Communication and Media Studies

This article examines
Japanese press coverage of Premier
Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine
from 2001-2006, and their domestic and geopolitical impact. It expands media hegemony via the concept of collective memory to examine how the visits complemented neo-nationalists’
revision of WWII via press discourses. It situates this analysis within the larger context of collective memory of the war in Japan, and engages how the press contributed to changing collective memories of the war and their significances for contemporary and future political agendas.

This paper examines the revival of postwar discourses in anime. Referring to Japanese postwar influential critic Yoshimi Takeuchi’s equivocal discourses, this paper analyzes Japanese mecha-anime “The Big O” (1999: 2003) as an exemplar of the revival of postwar thoughts in anime because some narratives and its worldview strikingly echo Japan’s postwar condition, postwar arguments and how the people felt about their society and memory of war.
The story is set in the fictional Paradigm City, a place where all residents lost their memories forty years ago after incessant belligerence. The main theme is search for memory. The denizens of Paradigm City crave but fear about the lost memory as well as the protagonist-narrator, Roger Smith, who is haunted by hallucinatory memories. The motif of memory is overall narrative arc of the series’ episodes that connote Japan’s social anxiety of war memory and Takeuchi’s oblique renditions of war. Specifically, the post-apocalyptic setting and the tacit public suggestively respond to some social condition of postwar Japan, a nation destroyed decades ago by a devastating war and plagued by social amnesia.
For casual audience, Takeuchi and “The Big O” seem irrelevant, but a close examination of the anime series reveals Japan’s contemporary social anxiety about war memory that seemingly roots in postwar ambiguous renditions about Japan’s past.


Roger Smith: “I want to know my memory.”
Gordon Rosewater: “Why are you obsessed with such intangible stuff?”
(The Big O, Episode 20, Stripes)

The past is a “ghost.”
(Takeuchi Yoshimi)"

This paper focuses on the anime series “The Big O” and the “implicit meanings” it constructs (Bordwell, 1989). We argue the series’ setting, characters and narratives offer implicit meanings about postwar Japan. More specifically, the overarching motif of memory unifies the series. The show is set in the fictional Paradigm City, a place where forty years ago all residents lost their memories. The protagonist-narrator, Roger Smith, is haunted by hallucinatory memories. Smith also has the exceptional ability, which is predicated on memories that he cannot fully remember or comprehend, to operate a giant, combat robot, Big O. The theme of memories motors most of the series’ episodes and overall narrative arc. The series’ android characters, which have different yet similar memories to humans, highlight the increasing reliance upon technology for mnemonic purposes. Memories, whether embodied in people or in androids, are rare in Paradigm, and worth a great deal. They are also critical to the efforts of organized interests who wish to dominate and control the people of Paradigm. 
Overall, the narrative of “The Big O” implies postwar Japan, a nation destroyed decades ago by a devastating war and plagued by social amnesia. The citizens of Paradigm City desire and fear memories, and this seeds struggles over technologically embodied and collective memory. Memories are manifested in communicative forms, such as androids, robots, film and newspapers. In “The Big O” the quest for memories leads to espionage, theft and destruction. The series’ narratives represent the struggles over control of memories, and therefore the meanings of the past. We discuss the representations’ implicit meanings of ideological struggles over collective memories that haunt the Japanese people like their fictional counterparts in Paradigm City.

Film review:
The film is a story about a girl’s spiritual growth and overcoming difficulties in a new life. Momo Miyaura, a sullen 11-year-old, encounters three goblins from an old Edo-era’s comic book.

Keywords: Japanese great earthquake, Japanese psychology, connectedness, Gambaro spirit