In recent discussions about animation and its representation in movies and television shows, creating animated films with whimsical and fictional elements seem to the default for the industry (e.g., Pixar’s Toy Story (1995), Sony’s Spiderman into the Spider Verse (2018), Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) and more). Over the last 30 years, computer animation and technology allowed artists to make animation more realistic. However, many production companies, including Disney, Sony, Pixar, and others, create content that strives away from live-action and realistic animation and more towards supernatural elements and magical realism.
For example, in Alistair D. Swale’s book, Anime Aesthetics: Japanese Animation and the ‘Post-Cinematic’ Imagination, his chapter on “Anime as Representation” explains the difference between live-action films and animation, how anime can represent different scenes from cinematic images, and convey concepts through magical realism compared to live-action films. Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Spirited Away (2001), pertains to Swale’s school of thought about anime and its use of magical realism and unrealistic symbols. In Miyazaki’s award-winning film, the 10-year-old heroine, Chihiro, is transported to the spirit world and must fend for herself among the folkloric characters, spirits, and creatures of the new, fantastical world she finds herself in, presenting loads of magical realism throughout the film.
While I agree with Swale’s research of magical realism within animation and how strongly it appears, I find Swale’s analysis limiting in that it focuses only on one mode of animation. Therefore, I introduce another mode of animation from the industry: realistic animation, as it holds all the same potential Swale ascribes to magical realism and is another narrative style used in the animation industry. A beautiful example of this is Naoko Yamada’s A Silent Voice (2016). Yamada tells the story of two characters haunted by their past, who learn how to overcome their inability to connect with others, and love themselves. The film hints at themes of depression, redemption, forgiveness and most importantly, learning how to love oneself. The discussion is crucial because of how these modes of animation dictate its storytelling. The way animation is created in terms of content and style is one of many factors that determine whether the audience receives the main message and themes from the film. It can change how we look at animation and, overall, what it represents through storytelling: from paranormal elements and characters to the pragmatic and logical genre.
In his book, Swale explains the difference between live-action films and animations and claims how “the aim [of animation] is to evoke the persona of the subject, and [is] often done not by [an] explicit and literal representation of the physical characteristics, but through the manipulation of stylistic elements, or at times even utterly “unrealistic” contrivances”. Swale continues to say,
This enables us to locate [precisely] Japanese animation as a medium that continues to accentuate a distinctive range [of] imaginative expression, producing its characteristic propensity to embrace fantasy worlds and creative tropes (including dystopic future societies, the supernatural and cyborg identities) as well as maintaining a distinctive stock in trade in metaphor and allegory.
Swale finds that Japanese animation has taken otherwordly content in anime to another level by applying it in most of their content. The introduction of magical realism within symbols, characters, settings, and more allows us to look at reality through a different lens. Swale introduces magical realism, specifically anthropological magical realism, as a “preoccupation with the rational and “real” vs. the magical or supernatural” and combines a naturalistic technique with fantasy and otherworldliness. Swale claims that the use of magical realism helps strengthen its ability “to present purely semantic figures and to tolerate at the same time an “absence” of verifiable objects”. Swale’s analysis of animation shows that artists can explore a multitude of styles in animation, tones in color, and characters in the film to bring emotion and particularly symbolism that can not be achieved in live-action films.
Swale supports his claim through Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001). For example, after Chihiro’s parents claim they will pay for a deserted pile of food, they turn into pigs after eating it. With the help of magic realism, this segment has been interpreted as how taking things for granted, especially when not warranted to you, is something humans consume daily and symbolizes the theme of greed and a lust for more. Another theme introduced with magical realism is the blurred lines between good and evil, shown through No-Face’s character, who is one of the many spirits shown in the film. No-Face starts as a cast-out spirit, but when invited inside by Chihiro, they greedily destroy the bathhouse, prompts spirits with fake gold, and eats both other spirits and food. However, after Chihiro faces No-Face and explains what they are doing is terrible, No-Face joins and helps Chihiro on her adventure to help Haku, and in simple terms, turns from bad to good. These interpretations and several themes throughout the movie are created through magical realism and allow the audience to see familiar themes occur in an otherworldly setting.
Swale also explains how “the evocation of the fantastic in such terms does not adequately address the fact that in a very substantial proportion of anime cinema text, the fantastic is embedded in deeply familiarizing rather than defamiliarizing contexts”. While it suggests that animation is trying to defamiliarize certain aspects of the world, most Japanese animation movies tend to use real locations to set the film. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as “seichi junrei” (聖地巡礼 in Japanese) or “pilgrimage to spiritual/holy sites.” For example, Spirited Away is said to be based on several physical locations, including Jiufen, Taiwan, Edo-Tokyo Open-air Architectural Museum in Koganeipark, Tokyo, and more. Additionally, this artistic genre helps cultures present and introduce themselves to those outside of their culture; Swale explains that “magical realism is there precisely as the default means to articulate an intrinsic sense of cultural dislocation, primarily that of a subjugated Japan within a West-dominated, globalized world”. It is an excellent way to help viewers understand other cultures and a different way of viewing particular aspects of life.
While it is true that the particular components of animation can help improve storytelling when adopting magic realism in a film, Swale does not necessarily look at realistic animation films and how it provides a different sort of storytelling.
Though a small number of unrealistic symbolism shows up in the movie, the majority of the film, A Silent Voice (2016), is very realistic and can get its main message across clearly; the importance of how disregarded mental health is within both Japan’s society and worldwide and how bullying at a young age, whether you are the victim or the perpetrator, can be distressing.
