Search

In this paper, we propose a few-shot method for pose transfer of anime characters—given a source image of an anime character and a target pose, we transfer the pose of the target to the source character. Despite recent advances in pose transfer on real people images, these methods typically require large numbers of training images of different person under different poses to achieve reasonable results. However, anime character images are expensive to obtain they are created with a lot of artistic authoring. To address this, we propose a meta-learning framework for few-shot pose transfer, which can well generalize to an unseen character given just a few examples of the character. Further, we propose fusion residual blocks to align the features of the source and target so that the appearance of the source character can be well transferred to the target pose. Experiments show that our method outperforms leading pose transfer methods, especially when the source characters are not in the training set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anime is widely known and has a numerous army of admirers all over the world. It originated in Japan almost 70 years ago, but, as time went by, this style of animation has won the audience, become recognised worldwide and still has not lost its appeal. The authors of the article aim to discover whether it continues to be popular today among the students of one particular Russian university and indicate the reasons for that. The methodology used in the paper involves literature analysis and synthesis, generalization, comparative analysis, statistical analysis, and a survey. The sample of the study consisted of 170 undergraduate students aged 17 to 20 from the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Arkhangelsk, Russia). The received results demonstrated that most students got acquainted with this genre while being at school but hitherto favour it. Anime, being an incentive for many young people, inspires them to study the history, traditions and culture of Japan and compare it with other countries, thus, being a part of the global anime community. The survey also revealed the main reasons of anime popularity such as a fascinating plot, variety of genres, bright images of the characters and identified the filmmaker with the highest number of votes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines women-exclusionary discourses on the popular anime Usenet newsgroup, rec.arts.anime. By going back to pre-2000 online anime histories, this paper proposes to understand how women-exclusionary discursive practices on rec.arts.anime have contributed to shaping contemporary toxic technocultures' discursive identities, as it is admitted that forum 4chan originated from online anime fandom. By using a data set of 252 messages related to gender issues posted from 1992 to 1996, I identify 7 discursive practices that I am theorizing here under the name of negative networking: 1. Blaming female anime fans for their lack of visibility; 2. Doubting the authentic interest of women in anime; 3. Mystifying the female anime fan; 4. Harassing female anime fans; 5. Criticizing the association of feminism with anime, both as interpretive practices and as scholarship; 6. Belittling female anime fans' concerns; and 7. Denying or ignoring the challenges faced by female anime fans. I argue that the impact of these discourses must be understood as determinant in the establishment of the online anime hegemonic fan identity and its prediscourses, especially as they relate to the long-lasting marginalization of women and gender diverse anime fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work is the extended version of a paper presented at the conference HMM2021, about the history of mechanical engineering. First, the initial cultural and industrial steps in the robotic field in Japan are introduced, to display the beginning of this interlaced path, before WW2; then, in the context of the aftermaths of the war, some famous anime heroes are presented as ancestors of the coming mecha anime series. The rising research in the field of robotics and more generally the developments of contemporary Japanese automation industry are then drawn, as a technological substrate for mecha conception. In particular, Masahiro Mori studies are taken into consideration to identify an actual robot design pattern to apply to the following comparative description and examination of the different mecha; finally, thanks to this analysis, the common breeding ground whence robotics and mecha (and their reciprocal influences) arise, is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conduct an in-depth study on the model construction of deep neural networks and design a model of painter's psychology and anime creation style to realize the study of the relationship between painter's psychology and anime creation style based on deep neural networks. This paper proposes an animation creation psychology classification algorithm that integrates human cognitive deep network structure optimization. The algorithm analyzes the connection between different convolutional layer features and animation characteristics through animation creation style CNN feature visualization. It interactively uses the knowledge of animation creation psychology expression techniques to optimize the network structure. This paper proposes a scene animation network based on spectral difference perception style. By analyzing the characteristics and differences in the spectrum between realistic and anime domain images, the generator is guided to learn the mapping relationships better to fit the style distribution of anime domain images. This paper uses a fully convolutional structure; the network is more lightweight and supports image inputs of arbitrary size, which can keep the semantic system of the background unchanged while highly deforming the five facial features, moving toward the goal of human-scene fusion for the animation task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the