"Anime Auteurs" is an in depth look the four most important animation directors in Japanese animation history, Otomo Katsuhiro, Miyazaki Hayao, Oshii Mamoru and Kon Satoshi. Otomo’s Akira was the first anime taken seriously as art by critics, while Miyazaki, whose films include the Academy Award winning Spirited Away, is commonly considered the greatest living animation director in the world. Oshii’s cool cyberpunk vision influenced the Wachowski Brother’s Matrix and Kon’s imaginative, color saturated narratives explore the borders between fantasy and reality. Topics will include: What is an auteur? Links between anime and manga. Anime as art. Anime and Japanese society. Anime and the marketplace.