The “Lost” Miyazaki: How a Swiss Girl Can Be Japanese and Why It Matters

Abstract

In the United States, anime is often branded as a quintessentially Japanese genre whose attractiveness to foreign audiences comes from its mix of exoticism and universal human values. Some animated texts do not, however, easily fit this characterization. One example is the series Heidi, Girl of the Alps, which spread to some 35 countries starting in the late 1970s. This article explores the consequences of scholars' failure to engage with Heidi despite its significance as an extremely globally influential text and an exemplar of Miyazaki's early work. Exploring how Heidi resonates with dimensions of Japanese culture and of Miyazaki's oeuvre, it demonstrates how "reclaiming" Heidi can help us develop a more sophisticated understanding of transcultural dynamics under conditions of globalization.

The Influence of Place Attachment, Ad-Evoked Positive Affect, and Motivation on Intention to Visit: Imagination Proclivity as a Moderator

“…The study context is the Swiss Alps, the setting of Johanna Spyri’s well-known novel Heidi . Heidi is a fictional character from the popular animated cartoons Heidi, a Girl of the Alps (Darling-Wolf 2016). The famous anime TV series, inspired by Spyri’s novel, was produced in the 1970s and included 52 episodes.…”

“…Van Staden (2011) compared the adaptation of Heidi in Japan and South Africa and examined the series’ impact on South Africans’ image of Europe. In another study, Darling-Wolf (2016) explored the influence of the Japanese cartoon animator (Miyazaki) on the Swiss character’s traits. Other studies address Heidi ’s implications for the Swiss Alps as a tourist destination.…”

A Pokébalancing Act: The Management Of Japanese Cultural “odor” In Pokémon

“…Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are held up as exemplar producers of Japanese cinema, having been awarded many international awards for such anime films as Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro (Boyd & Nishimura, 2004;Darling-Wolf, 2016;Hagiwara, 2006;Napier, 2005b;Wu, 2016). Pokémon and its success demonstrate that this Japanese-ness can be, and is, managed by producers and editors in order to make programs more appealing to international audiences.…”

Not just sheer pleasure: Critiquing animations and their scope in children’s socialisation

“…Heidi, Girl of the Alps is marked by a stark refusal to acknowledge the darker ramifications of nature, and instead focuses more upon the glorification of nature's sense of brightness and optimism. Darling-Wolf (2016) 2016). This idea helps the narrative (re)position Heidi as "a child of the mountain", from "Whistle Louder" (Radical Moose, 2016c, 23:25), and identify her spiritual maturity as a journey divided into four distinct phases.…”

“…However, the reactions of Rottenmeier to Heidi's 'otherness' may lead us to conclude that this narrative-interaction is designed in a way that it evokes the 'city-pastoral' dichotomy. This dichotomy (1) appears as a key aspect in Miyazaki's oeuvre and (2) serves the purpose of 'glorifying nature', while apprehending 'the dystopian, modern city' (Darling-Wolf, 2016), reconnecting the 'Miyazaki-girl' to stand as a metaphor for untouched, hidden nature. Heidi's position as a metaphor for nature helps explain Alm-Onji's fear of Heidi's purported, consequential loss of innocence or emotional purity, after Aunt Dete threatens to take Heidi away to Frankfurt in "Separate Ways" (Radical Moose, 2016e, 7:14).…”