symbolism of the peony flower as an attribute of female demons or kijo in traditional and contemporary media. The peony, which symbolises the supernatural power of kijo, is depicted on the demon fan used in Noh theatre and remains in Japanese cultural memory. Over time, the meaning of this symbol has become ambiguous or lost, making it difficult for modern audiences to interpret. This study explores the linguistic, iconographic, and cultural sources of the peony on the demon fan and discusses how traditional aesthetic methods such as mitate (analogical representation) are used by contemporary media creators to revive the multilayered meanings of symbols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid adoption of online streaming and over-the-top services has fundamentally changed at-home entertainment media consumption and given rise to new behaviors which are often characterized by a high intensity of watching (e.g., binge-watching). In this paper, we investigate how the watching intensity affects consumers' engagement with media franchises in two areas: personal and interactive engagement. The former involves consumers' adoption and consumption of franchise extensions and the latter concerns consumers' content generation related to a focal media product they watched. Using individual-level data from an online anime (Japanese cartoons) platform, we find inverse U-shaped effects of watching intensity with the largest effects around three to five hours of watching per day on personal engagement and two to four hours a day on interactive engagement. The positive effects of watching intensity are larger for sequels than other types of franchise extensions. For interactive engagement, our results show that conditional on rating submission, higher watching intensity is associated with higher valence of anime ratings, the most prevalent form of UGC on the platform. We interpret this result as evidence that watching intensity can induce liking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel network, self-attention generative adversarial network with blur and memory (BaMSGAN), for generating anime faces with improved clarity and faster convergence while retaining the capacity for continuous learning. Traditional self-attention generative adversarial networks (SAGANs) produce anime faces of higher quality compared to deep convolutional generative adversarial networks (DCGANs); however, some edges remain blurry and distorted, and the generation speed is sluggish. Additionally, common issues hinder the model's ability to learn continuously. To address these challenges, we introduce a blurring preprocessing step on a portion of the training dataset, which is then fed to the discriminator as fake data to encourage the model to avoid blurry edges. Furthermore, we incorporate regulation into the optimizer to mitigate mode collapse. Additionally, memory data stored in the memory repository is presented to the model every epoch to alleviate catastrophic forgetting, thereby enhancing performance throughout the training process. Experimental results demonstrate that BaMSGAN outperforms prior work in anime face generation, significantly reducing distortion rates and accelerating shape convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the integral problems that has been affecting people worldwide. A lot has been discussed in the academic field, and awareness about this matter has been raised in mainstream media, including the entertainment industry. Numerous studies have been conducted to explore the representation of climate change in movies. Unfortunately, insufficient attention has been given to examining the significance of language, specifically the linguistic patterns employed in the films. Therefore, this paper explores the linguistic patterns of climate change represented in a Japanese animation blockbuster, Weathering with You. The movie, as depicted in the title, addressed climate change in both implicit and explicit ways. Through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) underpinned by the Ecological Concern Framework, the study examines the layers of meaning in the language use of both Japanese and English. Comparing the source language, which is Japanese, with English will provide a multifaceted representation of climate change through language patterns. The CDA method enabled the analysis to explore linguistic features and provides an approach to incorporate language with social issues. The finding shows that throughout the movie, there are repetitions of the words 'rain', 'sunshine', 'sky' and 'weather'. Each of the words represents a certain discursive practice. There are three practices pinpointed in the movie. First, excessive rain is a disturbance to human life; second, the weather is beyond the control of human power; and third, humans are capable of mitigating climate change. These discursive presented different ideologies that are related to how humans perceive climate change and how it influences their actions toward the issue. Seeing how climate change becomes a central focus of an animated blockbuster, which is well received by audiences all around the world, rather than a topic discussed by global leaders, we argue that it has become a concern of global citizens as well. The findings exposed how global audiences subconsciously perceive climate change, and it would provide some input for environmentalists who are pursuing public environmental behavioural change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins of anime can be traced all the way back to the Homo sapiens period of human civilization. Nowadays, anime is a record of life as well as a popular kind of entertainment and a source of ideal trust for many individuals. Children and individuals of all classes and ages enjoy anime. In the opinion of most people, anime is not simply a form of amusement and pleasure, but it can also express deeper meanings, transmit other cultures, and inspire individuals to pursue their aspirations. Image stylistic migration based on convolutional neural networks has developed as a central research path in recent years, and attempts on style migration have evolved as well. However, there are few studies on style migration. