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In this article, I propose an integrated multimodal framework for tracking a Japanese character's development, that of Sesshomaru, in the anime movie,Inuyasha: Swords of an Honourable Ruler. The language part of the framework focuses specifically on the appraisal analysis of the language spoken by the characters. The visual framework builds on Lim's system of gesture by integrating Martin and White's system nodes for appraisal analysis into Lim's gesture framework for a nuanced analysis of the characters' gestures. The framework is then illustrated through a close comparative analysis of two scenes from the anime movie. I explain how the relationship between the language and visual semiotic resources based on appraisal analysis changes fromconvergencebetween the language and visuals todivergence, which could be correlated with character development. I conclude by discussing how the narrative context influences the semiotic representation of the character Sesshomaru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese animation (i.e. anime) boom on US television, which caused a great sensation in the early 2000s, is over. This article explores the business mechanisms that created this boom, the cultural innovations it stimulated, and some of the reasons for its decline. Methodologically, I argue that instead of analyzing the anime boom as an epochal break, it should be analyzed within the context of postwar animation as a global creative industry since the 1960s. By thus reframing it, I can delineate new distribution channels of anime since the 1990s. I also demonstrate that, beyond more series and new genres, the anime boom helped push the envelope of US animation towards adult-oriented productions and that ‘anime’ became a source of inspiration for US animators for formulations of cultural otherness. I argue that the end of the boom was unavoidable because in global creative industries cultural innovations soon become the industry’s mainstay. Finally, I consider the possible futures of the ‘local–global’ nexus in the animation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses the origins of Japanese anime and manga, including essays within the "Mechademia 9" volume that cover topics on alternative Japanese animation, video games, novels, television programs, devotional art, Buddhist sculpture, tourism and film.

The essay discusses the box office failure of the Japanese anime "Speed Racer" in the U.S. as compared to the highly successful "Astro Boy." The anime was adapted into film for the American market, but perceptions on its origins persist as it continues to experience reproduction and repackaging across decades and cultures. The film's anime status as an original source for transnational, transmedia pop culture has been questioned, citing the cultural disparities of American and Asian cultures.

The essay analyzes the origins of the shojo, the symbol of femininity in Japanese anime and manga works, and examines how the shojo's gazing eyes work to address the viewer or make demands as portrayed in "The Garden of Sinners," a collection of theatrical films. The films reveal how a woman's gaze can be misinterpreted, and how the paradigm of bishojo, referring to young and pretty girls, can complicate the female character with an ambiguous sexuality, neither female or male, but wields power.

The essay analyzes the anime series "Mushishi" which depicts medical mysteries that affect human beings and creatures known as "mushi" noted for their ontological status, and their role in changing the boundaries of the human body. A central paradox in the anime is the human interaction with the mushi that often results to physical disability and loss, but accompanied by certain powers. Additionally, there is fear and power associated with insects, such as visions and warnings of the future.

This work explores disability in the cultural context of contemporary Japanese comics. In contrast to Western comics, Japanese manga have permeated the social fabric of Japan to the extent that vast numbers of people read manga on a daily basis. It has, in fact, become such a popular medium for visual communication that the Japanese government and education systems utilize manga as a social acculturation and teaching tool. This multibillion dollar industry is incredibly diverse, and one particularly popular genre is sports manga. However, Inoue Takehiko’s award-winning manga series REAL departs from more conventional sports manga, which typically focus on able-bodied characters with sometimes exaggerated superhuman physical abilities, by adopting a more realistic approach to the world of wheelchair basketball and the people who play it. At the same time REAL explores cultural attitudes toward disability in Japanese culture—where disability is at times rendered “invisible” either through accessibility problems or lingering associations of disability and shame. It is therefore extremely significant that manga, a visual medium, is rendering disability visible—the ultimate movement from margin to center. REAL devotes considerable attention to realistically illustrating the lived experiences of its characters both on and off the court. Consequently, the series not only educates readers about wheelchair basketball but also provides compelling insight into Japanese cultural notions about masculinity, family, responsibility, and identity. The basketball players—at first marginalized by their disability—join together in the unity of a sport typically characterized by its “abledness.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an embodiment of the shoujo, a specific Japanese representation of 'girl', the schoolgirl often appears as a central character in Japanese popular culture. With the import, and widespread availability, of Japanese cultural products in the West (such as comics called manga, animated movies called anime, toys and games), the Japanese schoolgirl has gained a visibility in Western popular culture, and perceived as cute and shy. In this paper, the way the Japanese schoolgirl is represented in British popular culture is examined, and contrasted with the representation in Japan. It is concluded that cultural context influences the representation and, in agreement with the work of Saito (1996), the British representation is simplistic and distorted in comparison to that in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the significance of anime and manga as media in dissemination and construction of philosophical ideas in Japan. It focuses on how the conceptualization of cartoonist Tezuka Osamu of life was made through an interaction among ideas of vitalism, evolutionary theory and Buddhism. It explores the autobiography of Tezuka entitled "Boku no manga jinsei" and depicted how experiences guided him to find life as his work's leading theme.

