This course explores various analytic frameworks for understanding Japanese manga and anime as sociocultural phenomena. From a cultural anthropological perspective, we want to understand how manga and anime texts constitute a ‘culture’ in a distinctive way and how it relates to existing sociohistorical conditions and aesthetic traditions. We may also call this culture otaku culture, in so far as this is how some of its participants and observers habitually describe it today. We want to situate contemporary otaku cultural experience and sensibility in relation to discourses of nationalism, globalization, locality, technology, gender, subjectivity, postwar history, death, the human, the animal, and the inanimate. The culture of anime and manga is not simply a convenient window through which to explore ‘Japanese culture’ but is itself a heterogeneous site of cultural action, norms, desires, aesthetics, economy, and politics.
As we explore this heterogeneity, we frame the course with the general theme of Intertextuality. Intertextuality means that the culture of anime/manga cannot be adequately appreciated without investigating the way in which a given text refers to, quotes, comments upon, reproduces, evaluates – generally ‘talks about’ – other texts and other genres: how otaku cultural texts create complex linkages to sociocultural phenomena, literary discourses, political idioms, historical events, etc. (So, the cosplay performance of a manga character, the technique of ‘character branding’ for a company or a product, and our engagement in this very course – these are examples of intertextual connection.) Along with this theme, we will also take up the theme of Reflexivity. Reflexivity means a degree of intuitive awareness of the intertextual nature of aesthetic works in manga and anime on the part of producers, consumers, performers, interpreters, and even characters. We will be concerned with how people participating in this culture develop and deploy their reflexive sense of intertextual connection in producing and appreciating popular cultural texts.
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course students will be able to:
Critically examine various stereotypes about contemporary Japanese popular culture
Analyze idioms and practices that help constitute the intertextuality of this culture
Through fieldwork explorations and theoretical discussions, demonstrate sharper analytic, ethnographic, and theoretical sensibility in approaching popular culture from an anthropological perspective
Method of presentation:
Lecture, discussion, and writing assignments
Required work and form of assessment:
Academic and Course Policy:
Plagiarism will not be tolerated and any evidence of plagiarism will result in failure of the course.
No mobile devise is allowed during class session. Turn off your mobile phone or set it to silent mode, and keep it in your bag. You don’t need these devices, so don’t use them.
Attendance to all class meetings is required for all IES courses. The one-session-a-week schedule makes missing a single class equivalent to missing a full week during a regular semester. Therefore, you are permitted a maximum of one unexcused absence. In cases of unavoidable conflict, you must provide a formal documentation: the terms of such unavoidability are determined by the instructor. Additional unexcused absences will result in a penalty of one of letter grade from your final grade, for each additional absence—i.e. two missed classes turns an A into a B, three turns it into a C, and so on.
READ THIS SYLLABUS: Read all the assigned readings (mandatory): Your final course grade reflects your overall grasp of the course materials. If you don’t do the readings and don’t participate in the sessions, you will not be able to respond to the following assignments in an adequate and satisfactory way.
1) Class Participation (20%): You will participate actively in class discussion. Come to the class prepared with questions and comments about the assigned readings.
2) Writing Assignment 1: Film Review (15%). Due Monday, 9/27
3) Two Field Assignments and Reports (15% x 2 = 30%): You will perform two field work assignments and write a report for each. In your report you will provide an expository essay of your field experience in light of our class discussion. These field trips may require additional expenses for travel and various kinds of services (e.g. manga kissa).
4) Writing Assignment 2 (Proposal, mandatory; Paper 35%): You will write a paper in which to develop an analytic argument about one anime series, due at the end of the semester. 8-10 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman. For this assignment, you will watch the entire episodes of Durarara!!. There are 25 episodes. I expect that you will have watched all the 25 episodes by the third week of November. By the first field assignment, familiarize yourself with the narrative setting of the anime at least to a certain degree (watching the first few episodes will do).
As you watch the anime, you will construct your own final paper topic. Prepare a short proposal
(1 page, single-spaced); the proposal will not be graded. Your proposal should indicate your thesis, a general outline of your argument, and an intended list of bibliographic items. Your topic must be approved by me by November 18; and your 1-page proposal must be submitted by December 2. So you must schedule your viewing carefully and think ahead! With three episodes a week
(about 1 hour and a half), you will have completed the series by late October or early November. Just think about possible paper topics as you go through the episodes; Make notes while watching (IMPORTANT: presumably, this isn’t something you usually do in anime viewing); Relate your viewing experience and understanding of the anime to the course readings and class discussion; Feel free to speak with me about this assignment anytime.
