Anime as Amusement

Abstract

Though not explicitly articulated as “amusement” within animation, Thomas Lamarre’s discussion of the traditional propensity of animation to be associated with a form of comedic “play” fits well with anime’s inherent tendency to evoke tropes of visual amusement (Lamarre, 2006: 161 – 163). Drawing on some of the seminal commentary on animation from Paul Wells, we can suggest that this proclivity arguably stems from the pure “novelty” of animated figures — shapes and forms that metamorphosize and defy the conventions of mass and velocity on a routine basis (for a particularly detailed discussion of this see for example Wells, 2009: 69 – 76). As discussed earlier, Lamarre is correct to identify the infusion of 3D design in anime production as transforming the potential of this hybrid “cinema anime” to in fact subvert and subsume cinema as we know it, presenting on occasion works that are worthy of association with the epitome of tragic expression as opposed to the comedic.