Lots of orientalist takes about why the animation industry in Japan ended up being so much more interesting but really it comes down to: there was a historic strike at Toei that succeeded, and a historic strike at Disney that failed

The failure of the attempts to organize Disney led directly to the Red Scare; the bleeding out of talent that followed also led to directly to the company's artistic stagnation and the repeated formula of fairytale musicals that became so tiresome in American animation

Animation in Japan started out being pretty much a copy of the American model, but the 60s were a very different time, and animators pushed for more and more control. Miyazaki first became prominent not as a director, but as a labor leader

Obviously anime is not an anarchosyndicalist paradise, there's ridiculous exploitation in the industry to this day. But the labor conflicts of the 60s set a precedent of telling different kinds of stories, of animators having more artistic control, and rising to become directors

Of the five Disney films released (or at least in preproduction) before the strike (Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi) only one had a princess. Afterwards, Disney obviously uh, lost this level of storytelling variety

And Disney lost *a lot of talent* after the strike's failure and the subsequent reign of terror. A lot of animators with Wikipedia pages, even. Is it hard to see a connection there?

The labor struggles at Toei, though, led not only to the creation of the best film the studio produced (Little Norse Prince), but also the later founding of Studio Ghibli. Mamoru Oshii, too, was active in the left, although he said he had a much more pessimistic view of it

I wish I knew more about Oshii's involvement with the left - I read an interview once where he said he came to the movement later, as he was younger than Miyazaki or Takahata, and so he witnessed more of its degeneration, and it disillusioned him (I feel ya, bro)

But it's nevertheless telling that two of the more artistically interesting anime studios, which helped shape the genre in the 80s and 90s, were founded by people with a movement background, while Disney literally sparked the Red Scare

I wasn't expecting this thread to blow up this much, corrected and clarified some points here https://twitter.com/julie_neuhouser/status/1264361977142370304

Also, if you're financially stable during this pandemic, support Mexico City sex workers at the PayPal link below