| Project: A-Kon - Sunday
- Susan Napier |
 Not often
at an anime convention do you find someone translating Japanese from a
magazine on the fly. Dr. Susan Napier teaches a Japanese culture and literature
course at the University of Texas, and traveled to Project: A-Kon to provide
an academic view of anime. The magazine she was reading was published by
Studio Ghibli and was reporting on the American reaction to the animated
films of Hayao Miyazaki... |
 ...which led
to some comments on Miyazaki films from Napier. "I think he's comfortable
with this science fiction and fantasy world. It's an international world
that transcends any time or place....he puts this together and makes it
real. He has a message: it's about being human, not about being Japanese." |
 Then Napier
looked at the animated film output of the Walt Disney Co. over the last
few years: "They're all enjoyable films but they have a Disney-slanted
agenda. They're about American heroes." By comparison, anime remains a
mostly-Japanese art form and will continue to be made primarily for Japanese
audiences. "Japan is where they make their money, but they're influenced
by the west," she said. |
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