Raz Greenberg
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496826268
- eISBN:
- 9781496826299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496826268.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
One of the most famous archetypes of heroines in Japanese anime is that of the magical girl—a girl who holds the dual identity of both an earthly being (usually a regular schoolgirl) and a heavenly ...
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One of the most famous archetypes of heroines in Japanese anime is that of the magical girl—a girl who holds the dual identity of both an earthly being (usually a regular schoolgirl) and a heavenly being (a super-powered girl, usually on a mission against sinister beings). While seemingly corresponding with the Western genre of superheroes, and knowingly drawing inspiration from American fantasy sitcoms of the 1960s such as "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie", the roots of the magical girl genre go deeper into traditional Japanese culture (for example, the Taketori monogatari and goddess of creation, Izanami). The author traces the divide between the earthly and heavenly identities of many anime heroines by examining the major common elements found in three film genres—adventure (Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 film "Castle in the Sky"), science fiction (Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell"), and historical drama (Satoshi Kon's 2001 film "Millennium Actress").Less
One of the most famous archetypes of heroines in Japanese anime is that of the magical girl—a girl who holds the dual identity of both an earthly being (usually a regular schoolgirl) and a heavenly being (a super-powered girl, usually on a mission against sinister beings). While seemingly corresponding with the Western genre of superheroes, and knowingly drawing inspiration from American fantasy sitcoms of the 1960s such as "Bewitched" and "I Dream of Jeannie", the roots of the magical girl genre go deeper into traditional Japanese culture (for example, the Taketori monogatari and goddess of creation, Izanami). The author traces the divide between the earthly and heavenly identities of many anime heroines by examining the major common elements found in three film genres—adventure (Hayao Miyazaki's 1986 film "Castle in the Sky"), science fiction (Mamoru Oshii's 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell"), and historical drama (Satoshi Kon's 2001 film "Millennium Actress").
