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ENG 401 Introduction to Graduate Studies

Dr. Ron Strickland

Final Research Paper

August 10, 2003

Hyejin Cho

Why Not Animation?

In his article ‘Cultural Studies’ in the book Introduction to Scholarship, David Bathrick talks briefly about the history of cultural studies in English studies. Like other sub-fields being dealt with in the book, cultural studies has also raised a question in argument on ‘canonicity’ of the traditional literary texts. And then, he mentions about film studies. Of course, I agree that it is the most popular genre within mass culture, and has established a foundation of its own as a representative object of cultural studies. Then, how about animation? For further discussion, I would like to introduce one of my favorite Japan animations.

There is a Japanese director, Katsuhiro Ootomo, famous for his first animation known as ‘Akira (1988)’ to westerners. In 1995, he produced another animation with other young creators, titled ‘Memories.’ It is an omnibus movie made up of three chilling stories, including the second episode which I am going to discuss here. But it is a comedy, outwardly.

Nobuo Tanaka, a researcher of the Nishibashi medicine company, is suffering with flu. He goes to work after being given a shot in the hospital. His work place is located in the suburbs of Tokyo.

(This is the title of this episode.) He never feels well though he was given a shot. There were also enormous amounts of sample medicines for cold in his drawer, but they did not work. At that moment, one of his colleagues tells him to try the new one. He says it may be on the desk of the chief’s room, ‘blue capsules in a red phial.’ But, upon entering the chief’s room, Nobuo is confused due to his not being well, and takes one ‘red capsule in a blue phial.’

At the next scene, Nobuo is taking a nap at the parlor, and the chief of the lab is in a wild rage, because someone touched his secret sample. After the chief gets out of the laboratory room, the people, including the mouses for experiments, begin to be aware of some smell in the whole building.

Due to the seeming efficacy of the medicine, Nobuo gets up in the next morning, and finds out all are dead in the building except himself.

He falls in a panic, and, after calling for an ambulance, goes to the room of the chief. He is also dead, but something is strange. It seems that the chief himself turned off the alarm for warning emergency. He turns on the alarm, and the alarm system works. The building is fully closed, and the wall of one side changes to monitors. A man appears on the screen who seems to be one of those who are in charge of the lab. He surveys the inside of building, and is embarrassaed at the accident.

He orders Nobuo to find a sample of a certain medicine and data of it, and to bring them to him at headquarters in Tokyo, talking to no one on the way about the accident and the medicine. The medicine was under development by orders from the government, he says. Nobuo gets out of the lab building, but realizes some strange phenomenon. The birds suddenly fall during flying when he passes. Surprised by it, he ran his bicycle into a fence beside the road. There, he finds out in the field that all animals are dead, and all plants are fully blossoming despite the winter season.

The ambulance he called is broken, and the people in the car are all dead.

In Tokyo, people of the government are hurrying in emergency, and people living near the laboratory of Nobuo are evacuating the town. It is like a wartime.

As for Nobuo, he sends an SOS to a reporter in a helicopter. Thinking he has a scoop, the reporter orders the helicopter down, but the result is death at the moment of Nobuo's approaching him.

In Tokyo, an urgent meeting is held by the authorities of the army of Japan, and one person who seems to be an American general (a black at the end of the left row).

Summoned, two executives of the medicine company, including the man who ordered Nobuo to bring the sample, give reports about the accident to them. It is revealed that medical research was being done to develop a bioweapon for PKO(Peace Keeping Operations of UN) in secret, and, in the process, the chief of the lab, who turned off the alarm and is dead, accidentally discovered a powerful effect from one of the mixtures. But at this point, they do not have any detailed information about the medicine and the circumstance of the lab. The Special Forces of Japan seem to be acting already. And the report that the center of the disaster is moving, comes into the headquarters. Of course, that is because Nobuo is heading for Tokyo to complete his ‘mission.’

The two executives of the medicine company assure the authorities that it will be solved soon because one of the research staff is on his way to Tokyo bringing a sample. But the chief commander doubts the fact that there is a survivor there, and the two executives of the medicine company finally seem to realize the truth of affairs.

The army is already dispatched, but, as the smell becomes stronger, the leader of the army orders the soldiers to withdraw. Then, Nobuo appears. The soldiers try to save him, but realize that he is the cause of this disaster. They run away hurriedly from him, and Nobuo still does not understand the situation. There are many people dead, destroyed cars and military appliances, and fully blossoming flowers behind Nobuo.

