Investigation On Japanese Animation Industry

As a form of art, animation is highly dependent on scientific technology, its emergence and development is inextricably associated with the popularization of film technology. In1906, Humorous Phases of Funny Faces taken by an American Blackton first presented animation to the audience, and opened a prelude to the creation of animation. In1937, Snow White produced by Disney Animation Company brought animation into the era of full-length animation. Meanwhile, it also opened the business model of animation. In the1960s, with the emergence of television media, animation got rid of the shackle of watching movies in the theatre, and provided a new arena for its development. In the21st century, as the core component of the cultural industry, cartoon has become the key direction of the strategic transformation of European and American economic powers.Along with the rapid economic growth of China, the status of animation in our social life and national economy has also undergone some significant changes. The issue of the Promotion Plan for Cultural Industry in2009marks that the cultural industry including animation industry has become a new driving force to promote the sustained economic development of China, and the animation industry has entered a new era of rapid growth. As the emerging country of world animation industry, in2010, China’s animation production surpassed that of Japan, and became the largest animation producer in the world. But compared with the traditional animation powerhouse, due to weak industrial base, lack of experience, there is still a gap between China’s animation production and that of other animation powerhouse, either from the quality of the work or its influence. Thus, how to effectively borrowed advanced experience from foreign countries has become the key to our industrial development at the moment.In today’s world cartoon field, the United States, Japan, and South Korea are regarded as the three major powers of the world animation. American animation industry is mainly about film animation, relies on digital imaging technology, and focuses on the development of the commercial value of animation; whilst Japan’s animation industry considers TV animation as the core, forms Cartoon-Animation-Game (ACG) industry chain, occupies half of the world animation market, and emphasizes the cultural propagation effects of animation; whereas, Korean animation industry is mainly about game development, and places emphasis on the leading effect of animation on overall industry.This dissertation starts from the animation development in Japan, combines with the analysis of cultural origins, industrial base, and the performance of the works from different perspectives, analyzes its characteristics of each stage and its successful experience, in combination with the current development of China’s industry, which has a positive significance for the future development of China’s animation industry.Japan’s animation production originated from1917. The establishment of the Toei animation corporation in1956marked its formation of industry. In the developmental process of the past century, Japan’s animation started from scratch, from weak to strong, from fully mimic to leading the trend of the world animation, and its characteristics in each phase were different. This study divides Japanese animation industry into four stages from the perspective of industry, namely, the germination period (1917-1956), the establishment period (1956-1974), the rising period (1974-1995), and the mature period (1995-). In the cross-sectional study on these four stages, this dissertation analyzes its features in different periods from four aspects such as animation characters, the era property of animation, industrial pattern, and cultural expressiveness. In this part of study, according to the relevant historical data and the performance of the works, this dissertation introduces representative animators in different historical stages, analyzes the ever-increasing phenomenon of animation properties from a single educational attributes to the commercial, social, and political attributes. It also discusses the evolutionary forms of industrial models in different periods, and proves that Japanese animation shows different characteristics of localization culture, world culture, blending culture, and ethnic culture in different times.Based on the transverse study, this dissertation is divided into four chapters with four above-mentioned characteristics as the research core. In Chapter two, three clues that affect animated characters are identified, that is, the association between animation and cartoon, the style of Japanese animation and the humanity features of the works. Based on this, this chapter also analyzes the animation concept, style and works performance of the iconic figures in contemporary Japanese animation---Hayao Miyazaki, Mamoru Oshii and Katsuhiro Otomo. Besides, this chapter points out the existing problems of talented angle of Japanese animation at the current stage, as well as its negative influence to the industrial development. In Chapter three, three factors that affect the properties of Japanese animation are proposed, i.e., audience factors, economic factors, and political factors. On this basis, this chapter analyzes the evolution process of contemporary Japanese animation properties, and provides relevant proof on the performance of its transmission and diplomatic role. Meanwhile, the existing problems and influences of talents are also analyzed. In Chapter four, the strengths and weaknesses of financial model, structural system, and derivative development of current Japanese animation industry are analyzed from the developmental process of creation mode, transmission media, and derivative development links carding industrial models. In Chapter five, the significance of the concepts of sticking to the original models, drawing from others’models and integrating different models on the cultural expressions are investigated, and the cultural connotation of the contemporary Japanese animation is elucidated with the religious consciousness, the spirit of Bushido and aesthetic performance as the core, and referential content are pointed out.As an important component of the cultural industries, animation industry is interdisciplinary. In the course of the study, it regards history and culture industry as the core, integrates theories and content of the different disciplines of economics, management, law, public relations, and has the characteristics of comprehensive study. Animation industry makes use of comparative study method, empirical analysis, and the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis in the research, under the ideological guidance of application of theory into practice, it strives to explore the historical features of the Japanese animation industry via empirical study. Moreover, the practical significance of Japanese animation in the economic, political, cultural dissemination is found by the combination of horizontal analysis and vertical carding. On this basis, its successful experience and existing problems are explored by starting from normalizing class disciplines, and the referential significance to China’s animation industry are identified.This study mainly reflects the following aspects of innovation under the premise of integrating multi-disciplinary research. Firstly, research ideas and methods in this dissertation inherit the style of Japanese scholars who emphasize the history of animation industry, and combine with the relevant study of domestic scholars. Based on interdisciplinary, this study put forward the comparison of animation industry in China and Japan, and also come up with the relevant references and enlightenment, so as to make use of the results of Japanese research and Chinese research methods to identify and solve problems; secondly, from the academic perspective, in the degree thesis, although the research on the characteristics of Japanese animation industry has already existed in China’s MA thesis, but in the doctoral thesis, this study takes the lead; thirdly, in the research on animation properties, this study is the first to put forward the social attributes of the animation, although this characteristics has been mentioned in Japanese study, it has not aroused the attention from the academic circle, and it has only been regarded as a "social phenomenon", meanwhile, the comprehensive study on animation properties is innovative in the domestic academia. This study first proposed the division of animator property, development analysis and industrial influence of Japanese animation in the domestic and overseas academic circles.During the developmental course of Japanese animation from weak to strong, the characteristics of the different stages are serialized into the history of the Japanese animation industry, its successful experience and shortcomings are undoubtedly a kind of experience reference and enlightenment to China who is devoted to vigorously developing the cultural industry. Therefore, this study integrates the analysis of the successful experience of Japanese animation industry, and has a positive significance in the future development of China’s animation industry.