Anime in the Classroom? Yes, You Heard That Right
Suggested levels: 6-12
Subject Areas: English language arts, history/social studies, environmental science, media literacy
Overview: With high-interest media and instruction in “new literacies” more prominent than ever in 6-12 settings, would it be pushing the envelope too much to consider screening anime in schools? To find out, we talked with Senior YA Librarian Christian Zabriskie of the Queens Borough Public Library in New York. A former educational publishing professional and one of the founders of the Bermuda International Film Festival Kid’s Film Festival, Zabriskie is more than qualified to speak on the topic from several standpoints.
FiiF: I’ve seen you speak convincingly about the educational value of manga, but what about anime? Is it worth it for school librarians to build their collections?
Christian Zabriskie: I can definitely see anime being used in educational settings—we already do a lot of very informal programming with it at my library. We target teens and tweens with it, and it works great. School media specialists should definitely consider it for their collections though I think they would have to be quite selective about their choices. Anime, just by dint of its format, is more expensive than manga, approximately twice as much per item (going from the rough estimate of $10 for manga books and $20 for anime DVDs), so the collection development budget is not going to stretch as far. School libraries would also have to consider if they were going to allow these materials to circulate the same way that they might a manga book. If so, this would make a difference in the value of adding anime to a collection. That being said, schools will definitely get a lot of bang for their buck with these materials in terms of interest and enthusiasm from students.
Where could you see anime being used in core curriculum? In social studies? Language arts?
I’d encourage it in both those areas. Anime is a natural for language arts, particularly creative writing. It would be very engaging to leave students at a cliff hanger in the story then ask them to take it from there. Students could share their vision of “what’s next” and then see how the creators concluded things. Intercultural textualities would make wonderful discussion points. Also, let’s not forget science. There are a great many anime that tackle issues of environmentalism and ecology, Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind being a great example. These give contemporary issues a very exciting plot and dynamism that no amount of photos of oil-covered seagulls can pull off.
I think reading instructors may find an unexpected ally in anime simply by dint of insisting that students view the Japanese language version with subtitles. I do this with my groups at the library and the kids are incredibly receptive to it. It is much cooler and “in the know” to watch them in the original language, the performances are better, and it makes the experience special compared to what they see on TV or with their friends. For the reading teacher, this is great applied literacy. For that half hour or however long they screen for their students, these kids are involved in very sustained and engaged reading.
How can teachers of media literacy leverage the appeal of anime? For example, could anime be effective in showing the principle of how non-target audiences react to the same media message? I’m guessing that there are lots of points of commonality between Japanese and Western audiences, but also that there are things that the two would interpret totally differently.
There are a great many options for media literacy instructors here, both in form and content. It would be really interesting for them to take a look at both what is going on in the story and the technical and aesthetic choices that were made in telling them. A great example for teens would be Samurai Champloo. This series is a samurai/hip hop mashup. Rather than having a futuristic society with deliberate anachronisms (so-called “Space Samurai” dramas) this takes Japan at the height of feudalism and throws in sunglasses, blond hair dye, and a host of other markers of contemporary Japanese pop culture. It is also a great title for getting at the workings of the medium and how animation accomplishes things that are impossible for live-action films.
One quick example from this series is a moment when there is a duel between two exceptionally fast samurai. When seen at speed it is incredible, there are sword strokes flying everywhere and they seem so fast yet still so bold and clear to the eye. When you slow it down and watch it frame by frame you see that the creators start each swing with the sword at the start of the stroke then for the next couple of frames draw the entire arc of the swing at its completion. The effect is just great and it is such a simple yet elegant way of conveying this kineticism.
I would also suggest that media literacy teachers take some very old anime and compare it to contemporary work. My favorite of the early period is the Americanized television program Starblazers. This was the first breakthrough anime program to make it into U.S. markets and I remember being in elementary school and rushing home to watch it every day. This program is an absolute treasure trove for instructors. The form itself is ideal for a compare/contrast. There are lots of long pans over static images, the cel per second count is very low, and often during dialogue the characters seem wooden because only their mouths move with their face and posture otherwise staying static. Looking at this and then showing Samurai Champloo or Bleach is like looking at a Studebaker and a Ferrari. The advent of computers has made for a much higher cel count and thus smoother and more active animation. From there teachers can lead discussions of story and about whether the newer, slicker animation has as much depth in story or if the older work, which was more dependent on the writing, thus had more depth of plot and character.
