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ANIME FANDOM IN THE WEST
HYBRIDITY, IDENTITY, AND
TRANSNATIONALISM
Katharina Freund
1. Introduction & history
2. Nerd identity, rejection of coolness
3. Global, local, and transnational media
4. Difference, transformation, & “empty” culture
5. Moral panics and parental confusion
6. The “carnivalesque”
Overview
What are anime & manga?
Anime アニメ
Japanese word for animation
Any animated television series or film created in
Japan
Manga 漫画
Japanese comic books
Both have wide-ranging audiences in Japan (all
ages, men & women)
Historical Background
First appeared in North America in 1970s
Incredibly specialized fan group
Specific films/series, e.g. Akira (1988)
Fandom develops online
Fans can communicate and organize across long distances
More material from Japan
Japanese series picked up by American television
Power Rangers (1993), Sailor Moon (1995), Pokemon (1998)
Widespread distribution & mainstreaming (2000-2010)
Anime commonly seen on Western TV
New York Times adds “Best Selling Manga” in 2009
Manga easily available in large bookstore chains
Who are anime fans?
What does it involve?
Online communities
Fan clubs
Conventions
Costuming
Role-playing
Fanfiction
Anime Music Videos
Art
Toy collecting
Subgroups: gamers, yaoi girls, gothic lolita, media fandom, etc.
Identity, Coolness, and Nerd Pride
“If I wasn’t into anime, I’d be a gangster ho.”
Otaku おたく
Japanese for a person with obsessive interests
Extremely negative connotations
Withdrawn from society
Moral panic
1989: Miyazaki Tsutomu, the “Otaku Murderer”
2001: Osaka School Massacre
2008: Akihabara Massacre
Usually used as an insult
Lost in translation
Images of merchandise sold on cafepress.com
Densha Otoko 電車男
“Train Man”
True (?) story that has
become multi-media
phenomenon
Sympathetic otaku
protagonist
Nerds, Geeks, and Losers
“There is Life Outside Your Apartment!”
“We‟re all kindred spirits…”
“…Most of us weren‟t the coolest people in school, a lot of us were „the nerds‟ of whatever class, so, you
know, if everyone‟s in the same boat why would you go out of your way to be cruel to other people who are just like you… The young teenage, 14-15, are worst years of your life, the ugly, gangly, awkward stage
where you‟re trying to figure out who you are, so yeah I can see why they would use something like an anime convention which is so [in falsetto] „everybody loves
each other!‟ as an escape instead of just an interest.”
Female fan, aged 21.
Local, Global, Transnational
“The Simpsonzu”, by spacecoyote.http://spacecoyote.deviantart.com/art/The-Simpsonzu-46036660
Hybrid Media
Hollywood hostility to “foreignness”
Sony: mukokuseki (無国籍, stateless) policy
Removing Japanese “odour” from products to make them
globally accessible
Sekai no
Global
世界の
Nihonteki
Japanese
日本てき
“An American Classic”
Mixing Cultural Codes
“The rough transition and lack of continuity between the
Japanese and American footage is a sign of… the
dreamlike and monstrous scrambling of cultural codes.
Our Wonder Bread heroes are not just turning
Japanese, they‟re becoming altered beings in a
parallel aesthetic realm, with its own internal logic,
myths, and ethics. And maybe their audience is
somehow transforming too… The tykes currently
addicted to the show may end up becoming a mass
market for more mature and vital Japanese popular
shows now shrouded in hipster subculture – e.g., anime.”
(David 1994:73 quoted in Allison, 125)
Discovery of Difference
Allison: foreign-ness and non-American aspects of
anime are what attract young people to it
“…Whether the attraction is coded as global culture or
as culturally Japanese, it involves not only a perceived
difference from American pop but also a constructed
world premised on the very notion of difference itself –
of endless bodies, vistas, and powers that perpetually
break down into constituent components that re-attach
and recombine in different ways.” (2006, p. 2)
Transformation & Change
Ranma ½Takahashi Rumiko
Ghost in the ShellMasamune Shirow
Sailor MoonTakeuchi Naoko
Identification with the Other
“The desire for transformation, or the experience of some different identity, is a central concern expressed in the appropriation of anime by Western fans. Part of this desire for difference is because many fans feel some level of alienation from the dominant culture… The racism, prejudice, and nationalism associated with essentialist identities of Australian-ness create feelings of disaffection that generate a desire for new kinds of identifications.”
Norris 2005, n.p.
“Empty” Culture
Anglo teenagers in US, Canada,
Australia feel a “lack” of culture
Fragmented: no shared cultural
identity
“Our generation wasn‟t raised with as much of a sense of cultural pride as other generations, we‟re disconnected from our origins – if you have no relatives „back home‟, can‟t speak the language, and know very little about the culture or religion, can you really claim an identity to that background?”
Female fan, aged 20.
“Mundanes”
Non-fans are narrow-minded, repressed, boring,
called “mundanes” by some fans
“I think that‟s what‟s appealing about the whole anime fandom is that it‟s something different. You can go to school and be a part of a select few
and everyone else, they look at you strangely, but you can, even if it‟s not the truth, you can at least you can pretend that maybe all these outsiders yearn to be a part of your little select group.”
Female fan, aged 21.
Yaoi Girls
Yaoi: Genre about
same-sex relationships
between men
Written by women for
female audience
“The hell with what my mom thinks, the hell with what grandma thinks, this is what I like and if they don‟t like it they can go to hell!”
Female yaoi fan, aged 17
“Don‟t expect to get it.” – Bellafante (1993:88)
Confusing Parents with the Carnivalesque
“Animania”
M: My parents wanted to come to the con this year to see what it was all about. Imagine how horrible that would have been!
F1: [in shock] Why are you dressed like a skank – and why do you have that boy on a leash?
M: [more shock] Why are you on a leash!?
F2: Who is that 50 year old man and why Is he wearing a tail?
F1: Why is he wearing a dress!!
Semiotics of Fandom
Anime fans stepping outside sign system of
Western culture
Using signifiers that have unknown signified
Confuses Western parents & non-fans
Hybrid slang: combining fandom, Japanese, English
“I’m telling you, it was the slashiest thing I’ve ever seen. It may have been a little OOC, but it was still a great fic. And I’m not even a big
fan of that pairing, nee, Sarah-chan?”
“Honto desu. Mattaku.”
“Convention of Fools”: Carnivalesque
Mikhail Bakhtin, 1984: Social theory used to
explain gregarious and theatrical behaviour
Traits:
Excess, spectacle, theatricality, the grotesque
Inversion of traditional hierarchy
Flouting social and behavioural norms
Exposing the private and socially unacceptable
Free intermingling of bodies, extreme interaction
E.g.: American Wrestling (Barthes), Hallowe‟en
Extreme Interaction
“The Glomp”
Theatrical Clothing
Flouting Social Norms
Exposing the Hidden
Commodity Capitalism
Going Mainstream
In conclusion…
Media representations and historical changes in
cultural identity
Global flow of information and hybrid media
Youth identity and identification with the Other
Moral panic and parental fears
Unique sign system adopted by youth
“Carnivalesque” behaviour
Role of commodity capitalism in fandom
Are there any questions?
Thanks for listening!