After the main character, Shouya Ishida, is caught in middle school bullying Shouko Nishimiya because of her disability of being hard of hearing, he is plagued by his wrongdoings and is heartlessly ostracized and cast out from his friend group. However, as Ishida nears graduating high school, he begins to make amends with Nishimiya after attempting to commit suicide and sets out on a redemption journey. On the other hand, Nishimiya has trouble communicating with people, and while she may prefer to use sign language, she uses every attempt to communicate in different ways (for example, using a notepad to write or attempting to speak). Her disconnection from the world, along with the trauma Ishida caused her, makes it hard for her to love herself. Both characters have feelings that the audience can relate to or know of someone who feels the same way. It grants the awareness to the viewer of this sensitivity and how important the subject of depression in teenagers and discrimination our society puts on the hard of hearing community. Throughout the film, there are distinct instances that show realistic situations that engage with the audience and detect the feelings or imagery on their own without magic realism.
Yamada pays attention to detail and frames individual shots in a precise way. For example, as Nishimiya attempts to make friends with her classmate, Ueno, Ueno is friendly at first on the playground but begins to pull away and ignore her. In one scene, Ueno’s back is turned towards Nishimiya, who is in the middle of a monkey climbing structure. At first glance, it looks like a standard frame; however, the structure surrounding Nishimiya begins to resemble the bars of a jail cell, symbolizing her being singled out, alone, and disconnected from the rest of her classmates while Ueno and her friends (off-screen), have one another and are outside of the “jail cell”. Another example is when younger Ishida is bouncing up and down as he walks down the hallway with a big smile on his face. However, after learning what Ishida did in middle school, the film cuts directly to present-day Ishida, who wears a melancholy look on his face and keeps his head down, not allowing himself to interact with anyone.
The soundtrack of A Silent Voice easily blends with each scene and can go unnoticeable at times; however, it is crucial to develop the impactful details Yamada adds to the film, especially when it is not present. There are several points throughout the movie where the sound is either soft or absent. For example, when Ueno takes Nishimiya’s hearing aid and throws it, the audio seems to dissipate for a second, allowing the viewer to detect that Nishimiya has lost the little ability the hearing aid provided her. This scene symbolizes the viewer being placed in Nishimiya’s point of view and her perspective of being hard of hearing. Not only does the director put us in Nishimiya’s world, but it allows us to feel the emotion that may begin to pent up as the viewer is unable to communicate/understand a portion of the film; a genuine feeling the deaf/hard of hearing community can fully understand.
Lastly, another example that provides a realistic character and is seen as a symbol throughout the film is the Koi fish. Koi fish originates from old Chinese folktales, told as that when a koi fish attempts to climb upstream, it symbolizes the hardships in one’s life and overcoming them. If you encounter or interact with a koi fish, more times than most, one will come out as a better person, and that is precisely what happened to Nishimiya and Ishida. Koi fish appears pretty often in the film as both Nishimiya and Ishida feed the koi fish throughout the movie, along with shots of the koi fish in the pond. A prominent showcase of the Koi is when Nishimiya and Ishida go to the bridge for the first time, and they feed the fish in silence. With the folktale in mind, it is easy to paint this symbol as the beginning of the two’s friendship and the journey they will take to overcome the troubles in their life.
The animation industry is so diverse in its views that it is hard to generalize a “correct” genre/style, but some are likely to object because A Silent Voice still includes aspects of magical realism. For example, the background of each scene is wholly stylized and some scenes, when including heavy emotion between two characters, is completely unrealistic as it has intense color tones; dark, cool colors when there is a conflict between the characters and red/pink soft colors when there is healing or happiness between the characters. However, while the animation style is not completely realistic, the majority of the scenes within the film, if not all, are real places in Japan similar to Spirited Away.
The bridge, where a lot of the film’s storyline unfolds, is called the Izuku Midori Bridge in Ogaki, which is located in the Gifu prefecture of Japan. When Nishimiya and Ishida go to a museum during summer vacation and walk around a striking looking museum sculpture, they walk around the Site of Reversible Destiny in the Yoro district. When Nishimiya confesses her love for Ishida, the setting is precisely near the Shin-Ohashi bridge in Gifu prefecture. Some shots were based on real-life areas and some religious settings and are often called ‘seichi junrei’ as explained before in Spirited Away. ‘Seichi junrei’ can also be translated as “real-life anime settings to go sightsee.” Due to the popularity of anime in Japan, not only does it encourage tourist attraction but allows anime fans to connect with their favorite films and visit these places in real life, allowing a closer connection between a real place within a movie versus a fictional place.
Ultimately, Swale and I disagree that magical realism and un-realistic symbols, characters, aspects, and more, are not the only ways to effectively tell a story with a powerful interpretation and symbolism in Japanese animation. Swale explains clear examples of how magical realism has helped differentiate animation from live-action and has allowed an outlet for creativity. However, I find that realistic animated style films allow similar outcomes and viewers to quickly connect with the film. Japanese animation can either include otherworldliness aspects or not, and the meaning of the film, if done correctly, will still carry to the appropriate audience.
Although the style of animation may seem trivial, it is, in fact, crucial in terms of today’s concern over the creation of a film. These are only two of many ways of storytelling in animation, which is deemed one of the most crucial aspects in a film and will help carry the entirety of the work. Not only is it another way of storytelling, but it introduces another idea in terms of one’s conception of what animation is and does: it alludes to viewing the world at a different angle, carrying a theme that a majority of the audience can understand.
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