Important Dates:
9/9: Our First Session
9/27: Writing Assignment 1 Due
By the end of September: you must at least watch the first few episodes of Durarara!!
10/7: Field Assignment 1
10/18: Field Report 1 Due
11/4: Field Assignment 2
11/15: Field Report 2 Due
By Second Week of November: You must complete your viewing of Durarara!!
By 11/18: You must have your paper topic approved
By 12/2: You must have your paper proposal submitted
12/16: Writing Assignment 2 Due
Notes:
-Basic knowledge of social sciences and Japanese history is recommended.
-More importantly, our discussion and our course materials include a lot of references to anime and manga titles, video games, and subcultural idioms more generally. Do NOT expect that everyone in the class already knows everything about these texts and idioms. (No one does.) If you encounter a work of anime you do not know in the readings, for example, do not be too concerned. Instead, think about how and why it is being talked about in the context of an argument. Do a little research on it yourself or ask others about it, just so that you have sufficient familiarity with works like this. Accordingly, if you want to refer to some anime or manga as an example that illuminates your argument in your paper or our discussion in class (which I encourage you to do), try to contextualize it for those who might not be familiar with it and make clear how the example relates to the discussion and the argument.
-I do not grade you on the basis of your immersion in Japanese popular culture. Whatever the degree of your immersion (your otaku-ness, in a sense), my assessment of your course performance is based on how you demonstrate your analytic understanding of the culture through required assignments. In short, being already an anime fan doesn’t automatically give you a good grade, while the course does require you to approach this culture in an ethnographically deep and analytically sophisticated way and moreover to appreciate it in its own right.
-There are many great databases of manga and anime available online; our library also has a collection. I will give you more information about these resources in class so you can peruse some of them to familiarize yourself with various anima and manga works.
content:
Course Schedule:
ALL READINGS are REQUIRED: you are expected to have read the readings BEFORE the session in which they are assigned (unless otherwise noted).
Lesson 1 9/9 Introduction
-Looking at the culture of anime and manga anthropologically.
-How ‘Japanese’ is Japanese popular culture? The peculiar quality of global circulation of Japanese popular culture: a-quality or “cultural odorlessness.” Anime, manga, video games, and other popular cultural paraphernalia as a concrete technique of fantasy.
-The notion of “media mix” and “derivative work” as a distinctive style of intertextuality in contemporary otaku cultural production and consumption.
Readings:
Iwabuchi, Koichi. “Taking Japanization Seriously: Cultural Globalization Reconsidered.” In: Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham: Duke University Press. Pp. 23-50.
Lam, Fan-Yi. “Comic Market: How the World’s Biggest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Dojinshi Culture.” Mechademia 5.
Ito, Mizuko. “Mobilizing the Imagination in Everyday Play: the Case of Japanese Media Mix.” In: Mashup Cultures, Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss, ed. Vienna: Springer. Pp. 79-97
Lesson 2 – 9/16 (Pseudo)Japan, concretely fantasized
-The cultrual-historical ‘location’ of manga and anime: Western art forms, American material culture, post-‘high economic growth’ Japan.
-Fantasies about Japanese culture (and its loss). “Japan” as fantasy in otaku culture.
Readings:
Schodt, Frederik. “A Thousand Years of Manga” In: Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. Tokyo: Kodansha USA, 1986. Pp. 28-67.
Kinsella, Sharon. “A Short History of Manga.” In: Adult Manga. Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2000. Pp. 28-37.
Azuma, Hiroki. “The Otaku’s Pseudo-Japan.” In: Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals. Pp. 3-24.
Writing Assignment 1
Watch the film Princess Mononoke (1997), and write a short review paper (4-5 pages, double- spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman) on the film. Details to be announced.
*Writing Assignment 1 due Monday, 9/27*
Lesson 3 – 9/23 Narratives and Databases
-Visual aesthetics and participation framework. The idea of ‘narrated event (and its participants)’ and
‘event of narration (and its participants).’ ’Panels’ in manga as a formal unit of visual experience.
-’Database’ as a modality of narrative participation.
Readings:
Natsume, Fusanosuke. “Pictotexts and Panels: Commonalities and Differences in Manga, Comics, and BD.” In: Comics Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards Scholarship on a Global Scale.
Jaqueline Berndt, ed. International Manga Research Center, Kyoto Seika University. Pp. 37-51.
Ōtsuka, Eiji. “World and Variation: the Reproduction and Consumption of Narrative.” Mechademia 5.
Azuma. “Database Animals.” In: Otaku. Pp. 25-95.
Lesson 4 – 9/30 Locality
-’Anime/ manga pilgrimage’ as a modality of audience practice. Landscape as a curated object. ‘Holy
Places’ (seichi) and communities of practice.
