Rediscovered Classics of Japanese Animation : The Adaptation of Children's Novels into the World Masterpiece Theater Series / Maria Chiara Oltolini.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oltolini, Maria Chiara, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animated television programs--Japan.

Animated television programs.

World Masterpiece Theater--Japan.

World Masterpiece Theater.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

New York : Bloomsbury Publishing (US), 2024.

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2024.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

Rediscovered Classics of Japanese Animation is the first academic work to examine World Masterpiece Theater (Sekai Meisaku Gekijô, 1969-2009), which popularized the practice of adapting foreign children's books into long-running animated series and laid the groundwork for powerhouses like Studio Ghibli. World Masterpiece Theater (Sekai Meisaku Gekijô, 1969-2009) is a TV staple created by the Japanese studio Nippon Animation, which popularized the practice of adapting foreign children's books into long-running animated series. Once generally dismissed by critics, the series is now frequently investigated as a key early work of legendary animators Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. In the first book-length examination of the series, Maria Chiara Olitini analyzes cultural significance of World Masterpiece Theater, and the ways in which the series pioneered the importance of children's fiction for Japanese animation studios and laid the groundwork for powerhouses like Studio Ghibli. Adapting a novel for animation also means decoding (and re-coding) socio-cultural patterns embedded in a narrative. World Masterpiece Theater stands as a unique example of this linguistic, medial, and cultural hybridisation. Popular children's classics such as Little Women, Peter Pan, and Anne of Green Gables became the starting point of a full-fledged negotiation process in which Japanese animators retold a whole range of narratives that have one basic formula in common: archetypal stories with an educational purpose. In particular, the series played a role in shaping the pop culture image of a young girl (shôjo). Examining the series through the lens of animation studies as well as adaptation studies, Olitini sheds new light on this long-neglected staple of Japanese animation history.

Contents:

Introduction Part I: Adapting Children's Fiction in Japan Chapter 1: Children's Literature in the Japanese History of Translation Chapter 2: Japanese Animation and Children's Literature Chapter 3: Nippon Animation's "World Masterpiece Theater" Chapter 4: Framing the "Meisaku" Genre Part II: Case History Chapter 5: From "Anne of Green Gables" to "Akage no An" Chapter 6: From "A Little Princess" to "Shôkôjo Sêra" Conclusions Bibliography Index

Other Format:

Print version: Oltolini, Maria Chiara Rediscovered Classics of Japanese Animation

ISBN:

9781501389863

1501389866

9781501389887

1501389882

OCLC:

1416188740