In 2002, Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away became the first Japanese animated film to win an Academy Award. The honor was well-deservedMiyazaki has always been a master storyteller, and how stories reflect life, and Spirited Away was his greatest distillation of myth and modern Japanese society to date.The basic plot of the film, which concerns a young girl named Chihiro who is thrust into a mysterious and magical world, owes heavily to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. However, the characters and motifs she encounters in it are based off of specifically Japanese ideas. For example, the Japanese folklore of kamikakushi , meaning “hidden by gods,” is an old explanation for anybody’s mysterious disappearance. It literally implies that the person has angered a god and been kidnapped by them. (more…)
“Spirited Away” blends modern and ancient Japanese culture
Monkeys and dragons collide in “Dragon Ball”
When discussing the most influential anime series of all time, few are as agreed upon as Dragon Ball. The original comic series was published for 11 years in Shonen Jump, while the anime series was broadcast for the same length of time. The series is popular around the world, and was even made into an American live-action film.With all of the writing that’s been done on the series since its inception, most people are probably aware about some of the elements of Asian mythology that have influenced it. The most obvious source is the Chinese work Journey to the West, a classical novel published near the end of the 16th century. This story follows a group of pilgrims on their way to India seeking enlightenment. One of the most prominent characters is Sun Wukong, the monkey king, a mystical being and powerful fighter. Sun Wukong is the main inspiration for Goku from Dragon Ballthey have the same monkey tail, fight with the same staff, and both ride a flying cloud. (more…)