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based solution to the problem of anime-style migration. Experiments on a relevant database show that our proposed method is effective and accurate and has commercial and academic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Queer theory in the context of cultural studies looks at a variety of cultural structures of the gay or lesbian as divergent, and prompts us to question the traditions in which an entire variety of sexuality has been omitted by the ‘politics of identity’, a politics that informs and polices popular cultural representations of the Queer. Moreover, it focuses on the limiting nature of identity and has primarily functioned as denaturalizing discourses. Culture is related to questions of collective social connotations, i.e., the many ways we make meaning of the ways of the world. However, meanings are not merely floating, rather they are produced. While watching cartoons might seem an innocent pastime, it has a lot more to do with the child’s psychology. Compared with other genres, cartoons can potentially trivialize and bring humor to adult themes and contribute to an atmosphere in which children view these depictions as normative and acceptable. Television shows, books, and movies with sexually-confusing messages introduce children to falsehoods and immorality and create insecurity among them. A general belief exists in the conventional heterosexual society that children are not equipped to handle these adult themes. The present paper tries to unfold the LGBT representation in children’s media, its impact on the child’s psychology and how it mirrors the contemporary culture & society. This study will also investigate the need and appropriateness of the LGBT themes in children’s media along with their role in depicting the culture and society. The texts and media under study in the paper are Steven Universe, Danger & Eggs, Incredibles 2, The Legend of Korra and In A Heartbeat, Heather Has Two Mommies, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, Mommy, Mama, and Me, and Daddy, Papa, and Me, King & King and Daddy’s Roommate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a hierarchical multi-modal multi-label attribute classification model for anime illustrations using a graph convolutional network (GCN). Our focus is on the challenging task of multi-label attribute classification, which requires capturing subtle features intentionally highlighted by creators of anime illustrations. To address the hierarchical nature of these attributes, we leverage hierarchical clustering and hierarchical label assignments to organize the attribute information into a hierarchical feature. The proposed GCN-based model effectively utilizes this hierarchical feature to achieve high accuracy in multi-label attribute classification. The contributions of the proposed method are as follows. Firstly, we introduce GCN to the multi-label attribute classification task of anime illustrations, enabling the capturing of more comprehensive relationships between attributes from their co-occurrence. Secondly, we capture subordinate relationships among the attributes by adopting hierarchical clustering and hierarchical label assignment. Lastly, we construct a hierarchical structure of attributes that appear more frequently in anime illustrations based on certain rules derived from previous studies, which helps to reflect the relationships between different attributes. The experimental results on multiple datasets show that the proposed method is effective and extensible by comparing it with some existing methods, including the state-of-the-art method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a substantial body of literature exists on film tourism, there is a lack of research attention bridging the potential of Japanese anime on real-world destination marketing. The implications of anime tourism can extend far beyond geographic boundary as the worldwide anime market is diversifying, providing novel opportunities for destination marketing organizations in other countries. To address this research gap, this paper first defines anime versus animated films to clarify the definition of anime for the tourism literature, and then draws out theoretical differences between the two types of entertainment within a cinematic perspective to highlight their conceptual boundaries across place, protagonist, and production. This paper suggests that the ways in which these three aspects are manifested in anime versus films are very different: anime settings are more fantasy-orientated than most films; viewers develop their self-identity (i.e. as an 'otaku') during childhood and adolescence; and anime productions can be extended with new series to create more enduring engagement to develop the kidult segment. This paper contributes to the literature by connecting the aforementioned cinematic aspects as a basis for elaboration of how differences among the three dimensions could be directly related to potential destination marketing activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Emotional design of multimedia lessons involves adding features that are intended to increase learner enjoyment and promote learning—such as adding narrative, anthropomorphizing non‐human elements, and using warm colours. Objective: The present study extends this work to examine the potential of Japanese animation (anime) for improving science learning. Method: Specifically, 134 English‐speaking students learned about cells in the human body by viewing the popular anime, Cells at Work, either in Japanese with English subtitles or dubbed in English with no subtitles (anime groups), or by viewing a slideshow containing the same information (slideshow group). The anime conditions were vibrant story‐driven lessons that depicted human‐looking cells working to fight off invaders in a human body that looked like a city. The slideshow used very similar wording as the anime groups, and displayed the cells without anthropomorphism or a storyline. Results and Conclusion: The anime groups did not differ significantly from each other on any dependent measures and were therefore combined. The anime groups scored significantly higher than the slideshow group on retention (d = 0.35) and transfer (d = 0.48) tests. The anime groups also had significantly higher ratings of motivation (d = 0.60) and enjoyment (d = 1.13), whereas, the slideshow group had significantly higher ratings of distraction (d = 0.59). These results support the cognitive‐affective theory of learning with media (CATLM) and demonstrate that anime may be an effective learning medium. Takeaways: Anime should be considered as a medium for science learning, especially when students might not otherwise be motivated to learn. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic: Anime is a form of Japanese animation similar to an animated comic book.Cells at Work is a series of anime lessons on cells in the human bloodstream.Cells are represented with anthropomorphism, colours, and rounded shapes.Emotional design involves using anthropomorphism, colours, and rounded shapes. What does this paper add: Students viewed an anime or an equivalent slideshow on the human bloodstream.The anime group performed better on a post‐test and reported less distraction.Anime can be considered a form of emotional design for science lessons. What are the implications for practitioners: Anime can be used to teach about cells in the human bloodstream.Instructional designers should consider using anime as a medium for science instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese media (including anime) offers representations of female characters that, in their cute girlishness, differ from mainstream representations of femininity in British media. In the UK, anime conventions are becoming increasingly popular, in which anime characters are brought to life via cosplay ("costume role-play"). This study observes maid cafés as a feminine-presenting cosplay phenomenon where participants perform as tropes of girl characters from anime, while dressed in a "kawaii" (cute) maid uniform. As this article observes, maid café cosplay is a "shōjo" (girl) phenomenon that relates to two concepts: "kawaii" (cuteness) and "moe"—an affectual, delighted response to that cuteness. Intended as an introduction to maid cosplay studies in a global context, the paper presents maid cosplay as a topic of interest to girlhood and feminist scholarship that reflects an underlying paradox at play: in spite of the discourses of fetishization underpinning the maid uniform, maid cosplayers feel liberated from the pressures of sexualisation in their presentation and performance as kawaii (cute), fictional shōjo (girl) characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the value of the magical girl (mahō shōjo) anime in the Anthropocene through three selected works: Puella Magi Madoka Magica (2011), Yuki Yuna Is a Hero (2014), and Wonder Egg Priority (2021). By reading them against the history of the magical girl genre and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, this paper highlights how each presents a gendered system that both sustains and threatens the world, and how science is intertwined with magic and affects in the (de-)construction of the system. These works thus enrich the imagination of science when the world is increasingly entangled with humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Cuadernos.info is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Facultad de Comunicaciones and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyzes the imagery of cities as depicted in the cyberpunk anime Ghost in the Shell (1995) and the post-cyberpunk anime series Psycho-Pass (2012). In these works, the filmic city is employed as a signifier for societal structures, and changes in these visual signifiers thus depict the shift from cyberpunk, which focuses the autonomous subject, to post-cyberpunk, which focuses on technological societies. Different depictions of society and the role of the individual subject within it are made apparent. The predominant bottom-up direction of view in Ghost in the Shell suggests a technological dystopia that the protagonist seeks to elude, while an upperlower dichotomy in Psycho-Pass offers subjects a means of remaining within society. Certain concepts of Japanese architecture, urbanity, and postmodernity are employed to conceptualize and visualize these key differences. This project concludes that Ghost in the Shell depicts a dystopian society whose postmodern superficiality prohibits the protagonist from becoming autonomous, while Psycho-Pass acknowledges that postmodern signification does not equal material existence. Postmodern globality is evident in Ghost in the Shell, while Psycho-Pass takes a more nationalist and autocratic approach to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kanada Yoshinori is considered one of the most important animators in anime history. He turned the constraints imposed by anime’s “limited animation” techniques on their head thanks to his unique approach to drawing and timing on works such as Invincible Super Man Zambot 3 (Muteki Chôjin Zambot 3, 1977) or Galaxy Express 999 (Ginga Tetsudô 999, 1979). This paper aims to consider Kanada’s place and importance in anime history by reevaluating the role of animated movement in aesthetic and media analysis. Tom Gunning’s concept of “potential movement” serves as a basis to understand how animation works—how it is created and how it functions—and two of its central parameters, “rhythm” and “tension.” These are then used to explain the appeal of Kanada’s animation in aesthetic terms and its transmedia success in the environment of the “anime boom” of the 1970s and 1980s. Aesthetic and technical parameters can then become tools to explain the success and spreadability of certain trends and styles over