Kosmorama Goes Kawaii

Aug 17

A seminar at the Kosmorama International Film Festival, Trondheim, Norway, March 7, 2018.

Kosmorama Goes Kawaii

Join us as we focus on Japan’s most fuzzy and friendly export: the pastel-hued world of kawaii. First, we will screen Kamikaze Girls, the story of an unlikely friendship between Lolita-fashion girl Momoko and Ichigo, a member of an all-girl biker gang. Next, we focus on kawaii in anime. We will show how kawaii has an increasingly important presence in Japanese anime, and how kawaii influences anime in other countries. Finally, we offer a selection of kawaii clips drawn from recent music videos, commercials, and live performances to demonstrate the spread of kawaii across multiple media genres.

The kawaii aesthetic, which goes back at least 900 years in Japan, is significantly different from the cute aesthetic in Western countries.KosmoramaGoes Kawaii will outline the history and development of kawaii in Japan from ancient times to the present: in art, literature, fashion, manga, and, of course, anime and film. Audience participation is welcome during the discussions and Q&A, and we embrace kawaii fashion and self-presentation as well!

Curated by Joshua Paul Dale. Panel members: Julia Leyda, Guri Ellen Hanem, Øyvind Itoc Kalsveen, Ellen Margrethe Olsen and Joshua Paul Dale