplyDeleteThe Japanese culture is known to have firm cultural views especially on gender roles. It was most likely for men to do all the hard work and females were usually seen at home. Television advertisements also portrayed men as the leaders doing harder work whereas women were seen in the background or promoting household appliances (Arima, 2003). Princess Mononoke deals with the gender roles in Japan or maybe around the whole world. In Princess Mononoke we see the Prince as the dominant figure who defeats the beast and save the village but throughout the film the dominant role keeps changing. For example, the Prince is seen as the lead at the start but when the wolf princess’ comes it feels like the dominant role changes and is focused on her. Princess Mononoke through its story could be addressing the social issues of gender roles. It could be battling to break the stereotype of female leads (Shojo’s) from being big eyed sweet innocent girls who could only be in “soft action anime”. This could be showing its viewers that female characters could defeat and fight with male characters as equals, in other words raising the thoughts in the general public of equality as anime has a huge fan base and through anime thoughts could be provoked for gender equality.
References:
Akie N. Arima. (2003). Gender stereotypes in Japanese Television Advertisements. Sex Roles , 49, 81- 90.
Q3
ReplyDeleteAccording to Napier (2005), anime is a high cultural genre/media and is considered a “phenomenon of popular culture” in Japan and the West. Because of the mass popularity and the rising demands of market places, much of its products are short lived (Napier, 2005). Anime is a mass culture in Japan. In America however it is referred to as a sub culture (Napier, 2005) but according to Treats, this may change.
Napier (2005) states that anime builds on previous high cultural traditions. He argues that although anime clearly contains Japanese influences such as traditional arts like Kabuki and the woodblock print, which used to be popular cultures on their own, anime also utilizes global “artistic traditions” of cinema and photography from the 21st century. Napier (2005), also mentions that the issues explored within the culture of anime are relatable to “readers of contemporary high culture literature and viewers of contemporary art cinema” which both exist inside and outside of Japan (Napier, 2005).
Anime according to (Napier, 2005) entertains a range of audiences from all over the globe as well as stimulate people to deal with particular contemporary issues that older art forms do not condone. In America, anime used to be referred to as a “minor art” that specifically catered to young children. However over the years, anime has become increasingly popular in western cultures. Since then, many sub-genres have emerged such as cyber-punk, science fiction, samurai sagas and pornography (Napier, 2005).
Most of the anime films and sub-genres have had many positive reactions, however according to Sociologist Sharon Kinsella, pornographic anime is socially unhealthy. She referred to the otaku culture as “moral panic.” This notion stemmed from when a young man, accused of murdering four little girls, was found to be an aggressive watcher of violent pornographic anime (Napier, 2005).
References
DeleteNapier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan.