2025/11/02 by LEE Siyoon · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Japanese History and Culture #Posthumanist Ethics and Activism #Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
paper · doi:10.1080/14649373.2025.2574224
openalex publication_date 2025/11/02 · openalex created_date 2025/11/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
The purpose of this article is to investigate the significance and development of feminism in the works of Japanese animation auteur Hayao Miyazaki and to derive critical insights therefrom. Confronted with the dual challenges of an impending environmental crisis and the resurgence of senseless violent conflicts, this study asks: what lessons can be gleaned from “anime”? Drawing upon the theoretical framework of the Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory, I argue that Miyazaki conceptualizes feminism as an alternative to two catastrophic consequences of Enlightenment and instrumental reason—namely, ecological devastation and war. And his vision of feminism, I contend, is distinguished by its call for mimesis. This argument is substantiated through an analysis of three representative films—Kiki’s Delivery Service (1992), Spirited Away (2001), and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). These works illustrate the evolution of Miyazaki’s feminist imagination: from an early phase preoccupied with the representation of the female body, to a later phase that foregrounds either the journey of a girl toward becoming a mimetic subject, or the collaborative practices of boys and girls jointly engaging in mimetic modes of being. In doing so, his films transcend the limitations of corporeality and propose new modalities of relationality. In conclusion, I argue that Miyazaki’s trajectory—resonant with the perspective of Critical Theory—constitutes an invitation to critically reflect on the project of modernity while steadily enlarging the fragile yet indispensable horizon of alternative forms of life.