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Compositional analysis serves as an excellent benchmark for evaluating the artistic qualities of Hentai, Japanese cartoon art. Compositional analysis proves to be an effective method of evaluation as an art connoisseurship. On the other hand, compositional analysis is inherently weak for critical visual literacy purposes. This method fails to identify Hentai as Japanese erotica because compositional analysis does not allow the viewer to consider economic, social, political, and historical aspects behind the creation of an image which would provide for a richer analysis.
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This paper will use compositional analysis to evaluate the image of the schoolgirls. The purpose in using this method is to demonstrate how it fails to evaluate this image properly. Compositional analysis concentrates on one image at a time and examines only the site of the image in order to understand its significance (Rose, 2001). Compositional analysis pays more attention to compositional modality (Rose). This method will not allow for the consideration of images shown before or after in a sequence nor will it allow for consideration of social implications behind the image.
According to Grigsby (1998), the Japanese people view Japanese cartoon art as a means of removing themselves from the usual constraints of Japanese society. Japanese cartoon art articulates points of friction and tension that cannot be expressed in the culture elsewhere. Japanese anime, manga, and hentai become a series of "collective symbolic systems" of different elements within society where culture collides (Grigsby). Grigsby brings to light that the Japanese written language is based on ideograms, which are symbols that denote tangible objects, an abstract concept, emotion, or action. Hence, the Japanese are accustomed to "reading" pictures and Japanese anime, manga, and hentai are no exception (Grigsby). The Japanese who read manga indicate that manga-Japanese comic books-are like dreams. Therefore, Japanese manga consumers are reading the symbolism of dreams (Grigsby). The problem with compositional analysis is that this method only assesses the quality of only one piece of artwork without considering, images that came before or after in the gallery of images and ignores social, economic, political and historical implications behind the artwork. Therefore, compositional analysis fails to reveal that anime, hentai, and manga are making statements in a repressed society.
There are three genre of Japanese cartoon art. The names are used synonymously by the West with a complete disregard of their intended definitions. According to Wikipedia (2005), Manga is the Japanese word for comics and/or cartoons that are not animated. The closest equivalent is the comic book in Western culture. Anime is art in motion or animated art, similar to Family Guy here in America even though the look and production of the artwork is completely different. The image of the schoolgirls can easily be mistaken for Manga or Anime because the characteristics are the same for Manga, Anime, and Hentai. The trademark characteristics of the artwork are "stylized colorful images with vibrant characters" (Wikipedia, 2005). Japanese cartoon characters often have features similar to Western Europeans and their main trademark characteristic is "large, saucer-like eyes" (Wikipedia). This feature allows characters to better express their emotions. The image of the two schoolgirls is actually of the genre hentai. Hentai is a Japanese word, which means "abnormal" or "perverted" (Wikipedia). The Japanese usually use this word to refer to a person and not an object. When referring to this type of artwork, the Japanese use words such as juhachikin; prohibited for sale to persons under 18, eroanime; derived from erotic anime, or seinen; adult, not to be confused with young adult (Wikipedia). The image I intend to analyze may actually belong to a subgenre of Hentai called Lolicon, which includes girls who are depicted as being below the age of consent (Wikipedia). Whether this image actually fits into this genre will be determined in paper three by means of a more sophisticated visual methodology known as semiology. Many questions related to compositional analysis will be unanswerable because Internet web sites rarely provide full documentation on images, especially for adult erotica.
Hentai images are typically poorly documented unless they come from a main stream television series. The web site Hentai Town at http://amber-land.com/hentai/ does not inform the viewers of the image's provenance. The audience of this web site is unlikely to be art connoisseurs. Hentai Town does not inform the viewer as to who commissioned this image. Most likely a Japanese graphic arts studio commissioned the image, but the possibility does exist that an American studio may have commissioned it. There is no indication of the artist or the owner of the image. The graphics arts studio that commissioned the image probably also owns the rights to.
Judging by the texture and colors, the artist drew the outlines in black ink on paper, then colored in the space with acrylic paint using a paintbrush. If the image is an animation cel, then the ink outline on paper was transferred to a thin, clear sheet of plastic called a cel. Years ago, animation studios transferred the artwork to a clear celluloid, but now acetate is used (Wikipedia, 2005). The outline of the drawing is then inked or photocopied onto the cel, and gouache or acrylic paint is used on the reverse side of the cel to add color in the appropriate shades.
