Affective transformation: Other-power and the community of peers in works by Kyoto Animation

Dasgupta, Arnab

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117279 Copy

Description

Title

Affective transformation: Other-power and the community of peers in works by Kyoto Animation

Author(s)

Dasgupta, Arnab

Issue Date

2022-12

Keyword(s)

• anime
• Kyoto Animation
• Japanese Buddhism
• character development
• noh
• religion

Abstract

Kyoto Animation can rightly be called one of the leading studios of Japanese animation, and its works have been at the forefront of anime production in terms of both techniques and aesthetics. This is why it has been subjected to academic scrutiny by several notable anime scholars. However, no significant studies have been conducted on the works of Kyoto Animation from the perspective of the studio as a whole, or identified consistent themes and patterns flowing throughout them. This paper aims to rectify that gap by studying four works by the most prolific directors of Kyoto Animation (the Haruhi Suzumiya series (2006-2010), Beyond the Boundary (2013-15), A Silent Voice (2016) and Miss Kobayashi’s Maid Dragon (2017)) from the perspective of the Japanese Buddhist conception of tariki (Other-power) in order to tease out the central theme that lies at the heart of the studio’s work, and argues that Other-power (redefined as affective transformation) and the presence of a community of peers to nurture it offers powerful interpretive frameworks through which to understand these, and other, works by the studio.

Series/Report Name or Number

Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, vol. 3

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jams.v3.878

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2022 Arnab Dasgupta
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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