The idea behind focusing on these current, young-adult-focused anime is that I’d like to convey to the students that they don’t simply close read something their teacher tells them is literary, but that if they find a story compelling to watch and follow then that too is worth investigating. In other words, I hope to make the students a little more curious about what they read or view, and that engaging with this curiosity by close reading and paying attention to form and style along with content is a practice that they’ll always find rewarding.
It’s interesting that the anime so often focus on an adolescent boy, and this boy is placed in front of challenges that even the wise and aged Odysseus struggled to meet. There’s something validating in that for the students, many of whom face challenges at a young age that many adults don’t see in their entire lives.
Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin)
This series imagines a future society living in technology from the past – horse and carriage transportation, muskets and cannons, a capitalistic and autocratic society. Human society has been almost eradicated from a plague of “titans”: humanoid beasts between 5 and 15 meters tall who hungrily devour people, and the eat people alone. No one knows where they came from or why they feast on people, but the only way to destroy them – two precise slices at the base of the neck – is so difficult to execute humanity has had to resort to building walls to safeguard themselves from the titans. These three circular walls, one enclosing the other until reaching the capital city at the center, are enormous and sturdy, and the three circular walls segregate society in a class-system: areas closer to the outer walls are less safe, less desirable, and consequently poorer than those who are walled in the center of the country.
The story begins when a 60-meter titan appears and causes a breach in the outer wall. From this breach other titans pour into the city and ravage the inhabitants. The protagonist, a young boy named Eren Yeager, witnesses the death of his mother at a titan’s hands and this inspires him to join the military to fight back. After years of training, he enters the elite Ranger units and begins his work. The twist of the story is his father was a scientist studying the titans and how to destroy them, and before leaving Eren he injected him with a chemical that allows Eren himself to turn into a titan at will.
This is a complicated plot, but the anime develops it quickly and it can easily be followed. However, if this series is used for the unit (and it is perhaps one of the strongest pairings), students must see the first episode. It will be very difficult to fill in the gaps with later episodes without a working knowledge of the setting and fundamental conflict.
Pertinent Episodes:
"To You, in 2000 Years: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 1” (Ep. 1) – Sets the boundaries for the story, introduces the main characters and the titans. Includes a powerful moment where Eren witnesses the death of his mother. Defies clichés of heroism creating open expectations of what is to follow.
"I Can Hear His Heartbeat: The Struggle for Trost, Part 4" (Ep. 8) – This forms an interesting parallel with Odysseus. The titans have taken control of the armory and the soldiers desperately need supplies. Eren’s friend Armin comes up with a very clever plan to defeat the titans, but he struggles with having the confidence to propose it. The plan will put everyone’s life at risk and if any part of the plan fails all the soldiers would be in great peril. Though not the protagonist, Armin’s struggle is an interesting foil to Odysseus in the cave of Polyphemus. The viewer craves Armin to have more confidence, but Odysseus’ reckless confidence in the cave cost the lives of many men. Where is the balance? Is there a right response? These questions are rich for discussion.
Evangelion
The first episode of this classic anime series is an excellent example of an epic text, and extraordinarily useful for sparking this conversation. It begins with a boy named Shinji Ikari waiting to be picked up by a beautiful woman who has sent him a postcard with instructions. He is alone on a sidewalk in a perfectly quiet city. The woman arrives and picks him up just as a massive explosion destroys the city. An alien, known as an “Angel” has arrived from space to wreak havoc. The woman, Misato Katsuragi, takes Shinji to an organization called NERV, dedicated to fighting these angels. NERV has built an enormous mech-fighter that can destroy the alien, but only very specific people are able to fly it. Shinji fits this profile, and this is the reason the woman recruited him. Shinji displays no self-confidence and he is extremely reluctant to pilot the machine. The episode ends with Shinji deciding to pilot it anyway, but he fails and allows the angel to destroy the robot. The robot takes on a life of its own at this point and rises up to destroy the angel even with Shinji unconscious inside.
This sets up the theme of the series. It’s the story of a boy coming to know who he is in the face of extreme adversity. The first episode does an excellent job creating a high-stakes situation, constantly presenting marvelous scenes and explosive conflict. It presents the question, “What do you do when the world is ending, you’re the only one who can save it, and you are the worst possible candidate to save it.” Odysseus is strong, intelligent, and determined, but proud. Shinji is weak, reluctant, inexperienced, but he is humble. This presents an interesting contrast that should bring insights into both stories and characters when analyzed.
