Department of Alchemy » anime boston

The “I’m Speaking at Anime Boston” Schedule

Alex Leavitt — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:08:14 +0000

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.

Information on Early English-Language Adult Manga

Alex Leavitt — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:06:32 +0000

As you may have known, one of the panels I presented at Anime Boston was “Hentai Manga: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” While the panel went smoothly, it suffered from severe lack of preparation and an oversight that I would have too much content. The reality was that I blew through the content and finished unbelievably quickly (ironically, I had taken out content because I had misjudged the length).

Anyway, I was contacted a few weeks later by a fan pseudo-named DocWatson, who wanted to offer some information that I wish I had discovered before giving the panel. The fact that it’s a bit difficult to find this kind of info readily in a few searches prompted me to post DocWatson’s information online (with permission) in case anybody might find it usable in the future.

Bondage Fairies was originally published in America in 1994 (issue #1 is dated March) by Antarctic Press under their then-new Venus Comix imprint, not by Eros Comix and Studio Proteus in 1999 or 2000. (Studio Proteus’ edition of The Original Bondage Fairies was a license rescue.)

More info:

http://milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?title=12115885482
http://animemania01.tripod.com/mangaa_i.htm#B (visiting the main site here provides a treasure trove of information)

To the best of my knowledge, it is true that Bondage Fairies was the first serialized pornographic manga to be commercially published in English, but there were a number of earlier one-shots.

Catalan Communications published the graphic novel Goodbye and Other Stories by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which to my recollection includes a story about a Japanese retiree who, feeling unappreciated by his family, spends all of his savings on a fling with a prostitute.

More info:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/good-bye-and-other-stories/oclc/18424098
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1374320.GoodBye_and_Other_Stories

More info:

http://milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?title=73253497318

Gainax’s General Products published Mega Comics (1991?), which I recall had at least one pin-up illustration by Hiroyuki Utatane, and possibly a story by him.

More info:

http://www.animenation.net/blog/2007/04/27/ask-john-which-japanese-anime-companies-have-failed-in-america/

http://milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?title=52843551381

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=7169

The British art gallery Lowe Culture published Manga, Comic Strip Books from Japan (ISBN 1873184026) for a October-December 1991 exhibition of manga; a full description/citation here.

More info:

http://www.helenmccarthy.org/Helen%27s%20Books.html

The books contains selections from the eroguro collection National Kid (“Kokuritsu shonen”) by Suehiro Maruo, and the complete story “Paper Theater” (“Yumegeshiki: A vision of dreams”) by Mitsuhiko Yoshida, which is about a young girl’s erotic dream and menarche. The volume is also valuable for its nearly complete list of early English-translated manga.

Antarctic Press translated an erotic Dirty Pair doujinshi as H-Bomb #1 (dated May 1993).

More info:

http://milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?title=38311924824

H-Bomb was excepted and translated from this doujinshi: http://doujinshi.mugimugi.org/book/86491/ & http://doujinshi.mugimugi.org/book/149963/

(UPDATE: The first story was taken from one or both of these: http://doujinshi.mugimugi.org/book/125743/ & http://doujinshi.mugimugi.org/book/147596/. It’s credited to Prescription 1+2, published by Yoshimasa Watanabe” (sic). I just happened to be reading this “Ask John” column, and realized that I had been partially wrong: http://www.animenation.net/blog/2009/05/15/ask-john-how-is-doujinshi-received-in-america-part-2/.)

I ran across and bought it at (IIRC) last year’s Anime Boston. It’s dated 4-12-30, which I assume is from Heisei 4 (1992), and that year’s Winter Comiket.

As a side note, Antarctic Press was followed by A.D. Vision’s short-lived imprint Graphic Visions, which published Magical Twilight #1 in May 1995, and by Fantagraphics Books’ Eros Comix and Studio Proteus, which published the first issues of Princess of Darkness and Hiroyuki Utatane’s Temptation in August 1995 (per AnimeMania and my own copies).

