Course Description: What is anime? What distinguishes it from other animation, and what, if anything, is specifically Japanese about it? This course will offer students an overview of the historical emergence of anime, its rise in both feature filmmaking and television, and the formation of Japan’s animation industry(ies) at different times in its history. We will further investigate how the aesthetics of anime relate to other visual art forms in Japan, including manga, and how the technical processes used in anime (especially “limited animation”) invent forms of visual motion. Finally, we will consider the role of anime viewers, particularly fan cultures, in the creation of meaning and the transnational circulation of anime from Japan.

Course Objectives: Students will get an overview of the history of animation in Japan, and will learn to identify the technical practices of animation that have become identified with anime. Further, they will learn about the ways that textual meaning can be altered in the process of reception, specifically of popular anime by international fan communities.

Required Book:

• Jonathan Clements—Anime: A History

All other readings will be on the sakai site.

Complete syllabus and teaching evaluations available upon request.