The following episodes in the series take a natural progression: more aliens come and they are destroyed by Shinji and a team of adolescents recruited around him. As Shinji fights he becomes more skilled, more confident, more mature. His companions, Rey Ayanami and Asuka Soryu, manifest personalities that Shinji has not developed yet, and the three of them interact in interesting ways. Asuka is a young girl who seems a perfect reflection of a young Odysseus, and Rey is all the things Shinji and Asuka want to be, yet she’s cold and lacks a fundamental element of human warmth.
Although it would be impossible to show the entire series, the ending is worth watching anyway, especially as a contrast to
The Odyssey
Book 23. An angel lands – the last of many – more powerful than any other. Taking the form of a human, it befriends Shinji, then betrays him to infiltrate NERV to secure their most powerful weapon. When Shinji enters the mech to confront him, this angel tells Shinji to kill him. The angel says he understands why Shinji must destroy him, and he finds it agreeable. Naturally, Shinji then kills the angel, claiming final victory for humankind. I don’t know if I’ve ever witness a more anticlimactic moment in any narrative I’ve read or watched. This interaction forces students to question the climax: it’s supposed to be the most intense part of the story, but this was a quick and mundane moment. This climax suggests that the conflict was not between NERV and the angels, nor Shinji and the angels, but Shinji having the confidence to do what needs to be done. In the same way, this prompts a second look at the conflict of
The Odyssey
: perhaps it isn’t really Odysseus trying to return home, but the conflict is Odysseus overcoming his vices and attaining, like Shinji, emotional maturity. The final episode of Evangelion ends with Shinji understanding that “It’s ok!” to be himself, and when he says this phrase the characters, alive and dead, appear around him and applaud. This series is useful for bringing to light how emotional development plays a role in the epic narrative.
Other Anime of Note:
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
This series follows the adventures of two brothers who have the power of alchemy: they can control the elements through magic rituals. They are trying to repair injuries done to themselves in the past while at the same time helping the people around them. This series has an outstanding first episode and a profoundly beautiful and powerful narrative arc. The series itself, at more than sixty episodes, is too large to study as a whole, but any episode can be examined both for elements of an epic narrative and its use of anime form. The artistry is direct, but there is a great deal of play with animism and hybridization that makes the series constantly interesting.
Spirited Away
Often called Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest film,
Spirited Away
follows a young girl, Chihiro, inducted into a spiritual city on an adventure to save herself and her family. The ties to
The Odyssey
are apparent in her engagement with a world of magic, monsters, and creatures with god-like power. There is a thematic parallel in that it is the character of Chihiro that allows her to escape, just as it is the poor character of her parents that trap her there.
Nausicaa
This second Miyazaki film is named after its protagonist, Nausicaa, a girl who has a deep understanding of nature in a post-apocalyptic world. Gigantic monsters exist in this world as a threat to humanity, along with mysterious spores that cause immediate sickness and death when encountered. Whereas some people wish to combat these forms of nature, Nausicaa sees a solution through understanding them. This narrative offers parallels to
The Odyssey
through the protagonist’s clear similarities and contrasts to Odysseus as well as the epic engagement with powerful monsters and numerous human enemies.
Your Name. (Kiwi No Na Wa.)
Two high school students, Mitsuha and Taki, wake up one morning to discover that they have switched bodies. This is further complicated by the fact that they live extremely different lives: Mitsuha as a girl in a rural village and Taki is a boy living in Tokyo. It lasts only for a day, and the occurrence happens unpredictably. The two students confront and then appreciate this exchange of identities, but then an unexpected catastrophe forces them to deal with an even more impossible situation. This film is a good narrative for exploring the epic genre because it begins with only small problems but then it escalates. It would be interesting to ask students to pinpoint when, exactly, this story becomes epic, and why.
Death Note
This series places a student, Light Yagami, in an extraordinary situation: he discovers a book that, when a name is written in it, will kill that person. He is given the power to kill at will and without discretion. He is joined by the book’s owner, a
shinigami
, or god of death, called Ryuk, who watches with interest to see how the boy will behave. It’s interesting because he has no vendettas, no desires for vengeance, and no desire to kill in general before receiving the book. The book acts on him, either changing him or bringing out his own true character. This story works well as a foil to Odysseus own character, as circumstances change one for the worse, and one for the better.
