art animation?

[Aaron Gerow]

Just a quick note, but Nishimura Tomohiro gave an interesting talk at  
the JASIAS conference yesterday somewhat related to this discussion.  
First, while he noted the appearance of the term "animation" from  
before the 1950s--and also mentioned its use with McLaren--he also  
argued that it was primarily through the popularity of the "Animeshon  
sannin no kai" in the 1960s that the term became public knowledge and  
came to denote a genre. His more provocative argument was that  
animation as a generic concept did not exist in the prewar, in the  
sense that the genre of manga eiga was not defined by the process of  
frame-by-frame animation, but by the resulting images, which made it  
possible for public discourse, for instance, to include live action  
ningyo eiga or kagee eiga in the category of manga eiga. He argues the  
concept of defining the genre by the process, not by the result, is a  
phenomenon that occurs from the late 50s with the rise of Toei Doga  
and animators trying to differentiate themselves from that.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
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Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
site: www.aarongerow.com