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This chapter examines the establishment and history of the Japan Society for Animation Studies (JSAS), including its background management. The author first provides a short introduction of his relationship with the JSAS, which was founded in July 1998, before focusing on the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences (JASIAS), whose members also included the founding members of the JSAS. He also reflects on the publication of the first issue of the Japanese Journal of Animation Studies, the official academic journal of the JSAS, in July 1999, and looks at animation research in Japan as well as the society’s focus on animation-gaku and animation studies. Furthermore, the author describes the composition and characteristics of the JSAS members and considers the relevance of the JSAS to higher education in Japanese animation.

This book examines Japanese animation from the perspective of scholars and practitioners originating and residing in Japan and the East Asian region. Its chapters, rooted in teaching and research ideas on Japanese animation, look at animation studies and animation history in Japan, focusing on the popularity of the Chinese wartime animated film Princess Iron Fan (1941) and the establishment of the Japan Society for Animation Studies. The book also considers the legacies of the pioneers of Japanese animation, such as Ōfuji Noburō (1900–1961) and Masaoka Kenzō (1898–1988), and the influences of Tezuka Osamu (1928–1989) in Japan and other parts of East Asia, as well as the effects of the all-female performance troupe Takarazuka Revue Company on Tezuka’s creative consciousness. In addition, it discusses the extensive influence of manga-anime stories in South Korea, citing Astro Boy and Mazinger Z as examples; the continental East Asian roots of traditional Japanese art and painting; and artistic animation developments and methodologies in twenty-first-century Japan. Finally, the book chronicles the growth of commercial animation studio Toei Co. Ltd. and the making of the animated feature film, Flying Phantom Ship (1969).

This chapter focuses on the establishment and history of the Japan Society for Animation Studies, including its past and present activities. It first provides an overview of the past research animation activities within the Japanese animation industry before turning to the research framework of universities and academic institutions, and the research activities of the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences.

The chapter introduces the central theme of the book, the spirited and its sub-themes of journeys and transformations. The subject of animation studies and its expanding areas of inquiry provide a multi-dimensional platform in exploring the themes concerned. The volume of fourteen essays is divided into five sections: Mindful Practices, Creation and the Spirited Process, Objects, Spirits and Characters, Inspirations from the Spiritual-Cultural Realm, Comics and Children’s Literature: Their Transformative Roles, Buddhist Worldviews, Interactions and Symbolism. The introduction posits that the universal theme of the spirited necessitates and warrants multi-faceted perspectives and analyses from scholars, artists, educators, and practitioners contributing from different geographical-cultural backgrounds. The related subjects in discussion include paintings, comics, children literature, folklore, religion, philosophy, and psychology.. It also stresses the idea of the spirited as tied to the broader aspects of mental health, spirituality and creativity. In short, it lays out the humanistic views of the book project.

The international success of Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (2008) saw this work routinely defined and discussed as the first feature-length example of animated documentary cinema. This chapter analyses Folman’s film and the multidisciplinary body of scholarly response that it has provoked. Much response to Folman’s film evaluates it in isolation and speculates more ambitiously on animated documentary’s possible aesthetic, conceptual and ethical strengths and weaknesses as a distinctive mode of audio-visual practice. This chapter’s analysis of Folman’s film likewise identifies defining formal and thematic characteristics that drive the contemporary turn towards animated documentary filmmaking more generally. This chapter also identifies several main evolving concepts and debates that characterise animated documentary scholarship as a distinctive subset of Animation Studies and Film Studies. Finally, this chapter also identifies other academic disciplines – such as Memory Studies and Trauma Studies – within which significant discussion of animated documentary is also taking place.

This chapter summarizes the authors’ reflections of the publication journey in conjunction with the volume’s themes and contents. Thoughts of the complexity of the main theme, the spirited, are revisited in the context of the book’s production process, including the multi-dimensional backgrounds of the contributors. Editorial management and direction are explained as the authors share their review of the book project and that the essential presence of a meta goodwill spirit is important to its completion and success. The expanding boundaries of animation studies is once again emphasized as the authors re-state the spectrum of inquiry into seemingly unrelated subjects of study, as well as the equally related universal humanistic visions and quest for wider cultural knowledge and understanding.