Finding creativity in anime and animation

By Brianna Contreras Staff Writer

With the increasing popularity of anime, Susan J. Napier of Tuff’s University discusses the departure from the male-dominant “techie” field to a women-centered grassroots independent community.

Professor Napier shares her expertise in anime with 30 years of experience in the community. Her most noteworthy book is Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art.

Q: During the pandemic, why do you think people grew more of a connection to anime?

A: Anime is created to draw you in, to entice you, to get you intrigued by the characters, and to get you to follow them along. Which I think is perfect to watch during the pandemic because you want something that’s gonna keep you going for the next couple of weeks. So, Fruit Baskets, Cowboy Depop, and Samurai Champloo have a definite narrative arc. [Especially] at a time where you have a lot of [extra] time. You don’t have school and you’re in a small room watching something on a small screen that you want to keep going. They’re very good at ways of entertaining yourself.

Q: How would you describe anime and its importance to people that don’t know much about it?

A: [Animation] it’s a flexible and creative medium. There’s so much you can do in animation and it’s so exciting because it doesn’t come from a camera looking at something outside. It’s coming from your ideas, your dreams, and your nightmares. So, the animator is creative and free in a way that no other medium can be. Painting is the closest one, but animators can also make their art move. They really do have that creative world, that’s immersive. If you are interested in, a kind of alternative form of reality. These are some of the most heightened versions you can see because animation is like live-action, but it’s not. It creates its own special world, and if you enjoy that then you can be pulled in.

Q: How would you describe the anime community?

A: It’s nice. Gosh, I’ve been studying and a part of the anime community since the early 1980s. When I was first working on anime, it was seventy percent male and a whole lot of techies. Nowadays, it’s predominantly female. In my classes, I get a lot of people coming in from the School of Music of Fine Arts, where people are doing their own animation. A big change over the last 30 years, thanks to