Gagne, Isaac. “Urban princesses: performance and ‘women’s language’ in Japan’s Gothic/Lolita subculture.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology vol.18 no.1 (2008), 130-50.
Lesson 5 – 10/7 Field Assignment 1
Experimenting in Anime Pilgrimage: Ikebukuro
Details (scheduling, logistics, research focus, etc) to be announced
You are expected to have at least watched the first few episodes of Durarara!!
Report: 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman
*Field Report 1 Due Monday, 10/18*
Lesson 6 – 10/14 Characters
-’Characterization’ as a functional unit of otaku (inter)texts, and the fundamental aesthetic-semiotic modality of subcultural analysis and experience. An intersection of visual, aural, plastic, attitudinal attributes. Cuteness and the idea of moe as a character-attribute-driven sensibility. The sui generis realness of characters. Character branding.
Watch the opening and ending credits of K-on! (and do a little research on the music)
Steinberg, Marc. “Anytime, Anywhere: Tetsuwan Atomu Stickers and the Emergence of Character Merchandizing.” Theory, Culture & Society vol. 26 no. 2-3 (2009), 113-128.
Galbraith [article on the recent debate about the Tokyo city ordinance amendment]
Galbraith, Patrick. “Akihabara: Conditioning a Public ‘Otaku’ Image.” Mechademia 5.
Exploring Akihabara
Details (scheduling, logistics, research focus, etc) to be announced
Report: 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman
*Field Report 2 due: Monday, 11/15*
*You will have completed your viewing of Durarara!! by the second week of November*
Lesson 10 – 11/11 War and Peace
-Psychological warfare and the power of images (and idioms of characterization). How to destroy; how to represent the destroyed. The ‘war generation.’ Readings:
Dower, John. Ch 4; Ch 9; see also plates (pp. 181-200). In: War Without Mercy.
Goldberg, Wendy. “Transcending the Victim’s History.” Mechademia 4.
Mizuno, Hiromi. “When Pacifist Japan Fights: Historicizing Desires in Anime.” Mechademia 2.
[something on Gainax]
*Your final paper topic must be approved by Friday, November 18*
No Class – 11/18
IES Fieldtrip 11/23 – 11/26
*Your final paper proposal Due: Friday, December 2*
Lesson 11 – 12/2 The Everyday
-The apocalyptic, the festival, the elegiac – how about the everyday? Ordinary places, ordinary people, ordinary life. The family and suburbs – or urban interstices. The everyday as fantasy.
-The Sazaesan space-time (sazaesan jikū).
-Evangelion’s dialectic of the everyday.
Watch suggested episodes of Sazaesan; and Neon Genesis Evangelion
Readings:
Lee, William. “From Sazae-san to Crayon Shin-Chan: Family Anime, Social Change and Nostalgia in Japan”, in Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. T. J. Craig. Ed.. M.E Sharp. 2000, Pp. 186-203.
[something on Eva]
Lesson 12 – 12/9 The Everyday (continued)
-The everyday as a style. The tradition of 4-koma manga.
-Minami-ke: “This is just a plain depiction of the everyday life of the three Minami-ke sisters. Please don’t expect too much. Also, please light up your room, and keep at least 3 meters from your damn TV”
-The everyday in Durarara!!.
Watch the first episode (or suggested episodes) of the following anime: Minami-ke; and Lucky Star. Readings:
TBA
*Writing Assignment 2 due 12/16*
Required readings:
We will be using the following books in addition to the texts specified in Schedule below.
Azuma, Hiroki. 2009[2001]. Otaku: Japanese Database Animals. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Alt, Matt and Hiroko Yoda. 2007. Hello! Please!: Very Helpful Super Kawaii Characters from Japan. Vancouver: Raincoat Books.
Also, we will watch the following anime works
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Durarara!! (Anime Series, 2010). 25 episodes.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Shunsuke Nozawa earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Chicago. His research interests include social history and cultural ideology of media, sociality and connectivity, politics of age, virtuality, semiotics, linguistic anthropology.
This course explores various analytic frameworks for understanding Japanese manga and anime as sociocultural phenomena. From a cultural anthropological perspective, we want to understand how manga and anime texts constitute a ‘culture’ in a distinctive way and how it relates to existing sociohistorical conditions and aesthetic traditions. We may also call this culture otaku culture, in so far as this is how some of its participants and observers habitually describe it today. We want to situate contemporary otaku cultural experience and sensibility in relation to discourses of nationalism, globalization, locality, technology, gender, subjectivity, postwar history, death, the human, the animal, and the inanimate. The culture of anime and manga is not simply a convenient window through which to explore ‘Japanese culture’ but is itself a heterogeneous site of cultural action, norms, desires, aesthetics, economy, and politics.
