Compassionate Neo-Traditionalism in Hosoda Mamoru’s Animation Movies
Abstract
Throughout his activity as an animation director, Hosoda Mamoru tackles important issues of present-day Japan - and of late modernity - with creative acuity and a keen sense of observation. From Digimon: The Movie and ONE PIECE: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, in which Hosoda rehearses his directing skills in the field of animation by taking over popular and familiar elements from highly successful Japanese franchises and embedding them into a more mature and more profound context of addressing challenging topics, through The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, in which Hosoda finds his way into the extremely competitive world of the Japanese entertainment industry with original storylines and powerful characters, to Wolf Children with its complex problematic of single motherhood, The Boy and the Beast with its combined topics of runaway children, of absent fathers, and of loss of masculinity addressed in a raw manner, and Mirai, in which Hosoda carefully avoids delving too deeply into the disturbing child-rearing and education politics of Japan, he constantly chooses a narrative of comfortable traditionalism, showing both that he understands Japan’s critical situation and that he does not regard it as his duty to offer alternative solutions, more in tune with the spirit of the 21st century.
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Review
For citations:
Grajdian M.M. Compassionate Neo-Traditionalism in Hosoda Mamoru’s Animation Movies. Russian Japanology Review. 2020;3(2):131-151. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24411/2658-6789-2020-10012
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