Kumiko Kitagawa, an adjunct faculty member in Asian and Asian American Studies, believes that the Japanese cultural phenomenon known as anime, or animated films, demonstrates a coming of age in the United States for an art form once confined to Saturday morning TV.

Kitagawa teaches a class in “Japanese Anime and Culture” that explores the history and cultural significance of Japanese anime and its comic book cousin, manga.

“I want my students to understand something about the 40-year history of anime from ‘Astro Boy’ in the early 1960s to 2001’s winner of the Oscar for best animated feature, ‘Spirited Away,’” said Kitagawa. The anime masterpiece by director Hayao Miyazaki became the highest-grossing film in Japanese box-office history.

As with live-action cinema, anime spans many genres and age groups, from children’s stories and romance to medieval fantasy and adult themes. Anime producers and marketers aim for very specific audiences, with well-defined categories for shonen (boys) and shojo (girls).

Anime has gradually become a staple of cable television, while networks such as Fox and the WB rely on the Japanese series in their Saturday morning children’s television blocks.

“Young 21st century Americans watch lots of Japanese animation,” she said. “There are students who prefer it to live drama. What I want my students to see is how anime serves as a window to Japanese culture. When one of my students tells me he or she finds the culture they see in anime as ‘weird,’ I tell them that is the point. They need to learn more about the culture to understand what they see. Anime helps them see their own culture differently.”

Kitagawa wants her students to understand some of the themes and values special to the Japanese people. She points to “Spirited Away” as a guidebook to Japanese culture. For instance, her students professed surprise that Japanese gods would take baths. She used the opportunity to explain the role of the bath in Japanese culture and how it is an important part of Japanese daily life. “It is more than cleaning. Baths refresh the Japanese mind.”

“There is much in Japanese storytelling that is nonlinear but which serves to interest students,” she noted. “They find something new every time they see a particular feature.”