Studies on facial features

Revised stucture of chapter 2&3

Chapter 2:

• War time Japanese propaganda

1. Informing people of military power, encouraging soldiers and troops and soothing the people. Haridakis quotes from the War and the Media, of the main message conveyed in Japanese propaganda at the war time.
2. Momotaro mo uniwashi (the message of national hero and spirit, can be compared to Victory Through Air Power in the next chapter), Evil Mickey attacks Japan (a representation of victimhood under the power of the US)

• Post war Japan

1. Change of society, Economical states, and the emotional states of people, determine a main tone of not only films, which were produced after the war, as a country being defeated in the war.
2. Osamu Tezuka, inspiration and contribution to the Japanese comic and animation industry, the start of Japanese animation.

• Post war film industries

1. 1950s Osamu Tezuka, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli as a identical example of producing anti-war film studio etc.

• Post war representations of conflict

1. Expressing a theme of anti-war, and the reflection of the loss of the war and the consequences brought by the endless conflict.
2. Grave of the Fireflies, The Wind Rises, In This Corner of the World
3. Television, Japan and Globalization. Documentary: The Margins of Reality. Discussing the similar and different ways of conveying the message.

Chapter 3:

• Representation from other cultures, USA, Europe etc.

1. The importance of the characteristic, performance, referring back to the films mentioned in chapter 2.
2. Disney animated propaganda compare to Momotaro mo uniwashi, and Astro boy mentioned in previous chapter, also compare to Evil Mickey attacks Japan.The character in original Disney films, and the parody within the Japanese version of the Micky mouse. Both character design and character performance, to support the influence of USA animation on Japanese animated films.
3. Victory through Air Power compare to the Wind Rises, of informative militarism, the contrast of the way of expressing the anti-militarism within the other film.

• Comparing the tone of voice within the animation

1. The main character from the film mentioned in chapter 2, such as In this Corner of the World, to analyse a similar tone of presenting a victimhood, while the USA as a winning country in the Second World War, gives a different perspective reflected on the tone of voice of character in animations.

Visual Reference - USA representations

Blue Racer and the Japanese Beetle

Victory through Air Power

Commando Duck

You're a Sap, Mr. Jap

Academic resources update

Japanese Visual Culture
Macwilliams, M. (2015). Japanese visual culture. Abingdon [u.a.]: Routledge.

Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia, P198
Parmar, P., Richard, B. and Steinberg, S. (2006). Contemporary youth culture. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Greenwood Press.

"After World War II was lost, there was little need for this sort of animation, or indeed any animation at all."
A Hundred Years of Japanese Film: A Concise History, with a Selective Guide, P257
Richie, D. (2012). A hundred years of japanese film. New York: Kodansha.

"Many of the cartoons of World War II feature American characters not only defeating Japanese caricatures on battlefields but also killing them completely. Rarely do figures representing the Japanese armed forces survive to the end of an American cartoon."
American Animated Cartoons of the Vietnam Era: A Study of Social Commentary, p165
Lehman, C. (2007). American animated cartoons of the Vietnam era. Jefferson, NC [u.a.]: McFarland.

Visual references - Japanese representations

In this corner of the world

The Wind Rises

Grave of Fireflies

Momotaro no Umiwashi

Evil Mickey Attacks Japan

Structure of the chapter 2

To clarify the argument and support statement

· Message intend to convey in Japanese propaganda films (link to the quote mentioned by Haridakis, Hugenberg and Wearden, of the reality in the propaganda production)

o Momotaro no umiwashi (the message of national hero and spirit, can be compared to Victory Through Air Power in the next chapter), Evil Mickey attacks Japan (a representation of victimhood under the power of the US)

· Post-war Japanese film industries (the common message in contemporary war films, Yoshimoto mentioned in Television, Japan and Globalization, to discuss the message that is common between films produced by different animators and directors)

o Grave of the Fireflies, The Wind Rises, In This Corner of the World

· The role of design and performance in building the character for different purposes (linking back to the previous examples, pick out characters to comment and compare both similarity and differences, to develop an identical representation from them, which will link to the responsive practical studies)

o Authors of children’s books were recruited to work in the animation branch to make educational films (mentioned in War and Media, indicating the possible character would be created for the propaganda films)

