Limited Animation, Unlimited Seriality: The Configurations of the Serial in the Anime Series Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri, Akage no An and Tanoshî Mûmin Ikka

This paper focuses on the Japanese animated series Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri, Akage no An or Tanoshî Mûmin Ikka, produced in the 1970s and 1990s, which offer idiosyncratic adaptations of classic children’s books in 50 to 52 episodes of 25 min. The slowness and accuracy of these adaptations is discussed as a specific form of seriality, an ‘unlimited seriality’ that fits into television programming in an unwieldy way. It is seen as a product of an aesthetics of anime and limited animation described by Thomas Lamarre and other authors, which creates a different form of movement and a complex interplay of movement and stillness, which also affects an unsegmented televisual narrative form of constant advancement.