Techno Fantasies of East and West: Ghost in the Shell

Introduction: Short History Of Anime

‘Anime’ is the name given to Japanese short or feature animated films or television productions. Animes are mostly producing from adaptations of Japanese comics named manga. They are one of the most popular cultural products of Japan that survived a massive trauma and transformed in terms of modernization after World War II. Anime cinema has significant differences in terms of aesthetic form when compared with the examples of western-style animation. First of all, animes are customarily made by the traditional hand drawing method, make use of less computer technology compared to western animation. Anime directors create realistic character and space designs rather than based on movement and use various camera movements, angles, shooting scales by the classical cinema scene perception. Animes also have distinct aesthetic preferences.

The history of animation in Japan dates back to the second half of the 1910s. The experimental short animations made on and after, animation examples of the World War II propaganda made in the '40s are the first significant examples of Japanese animation cinema. It takes the 1960s for Japanese animation to separate from Western examples and create a unique language, in other words, to turn into “anime”. Animations of the manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka and especially Tetsuwan Atomu (鉄腕アトム, Astro Boy; 1963) television series popularized the anime nationally and internationally. With the success of Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand) feature-length animation in 1937, Tezuka simplified Disney's animation techniques and adapted them to anime, shortening the production process and contributing to the industrialization of the anime starting from the 1960s. Big eyes, which is the most striking feature of anime productions, is a style that Tezuka has brought to the anime genre, inspired by Disney characters.

In the 1970s, many television productions of anime began to be produced in Japan and, the popularity of anime increased. Since the end of the 80's, important anime films have been made that depict the psychological and physical damage (through the eyes of civilians, especially children) caused by the Second World War and especially the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended the war in 1945. Hadashi no Gen (はだしのゲン, Barefoot Gen; Keiji Nakazawa, 1983) stands out as a self-critical production, blaming the Japanese army that started the war rather than the US army. Hotaru no haka (火垂るの墓, Grave of Fireflies; Isao Takahata, 1988), by Ghibli, was again a powerful anti-war film.

Anime is a large industry today with hundreds of production studios creating for both television and cinema. Production I.G., Toei, Madhouse and Ghibli, of which famously known anime director Hayao Miyazaki is one of the founders, are some of the major production studios. The most recognized, critically acclaimed films in anime cinema and awarded at major international film festivals are generally produced by Ghibli Studio. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (千と千尋の神隠し, Spirited Away; Hayao Miyazaki, 2002), as the winner of the Goldener Bär at the Berlin Film Festival as well as an Oscar for Best Feature-Length Animated Film at the Academy Awards and holding the record of being the most-watched anime film is one of the most significant examples of anime cinema as a Ghibli production. Miyazaki's Gake no ue no Ponyo (崖の上のポニョ, Ponyo; 2008) won two awards at the Venice Film Festival, Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (ハウルの動く城, Howl's Moving Castle; 2004) and Kaze Tachinu (風立ちぬ, The Wind Rises; 2013) films nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Besides, Inosensu (イノセンス, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence; Mamoru Oshii, 2004) competed for the Palme d'Or being the first and only anime in history to compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.