Anime Fans Research Articles

We Heart Japan: Fan Citizenship and the Role of Institutions in the Response to Japanese Earthquakes

The 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated the nation created a situation that, through the global flows of media content, necessitated a response from the international anime fan community. This response was shaped by the ethical framework of caring for the community. Performances of fan citizenship reflected this existing community value and the community’s identification with other fans and the people of Japan. Reflecting these identifications, fans took civic action in the form of the ethical modalities of donating money to relief efforts and critiquing community discourse that diverted attention from the disaster. Institutions, like the streaming service Crunchyroll, served to rhetorically define the ethical modalities at play in this context through their institutional role of amplifying performances of fan citizenship.

Queer and normal: dansō (female-to-male crossdressing) lives and politics in contemporary Tokyo

Though dansō—female-to-male crossdressing—has been historically embedded in Japan as tradition, performance, and entertainment, in the last fifteen years it has fractured and increasingly become commercialized, adopted by young people—a phenomenon I call “contemporary dansō culture.” One example this article explores are dansō café-and-bars—establishments where employees dress as another gender—which since the mid-2000s have emerged in Nakano, Ikebukuro, and Akihabara, areas in Tokyo where anime, manga, and game fans gather. How do dansō individuals understand their practices and everyday lives? Based on field research, this article explores how dansō individuals’ rejection of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) identity and politics can provide a starting point for rethinking queer theory’s relationship with normativity. Taking a queer anthropological approach, I contend that dansō individuals’ politics simultaneously lies in their turn from “LGBT” and alignment with the “normal,” compelling us to reconfigure queer and norms in the Japanese context.

聖地巡礼を通じたアニメファンの地域愛着と聖地移住のプロセス:―『ラブライブ！サンシャイン!!』聖地静岡県沼津市の場合―

聖地巡礼を通じたアニメファンの地域愛着と聖地移住のプロセス:―『ラブライブ！サンシャイン!!』聖地静岡県沼津市の場合―

Pilgrimage and prestige: American anime fans and their travels to Japan

ABSTRACTThe Japanese animation and comics first introduced to the United States were carefully scrubbed of cultural markers, but for hardcore aficionados the ‘Japanese-ness' of such products is part of the allure; fetishized elements of difference are embedded within a comforting familiarity of commonalities. These fans are only the most recent manifestation of a phenomenon in which a fantasy Japan becomes a kind of undiscovered homeland for Westerners who experience disjointedness and displacement within their own culture, Among anime fans, knowledge of Japan and the Japanese language is a significant source of social and cultural capital, with individuals who have traveled to or lived in Japan acquiring special status. But what of the experience itself? When these fans travel to Japan, there is an inevitable gap between the fantasy and their actual perceptions and interpretations, but this is not unlike the gap between an imagined Japan of the nostalgic past and contemporary life experienced by the Japanese themselves. This paper explores this topic via a series of interviews with fans who have traveled to Japan, examining their feelings of difference and belonging before and after their travels, and how they navigate their disappointment and delight in both the anticipated and the unexpected.