Research week 1 part 2

Examples:

In This Corner of the World (2016)
Set in Hiroshima during World War II, an eighteen-year-old girl gets married and now has to prepare food for her family despite the rationing and lack of supplies. As she struggles with the daily loss of life's amenities she still has to maintain the will to live. (Katabuchi, 2017)

Victory Through Air Power(1943)
An animated documentary promoting of the soundness of strategic aerial bombing in World War II. (Algar and Geronimi, 2017)

Momotaro no umiwashi (1943)

Featuring the "Peach Boy", character of Japanese folklore, the film is aimed at children, telling the story of a naval unit consisting of the human Momotaro and several animal species representing the Far Eastern races fighting together for a common goal. In a dramatization of the attack on Pearl Harbor, this force attacks the demons at the island of Onigashima (representing the Americans and British demonized in Japanese propaganda), and the film also utilizes actual footage of the Pearl Harbor attack.(Seo, 2017)

Statements:

Propaganda films gives a different extend of understanding of audience nowadays to the historical events compare to the audience at the time.

Animations tend to achieve the purpose of vilifying the character with the impact of the soundtrack and other elements affecting the atmosphere.

Characteristic is highly affected by the cultural background of the director.

Contemporary films aimed at the society conveys different messages, to propaganda films aimed at the soldiers. It serves a soothing purpose and usually anti-war thought.

Relevant quotes:

"Arguably even more influential were the various documentary filmmakers who emerged after the Second World War, who forged an 'observational' aesthetic" (Ward, 2012, p4)

Leiji Matsumoto's film, the scene where American fighter jets sink the Yamato, is accompanied by a soundtrack identified with the Gamilon aliens. "the American enemy becomes an alien of no cultural affiliation, so that they can be portrayed without directly generating anti-American sentiments"(Ataria, Gurevitz, Pedaya and Neria, 2016, p108)

"constitute a form of cultural therapy in which the viewers are confronted over and over again with loss and defeat, but which offer a soothing and comforting end."(Ataria, Gurevitz, Pedaya and Neria, 2016, p108)

"the reference has often been to the same monumental, national events, such as World War II, as if Japan was caught in the never-ending cycle of victimhood and traumatic recovery." (Yoshimoto, Tsai and Choi, 2010, p244)

Bibliography:
Katabuchi, S. (2017). In This Corner of the World (2016). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4769824/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

Algar, J. and Geronimi, C. (2017). Victory Through Air Power (1943). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036497/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

Seo, M. (2017). Momotarô's Sea Eagles (1943). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420783/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

Ward, P. (2012). Documentary: The Margins of Reality. New York: Columbia University Press.

Ataria, Y., Gurevitz, D., Pedaya, H. and Neria, Y. (2016). Interdisciplinary handbook of trauma and culture. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Yoshimoto, M., Tsai, E. and Choi, J. (2010). Television, Japan, and globalization. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan.

Research week 1 part 1

Examples:
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II. (Takahata, 2017)

The Wind Rises (2013)
A look at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II. (Miyazaki, 2017)

Evil Mickey attacks Japan (1936)
A Japanese anti-American propaganda. Japan argued that the invasion of Asia was freeing the continent from the Western colonialism.

Statements:
Audience of war films tend to be interested in the realistic war scene and the model of warships, but mostly lack of historical outlook.

Films tend to vilify the invaders,beautify the victims during the war time through building of the character.

Behavior of a character from a certain country is different in contemporary animations produced by the country and by other countries.

Educational animation produced at the time was successful because of the character created in it for entertaining purpose.

Propaganda films gives another perspective of the way a country sees itself during the war time.


Relevant quotes:
"The theme of Japanese militarism was embedded in the country's educational, documentary and propaganda films from the start of the war with China in 1933 and persisted throughout the Second World War, Bendazzi noted."

Philip D. Eastman, and Munro Leaf, authors of children's books, were recruited to work in the animation branch of the U.S, to make educational films for American troops. (Nel, 2007). "Reasoning that the soldiers would only pay attention and learn if they could also be entertained." (Haridakis, Hugenberg and Wearden, 2009, p77)

The performative role of animation in the nation rebuilding efforts of Japan after the Second World War. Concept of "performativity"(Hu, 2015, p11)

(Yokota and Hu, 2015)


Bibliography:
Takahata, I(2017). Grave of the Fireflies (1988). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Miyazaki, H. (2017). The Wind Rises (2013). [online] IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/?ref_=tt_rec_tti [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].