More info:

http://animemania01.tripod.com/mangaj_r.htm#M

http://milehighcomics.com/mcgi-bin/search.cgi?action=smpublisher&publisher=GRVS

I also wanted to point out that both Pink Sniper and the first volume of Take On Me (as Domin-8 Me!) are available in English from Eros Comix.

More info:

http://ssl.eroscomix.com/cart/ (bottom)

Department of Alchemy’s Official Anime Boston Panel Schedule

Alex Leavitt — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:23:32 +0000

Otakon 2009 panel audience.

Anime Boston is almost upon us! If you’re coming up to the city for a weekend at the Hynes, be sure to drop by one or more of my panels to say Hello!

Update (Thursday 18 March 11:30 pm): Time for “Hentai Manga” panel has been moved later into the night.

Update 2 (Monday 22 March 9:30 am): Location for “Anime Themes” panel changed. Also, time for “Cowboy Bebop” panel moved earlier in the afternoon.

Update 3 (Monday 29 March 11:10 pm): Time for “Intro and Ending Themes” panel has been moved earlier in the day.

Friday 12:00 pm noon (Panel 302) – Introduction to Anime Intro and Ending Themes

Friday: 5:30 pm (Panel 306) – After Cowboy Bebop: The Works of Shinichiro Watanabe

Friday/Saturday 1:30 am (Panel 202) – Chains, Trains, and Happy Endings: Japan’s Underground Sex Culture (18+)

Saturday 6:00 pm (107 Panel 6) – On the Road for Anime Pilgrimages

Saturday 10:00 pm (Panel 202) – Impact of Evangelion

Saturday/Sunday 1:30 am (Panel 202) – Hentai Manga: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (18+)

Sunday 1:00 pm (Panel 202) – From Antisocial Loser to Economic Hero: The History of Otakudom

Sunday 2:00 pm (Panel 202) – Anime in Academia

Fixing the Anime Con Schedule

Alex Leavitt — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:47:13 +0000

I honestly don’t know why anime convention schedules are still such a big issue.

The problem:

Anime con schedules guests, panels, events. Anime con prints schedule one month to two weeks before con. Two weeks before con, schedule changes drastically: panels are added or dropped, events are moved, guests are canceled.

The solution:

Google Docs.

Anime fandom at conventions has changed drastically in the past three years with the mass adoption of mobile technologies (ie., smart phones). Numerous conventions have utilized Twitter for updates and made multiple changes to the designs and interfaces of their websites to push the constant activity of fans on Web-enabled phones into a better comprehension of how the convention works (eg., maps, food, hotels, and particularly schedules). However the latter of this list still proves difficult.

Last year, Otakon experimented with an online personal schedule system, so that each con-goer could manipulate the schedule with highlights of his or her favorite events. Ultimately, it was a good idea with poor execution. Near the main entrance, staffers placed two wide-screen television sets projecting the schedule, which ended up being too big to see the three days in their entirety. Also, with the lack of Internet* in the Baltimore Convention Center, along with not-so-great cell phone reception inside the building, the online schedule was pretty inaccessible.

* This seriously needs to be changed. Too many anime fans rely on the Internet for communication. Anime Boston, at least, has stepped up in the past few years by providing free wireless.

Let me reiterate: We can solve the con schedule problem with Google Docs.

1) Con staffer creates master schedule in Google Spreadsheet. Staffer publishes document as public webpage.

2) Con attendee can download document via phone (after installing appropriate and frequently free app). Attendee can manipulate document via Save As.

3) When necessary, con staffer can update Speadsheet with necessary changes and highlight in yellow. Update then tweeted to convention public.

4) Con attendee can notes changes via Twitter message and download new version of document.

It’s easy. It’s free. It’s scalable (zoom in and out). The staffer can even include a second page on the Spreadsheet with the panel descriptions.

So why aren’t we seeing more convention innovations like this?

Accepted Panels for Anime Boston 2010

Alex Leavitt — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:12:42 +0000

Received word that the following panels have been accepted for Anime Boston 2010:

On the Road for Anime Pilgrimages
107 Panel 6 on SATURDAY
starting at 06:00:00 PM

Many anime reference real-world locations, inspiring otaku to seek out these destinations. Come discover the significance of the “anime pilgrimage”!