How does a director express his or her film style in animated films produced by a group? To address this issue, the authors analyzed the shot length of 22 Japanese animated films directed by Miyazaki Hayao, Oshii Mamoru, and Hosoda Mamoru. Their analysis reveals the statistical measurements of shot length were clearly dependent on directors. Miyazaki’s films show that he avoids both longish and brief shots, Oshii’s shot length is relatively long on average, while Hosoda prefers relatively short shot length. Furthermore, both Oshii’s and Hosoda’s first films deviated from their subsequent films in terms of statistical indices, suggesting that they established their style of shot length during their first or second time directing. The authors determine that all three directors controlled shot length primarily through their own storyboarding as a crucial process of determining the value, since the shot lengths correlated well with the designated shot lengths on the storyboards. In conclusion, the authors identified the distinctive shot length styles of the directors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite its ever-growing international popularity, Japanese anime and the industries that support it are in the middle of a crisis. In an era of media convergence, popularity has not translated into consistent profits as anime producers continue to lose money at home and overseas to rampant file sharing and ubiquitous streaming video sites illegally hosting copyrighted content that can be viewed for free. As a result, convergence is simultaneously fuelling the current anime industry crisis while also opening up new opportunities to make participatory culture work for both fans and producers – especially for niche markets like Boys' Love. This article explores how Boys' Love fans in Japan and other countries often operate in contradictory tension with and against anime industries and socio-cultural values as they access, consume and create around a form of homoerotic media that they do not want to be assimilated into mainstream culture and its norms. As more transnational publishers and distributors are licensing and selling Boys' Love manga and anime, the boundaries between margin and centre have begun to blur, producing intersecting and divergent desires among fans and producers around the commodification and adaptation of queer texts. The first part of this article focuses on how convergence is shaping the dynamic between anime producers and fan consumers, where niche markets have begun to figure into this situation, and what is politically at stake in the consumption and circulation of Boys' Love texts. The second part of the article examines several examples of Boys' Love television anime and Original Video Animation (OVA), with particular attention to Youka Nitta'sEmbracing Loveand Shungiku Nakamura'sJunjo Romantica, to assess how deliberate censorship in anime adaptations can sometimes efface important queer meaning in a text while in other instances it can open up new fantasies and ways of reading for viewers that are in keeping with the queerness the author ascribes to the genre. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Satoshi Kon is a Japanese animation film director whose works, story, and imagery suggest altered mental states, such as insanity or dreaming. Millennium Actress (2001), which this author regards as Kon’s magnum opus, uses a dream-like style of animation and filmmaking to create the narrative of a biography of a fictional actress. In this feature-length animated film, Kon reifies theories and findings from the functions of dreaming and the mechanics of dream that have developed over a hundred years since the early 20th century. The oneiric quality of the animation film is explored using both psychoanalytical/psychological theories and neuroscientific frameworks to reveal its story of a feminine journey in relation to the collective unconscious and mythic story structure, and the cinematic editing techniques that help the storytelling lead to the dream state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article articulates a Japanese spatial device: layering. In contrast to Western perspective, layering creates depth with contours by overlapping some 2D images. Through Mamoru Oshii’s theorisation of three layers, the author investigates the application of layering in traditional woodblock prints and anime and speculates on its derivation from calligraphy as an art form. This article addresses the idea that in anime, unlike in a unified perspective drawing, the layering system allows different depiction styles to be overlapped. Moreover, through Oshii’s films, his experiments in audio-visual exchange and the temporal application of concept of ma, pose and pause in anime’s movement are explored. The goal is to investigate the concept of ma and layering further by examining one locus of spatiotemporal experience – anime. It is speculated that the spatiotemporal concept of ma was generated by the written Japanese language, the combination of kana and ideograms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the concept of cultural odorlessness by Iwabuchi Koichi which points out the contradiction in the promotion of Japanese animation or anime and graphic comics and novels or manga. It expresses the disappointments among Japanese scholars wherein the purpose of bringing interest in Japan through anime and manga was not recognized by fans but instead on the lack of special racial characteristics. It highlights one reason why anime and manga fans hold contradictory views which is their uncertainty over what is and what is not inherently Japanese.

An essay on human identity issues as a theme in Japanese animation is presented. It focuses on the anime series "Serial Experiments Lain." It relates dimensional analogues of non-Cartesian spaces to the universe with multiplicity of identity created in "Lain." It explains the ambiguity of identity by means of a topological analysis.

In a previous article published in 2009, the author showed how animation, when combined with computer technology, makes movements of different degrees of liveliness that are meaningful to humans. Following this thesis, this article draws on insights from perceptual and cognitive psychology to propose a new typology of liveliness for classifying digital animated phenomena. This classification emphasizes balance and spread of liveliness in today’s digitally mediated environments, echoing traditional East Asian holistic thoughts, including the core ideas of Dao and Shinto. Using analyses of exemplary animated artifacts from contemporary East Asia, including a montage sequence from the Japanese animated film Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995), an animated version of the Chinese painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival exhibited in Shanghai Expo 2010, and Electroplankton, a video game released on a Japanese portable game console, the author argues that today’s digital animated phenomena incorporate co-creation between animators, computers and even spectators/users, thus provoking thought on the human–machine relationship in pursuing the illusion of life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the attention paid by Japanese animation historians to cartoon propaganda films made during the Second World War, twice as much animation may have been produced in the period for military instructional films. These films, now lost, were made by a group of animators seconded to the Tōhō Aviation Education Materials Production Office (Tōhō Kōkū Kyōiku Shiryō Seisaku-sho). Occasionally running for five or six reels (c. 48 minutes), and in one case consisting of a feature-length eight reels, they form the missing link between the one- and two-reel shorts of the 1930s and Japanese animation’s first feature, Momotarō Umi no Shinpei (1945, Momotarō’s Divine Sea Warriors). The films included tactical tips for the pilots who would bomb Pearl Harbor, short courses in identifying enemy ships, and an introduction to combat protocols for aircraft carrier personnel. This article reconstructs the content and achievement of the Shadow Staff from available materials, and considers its exclusion from (and restoration to) narratives of the Japanese animation industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japanese animation, the un-Disney, represents a major challenge to US global entertainment dominance. Through interviews, survey research and content/ratings analysis, this study discovered two facets of between-nation differences: (1) Japan's favorite anime (e.g., ‘Sazae-san’) differ from those of overseas audiences, and (2) overseas audiences’ favorites differ (‘Doraemon’ in Asia, but not in the West). Regional factors rather than cultural proximity account for anime being more popular in Asia than in the West. Ironically, overseas exports may save an industry that has up to now (despite characters’ Caucasian look) been aimed at a domestic base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anime fan subtitling and online distribution offer rare insights into the relationship between fan creativity and industry conceptualizations of piracy. This article attempts to de-polarize this debate (wherein fans are presented as invaluable amateur producers or, alternatively, as overt pirates) in order to examine the roles played by these liminally situated fan producers in relation to the wider anime fan and industrial communities. These active fans are now represented as good or bad dependent on other groups’ investments in their practices, and unpacking these conceptualizations provides a better view of how anime fandom may be indicative of larger changes in online fan community construction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay addresses the relationship between sporting practice and its representation in animated film. It constitutes one of the first investigations into this area, and consequently seeks to define its historical and theoretical terrain. This is achieved by exploring sport-orientated animation in a variety of national contexts throughout the history of animation, and in defining a set of aesthetic criteria that relate and bind sport and animation as processes and producers of meaning and affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to examine some of the overlooked transcultural aspects and elements of creativity in anime. Through a series of contemporary case studies, it is argued that anime supports an array of transcultural creative practices that span across borders, hybridize content and even force the creation of new types of text and distribution. The attention to the transcultural here is an attempt to move beyond discussions of how Japanese anime are, and to open up a space in which to discuss their relevance beyond their home nation. In these ways, the creative work undertaken by those within and beyond the industries related to anime is demonstrating the global reach of Japanese cultural products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at discussing copyright and its infringement from the consumers' perspective by examining 'anime fansubbing'. Anime fansubbing refers to the practice in which avid anime (Japanese animation) fans copy anime, translate Japanese to another language, and subtitle and release a subtitled version on the Internet to share it with other fans, without permission from the copyright holder. The case study of English fansubbing of anime shows that this activity has been guided by fansubbers' own ethics that intend to support the US anime industry by respecting US publishers' licences and self-controlling fansubbed anime. However, the existing ethics have been increasingly challenged under the advancement of digital fansubbing and the rise of peer-to-peer distribution. The case study finds that the idea of copyright is contingent upon and open to cultural consumers' own understanding and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the popularity of Japanese animation worldwide. Millions of children watch Japanese cartoons on television. Critics praise anime for its unrivalled storytelling, ingenious plots, and thought-provoking themes. The genre deals with romance, mystery, science fiction, and nonfiction. In addition, the stories of anime are played out in fantastic settings and depicted in a visually compelling style. Anime has become an international generic term for Japanese animation. As a matter of fact, Japan has become a global trendsetter for animation.

