Week 9: Samurai Remix
This week, in addition to continuing to work on our research papers, we will further our discussions of reinterpretations and reimaginings of the samurai in anime. Certainly an iconic historical entity within premodern Japanese society, the anime series that we have watched thus far--Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai--have nonetheless demonstrated for us that we might see other folks than those who are overtly racialized as "Japanese" occupying positions in these narratives.
This week, we will continue our dissection of race within series that present samurai as a central feature of their narrative development. Whilst we previously saw a fairly positive portrayal of Okinawan identity in relation to "Japanese-ness" in the form of Mugen, here we will look at another manifestation of the Okinawan Other in the form of the character, Usui in Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin. Whereas Mugen wore his alterity as a badge of the "cool," Usui might be seen to occupy a space of a more problematical articulation of racial difference. Some of the very things that may strike an audience as "quaint," "interesting," or "hip" about Mugen, might be interpreted as "ominous," "dangerous," "and malevolent" when embodied by Usui.
So we interrogate depictions of the Other in this context, and may find ways that these counterexamples may serve as meaningful points of analysis for folk interested in researching Okinawan identity. Meanwhile, I also want you guys to be looking at Molasky and Rabson's introduction to the collection Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa. This will give us some meaningful historical context for our discussions.
This week, we will continue our dissection of race within series that present samurai as a central feature of their narrative development. Whilst we previously saw a fairly positive portrayal of Okinawan identity in relation to "Japanese-ness" in the form of Mugen, here we will look at another manifestation of the Okinawan Other in the form of the character, Usui in Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin. Whereas Mugen wore his alterity as a badge of the "cool," Usui might be seen to occupy a space of a more problematical articulation of racial difference. Some of the very things that may strike an audience as "quaint," "interesting," or "hip" about Mugen, might be interpreted as "ominous," "dangerous," "and malevolent" when embodied by Usui.
So we interrogate depictions of the Other in this context, and may find ways that these counterexamples may serve as meaningful points of analysis for folk interested in researching Okinawan identity. Meanwhile, I also want you guys to be looking at Molasky and Rabson's introduction to the collection Southern Exposure: Modern Japanese Literature from Okinawa. This will give us some meaningful historical context for our discussions.