The Anime Machine

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Author: Thomas Lamarre

Availability: Readily available from sites like Amazon

Book Review
I love this book, but man was it a tough read.

Dr. LaMarre builds a theory of anime as a medium of expression that is fundamentally different than American animation and other mediums.

He offers a complete argument for this position, and wonderfully, he repeatedly insists that he's not arguing against other theories; he's offering a new one. He is consistent in his respect for existing work and his refusal to establish himself in a position opposite to others'.

His basic theory: anime's "limited animation," which focuses on panning across the image and other easy kinds of movement, encourages different kinds of stories than Disney-style "full animation." Because of anime's history of limited animation (and Japanese aesthetics of simplicity and artificiality in its art), anime doesn't even try to be realistic in the same way that cinema does, which opens up different possibilities in storytelling.

I did have two problems with the book:

First, LaMarre's writing is dense and full of academic language. I had a tough time parsing his long sentences and jargon. It all makes sense, but it requires one's full attention in a way that I felt could have been expressed more clearly and simply.

Secondly, he spends a large percentage of the book singing the praises of Chobits, presenting that series as a brilliant analysis of family issues, sexual issues, etc. I haven't watched the series beyond a few clips, but I have a tough time believing that the protagonist's sexual behavior is an ingenious statement about Japanese pathology. Chobits is meant to be popularly entertaining, and I argue that the protagonist is paranoid about his sexuality more to get laughs than to comment on general Japanese sexual identity.

But the rest of the chapters prove this book's worth. It's a brilliant analysis of anime as anime, as a medium unto itself with its own standards and devices, that deserves intelligent analysis like this.