The subject matter of the image is obvious, but superbly done. The viewer sees two schoolgirls doing homework at a table or maybe a desk. Judging from the bookcase behind the girls, the room could be a bedroom, living room or a study. The two girls may be the same age or of different ages. The schoolgirls may be sisters, stepsisters or classmates. From the gaze of the two girls, there appears to be two things going on in the room at the same time that have caused them to look up from the book or notebook they are working with. The girl with blue hair is staring directly at us with an expression of either surprise or recognition, as though a household member has walked into the room: a sibling, a parent, or a relative. Judging from the position of the blue-haired girl's index finger on the notebook, she must have been explaining something to the brown-haired girl when the person walked in. However, the brown-haired girl is gazing forty-five degrees to the left and away from us. The brown-haired girl could be observing the actions of a pet dog that has gotten excited over the arrival of the new person into the room. This drawing is a contemporary image. The absolute dead giveaway is the design of the disposable mechanical pencil in the brown-haired girl's right hand. The pencil has painstaking detail. The artist may have placed the pencil in the image to act as an artifact that will permanently date the image. The dress and hairstyles of the girl's are also contemporary, but without a doubt, the mechanical pencil specifically dates the image. Judging from the furniture, the bookcase, the windowsill, and the plant, this is probably a middle-class home in Western culture. The facial features of the two girls are Caucasian and probably of Western European decent. I would place the ages of the girls are somewhere around eight to ten for the brown-haired girl and eleven to thirteen for the blue-haired girl. I base my age estimations on the girls' style of dress, on the fact that they are doing homework, and the innocence reflected in their eyes.
The dominant color hues in the image are white, browns, blues, gold, and flesh. Other colors such as black, red, pink and green are also used, but these do not dominate the image. According to Lorh (2003) colors have psychological associations. Whites symbolize purity and truth (Lohr). Browns are associated with earth and reliability (Lohr). Shades of blue are associated with serenity, tranquility, dependability, and constancy (Lohr). Orange and gold with blue act as complimentary colors in the image (Lohr). The black top and the gold jumper on the blue-haired girl create a wonderful contrast, as does the blues on the brown-haired girl in contrast to the white walls of the room. The image uses warm colors such as white, gold, brown, and cool colors such as blue creating a beautiful contrast. The liberal application of warm and cool colors makes the image three-dimensional. The warm colors advance out of the space, while the cool colors recede into the image. The use of black and gold on the blue-haired girl plus the fact that she is standing seems to indicate that she is the dominant girl in the relationship and the girl with the brown hair dressed in blue is the subordinate.
The saturation or chroma of the colors creates strong a contrast as would be expected in cartoon art. The high saturation of color in the girls' eyes, hair, and clothing brings the girls into the foreground of the image. The browns of the desk and the bookcase cause these objects to recede into the foreground leaving the girls as the prime subject in the image.
The values of the colors used are vivid, intense, and bright on the girls' clothing, eyes and hair. The flesh tones of the girls also have high color values in order to bring out their faces in the image and serves to highlight the girls.
The vanishing point of this image is high which creates depth in the image and makes the room seem larger than it really is. The viewer can find the vanishing point by extending lines off the horizontal portions of the window frame and the bookcase. The vanishing point ends up being the center of the girl gazing at us. Her face also happens to be the focal point of the entire image. The schoolgirls are on the same eye level as the viewer. This places the viewer in a position of equality and creates a sense of intimacy with the girls. Based on this observation, the person who walked in the room may be of the same age as the girls and not an adult as previously thought.
The logic of configuration is straight on with the image and is dictated by the eyes of the girl with blue hair. Another indicator is if the viewer moves either left or right, the blue-haired girl's eyes follow the viewer. The blue-haired girl views the viewer, not the other way around. This makes for a powerful image.
