The September 11 attacks changed anime perception for The Japan Times author
Lev Shevtsov11
September
2026
00:34
The Japan Times columnist Roland Kelts wrote about how the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States changed his perception of Japanese anime and manga. According to him, the works themselves did not change after the attacks, but images of disasters, destroyed cities and loss took on new personal meaning for him.
Kelts was in Tokyo, Japan, during the attacks. Due to the 13-hour time difference, he followed the events at night and described dawn on September 12, after both towers of the World Trade Center had fallen, as a moment of feeling irreversible destabilization.
A different view of familiar works
Several years later, while already working in New York on material about anime, Kelts rewatched “Akira,” Isao Takahata’s “Grave of the Fireflies” and “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” He writes that the fireflies amid incendiary bombs in “Grave of the Fireflies” reminded him of the papers, ash and debris that flew over Lower Manhattan after the attacks.
The author connected the image of orphaned children surviving in postwar Kobe in Takahata’s film with children who lost their parents on September 11, as well as with those who witnessed an event adults could not explain. He reconsidered the destruction of a metropolis in “Akira” through the prism of 1990s New York. In “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” Kelts saw the story of a generation forced to fight apocalyptic battles under the guidance of adults unable to express love or provide meaning to events.
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Memory in fragments of images
Kelts also recalled a conversation with writer Susan Sontag in Tokyo in 2002. According to his account, she believed that the aim of the attacks was not only to kill people, but also to create unforgettable and uncontrollable images of horror. The author notes that the memory of September 11 cannot be reduced to one symbolic frame, but consists of many images of destruction.
In Kelts’ view, the fragmented and dynamic visual language of manga and anime corresponds to the modern world saturated with images. He mentioned “Demon Slayer,” “Attack on Titan” and the animated film “Tekkonkinkreet.” In it, smoke above the towers of the Kiddy Kastle complex evoked for the New York-born author an association with the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Kelts also writes that Japanese stories can develop without a single hero or central conflict and portray events from several perspectives. He connects this mode of storytelling with the sense of a multipolar and chaotic world after September 11.
