Time sense: cultural difference and the creation, construction and reception of animated film

Abstract

This dissertation explores cultural differences in animated film production, investigating the influence of the filmmaker and viewer in the creation, the construction and the sensibility of film. A notion of inter-subjective time is applied to the discussion of microscopic and macroscopic perception of animation movement via 20th century philosophers, such as Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), Henri Bergson (1859-1941), J.M.E. McTaggart (1866-1925), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) and Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). This is an exploration of scientific perspectives of time as well as an investigation of cultural differences in the intentionality and the direction of time to the discussion of international animation phenomena.

Understanding animation as an intersection of human perception, cultural and social movement, the author introduces his theoretical notion, time-sense, which is a combination of subjective and inter-subjective time, giving rise to archetype and our awareness of the quality of slowness and fastness of movement and its tracked shape, this dissertation reconsiders the influence of complex phenomenon of hybridized time-sense, and its close relationship to the microscopic movement of Japanese animation film.

Focusing on the temporal space or ma used in anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), the animated film Spirited Away (2001) and The Sky Crawlers (2008) as well as the movement of Hatsune Miku and Japanese video sharing website Nico Nico Dôga, this thesis identifies a cross-cultural/ intercultural time theory in search of more specific understanding of differences and similarities between cultures particularly as it relates to animation.