As we explore this heterogeneity, we frame the course with the general theme of Intertextuality. Intertextuality means that the culture of anime/manga cannot be adequately appreciated without investigating the way in which a given text refers to, quotes, comments upon, reproduces, evaluates – generally ‘talks about’ – other texts and other genres: how otaku cultural texts create complex linkages to sociocultural phenomena, literary discourses, political idioms, historical events, etc. (So, the cosplay performance of a manga character, the technique of ‘character branding’ for a company or a product, and our engagement in this very course – these are examples of intertextual connection.) Along with this theme, we will also take up the theme of Reflexivity. Reflexivity means a degree of intuitive awareness of the intertextual nature of aesthetic works in manga and anime on the part of producers, consumers, performers, interpreters, and even characters. We will be concerned with how people participating in this culture develop and deploy their reflexive sense of intertextual connection in producing and appreciating popular cultural texts.
None
By the end of the course students will be able to:
Lecture, discussion, and writing assignments
Academic and Course Policy:
READ THIS SYLLABUS: Read all the assigned readings (mandatory): Your final course grade reflects your overall grasp of the course materials. If you don’t do the readings and don’t participate in the sessions, you will not be able to respond to the following assignments in an adequate and satisfactory way.
1) Class Participation (20%): You will participate actively in class discussion. Come to the class prepared with questions and comments about the assigned readings.
2) Writing Assignment 1: Film Review (15%). Due Monday, 9/27
3) Two Field Assignments and Reports (15% x 2 = 30%): You will perform two field work assignments and write a report for each. In your report you will provide an expository essay of your field experience in light of our class discussion. These field trips may require additional expenses for travel and various kinds of services (e.g. manga kissa).
4) Writing Assignment 2 (Proposal, mandatory; Paper 35%): You will write a paper in which to develop an analytic argument about one anime series, due at the end of the semester. 8-10 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman. For this assignment, you will watch the entire episodes of Durarara!!. There are 25 episodes. I expect that you will have watched all the 25 episodes by the third week of November. By the first field assignment, familiarize yourself with the narrative setting of the anime at least to a certain degree (watching the first few episodes will do).
As you watch the anime, you will construct your own final paper topic. Prepare a short proposal
(1 page, single-spaced); the proposal will not be graded. Your proposal should indicate your thesis, a general outline of your argument, and an intended list of bibliographic items. Your topic must be approved by me by November 18; and your 1-page proposal must be submitted by December 2. So you must schedule your viewing carefully and think ahead! With three episodes a week
(about 1 hour and a half), you will have completed the series by late October or early November. Just think about possible paper topics as you go through the episodes; Make notes while watching (IMPORTANT: presumably, this isn’t something you usually do in anime viewing); Relate your viewing experience and understanding of the anime to the course readings and class discussion; Feel free to speak with me about this assignment anytime.
Important Dates:
9/9: Our First Session
9/27: Writing Assignment 1 Due
By the end of September: you must at least watch the first few episodes of Durarara!!
10/7: Field Assignment 1
10/18: Field Report 1 Due
11/4: Field Assignment 2
11/15: Field Report 2 Due
By Second Week of November: You must complete your viewing of Durarara!!
By 11/18: You must have your paper topic approved
By 12/2: You must have your paper proposal submitted
12/16: Writing Assignment 2 Due
Notes:
-Basic knowledge of social sciences and Japanese history is recommended.
-More importantly, our discussion and our course materials include a lot of references to anime and manga titles, video games, and subcultural idioms more generally. Do NOT expect that everyone in the class already knows everything about these texts and idioms. (No one does.) If you encounter a work of anime you do not know in the readings, for example, do not be too concerned. Instead, think about how and why it is being talked about in the context of an argument. Do a little research on it yourself or ask others about it, just so that you have sufficient familiarity with works like this. Accordingly, if you want to refer to some anime or manga as an example that illuminates your argument in your paper or our discussion in class (which I encourage you to do), try to contextualize it for those who might not be familiar with it and make clear how the example relates to the discussion and the argument.
-I do not grade you on the basis of your immersion in Japanese popular culture. Whatever the degree of your immersion (your otaku-ness, in a sense), my assessment of your course performance is based on how you demonstrate your analytic understanding of the culture through required assignments. In short, being already an anime fan doesn’t automatically give you a good grade, while the course does require you to approach this culture in an ethnographically deep and analytically sophisticated way and moreover to appreciate it in its own right.
