Japanese 393: Japanese Animation: A Century of Moving Images
Spring 2014
Class meets Tues & Thurs, 5:20 – 6:50 pm
Location: Gruening 306
Instructor: David Henry
Office: Gruening 612a
Office hours: Tues 11:30-12:30 and Thurs 2-3pm
Contact: dahenry2@alaska.edu or 474-7128
Course Description
Moving chronologically we will survey the first hundred
years of Japanese animation, from the 1910s to the present
day. Students will be become familiar with a variety of
approaches to critically analyze animation, including film
studies, narratology, gender studies approaches, reading
anime as national allegory, etc. Conducted in English.
Course Goals
This class will survey the last century of Japanese animation, or anime, from the 1910s to the present day.
Anime has become an increasing important presence both within Japanese and world culture and has been
used to explore the broadest range possible of artistic and cultural questions. Many students are familiar
with animation as entertainment and our purpose in this class will be to reintroduce them to this material
through a critical lens. Four scholarly monographs, listed below in required readings, will be used to equip
students with a rigorous framework to interpret Japanese animation from approaches including: historical,
narratological, gender studies, psychoanalysis, etc. By the end of this course will have polished their ability
to identify the key arguments of a scholarly monograph, describe this argument succinctly in writing, and
to engage with that argument within the context of interpreting a specific work of animation.
Student Learning Outcomes
*Students will be able to place animation within a variety of contexts including national (Japanese
culture as allegory), chronological and production related.
*Students will become proficient in demonstrating a range of critical methodologies to analyze
animation including: gender studies, narratology, film studies approaches, psychoanalysis, etc.
*Students will be able to demonstrate critical approaches through four reading responses that
show an ability to interpret a critical argument and respond to it.
Required Readings
Anime from Akira to Howl’s
Moving Castle.
Susan Napier. 2005
Palgrave MacMillan.
The Astro Boy Essays.
Frederik L. Schodt.
Stone Bridge Press,
Berkeley. 2007
Otaku: Japan’s Data-Base Animals.
Hiroki Azuma.
Japanese Visual Culture.
Explorations in the World of Manga
and Anime. Mark MacWilliams.
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U. of Minn. Press.
2009.
2008.
GRADING
Participation
10% (includes attendance, classroom activities)
Quizzes
20% (roughly 10 quizzes at 2% each)
Final Examination
20% (short essay and ID)
In Class Presentation 10%
Short Reading Responses 20% (four 2 page papers at 5% each)
Final Research Paper 20% (one 10 page paper)
Grading is as follows:
A+ 100 – 97
B + 89 – 87
A 96 – 93
B 86 – 83
A - 92 – 90
B - 82 – 80
C + 79 – 77
C 76 – 73
C - 72 – 70
D + 69 – 67
D 66 – 63
D - 62 – 60
F
59 and below
As a rule, no make-ups will be given for participation, etc unless prior arrangements are made or
there is a signed doctor note.
COURSE POLICIES
Appropriate class behavior. You are welcome to bring a drink to class, as long as you clean up
after yourself. Side conversations are not acceptable. I expect you to be courteous to
classmates and professor at all times. Cell phones should be turned off, and I reserve the right to
answer any phone that rings in class. If mine rings, you have the right to ridicule me.
Students with disabilities. UAF makes appropriate accommodations for individuals with
disabilities who have been documented by the Office of Disability Services (208 Whitaker
Building, 474--5655). Students with learning or other disabilities who may need classroom
accommodations are encouraged to make an appointment to obtain the appropriate
documentation if they do not have it. Please meet with me during office hours so that I can
collaborate with the Office of Disability Services to provide the appropriate accommodations and
supports to assist you in meeting the goals of the course.
Student support services. UAF is committed to equal opportunity for all students. Students
who are the first in their families to attempt a four-year college degree, or students whose
incomes are low, have opportunities for tutorial and other forms of support from the office of
Student Support Services. Please make an appointment with Student Support Services in
Gruening 514 or by phone at 474-6844.