A final note about Starblazers—you have to excuse me, I have a real soft spot for this series. On the second disc of the DVD release there is a fascinating special feature. The series is about a spaceship and her crew but the ship itself is a World War II battleship, the Yamato, which has been resurrected as an interstellar warship. There is a fascinating sequence that was cut from the original American release which shows the sinking of the ship in the Pacific by American aircraft. It is admittedly unsettling to see the United States Navy as the bad guys and American viewers get a strange flip in the stomach when we see one of these planes, which the story has set up as the enemy, get shot down. You are happy because you don’t want to see the Yamato be sunk but it still has that U.S. flag on the tailfin, which taints any elation you may have. There is also a lovely closeup of one of the pilots saluting the ship as is sinks with a look of gentle sadness on his face. For the creators, even these “bad” Americans are not entirely bad. They are quite noble in fact—samurai of the sky. It is really a fascinating little five-minute clip.
Sounds like there’s a wealth of resources for both social studies and media literacy teachers. But what about concerns about appropriateness? Clearly teachers should screen everything first for objectionable content or language. But do you have any tips for teachers who might be daunted by the thematic and subtextual elements in anime?
I would stay away from theatrical release films and stick to television programs, which are safe enough to screen on Japanese or American television. The towering exception to this is the work of Hayao Miyazaki. His work is uniformly brilliant and would be appropriate for just about any classroom. Something to be aware of is that in Japan death is treated a little differently. A good, noble, honorable death is not necessarily a bad thing. Thus you will occasionally have characters, major characters, die on you. This is disconcerting to Western audiences who are used to cartoons always having a happy ending.
Mostly, though, I would tell these teachers just to relax and enjoy it. These are lively conflicts of (mostly) good versus (mostly) evil. Do you have to know anything about Japanese prehistory or Ainu culture to enjoy Princess Mononoke? Absolutely not. Do you have to have a grounding in Shinto to enjoy Spirited Away? Of course not. Teachers should be aware of what they are showing but I have yet to encounter any anime which is so steeped in Japanese memes that they wouldn’t still be readily accessible to American audiences. I am sure that they exist, they just don’t get subtitled or dubbed and released in U.S. markets.
As a follow-up question, are there some titles that might be worth showing discrete clips from, but not the entire film or television episode?
Honestly, I am reticent to suggest the use of clips of anything which teachers would not want their students to see all of. This material is often so compelling for young people that they will track them down on their own. If you were to show clips from, say, Ninja Scroll, which is an excellent animated feature, you would be setting yourself up for problems as some of the more adult nature of this work comes to light. For the record, I love that film but would never encourage teachers to use it in class, it’s just too adult.
Time will dictate limitations on how much you show, so teachers will often be compelled to show clips. There is so much good stuff out there that people should not have to show fragments of anything they would not air in entirety if given the time or space.
I agree with the sentiment, but the reality is that targeted clips can sometimes be very effective, especially with time constraints. For example, that compelling five-minute clip from Starblazers might serve a variety of purposes. But let’s go with your premise. Which full-length titles should teachers probably check out?
Gosh, there really is so much great stuff out there. Again, I would suggest really looking at Miyazaki’s work in general. It is very high art and also an incredibly rich vein of material. Princess Mononoke is great for Japanese prehistory and there is a lot of Shinto there as well. He is also a great proponent of genuinely strong young women, which is always good to have in the classroom. I love Starblazers for many of the reasons that I mentioned earlier. There are a lot of terrific resources out on the Web about anime and people are increasingly seeing the educational and intellectual potential of it. It’s really an exceptional art form that American audiences are only just beginning to truly tap into.
Absolutely. And thanks for sharing your time and expertise.
Always a pleasure to talk to you, Peter…
