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Life and Death Boundaries Transgression in Contemporary Japanese Media Miguel Cesar s1470817 PhD in Japanese Studies The University of Edinburgh 2018 2 A miña Nai 3 4 Abstract The theme of Life and Death Boundary Transgression has appeared recurrently in Japanese discourses since the writing of the Kojiki (711-712). The theme, which deals with journeys to the land of the dead, resurrections and overall an unacceptance of death has been approached in various forms, media and context. In the Second Lost Decade (2000-2010) the theme appeared for the first time as a main structural tension in new popular culture media such as manga, anime and computer games. This PhD studies that representation of an ancient and recurrent theme through new media forms, understood as media that engage for first time the EBT conversation as their main dramatic tension. In so doing it focuses on a double meditation on the role of the theme in Japanese culture, the role of the media that support its discursive manifestation and both theme and media relation to the context. The theme of life and death boundary transgression, what I frame as Essential Boundary Transgression (EBT) is therefore understood as a dynamic human construct. It deals with and interrogates human ontologies while, simultaneously, questioning the context from where it manifests. 5 6 Lay Summary Transgression is the process of challenging a rule, a boundary and a category. It, also, allows for a full experiencing of the same laws it aims to deconstruct. The question, however, is then which boundaries are acceptable to be transgressed, and how. This thesis addresses such questions within the debate on life and death connections and limits in contemporary Japan. To do so it focuses on new forms of discourse through popular culture media. The thesis addresses these questions through three texts from different media: the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, the animation film Journey to Agartha and the computer game Shadow of the Colossus. All these examples were designed during what is called the Second Lost Decade in Japan (2000- 2010). In that landscape, the lingering crisis developed further challenges to the economic, social and cultural narratives and categories once mainstream in Japan. After a decade of rapid change and shifting boundaries these new texts interrogate the ruling categories. Some of them follow the logic of melting everything into air while others aim to find an existential bedrock from which to construct a new narrative on how to exist. In that climate, the theme of Life and Death Boundary Transgressions comes as an abstract narrativization of that project. 7 However, as abstract and disconnected from social reality as the theme of Life and Death Boundaries might seem, this thesis aims to present its relation to contextually situated debates that relate and complicate it. Therefore, by analyzing the content and construction through visual media texts of the theme this thesis studies the relation to mainstream debates in Japanese society about individualism and communalism. The individual and their role within the group take shape within debates that aim to comprehend the working of the cosmos and how this enforces particular ethical and moral systems of 21st century Japan. 8 Declaration of Originality I declare that this thesis has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any precious application for a degree. Except where stated otherwise by reference or acknowledgement, the work presented herein is entirely my own Signed……………… Date……… 9 10 Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................. 19 Death and Afterlife in Japan .................................................... 27 Japanese Secularisation ......................................................... 31 The Literary, the Narrative and the Fantastic .......................... 35 Japanese Popular Culture ...................................................... 40 The Study of Japanese New Visual Media ............................. 44 New Voices and Media in an Ancient Conversation ............... 49 Medial Analysis ............................................................................50 Visual Cultural Semiotics ..............................................................53 Narrative Discourse and Communication ......................................55 Chapter I. A Genealogy of the EBT Conversation in Japan .... 59 The Relevance of the Kojiki to the EBT Conversation ............ 60 Scholarly Approaches to the Kojiki ...............................................62 The Shamanistic Explanation .......................................................66 The Faraway Land........................................................................71 Post- Kojiki Conversations in Premodern Japan ..................... 74 The Conversation in Modern Japan ........................................ 81 Transgressing Boundaries in Postwar Japan ................................90 Contemporary Japan: Everything Solid Melts into Air ............. 93 Heisei Recession: Questioning the Iron Triangle ..........................94 1995 Disasters: Kobe Earthquake and Aum’s Terrorism ..............95 Children are Turning Strange: Kobe’s “Young A” ........................ 100 Ancient Themes,New Media ....................................................... 107 Chapter II. Transgressing Boundaries: Exile and Loneliness 113 Manga, Ontology and Phenomenology ................................. 115 Methods for the Study of Manga ........................................... 120 The Story of Fullmetal Alchemist .......................................... 125 Life and Death Transgressions in Fullmetal Alchemist ......... 127 The First Scene .......................................................................... 130 Time, Narrative and Sequence ....................................... 130 1. 2. The mise en scène ................................................. 133 The 2nd Scene ........................................................................... 136 11 Time, Narrative and Sequence ....................................... 137 1.2. Framing and Scene Visual Construction ................. 139 The 3rd Scene ............................................................................. 146 Time and Sequence ....................................................... 146 Mise en Scène ............................................................... 152 Discussion ............................................................................ 155 Alchemist in EBT Intertextuality ...................................... 155 Contemporary Debates in Alchemist’s EBT ................................ 161 Japanese Epistemology ................................................. 163 Civilization, Power and State .......................................... 168 The Individual and the Group ......................................... 170 Content and Medium .................................................................. 175 Conclusion ............................................................................ 178 Chapter III. Journey to Agartha: Transgression and Punishment .............................................................................................. 183 Journey to Agartha, Animating Transgression ...................... 186 Approaches to Animation ...................................................... 193 The story of Journey to Agartha ............................................ 195 The EBT, Rebellion Against the Order of the Universe ............... 197 EBT Polyphony, Tensions and Confrontations ............................ 198 Two Distinct Transgressions: Asuna’s and Morisaki’s .... 198 Two authorities confronted ............................................. 207 Resurrecting the Dead: the EBT in Agartha ................................ 216 The Pre-resurrection ...................................................... 218 The Resurrection ............................................................ 224 The Failure of the Resurrection ...................................... 233 Conclusion ............................................................................ 244 Chapter IV. Tragic Transgressions in Shadow of the Colossus .............................................................................................. 251 The Study of Computer Games ............................................ 254 Experiencing Transgression through Computer Games ....... 261 Analysing Transgression in Computer Games ............................ 264 Transgressing the Boundaries of Life and Death in Shadow of the Colossus