At the headquarters, Nobuo is proved as the origin of this disaster. And it is reported that the sample medicine seems to have been mixed with other substances and has resulted in some sort of chemical reaction in Nobuo’s body. He is a kind of factory of the stench which is being amplified by his body movement, emotional changes, and metabolism.

At this report, one of the authorities shouts that he should be killed. Then, the American general suddenly intervenes, and objects it, saying he wants Nobuo to be caught alive because his country invested the research. To that comment, the chief commander of Japan gets angry saying he should protect the citizens and their property.

Meanwhile, all the military services are on duty to get rid of Nobuo by whatever way. Its scale is like for a total war with another country. And the war between all the military powers of Japan and an innocent individual Nobuo, begins.

But Nobuo survives all missiles and cannons, because the gas from his body scrambles all radar and electronics. So the tank corps is completely destroyed. Indeed, Nobuo’s body is the strongest weapon in the world. Next, the air forces try to break this deadlock by a converging fire, but it just results in destroying all the houses and buildings of citizens. Nobuo is still on his way to Tokyo.

Tokyo is already a hell, and other commanders besides the chief commander, the American general, and the two medical executives, seem to have evacuated already. After making a phone call, the chief general says that the Prime Minister of Japan is going to ask help from the PKO.

The situation is really desperate. Meanwhile, the American general is up to something. He explains that he is going to use NASA’s latest space suits to catch Nobuo alive. He is boasting of the suits being versatile in any circumstances. In the situation that the Prime Minister of Japan gave up everything, America began to move. Not knowing of these disturbances, Nobuo is just riding his motor bicycle almost destroyed by the great mist of smell.

When Nobuo enters into a tunnel, he meets great snowy wind caused by the two great freezing fans at the other side of the exit. The entrance closes by bombing for Nobuo not to run away, but the fans operated by the army do not work. At that moment, the agents with NASA's space suits arrive, and enter the tunnel. Seeing them approach him, Nobuo is fearful.

In the end, he explodes emotionally, and a great smoke and electricity come out from the tunnel.

After thirty minutes without any contacts from the corps, it is reported that the American soldiers succeeded in catching Nobuo.

All the people can relax now, and the American soldiers are welcomed to the headquarters. But during the applause of the people, the man in the space suit goes straight to the man who ordered the sample, and gives the bag to him.

And guess what?

It was Nobuo with a suit full of gas

And Nobuo pushes the ‘EJECT’ button to take off the suit, and the result is... (blackout and the end)

This is a great black comedy, which is so funny, but of which the aftertaste is so bitter. Here in this film, so many things are being satirized. First, Nobuo’s behaviors cause viewers to be struck dumb, and even feel anger. Surely, he is so unadaptable and inflexible a person in his situations. I think it is probable that so many men like him exist in Japanese society. Different from western countries, Asian people consider their groups very important, and have very strong group consciousness. They usually think that they should do their best for the honour of family, company, or country. And orders from a person in a higher rank are absolute. They even think that the order should be completed even if its reward is death. That kind of thinking is so absurd at this present time. Too much straightness can cause even a disaster like this. This film is mocking this group thinking by individuals.

But the primary cause for this mess is the medicine. It is said that many powerful countries are still moving ahead with research and development of medicine weapons for hegemony fight. It is an open secret. For that, this film shows the riskiness and stupidity of being preoccupied with power, by means of the aesthetics of destruction in the virtual space. Also, I think that comment is also directed to Japan. (As we know, Japan has studied about bio weapons using men’s live bodies during World War II.)

Another thing I could catch is the fact that the basis of men’s civilization is so feeble and weak. It is so ironic that the civilization(people’s peaceful everyday life) is ruined by the civilization(military weapons) in this animation. Actually, we often says like a joke that, if a button is pushed in Washington, one country in the earth will disappear without any remains. In that context, I say this film is ‘chilling,’ though funny, a black comedy.

Animation should be included in film studies more and more. But, because of the prejudice that it is just for kids, animation is often ignored as a serious genre. Even in the field of cultural studies, it seems to be marginalized twice, by the ‘canonical literary text,’ and ‘films of genteel culture.’ Thinking John Fiske’ comments, “if the cultural commodities or texts do not contain resources out of which the people can make their own meanings of their social relations and identities, they will be rejected and will fail in the marketplace,” I could find so many “resources” from animations. Of course, there are not always great animations made and appreciated even between fans of it. But the problem is, I think, that animation is not being included simply because it is animation. For me who has been interested in the possibility of animations as great texts for literary analysis and criticism, with the interest in children’s literature, there are too many obstacles and problems to find answers.

Is it not good enough as a literary text?

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