-There are many great databases of manga and anime available online; our library also has a collection. I will give you more information about these resources in class so you can peruse some of them to familiarize yourself with various anima and manga works.
Course Schedule:
ALL READINGS are REQUIRED: you are expected to have read the readings BEFORE the session in which they are assigned (unless otherwise noted).
Lesson 1 9/9 Introduction
-Looking at the culture of anime and manga anthropologically.
-How ‘Japanese’ is Japanese popular culture? The peculiar quality of global circulation of Japanese popular culture: a-quality or “cultural odorlessness.” Anime, manga, video games, and other popular cultural paraphernalia as a concrete technique of fantasy.
-The notion of “media mix” and “derivative work” as a distinctive style of intertextuality in contemporary otaku cultural production and consumption.
Readings:
Lesson 2 – 9/16 (Pseudo)Japan, concretely fantasized
-The cultrual-historical ‘location’ of manga and anime: Western art forms, American material culture, post-‘high economic growth’ Japan.
-Fantasies about Japanese culture (and its loss). “Japan” as fantasy in otaku culture.
Readings:
Writing Assignment 1
Watch the film Princess Mononoke (1997), and write a short review paper (4-5 pages, double- spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman) on the film. Details to be announced.
*Writing Assignment 1 due Monday, 9/27*
Lesson 3 – 9/23 Narratives and Databases
-Visual aesthetics and participation framework. The idea of ‘narrated event (and its participants)’ and
‘event of narration (and its participants).’ ’Panels’ in manga as a formal unit of visual experience.
-’Database’ as a modality of narrative participation.
Readings:
Lesson 4 – 9/30 Locality
-’Anime/ manga pilgrimage’ as a modality of audience practice. Landscape as a curated object. ‘Holy
Places’ (seichi) and communities of practice.
Readings:
Lesson 5 – 10/7 Field Assignment 1
Experimenting in Anime Pilgrimage: Ikebukuro
Details (scheduling, logistics, research focus, etc) to be announced
You are expected to have at least watched the first few episodes of Durarara!!
Report: 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman
*Field Report 1 Due Monday, 10/18*
Lesson 6 – 10/14 Characters
-’Characterization’ as a functional unit of otaku (inter)texts, and the fundamental aesthetic-semiotic modality of subcultural analysis and experience. An intersection of visual, aural, plastic, attitudinal attributes. Cuteness and the idea of moe as a character-attribute-driven sensibility. The sui generis realness of characters. Character branding.
Watch the opening and ending credits of K-on! (and do a little research on the music)
Readings:
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2009/Galbraith.html
Lesson 7 – 10/21 Characters (continued)
Political economy
Readings:
Lesson 8 – 10/28 Characters (continued)
Virtual-actual interface.
Readings:
Lesson 9 – 11/4 Field Assignment 2
Read before you engage this assignment:
Exploring Akihabara
Details (scheduling, logistics, research focus, etc) to be announced
Report: 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12 pt Times New Roman
*Field Report 2 due: Monday, 11/15*
*You will have completed your viewing of Durarara!! by the second week of November*
Lesson 10 – 11/11 War and Peace
-Psychological warfare and the power of images (and idioms of characterization). How to destroy; how to represent the destroyed. The ‘war generation.’
Readings:
*Your final paper topic must be approved by Friday, November 18*
No Class – 11/18
IES Fieldtrip 11/23 – 11/26
*Your final paper proposal Due: Friday, December 2*
Lesson 11 – 12/2 The Everyday
-The apocalyptic, the festival, the elegiac – how about the everyday? Ordinary places, ordinary people, ordinary life. The family and suburbs – or urban interstices. The everyday as fantasy.
-The Sazaesan space-time (sazaesan jikū).
-Evangelion’s dialectic of the everyday.
Watch suggested episodes of Sazaesan; and Neon Genesis Evangelion
Readings:
Lesson 12 – 12/9 The Everyday (continued)
-The everyday as a style. The tradition of 4-koma manga.
-Minami-ke: “This is just a plain depiction of the everyday life of the three Minami-ke sisters. Please don’t expect too much. Also, please light up your room, and keep at least 3 meters from your damn TV”
-The everyday in Durarara!!.
Watch the first episode (or suggested episodes) of the following anime: Minami-ke; and Lucky Star. Readings:
*Writing Assignment 2 due 12/16*
We will be using the following books in addition to the texts specified in Schedule below.
Also, we will watch the following anime works
Shunsuke Nozawa earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Chicago. His research interests include social history and cultural ideology of media, sociality and connectivity, politics of age, virtuality, semiotics, linguistic anthropology.