anime history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consumption of imported goods is thought to influence consumers' views and attitudes toward export countries. It is important to consider this issue, especially when there is political tension and conflict between countries. Because of their historical background, political conflict exists between Korea and Japan. This paper examines the effect of viewing Japanese anime (animation) on the attitudes of Koreans toward Japanese living in Korea. The major findings of the study show that the more frequently adult Koreans view Japanese anime, the more likely they are to accept Japanese as workplace colleagues and neighbors after controlling for endogeneity bias using instrumental variables. The findings of this paper imply that via the consumption of imported cultural goods, people are exposed to positive traits of the trading partner, and thus consumers have a stronger affinity with the export country. From this, we derive the policy implication that promoting the trade of modern cultural goods is effective in increasing mutual understanding between trading partners, thereby reducing political tension between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The move away from relying on location and physical interaction to define community has brought about a recognition of non-geographic communities particularly those that meet only through the Internet. This paper explores one such online community, a group of animé lovers which have grown in recent years due to the global spread of Japanese pop culture. The data mined from this fan forum are used to determine how its members behave linguistically to reinforce this community. It also aims to investigate the politeness strategies used by the members of the community paying attention to the context of how linguistic politeness is deployed in online environments devoted to fandom. As politeness is more often a facet of face to face interaction, the paper is interested in knowing if politeness can be employed as a strategy of accommodation in an online context. The findings reveal that positive politeness strategies dominate the comments of the members of the discussion forum. The creative use of language also helps maintain this virtual environment where they establish relationships. For fans who meet online, this relationship is not a given but rather is a communicative accomplishment where each member works toward the construction and maintenance of the online community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese director Tsutomu Mizushima's 2012 animated television series, Another, presents a narrative whereby one social group's refusal to accept an unexpected death triggers an intergenerational curse. This paper takes a close reading of Mizushima's anime, showing how its narrative contends that the present--and by default the future--is not self-sufficient but instead relies upon understandings of the past. The analysis uses the lens of Jacques Derrida's theory of hauntology, which opens up a space for discursive accounts of the presence of the past in the present and its influence on the future, and therefore serves as a powerful tool for interrogating questions of war memory. I demonstrate that Another exemplifies the use of anime as a critical medium, showing how it uses allegory to explore the motivations and consequences of Japan's lack of a dominant historical narrative about the war and the resulting intergenerational effects of this historical consciousness problem. As Japan continues to debate remilitarisation and the fate of Article 9 in its constitution, it seems particularly apt to revisit Mizushima's Another, which illustrates the dangers of ignoring the spectre of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosplay has grown from its origins at fan conventions into a billion-dollar global dress phenomenon. To facilitate the imagination and reinterpretation of animated images as real garments, this paper presents an automatic costume-image generation method based on image-to-image translation. Cosplay items can be significantly diverse in their styles and shapes, and conventional methods cannot be directly applied to the wide variety of clothing images that are the focus of this study. To solve this problem, our method starts by collecting and preprocessing web images to prepare a cleaned, paired dataset of the anime and real domains. Then, we present a novel architecture for generative adversarial networks (GANs) to facilitate high-quality cosplay image generation. Our GAN consists of several effective techniques to bridge the two domains and improve both the global and local consistency of generated images. Experiments demonstrated that, with quantitative evaluation metrics, the proposed GAN performs better and produces more realistic images than conventional methods. Our codes and pretrained model are available on the web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the introduction of information technology (IT) influence production systems? This paper reveals two important changes by introducing information technology (IT) into a production system in the case of the Japanese anime industry. In particular, it focuses on the production system and the relationship between outsourcing and in-house production. Given this objective, this research explores each process and technology of the production system. The processes that are focused in this research are the art production process, painting process and the process that follows. In addition, it examines three-dimensional computer graphics and digital sakuga (drawing) in the technology. The results of the paper elucidate the following. First, companies in Japan cannot attain successful introduction of IT until IT achieve low cost or/and high quality. Second, the process of choosing in-house production or outsourcing depends upon the following factors. Realizing the integration of multiple processes or enhancing the flexibility of the production process leads to the transition from outsourcing to in-house production. On the other hand, realizing lower cost by the delivery of digitalized data through storage media or the Internet results in the transition from in-house production to outsourcing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on anime is presented.