After Cowboy Bebop: The Works of Shinichiro Watanabe
306 Panel 2 on FRIDAY
starting at 08:30:00 PM

Many fans recognize Cowboy Bebop’s director, but let’s look at his other shows, from Macross Plus to Samurai Champloo to Genius Party and more!

Hentai Manga: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
107 Panel 6 on SATURDAY
starting at 12:00:00 AM

What makes a good ero-manga? We’ll show and support some of the funniest & more artistic adult comics (and hilariously bad, “imaginative” ones too).

Chains, Trains, and Happy Endings: Japan’s Underground Sex Culture
202 Panel 5 on FRIDAY
starting at 01:00:00 AM

The Japanese sex industry is pretty closeted, but here’s a peephole into host clubs, no-panty bars, hentai magazines, costume play, and love hotels.

Apparently I have good word that a number of my other panels will proceed past “wait list” status, so I’ll keep everyone updated here! (You can view the rest of my panels by clicking here.)

Cosplay… Round 2?!

Alex Leavitt — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:08:31 +0000

The scent of Convention Season 2010 is in the air. Memories of former hastily-thrown-together cosplay are plaguing my brain.

Yes, I sacrificed my hair once upon a time for the success of a costume.
(Yasushi Takagi, NANA; Anime Boston 2007)

But my girlfriend and I are prepping a costume set for Anime Boston 2010. We’ve already started playing around with the DSLRs…

Oh, the shame… Oh, the camwhoring…

… but we’ll need to drag our sewing machines out of storage and get practicing. We’ve decided on Paradise Kiss. I swear I don’t have a thing for Ai Yazawa shoujo manga…

Must grow out my hair.

We have to sew this?!

Foreshadowing the cosplay or the work involved? >_>

It’ll be a bit strange cosplaying three years from the last event, but perhaps this year is the time to embrace the fun aspects of anime cons just a bit more. Oh, right, I have to get those panel applications in…

(Panels for Anime Boston are due next week!)

Preparing Thoughts on Evangelion and Media Fandoms

Alex Leavitt — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:29:50 +0000

After spending most of Thanksgiving working on PhD applications (though I still have a couple deadlines left), I’m back to work at the Consortium and ready to blog it up over here at the Department of Alchemy. Alongside all of these applications, it’s time to begin preparing other applications and abstracts for next year’s academic conferences and fan conventions. Last year, I had an excellent time traveling down to New Orleans for the Popular Culture Association national conference, where I spoke about the discourse surrounding otaku identity. This year, the PCA conference is being hosted in St. Louis, MO, but it’s also sandwiched between PAX East and Anime Boston. Regardless of whether or not I can attend in the spring, I submitted the below proposal to the Asian Popular Culture track, which was readily accepted. If I attend in person or if I Skype in to the panel, I’ll be relating most of my secondary research from the Consortium on transmedia and fandom to the Evangelion franchise in Japan and America.

From Narrative to Character: Transmedia, Emotional Economies, and the Success of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax’s “Neon Genesis Evangelion” has been heralded as one of the most influential Japanese animations in the history of the medium. Met with wild success among Japanese otaku after its premiere in 1995/96, Evangelion strangely also became a media phenomenon among the general public, particularly following Eiji Otsuka’s criticism of the series in the Mainichi Daily News.

Even after the series ended in 1996, Neon Genesis Evangelion continued to remain a key franchise in the otaku community. Beginning with toys and video games and branching out to pachinko machines and cell phones, Evangelion’s narrative extends well beyond Anno’s original “text.” However, it is in these extensions where Evangelion’s success emerges.

This paper argues that the emotional economies present between fans, narrative, and character drive Neon Genesis Evangelion’s transmedia success. The emotional connection that fans establish between the original story and the stories they create fuel this fan-produced narrative that underlies cosplay, galge (female character-driven video games), and the moé phenomenon.