The light in this image is bright, crisp, and clean. All of the light in the image is natural light coming in from the window on the left. The time of day is probably just after the children come home from school, around three in the afternoon. From the crispness of the light it is most likely a bright sunny day outside. The artist has captured the shadows correctly and has done a fabulous job in accenting them. The viewer knows the light source is from the left by the shadows and duller tones on the right of the children's clothing. The shadows are crucial in this image as they add a sense of realism to the image. The light is also used to highlight the girls' faces, hair, and clothes.
The expressive content of the image is one of warmth, and intimacy creating a homey feeling. The light and the expression in the blue-haired girl's eyes all contribute to these feelings. From the girl's expression, the viewer receives a feeling that they are the individual the girl is pleasantly surprised to see. She invites us into the room and seems to engage us in the girls' activities.
Compositional interpretation as a method of analysis is excellent for the purpose of evaluating one image for its artistic value. According to Rose (2005), "images do not exist in a vacuum" (p. 37), this particular image is no exception. From the analysis all that has been determined is that the image of the two schoolgirls is a superb example Japanese cartoon art. The problem is compositional interpretation only analyses one image at a time and does not allow the analyst to consider all the images within the gallery of Hentai Town. In addition, as Rose (2005) said, compositional analysis also "neglects the ways in which they [images] are produced and interpreted through particular social practices" (p. 37). Also, compositional interpretation ignores ideologies associated with the image. Compositional interpretation fails to uncover the dark secret of this innocent looking image as being adult erotica.
Adams, J. (1999). Of mice and manga: Comics and graphic novels in art education. Journal of Art & Design Education, 18 (1). Retrieved October 27, 2005, from Academic Search Premier. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=4407951
Jeff Adams argues for the inclusion of the Japanese art form, Manga, to be included in visual literacy studies because of its social, political, and historical implications. This paper makes no contribution to the compositional analysis, but will contribute to the next paper involving semiology analysis of the same image.
Anime. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime
The description of anime in Wikipedia provides details on how this artwork is created. Wikipedia provided an excellent explanation for the purpose of the oversized eyes characterizing this art form. I was already aware that the words anime, hentai, and manga existed, but did not understand how the three differed. This entry led to consulting the entries of hentai and manga. The entry provides a wealth of information that will be useful for the third paper also.
Barthes, R. (1984). Mythologies (A. Lavers, Trans.). New York: Hill and Wang.
Barthes discusses how the bourgeoisie right wing forms mythology and how myth relates to semiology. This paper makes no contribution to my second paper. Barthes' paper will prove to be useful for the third paper.
Bolton, C. A. (2002). From wooden cyborgs to celluloid souls: Mechanical bodies in anime and Japanese puppet theater. Positions, 10 (3), 729-772. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from Academic Search Premier. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=8699572
Discusses the parallels between the anime film "Ghost in the Shell," airing on Adult Swim, Cartoon Channel, and Japanese Puppet Theater. This paper made no contribution to the second paper. The semiology discussed in this paper may or may not prove useful for the third paper.
Chalmers, S. (2001, August). Tolerance, form and female dis-ease: The pathologisation of lesbian sexuality in Japanese society. Intersections. Retrieved October 27, 2005, http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue6/chalmers.html
This paper discusses how the Japanese government does not acknowledge lesbianism by pushing women towards the ideal of 'Japanese womanhood': acquired first by getting married with the 'natural' second step of having children. . This paper makes no contribution to the second paper. I am not clear if this paper will contribute to the third paper. Chalmer's bibliography may make a contribution.
Flanagan, M. (n.d.). Mobile identities, digital stars, and post cinematic selves. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/wide_angle/v021/21.1flanagan.html
Flanagan discusses how Lara Croft, a computer generated action heroine in the computer action game series Tomb Raider, has become the most successful heroin for female and male audiences in the short history of computer gaming. Croft's success according to Flanagan can be attributed to the viewpoint of the game. The gamer does not operate Croft like a puppet but becomes Croft at times or acts as Croft's comrade. Croft behaves as object and subject. Within this game, sign, signifier, and signified become blurred, which has attributed to Croft's success. Flanagan's paper adds nothing to this paper, but may add to the third paper on semiology.
Grigsby, M. (1998). Sailormoon: Manga (comics) and anime (cartoon) superheroine meets Barbie: Global entertainment commodity comes to the United States. Journal of Popular Culture, 32 (1), 59-80.