<em>Sakkai Muniyai</em>: A Look at Sri Lanka's First Sinhalese BL Manga

Sakkai MuniyaiA Look at Sri Lanka's First Sinhalese BL Manga Lakshmi Menon (bio) The Sri Lankan anime fan community, while small but active, is among the organizers of annual events such as Lanka Comic Con and Colombo Comic Expo. It has also proven to be a community that is supportive of the artists among them. Perhaps surprisingly, given Sri Lanka's cultural conservatism, this includes those who specialize in BL (boys love) themed original and fan art. As a result, Sri Lanka's BL artists have found space at events such as Lanka Comic Con to sell their art and meet like-minded members of the BL fan community, although for the most part they are yet to produce many original works. Sakkai Muniyai is a black-and-white Sinhalese-language webcomic drawn in a manga style by Sri Lankan artist Achintya Amarakoon.1 The work, which is hosted within photo albums on the Facebook page "Papadamn," debuted in 2018, and in October 2019 entered its second "season," complete with a full-color cover illustration (Figure 1). Unlike two English-language manga that Amarakoon posted on the tapas.io website,2 Sakkai Muniyai is not explicitly a BL work. However, the manga contains several elements of queerness within the narrative, and it is easy to understand how a reader familiar with BL could identify the dynamics of the genre in the relationship between the two protagonists. The plot draws heavily on elements of Sri Lankan myth. Sakkai Muniyai is the story of Sakka, or Shakra II, the son of the King of Gods, and Muniya, or Vesamuni II, the son of the King of Demons. In a subversion of tropes, the god Sakka is characterized as being willful, spoiled, and rather too violent, while the demon Muniya is too cowardly to be a demon. The two are sent to present-day Sri Lanka by their fathers so they can learn to behave as they are expected. The comic plays on many tropes that are common in fish-out-of-water narratives, as the gods try to navigate the complexities of human society while at the same time making commentary on the ground realities of contemporary Sri Lanka. The protagonists' lack of awareness of gender norms in particular, however, is noteworthy throughout this narrative. Most notably, they often perform gender in subversive ways and open up the text to queer [End Page 143] readings. Visually, Sakka and Muniya are both drawn in what might be called a bishōnen, or Japanese "beautiful boy," style, with the former being more feminine with softer features and (in his manifestation as a god) longer hair (Figure 2). This image is at odds with his brash, foul-mouthed, aggressive personality. Muniya, who in his demonic form is red skinned and sharp toothed, also fails to adhere to expectations of masculinity because he is "soft" and incapable of the violence that is expected of him as a demon prince. The theme of subversion is continued in the character of Muniya's sister, who is shown to be in a close relationship with a young woman whom she befriended during a time spent as an amnesiac in the human world. With Sri Lanka being a relatively conservative society and with the manga having a mixed readership, Sakkai Muniyai never goes so far as to explicitly state that the relationship between the main characters is a romantic one. However, the author does make it a point to drop hints as to their sexuality: both Sakka and Muniya are completely unaware of the romantic overtures that female characters make toward them, and at one point are visibly distraught when Kalu, a womanizing demon from Sri Lankan myth, takes them to spy on women bathing. The author also makes use of a number of traditional romance tropes that readers who are familiar with manga aesthetics will be able to identify. For instance, at the end of the first season of the manga, Sakka leaps in front of an enemy's blade and nearly dies trying to protect Muniya, leading to a dramatic, rage-filled reaction from the latter. In a post on Medium, Amarakoon revealed that the intention...

Otaku Tourists Out of Japan: Fictionality, Shared Memories, and the Role of National Branding in the Japanese Pilgrimages of Anime Fans in the United Kingdom

The Journal of Popular CultureVolume 52, Issue 6 p. 1512-1535 Original Article Otaku Tourists Out of Japan: Fictionality, Shared Memories, and the Role of National Branding in the Japanese Pilgrimages of Anime Fans in the United Kingdom Manuel Hernández-Pérez, Corresponding Author Manuel Hernández-Pérez m.hernandez-perez@hull.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0001-9974-7056 Search for more papers by this author Manuel Hernández-Pérez, Corresponding Author Manuel Hernández-Pérez m.hernandez-perez@hull.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0001-9974-7056 Search for more papers by this author First published: 02 January 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12871Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume52, Issue6Special Issue: Exploring the Popular Culture and Tourism Place making NexusDecember 2019Pages 1512-1535 RelatedInformation

