Dynamics of the Differently Abled In Anime: Comparative Study Of A Silent Voice And Josee, The Tiger And The Fish

Abstract

This paper will attempt to explore the representation of disability in anime. It will be doing a comparative study of the two anime movies A Silent Voice and Jose, the Tiger and the Fish.  In both the movies, the female protagonists are suffering from different disabilities and the movies present their way of accepting and learning to live with that in different manners. Both protagonists faced various struggles in their daily life and had help from their friends and family.   Also, the paper will keep in consideration that both movies are first of all love stories so the analysis will consider the role played by the male protagonists in the two movies. While there are many similarities in the two movies, the most prominent difference has to be the fact that one male protagonist actually started as the bully while the other was kind, if not slightly indifferent, to the female protagonist. But apart from the multi-dimensional characters in the two movies, the paper will also pay attention to the background of the scene and try to unravel the issues of accessibility taken up in the films. There are different locations depicted in the movies and the accessibility differs in every location. The movies not only explore the physical but also the mental and emotional torment of the protagonists via multiple symbols and imagery. This paper, thus, intends to critically compare and contrast these two movies.