The Organization of Perception: Narrative, Technology, and Imperial Fantasy in Japanese Sci-Fi Anime

Abstract

Science fiction (SF) anime flourished in Japan during the 1970s and 1980s. This thesis discusses why this specific genre flourished in the era when grand narratives shrank and the reality was reconstructed. It focuses on two case studies: Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) and Megazone 23 (1985). Drawing on close reading of their narrative structures and visual language,and situating them within the wider transmedia forms through which they circulated, the thesis examines how these works both reflected and critically engaged with the social conditions of their time. It argues that SF anime emerged as a cultural form capable of reorganizing fragmented time, mediating technological perception, and exposing the constructed nature of everyday reality.