Anime and Manga

In person at The Wave, Seminar Room 2

Sign up for online link by 10am on the day of the event

The Childhood and Youth cluster is delighted to co-badge this event with the Heritage and History in East Asia cluster, to welcome three contemporary researchers on transnational trends in anime and manga research, Dr Marjorie Dryburgh (University of Sheffield), Beverley Thomas (University of Sheffield) and Dr Filippo Cervelli (SOAS).

Colourful images of shōjo: magical girl anime and nostalgia the Belle

Dr Filippo Cervelli, Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature

The talk focuses on Hosoda Mamoru and Studio Chizu’s anime film Belle (Ryū to sobakasu no hime, 2021) to explore its diverse anime imagery. The film, a retelling of The Beauty and the Beast (both the original story and its film adaptations), delves deep into past cinematic traditions, evoking themes and representations in the anime history of magical shōjo (little girl) productions, especially popular in the 1970s and 1980s, in which schoolgirls would acquire magical powers and turn into beautiful (and powerful) idols loved by many. Navigating these temporal planes, Belle combines them into a nostalgic effect that resonates with contemporary trends in Japanese cultural products and society. The study of the film both vis-à-vis its own internal references, but also in light of Hosoda’s works and a broader anime history, reveals how Belle highlights, and engages with, important Japanese cultural and social imagery, proposing its own “historically conscious” way forward.

Me, Anime and Attack on Titan

Beverley Thomas, Doctoral Candidate in English

Beverley is a Black British writer of Caribbean heritage. She is passionate about short stories, poetry, and anime. She employs creative autoethnography to probe themes around Blackness that play into the tapestry of the Black experience. Beverley's diverse interests, evident in her anime choices, reflect how Black culture and experiences have a global influence. Her favourite animes, Full Metal Alchemist and Attack on Titan, both from Japanese manga series, are a testament to the influence of Black culture on global cultures. The presentation highlights the importance of the anime Attack on Titan and its influence on Black Fandom. It also explains how the story is an analogy for racism/colonialism. Lastly, it discusses how anime has enabled me to effectively understand our society and improve the way I navigate through it, thus achieving personal growth.

Fragile communities in manga memoir: Morita Kenji's My Manchuria (ぼくの満洲)

Dr Marjorie Dryburgh, Lecturer in Chinese Studies

Morita Kenji's manga memoir My Manchuria (ぼくの満洲, 2001) tracks a Japanese settler child's experience of life in Japanese-occupied Manchuria (north-east China) across the end of the Asia-Pacific War in 1945 and repatriation to Japan. The story circles, repeatedly, questions of community as these are framed in memory and marked in the memoir, and are revealed as fragile and mutable in wartime and in the postwar.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The University of Sheffield, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom