In The Soul of Anime, Ian Condry explores the emergence of anime, Japanese animated film and television, as a global cultural phenomenon. Drawing on ethnographic research, including interviews with artists at some of Tokyo's leading animation studios—such as Madhouse, Gonzo, Aniplex, and Studio Ghibli—Condry discusses how anime's fictional characters and worlds become platforms for collaborative creativity. He argues that the global success of Japanese animation has grown out of a collective social energy that operates across industries—including those that produce film, television, manga (comic books), and toys and other licensed merchandise—and connects fans to the creators of anime. For Condry, this collective social energy is the soul of anime.
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“The critical essays in The Soul of Anime, each of which could stand as its own case study, dissect the genre at its most basic level to explore the interplay between the creative texts and the social contexts, with an emphasis on the collaborations between the artists and filmmakers who create the characters and worlds and the fans who devour them. . . . An ethnographic study on how the makers of Japanese anime and its fans work together to promote the art form on a global level. - Nancy Powell, Shelf Awareness for Readers
“This book is highly recommended for all lovers of Japanese history, Japanese culture, anime, manga, and animation.” - Sally Bryant, Library Journal (Starred Review)
"Does anime have a soul? In The Soul of Anime, Ian Condry explores the lives and work of the creators and consumers of one of Japan's great contributions to popular culture. Condry shows how the genre has moved from the margins to a place of respect and influence. This is a book that will appeal to all the otaku out there, as well as to those with a more moderate love of anime in all its forms."—Eric Nakamura, President, Giant Robot
"Through an exploration of multiple dimensions of the anime object, from studio production to fan production, piracy, remix, and virtual idols, The Soul of Anime issues a bold challenge to our understanding of the social side of media. Ian Condry's attention to the singularities of this universe takes us far from the normative horizon of analysis of fans and commodities, highlighting how intimacy arises from impersonal affective life. The social side of anime is the soul of anime, and the dark energy of fans is nothing other than the psychosocial stuff, the vibrant matter, of this emerging constellation."—Thomas LaMarre, author of The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation
About the Author
Ian Condry is Associate Professor of Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization, also published by Duke University Press.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Azazello
Format:Kindle Edition
This book focuses on the social dimensions of two groups, anime production studios and anime fan communities. Condry draws on his ethnographic research and interviews with industry professionals to shed light on something all too often overlooked in anime scholarship: how difficult it can be to actually work in the industry. His proposal for understanding the anime industry's "success" in ways that do not reduce it to financial returns is laudable and convincing. Moreover, the book's numerous concrete comparisons of anime/animation industries in the United States and Japan help to cut through the haze of overgeneralizations surrounding anime's movement between cultures. The book makes a strong case for paying more attention to 'scale' when it comes to cultural analysis, and the need to remain wary of any quick jump from one particular community of creators or fans to claims about entire national cultures. The stronger chapters use this perspective to offer accessible entry points into a range of debates surrounding anime (namely the social aspects of the media mix, the social politics of fansubbing, and the use of anime characters as love objects). The book is well positioned to serve as an ethnographic supplement to more content-based anime scholarship, and will no doubt be used this way in future college courses on the topic.
The book is less successful when it comes to pulling all of its observations together into a cohesive set of ideas. The main theoretical concepts ('dark energy,' the 'gutter,' and above all 'soul') are sloppily developed and ultimately more distracting then helpful. There is also a more nagging problem.... Read more ›
The book is less successful when it comes to pulling all of its observations together into a cohesive set of ideas. The main theoretical concepts ('dark energy,' the 'gutter,' and above all 'soul') are sloppily developed and ultimately more distracting then helpful. There is also a more nagging problem.... Read more ›