WEB SERIES ANIMASI NUSSA SEBAGAI MEDIA PENDIDIKAN ISLAMI PADA ANAK

For moslems, Islamic education becomes a guide in life. The main purpose of Islamic education is to build moslems personalities so that human beings are moral or noble. Animation web series is a choice as well as a medium for information and community education in Indonesia. There is Nussa animation web series that takes up stories about the teachings of Islam. The purpose of this study is to determine the quality of Nussa's animation as a medium of Islamic education that is in accordance with the function of the film, the criteria for educational media based on national education goals and interpretation of the Qur'an, efforts to build the potential for religious awareness in children, and benefits as educational media. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The results of this study prove that Nussa animation has been able to meet the criteria as a medium of Islamic education in accordance with the function of the film, the criteria for educational media based on national education goals, the interpretation of the Qur'an, and its benefit. The ease of access and material on Nussa's animation as a web series is uploaded consistently every week, continuously and gradually, so that the loyal animation fans of Nussa are not stopped to get a message about Islamic education. This makes Nussa animation a very popular animation, often this animation is trending and viral in various social media. However, there are still efforts in facilitating children's development in building the potential for religious awareness that has not been fulfilled.Keywords: film, web series, animation, cinematography, Islamic education, children education medium

Antecedents of Satisfaction in Animation Brand

As the total output value of Chinese animation industry rises year by year, Chinese animation companies need to seek their own suitable development path to ensure consumers’ satisfaction with animation brands, thus improving the economy benefit of the company. In view of this, the research collected 387 valid samples through the questionnaire survey to explore the antecedents of animation brand satisfaction. The research results show that the animation content, market performance, and brand personality of animation brands have significant positive impacts on the perceived value and satisfaction of animation fans. Among them, the animation content has the most significant impact on perceived value and satisfaction, while perceived value has some mediating effect.

‘Cool Japan’: Anime, soft power and Hong Kong generation Y travel to Japan

ABSTRACTThe ‘Cool Japan’ strategy was launched in 2012 as a ‘soft-power’ initiative to promote the unique culture of Japan. Tourism motivated by Japanese animation, or anime, plays an important role in this campaign. While this aspect of Japanese popular culture has been a particular element of attraction, especially for youth travelers, little is known empirically about the degree to which it actually motivates desire to travel to Japan. This paper examines the influence of anime on Hong Kong Generation Y travel to Japan. Based on a quantitative approach, respondents were divided into four clusters – enthusiastic, interested, low viewers, and indifferent – distinguished by varying degrees of interest in anime and corresponding travel motivation. This study contributes to the existing literature by elucidating how anime serves as a travel motivator, proposing a conceptual framing of the relation between anime consumption and travel to Japan in terms of ‘soft power,’ the application of cultural ideas and artifacts to encourage positive associations with a country and its values. The findings have implications for destination marketing organization in developing anime products and events that meet the unique needs and preferences of different groups of anime fans, constituting different potential tourism subniches.

Anime consumer motivation for anime tourism and how to harness it

ABSTRACTAlthough a niche, the consumption of Japanese anime and related products is extensive and expected to grow. This study explores Chinese anime consumer motivation to participate in anime tourism. A mixed method is applied to identify travel motivation factors and to examine their importance across three levels of involvement (anime audience versus anime fans versus otaku), and as based on sociodemographics. Three motivation factors were identified: (1) Blending reality and fantasy, (2) Social belonging, and (3) Self-development, with the latter considered as most important. Results show that the importance of Blending reality and fantasy is higher for consumers with a greater level of involvement in the anime subculture, and the otaku is the most promising group in terms of tourism motivation. Recommendations for anime destination and attraction marketing are suggested.

Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons ed. by Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam, Björn-Ole Kamm