Is the intended race of anime characters distinguishable because of their facial features or are they too `international' to tell? This study addressed this question empirically by comparing the intended racial categories of static frontal portraits of 341 anime characters randomly selected from anime produced between 1958 and 2005 with the perceptions of 1,046 raters. Results showed that, although the race of more than half of the anime characters was originally designed to be Asian and only a small fraction were intended to be Caucasian, many were perceived as Caucasian by the largely Caucasian raters. Response patterns also indicated `Own Race Projection (ORP)', i.e. perceivers frequently perceived anime characters to be of their own racial group. Implications for anime's international dissemination are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Yaoi and BL ('boys love') are a genre of Japanese cartoons, comics, videogames and fan art whose subject matter is erotic and romantic relationships between males. Its producers and consumers are predominantly women. Until very recently, there was virtually no English-language research on the fan base of yaoi/BL. While the gap in quantitative knowledge is beginning to be filled, there are still virtually no English-language qualitative studies addressing the Western fan base of the genre. This article aims to redress the lack of qualitative literature on yaoi/BL's fan base. Its goal is to gain a better understanding of the nature and appeal of yaoi/BL by tapping the perspectives of Western consumers of the genre through the analysis of a particular kind of textual material where these perspectives are expressed: reviews of yaoi/BL works contributed voluntarily by yaoi/BL aficionados on the English-language website Boys on Boys on Film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This essay proposes a phenomenological approach to the viewing of Japanese hard-core animation (widely known in the West as “hentai”), a type of erotica frequently characterized by detailed, unusual and fantastic depictions of sexual activity habitually intended for sexual arousal. Pertinent instances of Japanese traditions of erotica and visual representation, as well as Japanese animation and its industry are briefly reviewed. The main theoretical focus is on the experience of viewing such animated material and is mostly informed by Western notions of pornography and film viewing, particularly Vivian Sobchack’s work on the phenomenology of film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines ethnographically the production of anime (Japanese animated films and TV shows) by focusing on how professional animators use characters and dramatic premises to organize their collaborative creativity. In contrast to much of the analysis of anime that focuses on the stories of particular media texts, I argue that a character-based analysis provides a critical perspective on how anime relates to broader transmedia phenomena, from licensed merchandise to fan activities. The ideas of characters, premises, and world-settings also specify in greater detail the logic of anime production, which too often is glossed as emerging from a generalized Japanese culture, as in the ongoing debates about 'cool Japan'. I conclude that an ethnographic approach to anime production through a focus on characters can offer new ways of thinking about what moves across media, what distinguishes anime from other media forms, and what gives anime its value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's first weekly, 30-minute animated TV series, Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), is not only commonly regarded as the first instance of what is now known as 'anime'; it is also regarded as the point of emergence of the commercial phenomenon of character-based merchandizing. Interesting enough, it is not so much Tetsuwan Atomu the TV series as the practice of including Atomu stickers as premiums in the candy maker Meiji Seika's chocolate packages that really ignited the character merchandizing boom. The key to the success of the stickers - along with the use of the already popular figure of Atomu - was their ability to be stuck anywhere, and seen anytime. This anytime-anywhere potential of the stickers arguably led to the new communicational media environment and the cross-media connections that characterize the anime system and the force which drives it: the character. Part historical, part theoretical, this article will explore the thesis that it was the 'medium' of stickers that led to the development of the character- based multimedia environment that is a key example of - and perhaps even a precursor to - the ubiquity of media that is the theme of this journal issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various contributions of popular Japanese shōjo manga and anime regarding the cultural, political, and social views among women. It analyses the interpretation and portrayal of femininity in different shōjo manga and animated series including "Kaikan Phrase," "Paradise Kiss," and Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō. A thorough discussion regarding the complicated gender relationship in the society is depicted in the periodic publication. Plot summaries of "Hana yori Dango" and "Fruits Basket" are presented. Female sexual abuse and violence is also discussed.

