ENGL 245 - Hayao Miyazaki: Anime Master

3 Hour(s)

Best known in the West for his Oscar-winning animated feature Spirited Away (2002), Hayao Miyazaki has created a distinctive anime image and story aesthetic. Drawing on inspiration ranging from Greek myths and European fairy tales to Japanese folk tales, Homer, Jonathan Swift and Lewis Carroll to Ursula Le Guin and Diana Wynne Jones, Jean Giraud Moebius and Osamu Tezuka among others, Miyazaki spins stories that transcend time and culture as he explores the future. Modern history of Europe and Japan, Shinto religion, folklore and the supernatural, along with passionate environmentalism are some of the subjects Miyazaki probes. Early Disney, Russian and Canadian animators and Japanese manga have deeply influenced how he combines image with story. The course will analyze Miyazaki’s major animated feature films and explore his literary, filmic and cultural influences to understand the stories he tells, and how and why he tells them. We will look at Miyazaki’s key themes, plots, characters, and examine how he integrates these story elements with visual, auditory and social conventions of anime.

General Education Requirements: Humanities; Gender Inquiry; Intercultural Knowledge and Engagement; Writing Intensive