EN
Japanese animation (anime) is one of the most important phenomena of contemporary popular culture. Inspirations from anime can be seen in Asian and Western feature cinema, Western animation, Western comic books and both Asian and Western video games, cultural and ideological aspects of anime and anime fandom (“otakus”) become objects of intense studies. However, as scholarly interest in anime grows, various technical and terminological difficulties become apparent, not least among them the problem of genre. Is anime a film genre or a form of animated medium, are characteristic types of anime (such as “magical girl” or “mecha”) genres, sub-genres or simply “types”? And what about classic film genres that appear in Japanese animation, like science fiction, horror, crime drama, where do they fit? These questions multiply in case of a unique and special type of Japanese animation known as “progressive anime”, paradoxical and imprecise group of works distinguished by breaking conventions, artistic, aesthetic and intellectual innovations, by turning familiar tropes and clichés on their head and, at least sometimes, presenting ideologically subversive and progressive message.