Reviewed by: Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons ed. by Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam, Björn-Ole Kamm Ben Whaley (bio) Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons. Edited by Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam, and Björn-Ole Kamm. Bloomsbury, London, 2015. xxxii, 199 pages. $114.00, cloth; $39.95, paper; $30.99, E-book. Editors Patrick W. Galbraith, Thiam Huat Kam, and Björn-Ole Kamm’s Debating Otaku in Contemporary Japan: Historical Perspectives and New Horizons is a welcome and highly useful edited volume that encourages readers to rethink the often taken for granted figure of the “otaku.” It begins [End Page 133] with the assumption that while the word “otaku” will likely be familiar to anyone with an interest in contemporary Japanese pop culture, there is little agreement over what the term signifies. To some, otaku are simply fans of Japanese manga (print comics), anime (animation), videogames, and related subcultures, both inside and outside Japan—a rough analogue for Western “nerds” or “geeks.” To others, otaku are extremely knowledgeable specialists who, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, are often thought to be “poor at interacting with others.”1 At worst, they represent potentially violent youth with a dangerous inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality. That the figure of the otaku resists easy classification and analysis is a point that this volume capitalizes on beautifully, by clearly demonstrating how discourses about otaku have, since their inception, been the subject of debate and, furthermore, how these debates (both past and present) are central for understanding the critical stakes of the term. A central aim of the volume is to “de-naturalize” otaku from its ubiquity in the Japanese pop cultural lexicon by reinscribing the word within key moments in contemporary Japan when it was under active debate (p. 1). Organizationally, the book’s ten essays are grouped by decade of significance (the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), and a particular strength of the critical entries is that they are wide-ranging in content and represent varied methodological approaches, making them useful to scholars from different disciplines. For those in Japan studies, the numerous English-language translations of Japanese texts about otaku are a valuable inclusion, with highlights being the two selections by Okada Toshio, a well-known authority on otaku culture. This review briefly addresses each essay in order of appearance and concludes with some general comments about the volume as a whole. The collection begins with a section dedicated to the 1980s and Patrick W. Galbraith’s “‘Otaku Research’ and Anxiety About Failed Men.” Galbraith discusses the beginnings of the otaku debate by examining the initial appearance of the term in four installments of “‘Otaku’ no kenkyū” (Otaku research), a column primarily written by manga and anime fan Nakamori Akio and published in 1983 in the niche magazine Manga burikko. Galbraith shows how Nakamori coined the term “otaku” first in critique of obsessive pop culture fans, only to later refine the term to refer to “failed men” who prefer fictional anime characters and are sexually uninterested in real women. The essay documents how an orientation toward fictional characters arose in the 1970s and 1980s from a more general desire for “cuteness” and “girl-ness” in two-dimensional images, which came to be reflected in girl characters that blended the visuality of shōjo manga with light eroticism (pp. 24–25). Galbraith briefly mentions a male manga artist [End Page 134] who visualizes his female characters from the viewpoint of a girl character within his manga (p. 26). This discussion of the messy layers of gendered identification with fictional characters proves insightful and more could be done to expand on this topic. Yamanaka Tomomi’s “Birth of ‘Otaku’: Centering on Discourse Dynamics in Manga Burikko” builds on Galbraith’s entry to show a variety of reader responses in the aftermath of the “‘Otaku’ no kenkyū” columns, including outcry over the term and treatment of otaku as discriminatory, and readers’ initial self-identification as otaku. Yamanaka suggests that the then editor of Manga burikko, Ōtsuka Eiji (who has written the volume’s foreword), used the reader-submission section of...

"Anime fan communities: Transcultural flows and frictions," by Sandra Annett

Sandra Annett, Anime Fan Communities: Transcultural Flows and Frictions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, hardcover, $95 (253p) ISBN 978-1137480651; E-textbook, $76 (2471 KB), ASIN B00TR5JPW8.

Rancang Bangun Aplikasi Chatbot Sebagai Media Pencarian Informasi Anime Menggunakan Regular Expression Pattern Matching

Technology development has affected many areas of life, especially the entertainment field. One of the fastest growing entertainment industry is anime. Anime has evolved as a trend and a hobby, especially for the population in the regions of Asia. The number of anime fans grow every year and trying to dig up as much information about their favorite anime. Therefore, a chatbot application was developed in this study as anime information retrieval media using regular expression pattern matching method. This application is intended to facilitate the anime fans in searching for information about the anime they like. By using this application, user can gain a convenience and interactive anime data retrieval that can’t be found when searching for information via search engines. Chatbot application has successfully met the standards of information retrieval engine with a very good results, the value of 72% precision and 100% recall showing the harmonic mean of 83.7%. As the application of hedonic, chatbot already influencing Behavioral Intention to Use by 83% and Immersion by 82%.
 Index Terms—anime, chatbot, information retrieval, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Regular Expression Pattern Matching

