I’ll be at Anime Boston this Friday through Sunday at the Hynes Convention Center.
This year, I am giving two presentations, moderating a panel, and speaking on another panel. If you’d like to come see me, here’s when and where you can find me:
Fanthropologies: Participation in Anime Fandom
Friday @ 1:00pm in Panel 306
Speaking with Charles Dunbar and Jennifer Fu
Anime fandom has come a long way in a (relatively) short time. Shedding it’s past as an offshoot of the science fiction community, it has grown into a sustained, powerful media based fan community that offers a little bit of a lot of experiences. And part of it’s strength lies in the interactions and contributions between its participants. Fanthropologies explores three of the main arenas of this participation: the Internet, Fan creations and conventions, and how they help spread and define anime fandom in the 21st century.
Anime Intro & Ending Themes
Friday @ 4:00pm in Panel 302/304
When we watch anime, our minds glaze over the animation that begins and ends our favorite series. But anime intros and outros are more important than you think! These small clips help sell series, promote bands, summarize plots, and emphasize important details. We’ll show many of the best and worst anime intro and ending themes on the market and the trends that flow through them, from Space Battleship Yamato to Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Experts of Fan Controversy
Friday @ 6:00pm in Panel 107
Including:
- Chris Beveridge (AnimeOnDVD.com)
- Ed Chavez (Vertical Inc.)
- Jennifer Fu (Comparative Media Studies, MIT)
- Clarissa Graffeo (Anime World Order podcast)
- Ada Palmer (TezukaInEnglish.com)
This panel brings together some of the most vocal and critical experts from anime fandom and the industry to discuss the pertinent issues challenging today’s fans. We’ll look at how decades of fluctuating developments in globalization, production, distribution, online socialization, youth/adult culture, and piracy will affect otaku culture in the next few years. With a gameshow-like format, audience participation will help choose the winning arguments!
Animating Music in Anime About Music
Saturday @ 8:00pm in Panel 206
Anime has a rich history of musical composers and theme songs, but an unrelated strand of anime has developed separate from scoring soundtracks: anime about music. From a galaxy dependent on the saving grace of songs (Macross 7) to a classroom of amateur female musicians (K-On!), musical anime has been produced for decades. But why does it matter? This panel takes a look at the whole gamut — Beck, Nodame Cantibile, NANA, To-Y, Gravitation, and many more — to see what musical anime reveals about animation, the creation of “fake” bands and songs, and how music works in the adaptation of manga to anime.
