Conclusion

Abstract

It is impossible to try and sum up the world of Japanese animation. As this book has tried to show, the anime universe is an extraordinarily diverse one, and it would be futile to attempt to pigeonhole it into any single categorizing structure. Although certain tropes and themes, such as the dysfunctional family and the changing roles of women, as well as the overarching modes of apocalypse, elegy, and festival, reappear in many films and series, they are reworked with such variety and richness that it is absurd to suggest that there is one anime “take” on any particular issue. It is important to remember that the issues with which anime deals are universal ones, although some lend themselves more easily to the animated art form. In a discussion of very early American animation, Paul Wells describes the works of animator Winsor McCay as “revealing the deep-rooted fears of the Modernist era” in dealing with “anxieties about relationships, the status of the body, and advances in technology.”¹ Over 80 years after McCay began producing his works, these anxieties still remain in the forefront of much of Japanese animation.