you really think so?
Aims. This post locates itself within the context of anime culture research. Its main contribution to knowledge is the record of empirical material of interest, namely the archiving of taglines by Kabitzin of the Sea Slugs! Anime Blog. It also aims to contribute to analytical and theory developoment of the Mixed Up Mind theory (Ender, 2008).
Continue reading ‘Pun with Kabitzin: An Ethnographic Note on Anime Blog Tagline Construction’
Cory of Renegade Anime Blog poses the interesting question of whether anime blog aggregators operating on ‘closed garden’ (blogsuki) versus ‘open acceptance’ (animenano) principles result in less episode summary/reviews and more editorial posts being showcased. Based on the data presented, the answer is somewhat inconclusive. He renews his call for less episode summaries/reviews and more editorials as well as more commenting and trackbacks. Meanwhile Michael of anime|otaku proposes economic and psychological reasons for the continued dominance of the episode summary/review style of anime blogging.
This post examines some research design issues related to Cory’s initial line of enquiry before considering the normative assumptions and prescription that underlies the study. It goes on to suggest an additional reason for the popularity of the episode summary/review style.
Sharon Kinsella, currently Visiting Professor at MIT’s Dept of Foreign Languages and Literature, delivered the 4th Chino Kaori lecture on the above-mentioned title at my alma mater, SOAS, on 2006-10-20. Among Kinsella’s published work, her most famous to date is Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japanese Society (1999). The lecture will be published by the Sainsbury Institute at a later date and draws on material from her forthcoming book, Girls and Male Imagination: Fantasies of rejuvenation in contemporary Japan.
Kinsella traces images of female revolt, manifested through acts of violence and sexual liberation, in various media - films, novels, manga and anime and the accompanying dicussion among journalistic and intellectual circles. She points out the irony that this cultural material and the academic discourse is produced almost exclusively by older men. While many of these left-leaning intellectuals claim to be giving a sympathetic voice to the theme of feminist liberation, Kinsella questions if their subjectivity can be truly representative and that their efforts may, perversely, result in another male appropriation of the female voice for its own purposes.
Continue reading ‘Female revolt in male cultural imagination in contemporary Japan’
In Anime Podcast #10, JP Meyer gave a pithy response, along the lines of "not really", to a comment and question by Thor about whether increased anti-US sentiment in anime will affect anime sales in the US. I shared Thor’s impression that in blood+ and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, the US has not been portrayed favourably. In addition to these two Production IG series, we’ve also seen SUNRISE draw a parallel between the US and the Blue Cosmos/Logos controlled Atlantic Federation with its capital in Washington D.C. and its puppet president Copeland in Gundam SEED Destiny.
This post attempts to look at the definitional problems that reflect the often confused and contradictory character of anti-Americanism and disentangle how separate levels of analysis are often conflated. Furthermore, this post argues that many of these ideas and themes regarded as “anti-American” are echoed in or even influenced by US political science, literary, cinematic and popular culture sources.
The recent retirements of Tensai11 and Jeff Lawson as well as the long hiatus announcement over at itsumo feels like the loss of Fujiwara no Sai and Touya Kouyo Meijin in the world of Hikaru no Go to this blogger and perhaps signals the beginning of the end of an era in anime blogging. While longstanding pillars of the community, like Matthew and the Sea Slugs Team, continue to be active, others like Miwa and Momotato Daioh have gone worryingly inactive. But as with Hikaru no Go, newcomers continue to appear and infuse new blood into the community.
A common theme is burnout after the demands of anime blogging assume assume the characteristics of regular drudgery work as the passion of the hobby fades. This post, spurred by Jason Miao and Moyism (Life Line by Line)’s recent enunciations of their blogging methods, argues that while the primary motivation of anime blogging should indeed be fun and enjoyment, academic methods (which is often associated with work or homework) do have a place in helping improve quality, save time and even enhance personal satisfaction.
Continue reading ‘Exploring Methodologies in Anime Blogging: An Arts & Humanities Perspective’