Author: Brandon Strathmann, Animation Area Coordinator
Additional Credits: Kazuyo Kubo, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Additional Credits: Kazuyo Kubo, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Transgenerational Identities in Japan: The Role of Anime and Manga is a joint social science and art class open to all majors at Lesley University, which will involve travel to Osaka, Japan for two weeks in January 2016. Through Lesley’s relationship with Osaka University of Commerce, students will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with several Japanese artistic styles and become culturally and visually literate when designing their own comics and animation projects. Students are encouraged to meet people on this trip, learn about their lives and include them as characters in a comic or short animation they will construct as a culminating project in the course.
Japan is a terrific place to expand our collective understanding of animation and comics. There is more Anime being watched internationally than any other form of animation, and like Manga it often shows what life is like for the people of Japan. My colleague Dr. Kazuyo Kubo, a Sociologist, brings her great knowledge of society and human culture to this event, guiding our students beyond a visual experience and into one that enlightens them to the most subtle of customs to the historical events that have shaped Japan’s sociology in immense ways. Students will observe local customs and learn Japanese etiquette well so that the characters in their artwork behave in socially convincing and appropriate manners. We will use the study of society, Sociology, to inform and enrich the narrative art of animation and comics. Immersion in a new society and landscape will be a dramatic event in student’s education that will provide them with new experiences to inspire and inform their work.
As an Osaka native, Dr. Kubo will assist in making this an inclusive Japanese experience. We shall share this knowledge along with the observational drawing and visual storytelling skills I’ll teach our students during their adventure. Artists will analytically break apart Anime and Manga into its component parts by researching reality and Japanese art from many historical periods. We’ll hone our sensitivity to the unique design qualities that distinguish one Japanese art period from another one; this shall involve the contrast of materials, techniques and content. There will also be exploration of the current state of Japanese life, comparing it to the way it is portrayed in Manga. Students will keep a journal with them that they’ll draw and keep notes on their assignments and direct observations. We will visit shrines and experience the way indigenous Shinto religion and introduced Buddhism shape Japanese character, especially in the way these two faiths coexist with one another in this society.
This final narrative artwork for this class is a personal statement of a student’s educational experiences in Japan. We will study the various ethnic groups that make up this country along with the social pressures unique to Japanese life. Students will use their journals to tell a visual story that conveys these lessons and experiences in a comic or animation. Filtering through a personal archive of imagery and experiences gathered in their journals and editing them into and successfully designing a personal Manga style based on experimentations with traditional Japanese art methods.