Anime, Anima and Animus

3rd Akira's Nightmare Animation Scriptwriting : Understanding Anime Part 1

Carl Jung, a psychologist noted for analytic psychology, postulated an unconscious structure that represented the cross-sexual part of the psyche of each individual. He referred to this structure as the anima for men and the animus for women. The anima or the animus is not the conscious male or female self-image. Rather, it serves as a focus for all psychological material that does not fit with an individual's conscious self-image as a woman or as a man.

In character construction, sex and sexuality are among the important components in determining a character's behavior. A character has its own conscious self-image of a masculine hero. But at the same time, his anima may include qualities that do not fit this conscious self-image. The same holds true for women.

The dynamics of anima or animus is clearly exhibited in the Disney Feature Mulan. Wherein, the principal character's conscious self-image of a woman differs from her unconscious self-image. Here lies the conflict of the material, a character that challenges an existing social order that affects gender in terms of actions and activities.

In Mulan's case, she has a definitive image of a man imprinted in her unconscious called the archetype. Oriented towards inner processes, this archetype is one of the most influential regulators of behavior that mediates between unconscious and conscious processes. It contains all the ancestral experiences of a male or a female and impression made by man or woman. The archetype manifests itself through dreams and fantasies as figures of the opposite sex.

An individual's relationship with the opposite sex affects the development of the anima or animus. Mulan's father, for instance, influenced Mulan's animus. Thus, as Mulan defines herself in feminine terms, her animus, will include disjointed tendencies and experiences that she defined as masculine.

As this disjointed tendencies and experiences mix with this conscious feminine definition, the idea of a feminine warrior emerges from the psyche. Mulan is able to reconcile the masculine warrior fighting skills with the feminine touch. Therefore, the quality of a fragile feminine form becomes an advantage because it conceals the masculine warrior fighting skills in the battlefield.

The dynamics of the anima or animus is a feature often observed in eastern animation materials. Mulan, as an eastern animation material is a good example for this observation. Often, we observe Anime characters that engage in cross-sexual dynamics in terms of emotional and physical form and function. A hero may look masculine but does feminine functions. Or a heroine may look fragile and reserve but kills people in cold blood. We do not see this, in general, in western animation where male and female stereotypes tend to dominate the western psyche.

Perhaps this is the reason why Anime materials tend to go beyond gender boundaries. Men and women are able to relate with the same hero or heroine because of this cross-sexual dynamic. What we have is a situation wherein characters have features that appeal to both women and men and at the same reconcile gender aversions and transforms them into attractions.

Getting to know your character, in terms of animus or anima, is a good way of understanding its psyche. The more we are familiar with the psyche, the more efficient we are able to determine the character's behavior relative to the human actions and activities. Anime, animus and anima, cross-sexual dynamics that often create interesting characters that capture the hearts and minds of both men and women.