Tag Archives: research

To Be Continued

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The faculty over at the Department of Alchemy will be on break for the remainder of the week. We didn’t post anything since the beginning of last week, unfortunately, but we did end up switching domains on top of that, so that counts as an update, right? We’ll be at the Popular Culture Association national conference in New Orleans this week; if you’re around, come hang out or drop by the Japanese Popular Culture panel on Wednesday. It’s about anime, and Alex is demonstrating this fine presentation:

Otaku and the (Un)popular Fandom

Over the course of the past three decades, the term “otaku,” a moniker for fans of Japanese animation and its related passions, has survived a multitude of public and private appraisals. “Otaku” describes the conceptualization of a generation’s adherence to fan values, society’s opprobrium toward a targeted yet indistinct group, and the market’s generalization of an obsessive consumer.

What are the politics surrounding this categorization of loyalists to the anime fandom, in which “otaku” remains a negative classification even in the eyes of contemporary fans? What has caused Toshio Okada, theorist of the otaku culture and self-proclaimed Ota-king, to declare that otaku are dead? And in the cultural translation of the anime fandom from Japan to the United States, how have all things otaku blossomed into a mature consumer culture and an accelerated educational progression in the past decade?

From the beginnings of the “otaku movement” (Thomas Lamarre) established in the pursuits of the founders of Studio Gainax, we will examine the rise of otaku culture in the science fiction conventions of Osaka, its public disapproval stemming from media portrayals of Akihabara and hikkikomori, and the subsequent revitalization of anime fandom in the United States as the socialization of otaku proliferated in conventions, across the Internet, and eventually in local bookstores.

The actual presentation will probably not reflect most of the abstract (it was written back in December), but the paper will be uploaded to the blog come Saturday, so look out for it. Until then!

Aftermath of Anime Boston 2008

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Anime Boston just ended a few days ago, but I had a good weekend, given that I only spent the equivalent of one day inside the Hynes Convention Center. I signed up for a blues dancing workshop over at the MIT Student Center for the majority of Saturday, but the lack of time spent at the con was supplanted by my participation in a couple panels. Then again, I still can’t believe I convinced myself to skip the Pillows concert. I mean, c’mon, it’s The Pillows, second only to The Seatbelts. I’ll definitely be on top of my game next year and actually attend for the entire weekend (and of course do a bunch more panels).

I picked up my badge on Thursday night — luckily. The nametag appeared in my hand after only about an hour’s wait, unlike those unfortunate souls that had to retrieve theirs on Friday. Walking along the con, I ran into a line stretching from one end of the center to the other. Thinking it was simply a popular autograph signing, I followed it down to the front, only to find that it led into the registration room. I heard a few rumors that people who hadn’t preregistered waited for up to nine hours (and a few were turned away from registering even after standing in line). Quite a bit of failure there, but I expect the AB staff will be on top of that issue next year.

Since I wasn’t on site for most of the convention, I didn’t attend many events, but I did get a chance to attend the newly-annual formal ball. This year exceeded my expectations compared to last year (AB 2007), and the ticketing system certainly helped speed up the line that kept a lot of people out of 2007′s dance. Not sure if many people realized that MC Frontalot was on stage DJing the event, but there he was (and seemed a bit lonely too). There weren’t as many people dancing this year, and I wonder how the dance staff will try to ameliorate that next year (I think 2007 excelled in terms of people on the dance floor, but maybe that’s because attendees were just psyched for it).

I got to walk around the Artists’ Alley for about an hour and, although I definitely didn’t spend as much on schwag compared to 2007, I picked up one $10 print. It’s such an arresting picture, though, so when I glanced it the drawing stopped me in my tracks, mesmerized for a good fifteen minutes before I decided to purchase it. The artist is Peter Chan (of Toronto, Canada), and you can see a glimpse of the print here. I love the anachronistic quality (which reminds me of the blend that Shinichiro Watanabe makes in Samurai Champloo.

Most of my other time was spent on panels. I was given permission to host three panels, but I only decided to go through with two of them (Learning Japanese Through Anime was cancelled). Kent, Alicia, and I hosted one panel called Trescaflowgun on Saturday night, at which we did a comparison-contrast of Trigun with Escaflowne, focusing on art designs, narrative styles, and plot devices. I guess you could call it a Comparative Literature take on anime. Overall, we had a surprisingly medium turnout, since we were slotted against the Masquerade, but there were a number of people that came in thinking we were going to present a fan parody. Ultimately, I view this first panel of ours as a practice round for the success that would be Sunday’s panel.

On Sunday afternoon, I presented a talk (again, with Kent and Alicia) entitled Globalization, Technology, and the American Otaku to an audience of about forty people. Borrowing and applying ideas from Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat and a number of the blogs, scholarly articles, and podcasts ingested from MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, I discussed the past, current, and future state of the Japanese animation culture in America and primarily how it has been influenced by the Internet and international convergence and collaboration. Thanks to Alicia and Kent who provided some good commentary on club fandom, the Cosplay.com community, and particularly the reception of texts while access is easy and the diversity large. The panel lasted only an hour, and we spent a good amount of time fielding solid questions from the audience, so I had to omit a few items due to the time constraints. We actually had a pretty good write-up of the panel over at Pop Culture Shock, so check it out. It’s a good thumbs-up for anyone interested in attending my panels next year, hint hint!

Definitely going to plan to 1) be at the convention for the entire weekend next year, 2) submit more panels and hopefully present them, and 3) try to go for a Press Pass, because I’d like to snag a few interviews and conduct a bit of formal research, which I might be able to get funded by my university. But I still have Otakon and Connecticon on the list for this summer, so let’s get to those first!