To me the parents of Chihero didn't really look Japanese, neither did the witch or some of the other characters. The parents to me had a sort of American appearance to me. I don't know if this is because I'm looking with American eyes, or if they were intended to look this way to everyone. I thought this could possibly be a commentary on Americans and their greed and gluttony. Any thoughts?
posted by Stacey Fox at 11:22 AM
3 Comments:
Most Europeans at least feel that Americans are wasteful and fat (which made everyone in Sweden surprised when they learned I was American, not British), so it's definitely possible. But this could also be us seeing something unintended in the movie. So be wary.
I think the message can be applied to any nationality, especially America, but I don't think the movie was meant to comment on Americans directly. It wasn't initially intended for an American audience.
As for the way the family looks, I have noticed anime in the past with characters that do not look particularily Japanese.
The use of American features in anime is some what inscrutable. It rarely means anything in and of itself, as there are characters with Western feature both good and bad. It really depends on the rest of their persona how this facet is to be interpretted. Japanese businessmen are as often portrayed greedy as Americans are. There is a certain arrogance and roughness in Americanized characters, but it can be used to add to their charm.
Of interest is the origins of the Japanese style of animation which was on the rise during American occupation. The tendancy of drawing large eyes is widely thought to have come from the general admiration of the ones who had defeated them. Those characters with emphatically squinty eyes are much more likely to be crafty tricksters than those with larger eyes which betray more emotion.
In short the American is both a classic anime hero as well as a frequent villian.
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