THE ANIMA IN ANIMATION: MIYAZAKI HEROINES AND POST-PATRIARCHAL CONSCIOUSNESS (original) (raw)
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Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli: Reimagining the Portrayal of Women in Japanese Anime
2018
"Whenever we get stuck at Pixar or Disney, I put on a Miyazaki film sequence or two, just to get us inspired again," said John Lasseter, director of Toy Story. This explains the influence of Miyazaki’s films on animation industries in the world, extending far beyond its home nation of Japan. Studio Ghibli is responsible for placing the art of Japanese animated films onto the map of the world. These films often featuring female characters being thrust into lead roles as powerful, independent heroines challenging stereotypical images of Japanese women submitting to the yoke of patriarchy. This often leads many to consider Ghibli films as feminist in nature. Consequently, this triggers the question of whether these films would be able to pave the way for stronger portrayal of women in Japanese anime. This research paper examines the role of the stereotype-breaking female in Japanese animated films that change the mindset of a patriarchal Japanese animation industry, with special attention to 1) gender equality, 2) roles for women, and 3) common stereotypes. The case studies analyzed include scenes from Ghibli films will be used focusing on three of Studio Ghibli’s most popular works directed by Hayao Miyazaki, namely, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Princess Mononoke (1997) and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away (2001). This investigation considers the strong portrayal of women in these films to be pivotal in sparking discussions of gender inequality towards the strengthening of portrayals of women in the Japanese animation industry. With close examination of how women are depicted on screen in Ghibli animations, this project provides an insight on the seldom discussed issue of female roles in the anime business.
"Cut off a Wolf's Head and It Still Has the Power to Bite! " – The Empowering Heroines of Ghibli.
Studio Ghibli has created some of the most powerful and inspirational role models ever to come out of not only animation but of film too. They may be rendered in ink and water colour but they provide a much needed upheaval of the traditional ‘princess’ seen in the likes of Disney. Throughout this work there will be close comparisons and analysis into why Studio Ghibli has acquired this positive reputation and how the studio differs from the Walt Disney alternative. This piece will examine the works of Ghibli in terms of aesthetic choices, narrative decisions and how the protagonists remain positive role models through a feminist lens. Keywords: Ghibli, Disney, Miyazaki, Walt Disney, Feminism, Narrative, Aesthetics, Role Model, Female Protagonist, Positive, Princess, Fairy Tale, Representation
Erciyes İletişim Dergisi
It is observed that women have a series of roles that are positioned within the framework of beautiful and attractive adjectives in the traditional order of social structure and they do not have a life away from home. It has been seen that the identity elements of women have begun to change during the transition to the process of modernism. Within the scope of the study, the changes that the female identity has undergone from the traditional period to the present were analyzed through the female characters in animated films. Twenty posters of Disney and Hayao Miyazaki animated films made between 1984 and 2022 were analyzed by semiotics in the context of female identity construction. The answer to five basic questions were sought, which include the roles identified with women's identity in the posters, the imposition of beauty, the existence of environmental pressure elements on women, as well as the reflections of the change that women's identity has experienced until the po...
Feminist Discourse in Animated Films
Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts, 2020
Animation in cinema, which appeals not only to children but also adults, is one of the most important film genres that has existed since the birth of cinema. As in the other genres of cinema, feminist discourse formed through female characters is remarkable in animated cinema. This study aimed to present the feminist narratives in animated films, one of the most popular film genres today. In this context, computer-animated fantasy film Brave, regarded as one of the feminist films in animation cinema, was included in the scope of the study and was investigated in line with feminist film theory. The study revealed, as opposed to the powerless and passive woman image imposed by the patriarchal structure in society, the female characters in this film were represented as strong, brave, and free as designed by feminist ideology.
This paper takes a look into the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki and the Japanese traditions inseparable from his work. His films capture a sense of purity from childhood and find a way to permeate the divisions created and reinforced by culture and language. Each individual regardless of origins or present ideology has a chance to engage in a world that chooses forgiveness, respects nature and recognizes women as equals. This paper will examine Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997). By uncovering the layers of Eastern culture that may be misinterpreted or missed altogether by a Western audience I plan to explain in a manner that bridges the gaps of knowledge. Through explaining the traditions from Japanese culture in a context of religious scholarship, a cultural significance that applies to both Eastern and Western cultures can be used to influence discussion, and potentially inspire actions. By emphasizing the themes of environmentalism, feminism, and ethics in the two films I hope to foster a sense of obligation that will lead individuals to examine the pitfalls of our current consumer and capitalist culture.
