It is only more recently that the western world has become more accustomed to seeing anime made for a more ‘grownup’ audience, and as mentioned in Japanese Visual Culture that once an audience allows themselves to see beyond the animation it “tells stories in the same manner as other media.“ (2006, p.72) allowing it to explore more adult content and themes, sometimes depicting scenes that would or could not be possible in live action that does not have access to a Hollywood budget.
Another way that anime is able to access its worldwide audience is through its globalized style, including “non-linear tales, flashbacks, foreshadowing, slow pacing, character development, and many other techniques are common in anime” (2006, p.74) are all filmic techniques seen as global. One of these aforementioned ‘transnational themes’; reality and the mind is recurrent and transnational in terms of being applicable to all viewers regardless of culture and is able to be understood universally. It is used widely in film across the world, including Hollywood such as the cult classic adaptation of Chuck Palnuick’s Fight Club (1999) and American Psycho (2000) and similarly in popular anime also for example Satoshi Kon's Paprika (2006) and Perfect Blue (1997).
Another example is Ghost in the Shell (1995) which plays with the idea of the human body in a futuristic hostile world and has been massively well received globally. Famous fans of Mamoru Oshii’s work include famous director siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski who used it as a massive influence in their film The Matrix (1999) (this is discussed in a later article here) |
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American auteur and self-confessed fanboy Quentin Tarrantino has always been known for his intertextual style as well as a love for Asian cinema. For the scene ‘O-Ren’s Revenge’ in Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) he chose to use Japanese animation company Production I.G.- who are the same company responsible for anime classics such as Ghost in the shell (1995), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), and several Pokemon movies. As Doughty states “Digital networks have enabled production team to work in collaboration from different corners of the globe.” (2011, p.267). This evidence suggests that without the connectivity that the internet brings it would have been an entirely different, longer and much more difficult process to complete.
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Susan Napier has described anime’s worldwide surge in popularity as a “global phenomenon” and “remarkably approachable in its universal themes” (2005, pp.8-10). Through the transcultural sharing of ideas and styles it is able to access an enormous audience however it is the interconnectivity of the directors, animators and fans themselves that create the transnational culture around anime. And who, without the internet, would not have such quick and easy access to such a “fabulous mix of culture”(Hunt, 2008. p.170) which has come about in anime in the last two decades.