Haridakis, P., Hugenberg, B. and Wearden, S. (2009). War and the media. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.

Hu, T. (2015). Frames of anime. Aberdeen, Hong Kong: Hong Kong U.P.

Yokota, M. and Hu, T. (2015). Japanese animation: East Asian Perspectives. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Disney propaganda animations

During the summer holiday, as I have changed the direction of my topic of research, one of the aspect I started to research on is the propaganda movies produced during the time of the war. During the course of research, I came across to Disney's films, which they were commissioned to produce a quantity of propaganda films for the US during the WW2. Supporting one of the statement I would make in the dissertation, propaganda animations usually vilify the opponent of the country with character appearance and behavior.

Revised COP3 dissertation proposal

Name: Yixing Qin
Degree Programme: Animation
2017/18
CoP3 Essay: To what extent has animation constructed our understanding or view of the WW2?

I would like to discuss and come to a conclusion about the influence of the character designs and plots in animations based on WW2, to achieve this, reference to minor other identical war films is in addition to back up my argument at the same time. The structure of the dissertation would be roughly as follows.

I intend to use the introduction to clarify my direction of study in the main body, with appropriate quotes, to make a critical statement with a strong point to raise the importance of the topic. In my understanding, the reason that the argument is important would be that as an identical topic in films, war, can be a great example in discussing the elements within it, as it involves both cultural, historical, and other aspects as well.

In the first main part of the essay, I intend to explore the topic by quoting relevant academic sources to support my argument, to clarify it and link to the next paragraph, providing the source of triangulating. In additional, I want to separate the discussion by propaganda animations and contemporary animated films based on WW2, in order to compare the character behavior within them.

As for the second majority part of the dissertation, I intend to explore on examples of animation extracts and critiques of professions upon them, to triangulate between them and the argument I made out of by myself, most importantly, referring back to the previous paragraph.

For the reflective practice part, I plan to explore on making of characters on purpose of both reflecting on the identical stereotype designs, and scripts, animation based on them to draw together a critical purposed pastiche outcome to reflect on the study in the previous chapters. To analyse the practice, I intend to constantly linking it back to the point I raised in the dissertation.

In order to draw the statement to a conclusion, the argument would be draw to a statement that I got out of the research and discussion answering the question sat for the topic of the dissertation, with the support of the single conclusions through the essay.

Case studies

Victory Through Air Power(1943)

Disney Propaganda Films around 1943s

Grave of the Fireflies(1988)

Relevant books or journal articles

Annabelle, H. (2013) Animated Documentary, Palgrave Macmillan
Judith, K. (2012) Animated Realism: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Animated Documentary Genre, Oxford: Focal
Wells, P. (2015) Understanding animation, London: Routledge
Ward, P. (2012) Documentary: The Margins of Reality, New York: Columbia University Press
Relevant websites
Pixar Animation. 2017. Character designs [online]
http://pixar-animation.weebly.com/character-design.html (Accessed 15 April 2017)

Essay

https://issuu.com/yixingqin/docs/essay

Parody and Pastiche

“The disappearance of the individual subject, along with its formal consequence, the increasing unavailability of the personal style, engender the well-nigh universal practice today of what may be called pastiche.” Jameson (1991, p16) discussed postmodernism as stepping into late capitalism, a field formed by a variety of styles, including pastiche, formed the “disappearance” of following after personal styles.

Hutchenon (1986) suggested parody as "representation rather than recycling" of a story, it is suggested as a artefact making humour referring to the existing problem.
Yet Jameson defined postmodernism pastiche as 'blank' parody, reflecting on fact that animations being recycled.

Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism. Duke University Press
Hutcheon, L. (1986) The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and History.

Context of Practice 3 Proposal

https://issuu.com/yixingqin/docs/cop3_proposal

CoP2 Response

Concept art I produced for the response to the essay and the visual research, suggesting character as poppet manipulate by the scene.