On the whole he does this successfully, or at least provocatively. He also includes a short discussion of anime's 'sonic aura' that explores the interaction between sound and silence in anime in a thought provoking section that I only wish had been longer.īrophy also tries to link anime to certain aspects of Japanese aesthetics. This insight has been available elsewhere but Brophy links it to the 'mannequinned form', anime's fascination with the posthuman and the 'mega-ornamental, hyper-extended figure.' (15) that characterizes so many anime bodies. Among his most salient points are the 'energized form' that helps anime 'exploit the dynamism of movement' (9) and stimulates the medium's obsession with metamorphosis. Brophy really looks at what makes animation and anime so distinctive. The book is worth buying for the introduction alone. Brophy refuses to discuss anime in either implicit or explicit comparison to more referential media because he feels that would inevitably stigmatize it as 'not-cinema.' Instead he sees anime's mission as mapping an 'alternative 'unreality' on its plane of materiality.' (3) This mapping seems to be a guiding principle that he finds in Japanese pop culture in general which he sees as 'consistently privileg the imagined over the authentic.' (132) Brophy plunges into the sometimes dazzling sometimes dark torrent of anime's unique visual and aural qualities. What 100 Anime does offer is a brilliantly conceived no-holds barred embracing of anime as an art form unto itself, an art form that is resolutely 'other' in relation to live action cinema, photography, and Western animation. 100 Anime also does not offer such typical genre categorizations as 'drama' or 'comedy' although you will find such thought provoking descriptions as 'Mutant Sci-Fi' or 'Urban Power-Suit Melodrama.'

Readers will not find a history of how Japanese animation came into being, nor will they find even a single discussion of an anime director or an anime studio. Brophy's book is emphatically not a paint by numbers introduction to anime (or a 'tourist guide book', as he dismissively describes such works). 100 Anime published in Screening The Past No.20, Melbourne © 2006 by Susan NapierĪnyone familiar with Philip Brophy's fascinating work on Body Horror will not be surprised by how he approaches Japanese animation in 100 Anime.

Brophy 100 anime pdf