アニメファンから日本語学習者へ:―トリニダード・トバゴの学習者の事例研究―

アニメファンから日本語学習者へ:―トリニダード・トバゴの学習者の事例研究―

INFORMAL YOUTH ASSOCIATIONS AS A BUSINESS REALITY

Informal youth environment is not only an integral part of today’s reality but also a complex multi-vector problem. The purpose of the article is to study business processes as one of the aspects of the activity of individual youth informal associations. Methodology. In the process of work on the article, scientific literature devoted to youth informal associations is analysed. In addition, such theoretical methods as synthesis, comparison, classification are used. The empirical basis for the study is the survey of 1668 representatives of various youth informal groups in 7 cities of Ukraine (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Kherson) during 2016–2017. A special questionnaire was developed. Conclusions. On the basis of the analysis of the survey results, informal associations are divided into three groups: youth informal associations, on which people earn (skinheads and hipsters); youth informal associations that earn (freaks, suicidal groups in social networks); youth informal associations, on which people earn and that earn (anime fans, gamers, bikers, football fans). Features of their consumer and business opportunities in Ukraine are revealed. It is concluded that the “life activity” of informal communities is predetermined not only by some ideas, views, moods, way of life but also by business opportunities and opportunities to make a profit. The originality of the work is that for the first time since Ukraine gained independence, youth informal groups are seen as a platform for engaging in entrepreneurial activities. Practical significance. The results of the study can be used to further study of various aspects of the youth informal environment. In particular, in the context of combating illegal business activities, tax evasion.

Dubbing Death Note: Framing the authentic text

Abstract This case study stems from an article written in 2005 by Laurie Cubbison, titled ‘Anime fans, DVDs, and the authentic text’. In her research, she states that English-speaking fans of Japanese animation (anime) pressured distributors to use the DVD medium to its full potential. This meant providing the choice of viewing anime with either a dubbed soundtrack or subtitles. However, this has not lessened the influence of distribution companies that affect how anime is viewed outside of Japan. This article will focus on this influence by looking at the extra features on anime DVDs, specifically using the English-language release of the Death Note TV series (Araki, Nippon Television Network, 2006–07) as a case study. Very few of the series’s DVD special features refer explicitly to the Japanese origins of the story. Interviews and making-ofs are included, as is the case with many DVDs of audio-visual media. But the Death Note series’s extras mostly illustrate the work of the cast and crew that recorded the dubbed English-language soundtrack. Applying approaches and concepts specific to the analysis of DVD special features means the intentions behind these decisions can be thoroughly explored. The extras for the Death Note series do not just provide an intriguing insight into the voice-recording process (for the TV series, as well as the media industry in general). They encourage viewers to see the value and work behind the dubbed version, meaning that the distributors are not just providing viewing-option choices for the anime. They are providing a frame which indirectly suggests how a media text should be viewed. The evidence presented in this case study will demonstrate how such frames, concerning dubbed translation within DVD media, can be used by the discs’ distributors.

Behavior Analysis of Anime Fans by Social Networking Services

Behavior Analysis of Anime Fans by Social Networking Services

How to do things with fan subs: Media engagement as subcultural capital in anime fan subbing

Anime fandom has been a fairly constant subject in fan scholarship, although only recently have conversations about fan subbing begun to circulate. As useful as those conversations are, none have directly dealt either with the mechanisms of fan subbing, particularly the use of linear notes, as a practice or with how these subs intersect with the flows of subcultural capital. Fan subbing, both as a productive and a consumptive practice, plays a small but influential part in subcultural capital. Engagement with media is a compositional element of such capital in this community.

Are Australian fans of anime and manga motivated to learn Japanese language?

