Animator Agency in Japan’s Character-Centric Media Mix

Human control over technology has become an increasingly political question. As we struggle to regain control over technology, dealing with the effects of the Anthropocene and global climate change, we are lead to ask: do we deserve to have control in the first place? Not limited to the impact on the natural environment, animate media are one more technology for which control is slipping out of human hands. Do media now animate us, and if so how do we respond? This research asks the question: what is the role of human agency in Japan’s media mix? Through an analysis of magical girl media mixes such that of Studio Trigger’s Kill la Kill, this project asks who animates who in the broader mix of animators of all kinds.

Faculty Supervisor:

Marc Steinberg

Student:

Partner:

Yokohama National University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Concordia University

Program: