Super fun class! Participation really makes or breaks your experience to be honest. There's two essays, no final, and you're able to write about whatever you want. It's definitely TA dependent though, but they all are super nice and encouraging. You have 10 discussion posts but only the top 5 are counted.

This class is definitely a fun GE to take. The content was engaging, and the analysis of the films was interesting. Most of the films we watched weren't mainstream, so many avid anime watchers in the class had not seen them before, though we did watch some more popular films such as A Silent Voice, Your Name, and Princess Mononoke. The general format was to watch two films a week (one before each lecture), submit a discussion post each week (though only the top five scores counted toward the final grade), and two 5-page papers which were spaced throughout the quarter. I will say, two films a week was a bit of a challenge for me since I was taking a lot of classes this quarter, but it wasn't strictly necessary to watch both since you could write your discussion post on just one of them. The papers did take a decent amount of time, though, since the level of analysis expected for the papers (and the discussion posts) was relatively high. Grading is heavily dependent on your TA, so if you get a TA who is a tough grader, be prepared to put in the work. Participation is also a large chunk of the overall grade (25%), and even though lecture attendance was supposed to factor into this, the professor hadn't really found a way to track it, so the participation part of the grade was heavily dependent on discussion attendance and participation.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this GE, just be prepared to put in a decent amount of effort!

I stumbled across class during summer before UCLA orientation and knew I had to take it. Like seriously… an ANIME class at UCLA? I didn’t really know what to expect when it came to this class but it turned out to be very simple. It’s an easy A in my opinion. Older Bruinwalk reviews talk about pop quizzes but we never got those this quarter, which I’m very glad about because I NEVER read the textbook. The lectures are done like a discussion: we’re tasked with watching an anime before lecture and then we talk about it in class. Emmerich asks people how they felt about it, what they noticed, any analysis they want to come forward with, and then does his own little close reading of scenes and shows them to us. He often connects the two animes of the week together or goes back to previous animes we’ve watched. Grades are based off of discussions we have to write, two papers, and our participation. There is NO final despite what MyUCLA shows. He says lecture is mandatory but by midterms, less than half the class was really showing up to lecture which was kind of saddening. There was a day where he told people in class to email our TAs to show that we were in class so he was very much aware about that. Also, he found out one day that people weren’t actually watching the animes. Honestly, there were times I didn’t watch the anime but I still came to class anyway, but he never checked those days. Discussions were much more engaging and my TA, Summer, was very cool and very helpful when it came to writing my essay. I got As on both of my papers so I’m very glad that I came to her to improve my writing (Although, TAs DO grade the papers). You can easily look up the syllabus online and it will tell you everything else you need to know. Good luck to future people taking the class!

"Why would you take an anime course at UCLA?" Emmerich said this in our first lecture, and man did he prove it right throughout the course. This was one of the best experiences I've ever had as a student. The grading is based on 5 discussion posts based on the weekly viewings, but you can post up to the full 10 weeks and the highest 5 counts for your grade. Alongside this was two 5-page papers. While it is pretty much up to the TA on how your grade is, I didn't see a bad experience from anyone else that took this class. Emmerich is a phenomenal professor and makes me wish I majored in Japanese to take more classes with him. Someone who truly cares about his students, as well as his content, this was a great class that'll hold a lot of sentiment.

I honestly really enjoyed this class. The grade was based on the top 5 scores of weekly discussion posts (I only did 5, the rest can be dropped), and two 5-page papers. TA's ended up grading the papers and leading the discussion section, so I would say that the grades were TA-dependent. I got lucky and my TA was very friendly and lenient. The anime ranged from old anime like Astro Boy to newer anime such as Your Name. Emmerich was a good lecturer and I feel he made quite exciting arguments on the anime for each week. I got away with only doing half the work for this class (sometimes not watching some of the anime because life would get busy), but that didn't really matter as the essays can reflect only one anime, and the discussion posts only count the top five.

No extra credit. I don't think I have taken a class with grading as hard as this course. These are the types of classes where grading is solely dependent on the TA. It does not really matter how nice or how engaging the professor is and the only thing that really matters is your TA. So it is really a hit or miss on how easy or hard a TA would grade. I was pretty unlucky. It is not hard to pass the class, but be prepared to sweat if you are looking for an A. As previous grading distribution shows, an A- is more likely as my TA cares a lot about precision apparently. So, not an easy GE. Don't take this class if you aren't someone who is a lit buff. With such precise answers they are looking for, it would have been nicer if extra credit was given out. And be prepared for no prompt papers.

This class was a joy to take. It was really refreshing to take a class that focused on something outside of my usual course work. Professor Emmerich is often funny and tried to develop discussion even in lecture. We watched an anime for every class and then would discuss our opinions about it and anything we noticed. The lectures in the beginning of the quarter tend to be mainly the professor discussing things he noticed and then once the quarter progresses he turns it more towards us to start discussion. I would definitely recommend this class even just to get to broaden the animes you have watched.

I haven't received a grade yet, but I'm expecting an A, or an A- at worst.
I'll preface this with, please don't take this class with the expectation of only watching shonen series. There's so much more to anime than just the mainstream shonen anime, and you'll find that there's so many other great genres if you keep an open mind. Among some of the films we watched (solely off the top of my head) are Princess Mononoke, They Were 11, Your Name, Wolf Children, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Time of Eve, Summer Wars, Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Metropolis.

This is really a class about learning how to pay attention to things. You'll learn how to pay attention to the details when watching anime. Two movies a week can be a lot sometimes, but it's manageable. Lecture is not required, but participation is required in discussion sections. There are only two essays, five pages long, that are really just close readings of an anime you watched for this class. Five weeks out of nine, you have to submit a discussion post being a short close reading (one paragraph) of one or both of the anime you watched that week, and these are graded very leniently. Films are also often accompanied by assigned readings. Many of them are boring, but for the sake of hearing authors' thoughts on the films I recommend at least skimming them. (My quarter had no pop quizzes).
Although this class is easy, I recommend not taking the class if you just plan on skipping lectures or not watching the films. The lecture and discussions are heavily centered around discussion of the anime, and it's a lot more fun when there are lots of people giving their thoughts and opinions. Otherwise, the class just becomes boring for everyone.
Professor Emmerich is also great at listening to students' thoughts, responding to them thoughtfully, and giving his own perspective on things. My TA (Debbie Price) was also great at the same things, was always willing to help with our writings, and not the harshest at grading (but also not the easiest). I loved this class! I really learned how to closely watch more anime, discovered a wide variety of different genres, and how to better express my thoughts.

This class is a pretty easy GE and it's actually really interesting. You have two films to watch every week, but if you already watch anime, you've probably already watched the film. For example, some films that you watch are Princess Mononoke, Tokyo Godfather, and Kimi no na wa.
There's a short paragraph due every week about the film where you can talk about what you observed, but only the top five paragraphs are actually counted into your grade, so it's easy. There's a couple of short readings, mostly in the beginning of the quarter, and sometimes he has pop quizzes so you have to read them. There's no midterm or final, just two papers.
Overall, this class is super relaxed and brings a new light to anime. Also, the professor is really fun and enthusiastic about what he teaches.

I took this class during my first quarter at UCLA, and it was a great pick as an elective course and also covers the Foreign Literature in translation requirement. Though the professor claims that he "doesn't care about Anime," he is clearly interested in Japanese culture and literature, and it really showed in films he asked us to watch for the quarter. The only criticism that I have is that the TA's in my particular class were very hard graders - this is a lower division course, and a lot of my classmates were getting B's and C's on their papers. I took this class as a junior and was also enrolled in two upper division English courses with the same type of critical analysis papers, and I had no problem getting A's on those papers. Overall though, if you are doing the weekly response papers and reading the additional essays for the pop quizzes, you should have no problem passing this class.