Recent research into Japanese as a foreign language education has strongly emphasized the link between Japanese popular culture and learning Japanese. However, these studies have only targeted Japanese language learners in formal education contexts and have largely ignored those who are not studying Japanese or studying Japanese informally. This present study claims that it is premature to link the two in this way. Using the notions of public pedagogy, the continuum of informal–formal learning, and out-of-school curriculum as our theoretical underpinnings, we examine how a cohort of fans deals with learning Japanese and about Japan in relation to their consumption of Japanese manga and anime. The results of an online survey of 451 Australia based manga and anime fans reveal that their interest in and motivation to consume these media may not necessarily lead them to enter into formal Japanese language education.

The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story by Ian Condry (review)

Reviewed by: The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story by Ian Condry Michael McCaskey (bio) The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. By Ian Condry. Duke University Press, Durham, 2013. x, 241 pages. $84.95, cloth; $23.95, paper. Ian Condry’s second book, The Soul of Anime, is the result of an application of his genba (actual site) research and analytical methods to the field of Japanese anime. He has adopted a broad and inclusive view of the field and summarizes his approach at the outset of the book: Anime … refers to Japanese animated film and television, but the worlds of anime extend well beyond what appears on the screen. Anime is characteristic of contemporary media in its interconnected webs of commercial and cultural activities that reach across industries and national boundaries. … Scholars, fans, and media observers are producing a growing body of literature aimed at extending and deepening our understandings [sic] of the diverse field of Japanese animation. (p. 1) Applying his genba approach to his research on anime, Condry interviewed leading figures in today’s animation industry in Japan and also visited Japanese animation studios, where he was able to observe new animated films and videos in the making. Condry focuses on both the ways in which anime are created and the ways in which anime fans in turn respond creatively through individual and group activities, such as adding their own fansubs [End Page 232] (translation and dissemination of anime online by fans) for Japanese anime lacking subtitles, creating anime-related fan art, and even producing their own amateur videos as tributes to anime they particularly admire. Condry’s research is informed and enriched by numerous personal interviews with leading anime artists as well as frequent on-site observations of their creative endeavors, both in process and in progress. During a visit to an anime studio, he even was called on to pitch in as a voice actor, delivering a few lines that remained part of the completed anime after it was released. A full chapter, “Collaborative Networks, Personal Futures” (pp. 35–53), is devoted to a study of the work and career of the leading anime director Hosoda Mamoru, whom Condry has known since 2005, and to the making of Hosoda’s 2009 animated science fiction film Summer Wars, at the Madhouse Studios. Condry’s book is a good source of genba information about Summer Wars, which won the 2010 Japanese Academy and Mainichi Film Concours awards for Best Animated Film—Hosoda himself received the 2009 award for Best Animated Feature Film at the Sitges International Film Festival. Part of Condry’s concept of “collaborative creativity” refers to the results of anime fan group activity, such as fan art and fan-created tribute videos, which stimulate interest in the original anime creation and may even add new dimensions to collective interpretation and appreciation of it. Condry deemphasizes the unflattering stereotype of the otaku, an obsessively devoted fan who focuses on anime-centered fantasy at the expense of real-life responsibilities. Instead, Condry concentrates on the constructive roles fans can play as “collaborative creators” who create fan art that enriches the anime experience for many other people. Condry’s idea of “collaborative creativity” also refers to the teamwork of lower-level anime studio staff members, who devote much of their waking life to helping to create anime, regardless of financial considerations. Condry observed staff members at work on Summer Wars and saw other such teams at work in the course of his genba research: Given the substantial international influence of anime, readers might be surprised by the crowded, often disheveled look of the places where animators work. I was surprised by the piles and piles of paper, the intensity of hand-drawn work, and the sheer amount of labor required. I was also impressed by the workers’ focus, energy, and commitment to working together on enormous projects. Collaborative creativity is more than jargon for animators. (p. 7) Condry emphasizes and demonstrates the significance of the ways in which major current popular cultural movements that arise in one particular country are subsequently able to spread transnationally, on a...