This paper also explores questions posed by the most recent developments in the Evangelion franchise: the quartet of movies (of which Evangelion 1.0 and 2.0 have already premiered in Japan). Although these movies are clearly an adaptation of the original narrative, they also represent an instance of transmedia storytelling that provides new perspectives to a previously-built world. How does this conflict between adaptation and transmedia storytelling affect the comprehension of the Evangelion narrative for a new generation of fans? Is the emotional economy regenerated or merely prolonged? And how can we better understand the relationship between fans and media by examining the Evangelion franchise as in evolves before our eyes?

次のことは。。。

Alex Leavitt — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:35:12 +0000

So, now that our staff at the Department of Alchemy has returned from their much-needed period of hibernation, we’ll be bringing a lot more content to the blog in the next few weeks. Said content will most likely be encapsulated by the following three categories:

First, now that the summer convention season has (for the most part) ended on the East Coast, we’ll be presenting retrospectives on Katsucon, Anime Boston, Anime Expo, and Otakon as well as a few critical thoughts and theories on the contemporary fandom.

Second: audio. We’ve been recording a lot of panel content, which will slowly be thrown into an mp3 format for your listening pleasure.

Finally, and more experimentally, Alex has decided to compose reminiscent articles about his four-month experience living in Kyoto (since he never wrote them while in Japan). Many stories about delicious food, impromptu trips to rural temples via ママチャリ, and of course thousands of photographs.

Have a keen interest in any of these topics? Shout-outs in the comments are certainly welcome.

Department of Alchemy Audio Archive – Episode 2: Anime Boston “Industry Panel”

Alex Leavitt — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:23:18 +0000

How we all vicariously feel about the anime industry.

Honestly, I just want to get this second episode online, because it’s taken more than a few months to do so already, so… bullet point time!

- The podcast has been officially named: DoAAA, or the Department of Alchemy Audio Archive. Fitting, since I’m probably always going to upload audio I record at conventions.
- Episode 2 features Chris Beverage from his Anime on DVD panel at Anime Boston 2009. Since there was no real industry panel on Sunday at the convention, Chris’s panel represents the pinnacle of industry discussion that happened inside the Hynes last May.
- I’m sick this week, so I didn’t want my crappy voice getting in the way of the equally-awful panel audio. Thus, I just use my laptop’s voice to host this episode.

Listen below, or use the direct download here.

Anime Boston Panel Highlight: Evangelion Tripartite

Alex Leavitt — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:42:57 +0000

I’ve been meaning to do a few articles about Anime Boston (it was a few weekends ago), and I have no excuse for not getting them written and published. At the very least, here’s a little something more about panels from Anime Boston (if you missed Part I, you can check out the panel recording here).

Surprisingly, Anime Boston hosted a trio of panels about Neon Genesis Evangelion — a great opportunity because 1) Evangelion is maybe too influential, and 2) there are too many fans today that haven’t seen it. The three panels were hosted by a guy who goes by the moniker V, and while he was masked and played the character well, I couldn’t find any other info on him, and he was fairly reticent when I gave him my card after the first panel. V spoke at three panels: “The Evangelion Franchise: Past, Present, and Future,” “Explanation of Evangelion,” and “The Psychology and Philosophy of Evangelion.” I recorded the audio from the first two sessions, but V made a smart move: he recorded the video of all three panels and posted them to YouTube. Since the audio definitely isn’t as good as audio including panels (and a little humorous acting), I’m going to link to the videos for your perusal and enjoyment. I only attended the first two panels, but they were well researched and among the best at the con. Please watch, and check out V’s YouTube channel (filled with many more videos) at Revolution of Eva!

Note: Video embeds from YouTube don’t allow syncing multiple related videos, and since the talks are broken up (because of YouTube’s 10-minute limitation on videos), you’ll have to click the next part manually.

The Evangelion Franchise: Past, Present, and Future – 7 parts

Explanation of Evangelion – 8 parts

The Psychology and Philosophy of Evangelion – 8 parts