I enjoyed this animation. I have watched almost every Miyazaki’s films as I really like his film.
What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?
‘Shoujo’ is a Japanese word meaning ‘girl’ or ‘young female’, aged between 10 to 18 years old. In anime, ‘Shoujo’ is demographic genre of Japanese manga/comic aimed at young female audience. It is one of most popular and successful animation genre in the universe.
‘Shoujo’ stories are mostly about adolescent girl romance with relationship and adventure (growth). Miyazaki, who has drawn a line of stroke in anime, his anime has mostly and mainly focuses in ‘Shoujo’ as subgenre, and his ‘Shoujo’ is represented as strong, brave, righteous, smart and curious than normal adolescent girls. This may contrast from traditional Japanese women figure which are always obeying and respect in men.
In ‘Princess Mononoke’, we can notice that the main character Princess Mononoke is brave, independence, and pursuing clear purpose of living in her path by herself.
On the other hand, Tamae Prindle (1998, as cited in Cavallaro, 2006) points, “What fascinates the Japanese is that the shoujo nestle in a shallow lacuna between adulthood and childhood, power and powerlessness, awareness and innocence as well as masculinity and femininity” As Prindle explained, ‘Shoujo’, subgenre of anime, has much wider section which is not only for teenagers but also adults could think, learn and achieve broadly from it like a purity of ‘Shoujo’.
Reference
Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company.
Great post, Hye-Young - and you've shown good understanding of the meaning of 'shojo'. It's true that Princess Mononoke is a very modern heroine with values that are clearly different than that of the traditional wife and mother.
ReplyDeleteBut I think the point that Prindle is trying to make is that though she is very sophisticated in some ways, she is also very childlike in others. Like the way that she reacts when her wolf 'mother' suggests that Ashitaka might want to have a romantic relationship with her, for example.
Thank you for the comment. It's been a while to watch that anime so I can't remember exactly how she reacts in that situation, but I think you're right. She is sensible, but she is also childish when she was with her wolf mother. Like she buried her face into the wolf mother's fur when she was talking to her wolf mother.
DeleteHello hye. Great post to show your clear understanding of the text. I think shoujo means "girl" in japanese and it is used to describe animes and mangas that have deep story plots. it normally has a lot of magical girl type things. Typically, a shojo story will involve a young female protagonist who encounters some kind of adolescent romance or adventure. I think miyazaki has successfully created a 'shojo' that is completely different from the traditional types.
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DeleteHi, Doris. I agree with you. Even though typical shoujo girls are very passive and powerless, Miyazaki has differently expressed heroines in his film as the brave and active girls unlike typical girls who we can meet in reality.
DeleteI would like to discuss from my own perspective as a New Zealander how effective Miyazaki and anime from Japan has been at creating the "alienation" effect. Alienation as a convention was first recognised in the theatre by Bertolt Brecht. Alienation is when a something distances itself from the veiwer."...which prevents the audience from losing itself passively and completely in the character created by the actor, and which consequently leads the audience to be a consciously critical observer"(Hill and Wang 1964.)
ReplyDeleteMy lack of understanding with the Shinto religion meant that i could examine the social ideas Miyazaki had put in, concerning the relationship between man and nature. The spirits of the forest were surreal and unnatural to my understanding so i was forced to veiw the text as a whole, without attatchment.
After viewing "Howls Moving Castle" I found another example of "shoujo" in the character of Sophie. Sophie is depicted as an average teenage girl working in a small town, however it is clear she is far too intelligent for her job of hat making. There is a definite push and pull of girl to woman in the character of Sophie in this Miyazaki film. She is turned into a 90 year old woman by a witch but comes free of the curse when she forgets about her age, which has been represented very beautifully by Miyazaki. She is swept off her feet romantically by Howl which definitley shows her more youthful qualities. However she becomes the maternal figure in the household and is responsible for the day to day running of the castle
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