Grigsby establishes the fact that Japanese writing is formed from ideograms or symbols, so the Japanese are well verse in reading signs and symbolism. Japanese cartoon art is actually a form of social discourse. The Japanese read manga as though they are dreams which psychologically pacify the Id. Japanese cartoon art allows the reader to escape from repressive Japanese cultural norms.
Hentai. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentai
This entry provided a wealth of founding information on the Japanese adult cartoon art form. As Westerners, we consider it pornography, while the Japanese consider this art form as a release for the id (Freud's psychology). Wikipedia also describes the sub-genres of the art form.
Kleinhans, C. (2004). Virtual child porn: The law and the semiotics of the image. Journal of Visual Culture, 3 (1), 17-34.
Kleinhans discusses United States Supreme Court rulings on child pornography. Kleinhans cites the Supreme Court's philosophies as to why anime, manga, and hentai are not considered child porn even when the artwork obviously depicts a child. Kleinhans' paper makes no contribution to this paper. This paper will make significant contributions to the third paper.
Lohr, L. L. (2003). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Chapter six of this book helped me to explain the use of color in the image. Lohr helped to fill in the blanks where G. Rose was vague in applying hue, saturation, and value as it applied to the image. Lorh also helped in describing the causes of depth in the image. Lorh contributed significantly to the compositional interpretation.
Manga. (2005). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga
This entry cleared up the confusion of the Japanese words anime, manga, and hentai. Manga is a Japanese comic book. Japanese comic books differ from ours in that manga can be printed books thousands of pages long versus being a series with a few pages per issue. One way manga differs is that only the first frame will be color. Subsequent frames are drawn in black and white. Many will not have text as it is the series of images that tell the story.
Pennington, E. (2000, Summer-Fall). When escape is a trap: The gendered construction of identity in Japan. SAIS Review, 197-205.
Pennington discusses Anne Allison's book, Permitted and Prohibited Desires: Mothers, comics, and Censorship in Japan. Allison discusses how pornographic manga reinforces the existing social structure and reproduces the aims of the state. Therefore, Japanese cartoon art is not necessarily a liberator as some of the other papers have argued, but actually is an alternate form of social control. Pennington's article makes no contributions to this paper. Pennington's article has revealed a source of information that will significantly contribute to paper three in semiology.
Petty, G. (2004). Sexuality in American and Japanese comic books. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://academia.memory-motel.net/grad/comicsexuality.pdf
Petty discusses how Japanese manga targeted for teen age reader's works through adolescent sexuality while the American comic industry ignores the topic and considers it taboo. On a larger scope, Petty discusses how differently Japanese and American society differ in their views about sex and sexuality. Petty's paper makes no contribution to this paper, but will make contributions to the third paper.
Pointon, S. (n.d.). Orgasm as apocalypse: Urotsukidoji: The legend of the overfiend. New Zealand Writers Guild. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://www.nzwritersguild.org.nz/overfiend.html
Pointon discusses the pornographic amine film, Urotsukidoji 2: The Birth of the Overfiend. This film falls into the sub-genre of tentacle sex. Pointon cites that the film is actually a Japanese political commentary. The tentacle demons represent the United States political policy towards Japan since World War II and the helpless female victims represent Japanese society's fear of cultural imperialism.
Poitras, G. (1999). The anime companion: What's Japanese in Japanese animation? Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.
Poitras' book is an alphabetized dictionary type reference book that explains many of the symbols, persons, places, and things that are familiar to Japanese viewer but mean nothing to Westerners. Poitras takes the references one step further and indicates in which anime films and episodes the symbolism is used. For those who own these films, the Western viewer may now watch the films again and read the visual symbols used throughout the amine. Poitras' book is not useful for this paper, but may prove useful for paper three.
Rose, G. (2001). Visual Methodologies. London: Sage Publications.
Rose provides the methodology and foundation for conducting the Compositional analysis. Rose also points out the advantages and disadvantages of using this methodology for analyzing images. This book is the primary resource for this paper.
Untitled. (n.d.) Hentai Town. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://www.amber-land.com/hentai/2/CAM027.jpg
Hentai Town provided the image to be analyzed.
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