Intertextual games in the serial works of Shin’ichirō Watanabe

Abstract

This article concerns the issue of intertextuality in streaming series. The author focus on the works of a Japanese director of anime series to illustrate the different forms of intertextual relations. The research material used in the article comprises the anime series Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy, which are characterized by a particular accumulation and diversity of intertextual references to other media. The conclusions drawn by analysing the interferences present in Watanabe’s animated works were then cross-referenced with the formal and structural characteristics of streaming platforms that enable their users to detect intertextual allusions more easily.