“Anime’s Atomic Legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the Negotiation of Japanese War Memory”, Rufus C. Manji2020-07 (, ; backlinks; similar)⁠:

This thesis explores the cultural commentary by Japanese Neo-Pop artist Takashi Murakami in relation to Japan’s war memory and its legacy in popular culture, addressing in particular the essays accompanying his 2005 exhibition Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture.

Murakami constructs a genealogy of postwar otaku subculture—anime, manga, tokusatsu, and video games—which he sees as reflecting anxieties repressed within mainstream culture: namely, memory of defeat, occupation, and ongoing military protection by the United States, epitomized by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These concerns become intertwined with the social malaise of Japan’s “Lost Decades”, in which postwar narratives of endless economic growth through scientific innovation give way to nihilism and social withdrawal. While anime of the “Economic Miracle” period show empowered heroes overcoming apocalyptic trauma through technology and righteous ideals, those of the 1990s frustrate such heroism: as scientific optimism deteriorates, protagonists are forced to question their beliefs, affiliations, and self-definition.

While Murakami offers a wealth of socio-historical insights, clear limitations emerge, particularly the immediate post-Occupation release of films and artworks depicting the war and the atomic bomb, which challenges the notion that these topics were repressed exclusively into subculture. Furthermore, critics have argued the emphasis on Japan’s defeat and the hardships faced by civilians downplays the broader history of the Japanese Empire and its wartime activities abroad, a tendency Carol Gluck terms “victim’s history”.

This thesis proposes a revision of Murakami’s theory which argues that memory of Japan as perpetrator emerges subliminally in subcultural narratives alongside memory of victimhood. Drawing on Hashimoto’s, LaCapra’s, and Elsaesser’s insights on the transmission of perpetrator memory, I argue that many of anime’s most iconic Sci-Fi and fantasy narratives are rooted in ambivalence towards national history, with heroes forced to identify simultaneously with hero, victim, and perpetrator roles. I focus on directors Hayao Miyazaki & Hideaki Anno, identifying the recurring motif of the “perpetrator fathers” whose legacy young heroes must overcome, while at the same time experiencing a traumatic identification with their father figures. These narratives complicate questions of national identity, reflecting a simultaneous desire to escape from, and redeem, historical memory.

Table of Contents:

  1. Anime’s Atomic Legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the Negotiation of Japanese War Memory

    1. Contents
    2. Abstract
    3. Acknowledgments

  2. Introduction

  3. Chapter 1: Superflat, Subculture, and National Trauma

    1. Takashi Murakami and superflat

      1. A genealogy of superflat subculture

      2. Framing JNP: Japan’s Postmodern Condition

      3. The Database & Animalization

      4. Superflat and National Cinema

      5. Trauma Theory

      6. Atomic Trauma in Mainstream Japanese Cinema

      7. The Subcultural Split from Mainstream Cinema

  4. Chapter 2: National Identity and Perpetrator Trauma in Anime Subculture

    1. National Identity & Perpetrator Trauma
    2. Miyazaki and Anno: Negotiating Historical Memory

  5. Chapter 3: Hayao Miyazaki

    1. Hayao Miyazaki

      1. Murakami on Miyazaki

      2. Troubling Parental Figures: the Perpetrator Fathers and Earth Mothers

    2. The Economic Miracle: 1978–11198935ya

      1. Miyazaki’s Early Apocalyptic Narratives

      2. Future Boy Conan: Trauma, Nature, and Industry

      3. The Return of the Repressed: Conan’s Trauma Narratives and the Perpetrator Fathers

      4. Becoming the Perpetrator: Monsley and Intergenerational Trauma

      5. The Grand Narrative Preserved

    3. The Lost Decade: Miyazaki’s Nihilism and the Decline of Grand Narratives

      1. Fragmented Identity and Survivor Guilt in Porco Rosso

      2. Complicity and Withdrawal in Howl’s Moving Castle

  6. Chapter 4: Hideaki Anno

    1. Hideaki Anno

      1. Anno’s goals as artist

      2. Interior Perspective and Hyperlimited Animation

    2. The Economic Miracle: Gunbuster as Nationalist Fantasy

      1. The New Japanese Empire and Nationalist Nostalgia

        [see “Imperialism, Translation, Gunbuster” series: 0/1/2/3/4/5/6]

    3. Anno’s Turning Point: Fascism and Technological Ambivalence in Nadia

      1. Nemo and Gargoyle: Reconciliation with the Perpetrator Fathers

    4. The Lost Decade: Evangelion, Withdrawal, and the Decline of Grand Narratives

      1. The Decline of Scientific Optimism

  7. Conclusion

    1. Works Cited

      1. Reference Texts

      2. Films & Artistic Works

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Anime’s Atomic Legacy: Takashi Murakami, Miyazaki, Anno, and the Negotiation of Japanese War Memory