MAY THE LOVE BE WITH YOU: FROM THE JOY OF LIFE TO THE TRANSCENDENCE OF EXISTENCE IN TAKAHATA ISAO’S ANIMATION WORKS

Abstract

From Ponpoko: The Heisei Tanuki War (1994), through My Neighbours, the Yamadas (1999), and until The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013), the animation movies directed by the reputed animation director Takahata Isao (1935-2018) and released by Studio Ghibli since mid-1990s address the phenomenon of “life” as a meaningful endeavour towards attaining higher levels of human awareness. This occurs either by living in accordance with the flow of history, or by enjoying every moment as it comes, or, respectively, by delving into cosmic rhythms of imponderability: every single entity of existence delivers significance and comprehension, as displayed on multiple layers in the three animation works analyzed in this paper. Thus, in a phenomenological approach inspired by Julia Kristeva’s monumental publication La Révolution du langage poétique (1974) which views cultural products as mirroring channels of repression (Verdrängung) and desire (Begehren), the analysis draws on an anthropological framework in which the researcher functions as a dynamic, self-reflexive interface mediating between the self-ness of the theoretical structure (here: life and the quest for its significance) and the other-ness of the representation medium (here: Japanese animated works).