Anime, Religion and Spirituality - Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan - Katherine Buljan

Anime, Religion and Spirituality - Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan - Katherine Buljan

From Realistic to Supernatural: Genres in Anime

Anime, Religion and Spirituality - Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan - Katherine Buljan

Katherine Buljan [+-]
Independent scholar
Katharine Buljan was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2007 and is a scholar and visual artist/animator.
Carole M. Cusack [+-]
University of Sydney
Carole M. Cusack is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Sydney. She researches and teaches on contemporary religious trends (including pilgrimage and tourism, modern Pagan religions, NRMs, and religion and popular culture). Her books include Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Ashgate, 2010) and (with Katharine Buljan) Anime, Religion, and Spirituality: Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan (Equinox, 2015). In 2016 she became Editor of Fieldwork in Religion, and she is also Editor of Literature & Aesthetics (journal of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics).

Description

This chapter focuses on anime genres, arguing that these provide a fertile basis from which sprang numerous generic hybrids. They became the norm in anime, with the potential to appeal to various types of audience. The power assigned to female heroines is also investigated and it is argued that rather than reflecting the power of Amaterasu, the Shinto Goddess, their power more resembles Western Pagan ideas about the sacredness of the earth and Gaia as nature Goddess. In this chapter we further underline how the generic conventions of the supernatural subgenre permeate a large number of anime films and series, stressing that conventions of this subgenre are also often found in generic hybrids whose dominant themes do not necessarily fit with the supernatural subgenre (and thus, in that context they have various metaphorical functions). This chapter also analyses the child/young adult anime protagonist in terms of the mythological ‘divine child’ as a mediator between the supernatural and physical worlds. Chapter 3 argues for the strength of the supernatural.

Notify A Colleague

Citation

Buljan, Katherine; Cusack, Carole. From Realistic to Supernatural: Genres in Anime. Anime, Religion and Spirituality - Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 117-162 Apr 2015. ISBN 9781781791103. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=25889. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.25889. Apr 2015

Dublin Core Metadata