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Immobile Sections and Trans-Series Movement: Astroboy and the Emergence of Anime

Department of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, marc_steinberg{at}brown.edu

This article contrasts the different economies of motion found in cinema and animation, and explores the particular economy of movement and libidinal investment that accompanies Japanese anime, paying close attention to the first anime TV series, Astroboy (Tetsuwan Atomu). Metz and Lyotard argue that cinema generates an impression of reality through its particular economy of motion. Cel animation, in contrast, relies on a different economy of motion. This is especially the case in the specific kind of limited animation found in Japanese anime. This article focuses on the specificities of this kind of animated movement (particularly its emphasis on stillness), and the way Astroboy relied on commodity serialization to generate a particularly immersive image environment - one that set the stage for what is now known as ‘anime’.

Key Words: anime • Astroboy (Tetsuwan Atomu) • Japanese animation • manga • media mix • seriality • stillness and motion • Tezuka Osamu

Animation, Vol. 1, No. 2, 190-206 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1746847706068903


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