Student code of conduct. As a UAF student, you are subject to UAF's Honor Code:
"Students will not collaborate on any quizzes, in-class exams, or take-home exams that will
contribute to their grade in a course, unless permission is granted by the instructor of the
course. Only those materials permitted by the instructor may be used to assist in quizzes and
examinations.
Violations of the Honor Code will result in a failing grade for the assignment and, ordinarily,
for the course in which the violation occurred. Moreover, violation of the Honor Code may
result in suspension or expulsion."
Thursday
1/16
Tentative course schedule
Week 1
Course introduction, review syllabus, and “A Century of
Animation”
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Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Week 2
1/21 Screening and Discussion: Early Japanese Animation, selected
shorts (1910s-1930s)
1/23 Lecture and Discussion, “Japanese Visual Culture(s)”
Week 3
1/28 Screening and Discussion: “Momotaro no umiwashi” (1943) and
“Momotaro: umi no shinpei” (1945)
1/30 Lecture “Anime as National Allegory” and Discussion
Note: Friday January 31 is the deadline for 100% refund for dropped classes
Week 4:
Tuesday
2/4
Screening and Discussion, early post war selected shorts
Thursday
2/6
Lecture, “Tezuka Osamu” and Discussion
Reading: Schodt, The Astro Boy Essays (2007)
Week 5:
Tuesday
2/11 Screening and Discussion, animation from the 1960s and 1970s
Thursday
2/13 Lecture, “From Cinematism to Animism” and Discussion
Reading: Selections from Thomas Lamarre, The Anime Machine (2009)
Due: Reading Response #1
Week 6:
Tuesday
2/18 Screening and Discussion, “Akira” (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
Thursday
2/20 Lecture, “Toward an Anime Canon” and Discussion
Reading: Napier, Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (2001)
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Week 7
2/25 Screening and Discussion, “Mononoke hime” (Hayao Miyazaki,
1997)
2/27 Lecture, “Gendering Animation” and Discussion
Due: Reading Response #2
Week 8:
Screening and Discussion, “Tonari no Totoro” (Hayao Miyazaki,
3/4
1988)
Thursday
3/6
Lecture, “Nature through the Lens of Anime” and Discussion
Reading: MacWilliams, Japanese Visual Culture (2008)
Tuesday
Thursday
Week 9:
3/11 Screening and Discussion, “Spirited Away” (Hayao Miyazaki,
2001)
3/13 Lecture, “Animation and the Auteur” and Discussion
Due: Reading Response #3
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Tuesday
Thursday
3/18
3/20
Week 10: Spring Break
SPRING BREAK
SPRING BREAK
Week 11:
3/25 Screening and Discussion, “Nausica”
3/27 Lecture and Discussion, “Environmentalism as National Context,
1970s Japan and beyond”
Reading: Azuma, Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals (2001; trans. 2009)
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Week 12:
4/1
Screening and Discussion, 1980s animation from Studio Gainax
4/3
Lecture and Discussion, “The Anime Machine”
Due: Reading Response #4, Proposal for Final Research Paper
Week 13:
4/8
Screening and Discussion, 1990s animation (various studios)
4/10 Lecture and Discussion, “Contemporary Approaches to
Animation”
Due: 2 Page Research Paper Outline and Bibliography
Week 14:
4/15 Screening and Discussion, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” (1995-96,
selected episodes)
4/17 Lecture and Discussion, “Apocalypse as Psychological
Breakdown”
Week 15
Tuesday
4/22 Screening and Discussion, “Paprika” (2006)
Thursday
4/24 Lecture and Discussion, “What Novels Can Do That Anime Can’t
(and Vice Versa)”
Reading: “What Novels Can Do That Films Can’t (and Vice Versa)” by Seymour
Chatman, (from Critical Inquiry, 1980, via jstor.org)
Week 16
Tuesday
4/29 Final Group Presentations
Thursday
5/1
Final Group Presentations
Due: Final Research Paper
Final Exam: Thursday, MAY 8 at 3:15-5:15
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