Anime Intersections: Tradition and Innovation in Theme and Technique

by Dani Cavallaro

This text examines the artistic development of anime, from its origins as a subset of the Japanese film industry to its modern-day status as one of the most popular forms of animation worldwide. Chapter One provides a discussion of the history of anime and the separate phases of the artistic process involved in creating a traditional anime film. The main body of the text comprises nine chapters, each of which is devoted to a detailed analysis of a chosen production and explores the technical and thematic developments pioneered in works such as Ninja Scroll , Perfect Blue , and Howl's Moving Castle . The final chapter examines the impact of the medium within Western contexts, focusing on changing perceptions of anime and on the medium's frequent appearances within Western pop culture and the fine arts. A complete bibliography and filmography are included.

Genres: Anime

218 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2007

About the author

Dani Cavallaro is a freelance writer specializing in literary studies, critical and cultural theory and the visual arts. Her publications include The Gothic Vision<?em>, Critical and Cultural Theory and Cyberpunk and Cyberculture.

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first recommendation to those whose curiosity, like mine, was piqued by the book’s title is that the emphasis of the book is in technique rather than in themes. Although Cavallaro give this book an amazing introduction that expounds on the subversive qualities of animation and its philosophical implications, she devotes her subsequent attention almost squarely on the transition and blending of traditional hand-drawn animation to that of computer assisted 3D rendering. Similarly although she picks several interesting animated films to analyze as case studies, her interpretation of their themes is rather short and her focus once again returns to the process of producing the animation. This was coupled, in the McFarland edition, with such bad page formatting, i.e., very small print with equally small margins resulting in massive bricks of text in each page, that the reader felt that the discussion of animation techniques went on for an even longer amount of time. I would only recommend this book to those interested in the process of making anime rather than those, like me, who are intrigued by the unlikely themes that are often dealt within them.