Japanese Animation and New Media
Lecture Four: Chapter Eight: Giving Up the Gun
The world of the Forest and the ‘animetic’ or ‘animetistic’ logic of movement embodied in the wind, flitting butterflies, streaming clouds, running streams, and running animals, becomes more and more associated with the girl San and her wolf family. The world of Iron Town and ‘cinematistic’ logic of movement embodies in the gun, rational grids, and optical logistics become more and more associated with Lady Eboshi, as in this clip.
But these are not pure tendencies: San and the wolves are not purely animetistic, nor are Lady Eboshi and company purely cinematistic. We see Lady Eboshi’s push against nature differently through her kindness to lepers, her adoption of prostitutes as workers, and her general interest in the welfare of her people. We see San and the wolves moving closer to cinematism and its ballistics as they engage with the humans attacking them with firearms.
