Interpreting Anime by Christopher Bolton

Reviewed by: Interpreting Anime by Christopher Bolton Jaqueline Berndt (bio) Interpreting Anime. By Christopher Bolton. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2018. x, 322 pages. $96.00, cloth; $24.00, paper; $27.00, E-book. Anime, a type of animated fiction film made in Japan, has seen a significant increase in scholarship over the last decade motivated, on the one hand, by participatory cultures, franchising, and digital networks and, on the other hand, by an interest in representations of contemporary Japan. Many of the pioneering contributions to anime research have come from Japan studies or, more precisely, the study of Japanese literature. Christopher Bolton's Interpreting Anime attests to that lineage. Based on articles originally published between 2002 and 2007, the deliberately revised and neatly interrelated chapters of this monograph allow recapitulation of how anime has [End Page 471] been discussed in advanced Japan studies settings, namely, through the lens of critical theory and with a special emphasis on human subjectivity, political critique, and the mediatedness of experience as articulated by Japanese texts. Interpreting Anime provides newcomers to the field with an exceptionally well-written, easily accessible introduction to structuralist analysis, phenomenological film theory, psychoanalytical approaches, postmodernism, and posthumanism, as well as queer studies, through discussion of selected animated movies that are part of the intellectual canon, but not necessarily that of younger viewers. Academics who have been engaged in anime studies for some time may appreciate the opportunity for critical retrospection, as well as the author's interest in anime that values formal qualities and close readings. In view of recent theories of media studies and their focus "not just on the interpretation of works but on the circumstances of their production and distribution" (p. 199), Interpreting Anime calls for renewed attention to aesthetic difference, and it does this in the name of literature. Anime is understood here medium-specifically as Japanese cel or cellook—animation based on the drawn image—and with regard to its critical potential equated with "other kinds of literature" (p. 81) related to "literature in its broadest sense" (p. 22). Identifying as a literary scholar in the introduction, Christopher Bolton takes his departure from an anime about literature, Read or Die (Studio Deen, 2001–2), to outline "the particular character and the unique power of anime" (p. 12), which he attributes to the ability to move the viewer back and forth between immersion and distance. These two poles form the monograph's uniting strand, alternately referring to content and form, identification and alienation, "accepting a represented reality and questioning or interrogating the representation itself" (p. 96). Interpreting Anime promotes close readings of individual works with the ultimate goal to discover anime-specific "meanings that speak to broader issues of politics, gender, technology, and media" (p. 6) in connection to Japan as the initial context of production. This goal is accommodated by the choice of prime examples: feature-length theatrical films for nonsegmented adult audiences in addition to short OVA series (original video animation released directly to video). These two formats, the author argues, recommend themselves to interpreting anime, that is, reading rather than affectively watching, materially consuming, or fan-culturally sharing it, due to their manageable, more bounded narrative structure and "their higher production standards" (p. 18). In contrast, TV anime—those extended serial narratives that principally target specific demographics and keep their viewers hooked by changes in pacing and register rather than explicit messages—is allotted a secondary role, as it "often fails to generate the kind of oscillation between immersion and distance" (ibid.). It is noteworthy that Interpreting Anime [End Page 472] varies significantly from many similar discussions in Japan studies1 by the well-substantiated explanation of its choices, for example, the decision to bypass seminal works of TV anime, crucial issues such as seriality and comic relief,2 and new media theory. Each of the book's seven chapters is organized around one main anime example, one comparison medium, and one strand of critical theory. The first chapter focuses on Akira (1988, dir. Ōtomo Katsuhiro), the first animated movie that attracted non-Japanese adult viewers to the medium. Comparing it to the manga series from which it arose, Bolton investigates the

Aesthetics · Anime · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Monster · Political science · Postmodernism · Scholarship · Sociology · Subjectivity · Anthropology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Cultural Studies · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy

• Anime in Academia

  Open Access•Jaqueline Berndt•Arts•2018

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