Aesthetic, Cultural and Thematic Perspectives
The theme of memory has played a significant role in anime throughout its evolution as an art form and as popular entertainment. Anime's handling of memory is multifaceted, weaving it into diverse symbolic motifs, narratives and aesthetic issues.
This study aims to provide a detailed analysis of a range of anime titles wherein different... [click here for more]
Eight Famous Works from Page to Screen
Exploring a selection of anime adaptations of famous works of both Eastern and Western provenance, this book is concerned with appreciating their significance and appeal as independent texts.
The author evaluates three aspects of anime adaptation--how anime adaptations develop their original sources in stylistic, aesthetic, and psychological... [click here for more]
Narrative Structure, Design and Play at the Crossroads of Animation and Computer Games
This book describes the thematic and structural traits of a recent and popular development within the realm of anime: series adapted from visual novels. Visual novels are interactive fiction games in which players creatively control decisions and plot turning points.
Endings alter according to the player's choices,... [click here for more]
This study addresses the relationship between Japanese aesthetics, a field steeped in philosophy and traditional knowledge, and anime, a prominent part of contemporary popular culture.
There are three premises:
(1) the abstract concepts promoted by Japanese aesthetics find concrete expression at the most disparate levels of everyday life
(2) the abstract and the concrete coalesce in the visual... [click here for more]
Kyoto Animation, a studio with very humble beginnings, has gained recognition the world over as a uniquely inspired and inventive enterprise.
This book examines Kyoto Animation's philosophy and creative vision with close reference to its anime. It focuses on the studio's choice of genres, themes and imagery while exploring its maintenance of high production values.
The analysis highlights the studio's... [click here for more]
Since its inception as an art form, anime has engaged with themes, symbols and narrative strategies drawn from the realm of magic. In recent years, the medium has increasingly turned to magic specifically as a metaphor for a wide range of cultural, philosophical and psychological concerns.
This book first examines a range of Eastern and Western approaches to magic in anime, addressing magical thinking... [click here for more]
This is the first overview of cartoon art in this important cultural nexus of Asia. The eight essays provide historical and contemporary examinations of cartoons and comics in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and sociocultural and political analyses of cartooning in Singapore, Myanmar, and Malaysia.
The collection benefits from hundreds of interviews with Southeast Asia's... [click here for more]