After half a year, another episode is finally uploaded!
This third episode of the Department of Alchemy Audio Archive features a lecture by Ian Condry given at Harvard University on 13 November 2009. His talk is entitled “The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity & Japan’s Media Success Story.”
Listen below, or use the direct download here (1 hour 19 minutes 15 seconds).
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On March 1st, I’ll be at MIT attending a screening of Mamoru Hosoda’s Summer Wars, followed by a Q&A with Hosoda himself!
I will be recording the Q&A and will post it up as a podcast following the event. If you have any questions you would like me to ask the director, add them to the comments below!
MIT/Harvard Cool Japan Project presents “Summer Wars”
The New England premiere of the anime feature film “Summer Wars” (2009, Director Mamoru HOSODA, Madhouse / Kadokawa). The director and producer of the film, both based in Japan, will be present at the screening and will participate in a Q/A/discussion after the film.
The film explores the drama of high school romance, hackers in virtual worlds, the complexities of extended families, and the potentials of our hyper-connected present. Suitable for all ages but aimed at teens and adults, the film is a wonderful example of recent anime virtuosity by Japan’s hottest young director. Director Hosoda’s previous film, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” (2006), won many prizes including the Japan Academy Award for Best Animated Film.
35mm print, Japanese voices, English subtitles. Free and open to the public.
Happy New Year, 皆さん！ I feel like the blog dropped off in the last few months of 2009, but I finished up all of my PhD applications (albeit having to drop a couple schools in the end) with ease, so hopefully I’ll be back in the blogging business during the rest of this month! Look forward to (and I’m actually, finally, serious about this) new essays, commentary, and — OMG, really? Yes, really! — new audio podcasts!
In the meantime, take a look at this lecture by Mia Consalvo, who’s currently a Visiting Professor in the Comparative Media Studies department at MIT (where I work). Last semester, she gave a presentation on “western otaku”: American video gamers who interact with Japanese players and culture through MMORPGs. It’s a good, detailed talk, and you can even see me ask a lengthy set of questions at 64m10s. Enjoy!
From Nintendo’s first Famicom system, Japanese consoles and videogames have played a central role in the development and expansion of the digital game industry. Players globally have consumed and enjoyed Japanese games for many reasons, and in a variety of contexts. This study examines one particular subset of videogame players, for whom the consumption of Japanese videogames in particular is of great value, in addition to their related activities consuming anime and manga from Japan. Through in-depth interviews with such players, this study investigates how transnation fandom operates in the realm of videogame culture, and how a particular group of videogames players interprets their gameplay experience in terms of a global, if hybrid, industry.
Mia Consalvo is a visiting associate professor in the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. She is the author of Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames and is co-editor of the forthcoming Blackwell Handbook of Internet Studies.