Princesses and wild girls. New female identities in animated cinema for young viewers
Women&Education, 2023
Female imaginary has undergone strong transformations in recent decades, leading to more complex and multifaceted representations of female protagonists in children's narratives. Through stories that employ numerous narrative and artistic techniques, today's filmic characters are demonstrating an increasing adherence to socio-cultural changes as they are giving voice to diversified forms of identity in order to deconstruct those stereotypes that, historically, have categorised girls and women, both real and fictional. Starting from a theoretical basis grounded in Gender Pedagogy and Film Studies, the paper aims to offer a pedagogical overview of the portrayals presented in contemporary children's cinema, from the latest Disney heroines to the female protagonists of Hayao Miyazaki's works, up to independent cinema's products. KEYWORDS Children's films, animated films, female representation, visual pedagogy, gender identity. Film per l'infanzia, film d'animazione, rappresentazione femminile, pedagogia visuale, identità di genere. L'immaginario femminile costruito attraverso le narrazioni filmiche per l'infanzia ha subìto negli ultimi decenni forti trasformazioni che hanno portato a rappresentazioni di protagoniste sempre più complesse e ricche di sfumature. Tramite storie che utilizzano tecniche narrative ed artistiche diverse, gli attuali personaggi filmici stanno dimostrando una sempre maggiore aderenza ai cambiamenti socio-culturali, dando voce a forme identitarie diversificate e oltre gli stereotipi che, storicamente, hanno caratterizzato bambine, ragazze, donne, tanto reali quanto fittizie. A partire da una base teorica fondata sulla Pedagogia di genere e sui Film Studies, il saggio intende offrire una riflessione pedagogica sui nuovi ritratti femminili nei film di animazione contemporanei attraverso una panoramica dei nuovi ritratti presentati nel cinema per l'infanzia, dalle nuove eroine Disney al protagonismo femminile nelle opere di Hayao Miyazaki, fino ai prodotti del cinema indipendente.
WOMEN, GENDER AND EVOLUTION: RECONSIDERING THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS IN DISNEY ANIMATIONS
Journal of Religious and Culture (JORAC Uniport), Volume 22, No 1 and 2, 2022
It is no news that Disney is a forerunner in the entertainment industry. The pervasiveness of Disney movies has transformed the pop-culture and cultural landscape of not just the American culture but the rest of the world. The franchise has become a favourite of children all over the world. Inspiring children to desire a life of grandeur, adventure, where dreams become a reality. It reveals itself in generations of children keenly seeking a Prince Charming or wanting to be the price charming, an unrealistic fairy tale relationships and the omnipotent, happily-ever after. The themes revolve around the grandeur of true love, the power of humanity, and the infamous good versus evil with good winning at the end. However, despite being the forerunner of adventure and motivation, Disney is also known for the lack of agency given to its female characters. It has also been criticised for promoting female subservience and subjugation in addition to the glorification of abusive relationships. The paper's investigation of Disney's earlier animations submits that they contribute to the circulation of the normative gender roles that girls should be passive, submissive and weak. In sharp contrast, its modern Disney animations suggest that girls should be strong, energetic, resourceful and they should seek to achieve greatness with hard work. Consequently, with the world now clamouring and fighting for gender equality and equity, Disney no longer writes women's life stories through a male discourse or reinforcing the patriarchal ideals and philosophies towards women with the new movies being released. Consequently, this paper investigates how Walt Disney Animations changes its narrative from the damsel in distress and male saviourism to female strength and agency. It traces the transformation made by Disney in its portrayal of women in relation to men.
2019
Media such as animation is rarely discussed in comparative literature, but the tropes of Japanese anime allow for a unique engagement with genre. In the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, generic conventions of Japanese shoujo (girls’) comics and Western fairy tales are both obstacles and vehicles for characters to perform gender and engage in queer relationships. While most people examine the anime and its retelling in the film The Adolescence of Utena, the series’ manga is often overlooked. But these three versions of the series exhibit how media aimed at different audiences embody more or less concrete gender roles, showing the ways in which genre and medium inform and constrain characters. The audio-visual medium of the anime allows it to manipulate gender across time in a way the manga cannot. The manga allows insight into tropes the anime subverts in having to stay closer to generic norms for its target audience. The movie acts as an extreme: with a shorter overall timeframe and fewer editorial constraints, it has the most fluid portrayal of gender and selective engagement with generic tropes, while also being the most overtly queer. Others have explored how Utena breaks down gender, but I will argue that series’ incarnations’ different media affect their generic framework use and thus the degree to which the characters subvert gender roles and their heteronormative connotations. This version was presented as a part of the seminar "Genre Trouble" at ACLA 2019.
Contemporary Action Heroines: The Quest for Emancipation from The Male Gaze
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The commercialised male gaze has facilitated a postfeminist culture in which women continue to be moulded into scopophilic pleasures and now willingly participate in presenting themselves as such, out of a self-proclaimed right to reclaim their sexualities. This thesis explores the way in which contemporary action heroines are visually represented by deconstructing three filmic examples of contemporary action films. The iconographic figures of the action babe heroine, the superheroine and the contemporary femme fatale are depicted in the blockbusters; Tomb Raider (2018), Wonder Woman (2017) and Red Sparrow (2018). As major adaptations of literary texts and video games, the movies serve as modernised representations of visual spectacles. Close textual analysis traces the evolution of the iconographic figures from their initial appearances in source materials through to their current iterations, as presented in the aforementioned films. The evolution of heroine representation is conte...