Date of Completion

5-8-2023

Degree Type

Honors Thesis

Discipline

Film & Television Studies (FTVS)

First Advisor

Kenneth Provencher

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the interest in multiverse storylines in coming of age stories, with the popularity of works like “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” — all narratives that deal with characters who are coming of age in an unnatural environment where multiple dimensions exist. Anime, as a medium, especially possesses the unique capability to convey multiverse narratives given its freeform and limitless nature. In my research, I focus on two coming-of-age anime series that feature multiverse narratives — “Sonny Boy” and “The Tatami Galaxy” — to explore what multiverse stories about Japanese adolescents say about the experience of growing up in modern Japanese society. When talking about “Sonny Boy” in an interview, director Shingo Natsume said: “Boys and girls who square off against the illogical – the theme of this work is the frustrations and difficulties that anyone has felt through living.” At its core, this theme is what I plan to apply and investigate in the two shows — what do these stories say about growing up in a world that adolescents have no control over? Through this, I attempt to understand how the messaging of appreciating life as what it is and striving for change despite the likelihood of its outcome is successfully conveyed to the cynical audiences of the current generation who are growing up in a turbulent and seemingly hopeless world.

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