DEATH IS SOMETHING VISUAL

Death is inherently visual. This dictum is of course speculative, but in some traditions in Indonesia, for example, figures of death are actually celebrated not merely out of grief, but rather to remember ancestors in very visual expressions. In the traditions of the Toraja people of Sulawesi, Indonesia, death is a phase of life to be embraced and even celebrated, where notions of dwelling and space bring their own complexities to the viewer. Even in Toraja’s Ma’Nene tradition, the dead bodies of ancestors are dressed up, to travel to their next home. After death, there are further stages where the corpses (dead bodies) are dressed up, and run through certain mystical approaches, or sort of brought back to life to go to the final resting place. This suggests that death is a stage of life, and is always connected to the living. These stages of the journey of life for dead figures are interesting, as in the modern visual tradition, especially in anime practice, one also discusses nostalgic themes that present dead figures. The conventions of Manga’s visual style, such as lipless mouths, large eyes, plastic faces, bangs and so on, which are also developed visually through color, while still forming the right proportions of facial elements, are a kind of figures brought to life in motion animation, some of which also depart from the figure of death. Hayao Miyazaki’s Sprited Away (2001), which also features figures of death, uses folklore from Japanese tradition and symbolism, alluding to Japanese folk beliefs. Some of the film’s main characters such as Yubaba (a descendant of yamauba or mountain witch), Kaonashi/No Face and Kamaji (tsuchigumo or ground spider) are reminiscent of characters found throughout Japanese folklore, which are brought to life in a visually animated way, offering a vertical reflection on death in Japanese society.