This article discusses the tremendous global success of Japanese anime, its uses and negotiations of Japanese religious and nationalist mythology, and the way these features are appropriated domestically and abroad. Emphasis is given to the works of Hayao Miyazaki, whose films have been categorized as 'de-assuring' Japaneseness and as promoting an environmentalist agenda. It is discussed whether the indigenous religion, Shinto, which has historically served as a vehicle for nationalism, can be applied to progressive ends unproblematically. The article argues that while the intended meaning of Miyazaki's films may be to further ecological awareness, another concern of Miyazaki's, namely to promote traditional cultural values, puts his work at risk of being construed along the lines of contemporary Japanese nationalism. Finally, the broader workings behind the global success of those apparently highly culture-specific films are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the internationalization of Japanese anime (animation) in an effort to help explain the cultural politics behind this popular cultural product. The internationalization of anime includes the incorporation of de-Japanized elements into anime's background, context, character design, and narrative organization. A theoretical framework for understanding anime's internationalization is developed, proposing that there are at least three kinds of cultural politics working behind anime's international success: one, de-politicized internationalization, which primarily serves as a commercial tactic to attract international audiences; two, Occidentalized internationalization, which satiates a nationalistic sentiment; three, self-Orientalized internationalization, which reveals a cultural desire to establish Japan as an ersatz Western country in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the way that movement is formally depicted in anime. Drawing on Thomas Lamarre's concepts of the `cinematic' and the `anime-ic', the article interrogates further the differences in movement and action in anime from traditional filmic form. While often considered in terms of `flatness', anime offers spectacle, character development and, ironically, depth through the very form of movement put to use in such texts.The article questions whether the modes of address at work in anime are unique to this form of animation.Taking into account how the terms `cinematic' and `anime-ic' can be understood (and by extension the cinematic and animatic apparatus), the article also begins to explore how viewers might identify with such images. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Animation's excursions into the impossible allow bodies to erupt and explode, fly and roar. While the histories of animation and special effects cinema are deeply linked in this regard, the sensation of viewing the physically impossible in animation has its own visual and cultural idiosyncrasies. The experience of watching bones splinter to thrash metal refuses psychology's primacy and transforms it into a kind of pure ornament. This article proposes a specific symbolic discourse of violence-animated texts, and more specifically anime via the European and Australasian releases of Manga Entertainment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan is seeking to project its “soft power” through the allure of manga and anime in its public diplomacy. The production, diffusion and global consumption of manga and anime are driven by market forces and consumer tastes and not by the Japanese state. However, the latter is seeking to harness this popular culture to burnish Tokyo’s international image. Despite the attractiveness of Japanese pop culture and other more traditional forms of public diplomacy, Tokyo’s pursuit of “soft power” and a good international image is undermined by its failure to overcome its burden of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cinema it is not uncommon to see the interrelation of animation and live action but, despite this, the