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Anime, Religion and Spirituality - Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,172
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Anime, Religion and Spirituality - Profane and Sacred Worlds in Contemporary Japan (Hardcover)
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Barely a century has passed since anime (Japanese animation) was
first screened to a Western audience. Over time the number of anime
genres and generic hybrids have significantly grown. These have
been influenced and inspired by various historical and cultural
phenomena, one of which -Japanese native religion and spirituality
- this book argues is an important and dominant. There have always
been anime lovers in the West, but today that number is growing
exponentially. This is intriguing as many Japanese anime directors
and studios initially created works that were not aimed at a
Western audience at all. The mutual imbrication of the profane and
sacred worlds in anime, along with the profound reciprocal
relationship between 'Eastern' (Japanese) and 'Western' (chiefly
American) culture in the development of the anime artistic form,
form the twin narrative arcs of the book. One of the most
significant contributions of this book is the analysis of the
employment of spiritual and religious motifs by directors. The
reception of this content by fans is also examined.The appeal of
anime to aficionados is, broadly speaking, the appeal of the
spiritual in a post-religious world, in which personal identity and
meaning in life may be crafted from popular cultural texts which
offer an immersive and enchanting experience that, for many in the
modern world, is more thrilling and authentic than 'real life'. In
the past, religions posited that after human existence on earth had
ceased, the individual soul would be reincarnated again, or perhaps
reside in heaven. In the early twenty-first century, spiritual
seekers still desire a life beyond that of everyday reality, and
just as passionately believe in the existence of other worlds and
the afterlife. However, the other worlds are the fantasy landscapes
and outer space settings of anime (and other popular cultural
forms), and the afterlife the digital circuitry and electronic
impulses of the Internet. These important new understandings of
religion and the spiritual underpin anime's status as a major site
of new religious and spiritual inspiration in the West, and indeed,
the world.
General
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