Manga and Anime Go to Hollywood

The media industries in the United States and Japan are similar in much the same way different animal species are: while a horse and a kangaroo share maybe 95% of their DNA, they're nonetheless very different animals-and so it is with manga and anime in Japanese and Hollywood animation, movies, and television. Though they share some key common elements, they developed mostly separately while still influencing each other significantly along the way. That confluence is now accelerating into new forms of hybridization that will drive much of future storytelling entertainment. Packed with original interviews with top creators in these fields and illuminating case studies, Manga and Anime Go to Hollywood helps to parse out these these shared and diverging genetic codes, revealing the cross-influences and independent traits of Japanese and American animation.

In addition, Manga and Anime Go to Hollywood shows how to use this knowledge creatively to shape the future of global narrative storytelling, including through the educational system. Northrop Davis paints a fascinating picture of the interrelated history of Japanese manga/anime and Hollywood since the Meiji period through to World War II and up to the present day - and even to into the future.

Northrop Davis is Associate Professor of Media Arts, teaching Manga/Anime Studies and Screenwriting, at the University of South Carolina, USA. As a professional screenwriter, Davis has sold projects to Warner Brothers, Fox, and Sony/Columbia studios that he wrote as screenplays, and he is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West. Among his awards and grants from the University of South Carolina, he received the prestigious Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award and in 2015 was named a Breakthrough Star, awarded to those who demonstrate ＂phenomenal commitment＂ to their fields.