ascription of characteristics of one medium onto the other has been largely one-dimensional: live action upon animation. The films of Quentin Tarantino, however, illustrate an attribution of a cartoon-like aesthetic in live-action sequences, which the author subsequently terms `cartoonism'. `Cartoonism' and its development have been highlighted in Tarantino's work, showing his continual desire to realize this aesthetic in his own work whilst, ironically, only fully achieving this aesthetic in another's film. The conclusions are illuminating with respect to Tarantino's filmic politics and provide a potential mode of inquiry within film theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the significant influence DVD is having on translation from the perspective of translation studies. Focusing on the language support functionality afforded by this new medium, the author outlines the type of language options commonly provided on DVD film titles of fictional genres and examines the changes introduced by DVDs in relation to translation requirements and new possibilities opening up for translation research. Despite the scant attention paid by media and film studies, the author maintains that the language support functionality afforded by DVD is significant and argues that the approach treating language options as an essential add-on feature of DVD offers a productive research direction in the light of continuing globalization of audiovisual content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carrying on from part one published in the July 2006 issue of animation: an interdisciplinary journal, part two continues its exploration of the animated series Chobitswith an eye to how it reads problems of media and technology almost exclusively in terms of human desire, much as psychoanalytic theory reads technology in terms of the weird substance of enjoyment. Part two takes up an analysis of partial objects and perversion in order to show how the materiality of manga and anime as media do not entirely disappear but haunt the dynamics of sexual enjoyment. Materiality returns in an evocation of ‘full blankness’ associated with the white manga page or transparent celluloid sheet, which allows Chobits to pervert the logic of suture and the associated dynamics of the male gaze. The nonhuman woman becomes the catalyst for ways of looking that appear to bypass relations with Others altogether, promising the production of entirely new worlds at some elemental level of perception. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the significance of Japanese animation towards the motion picture industry with emphasis on the works of Kihachirô Kawamoto, a leading figure in the stop-motion puppet animation. The "40th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival," paid tribute to the works of Kihachirô Kawamoto which includes "Breaking of Branches is Forbidden," "The Trip," "Dojoji Temple," and "House of Flame." The common theme of his films are based primarily on traditional Japanese folklore and Buddhism.

The article explores the theme of the Japanese anime "Full Metal Alchemist." According to the author, the creators of the "Full Metal Alchemist" play with the theme of alchemy yet also take the ideas and images quite seriously. Feeling, relationship and the complications of love are at the center of the anime. Its story is less about what the characters do and accomplish than it is on the people they meet and the feeling conflicts that arise around the demands of the heroic goal.

The article provides information on several Japanese animated films that have been successful internationally. These include "My Neighbour Totoro/Tonari no Totoro" in 1988, "Kiki's Delivery Service/Majo no Takyubin in 1989 and "Spirited Away/Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" which became the first animated film to win the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear Award. Also mentioned are the historical background of Japanese animation and the styles and techniques of Japanese animators.