This paper analyzes how war memories are often romanticized and/or popularized through representations of shōjo (girls) in anime. In Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova and Kantai Collection, submarines and battleships are personified as girls in World War II scenarios. These contents have been disseminated across multiple media platforms, and fans of the contents visit war-related sites, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) bases, museums, and events produced in cooperation with MSDF. War-related tourism and popular culture are often associated with death and tragedy, but such war-related contents tourism becomes light entertainment, while darker values and meanings are displaced and/or invalidated. This paper examines how war-related contents tourism serves to rewrite war memories, to popularize Japanese militarization and hence displace its meanings and values. Fans treat war-related contents as fashionable by commodifying the Self-Defense Force (SDF) through the images of shōjo, and they relate the SDF to themselves through the popularization and familiarization achieved through anime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has a longstanding tradition of horror narratives that feature a variety of macabre embodiments. They draw upon ancient folklore, thereby providing a unique perspective on spirits specific to Japanese culture. The influence of these countless supernatural beings from Japanese mythology and folklore has molded many incarnations seen in popular culture, which have been commonly deemed "strange" and "weird". This study seeks to demystify the ambiguity and "strangeness" surrounding three Japanese anime series, Another, Yamishibai, and Mononoke. It attempts to analyze how each of these anime employs folklore and traditional art-styles to portray a modern society plagued with sociocultural complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines diachronic changes in the pronoun use and phonetic performance of protagonists in shonen anime, a genre of animated work that is aimed predominately at adolescent boys. Utilising nearly forty years of shonen anime, this study constructs a diachronic analysis of first-person pronoun usage, the primary pragmatic index of gender performance in Japanese, as well as average pitch and pitch range, which are frequently cited as salient phonetic markers of gender performance but are understudied in this area with regard to language in media. By analysing the way that changes in masculinity structures are reflected in performance of fictional protagonists, this paper demonstrates the necessity for further research on language use, particularly by protagonists, in fictional media, as well as on the way that dominant language ideologies are reproduced and consumed in the popular culture market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I focus on the study of the relationships between technological specificity and media mix, focusing on how anime, as a visual medium, is connected to other media. There are two main aspects to this paper: the study of the complexities of the visual media milieu in the age of media mix, taking into account the technological materiality of different channels of production and consumption, and the study of the way these complexities must be approached. Taking materiality and information as the key aspects of the way specific objects in media are interconnected, I explore a question that has appeared recently in media studies: what is the right way to approach the relationships between media?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement of multimedia and internet technologies has led to the development of a new form of communication known as fansubbing that connects anime fans from around the globe. Fansubbing can be regarded as a form of collaborative practice because it provides anime fans the opportunity to explain the infusion of foreign cultural elements in local culture, thus enabling the target audience to better understand the anime shows that they are watching. As a translation method, fansubbing also allows anime fans to share their knowledge and interests through a free digital network. In relation to this context, this paper aims to discuss the position of fansubbing as a community's contribution towards understanding anime in a different culture. The discussion is mainly centred upon the ideas posited by Hatcher (2005) and O'Hagan (2009) on fansub for Japanese anime and technology, Diaz-Cintas and Muñoz Sánchez's (2006) and Pérez-González's (2007, 2012) on the conventional subtitling and fansubbing approaches, and Chiaro's (2008) on viewers experience. Despite the differences between fansub activities and the conventional subtitling practices, this new experience somehow illustrates a practical combination of these two subtitling approaches. This paper is expected to contribute to a more in-depth understanding of fansub as an avenue for viewers to share their cultural knowledge with the target audience who have minimal knowledge about the source language, culture and the background of the anime. In addition, the paper will also seek to understand the potential reception for anime amongst the target audience due to the effects of fansubbing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on how social meanings indexed by language use in the real world can be recontextualised in telecinematic texts such as anime to construct and convey different aspects of a character's identity. In a case study of the science-fiction anime series, From the New World (Shinsekai Yori; 2012-13), the paper analyses three corpora comprised of dialogue from the series in order to shed light on the discursive construction of the non-human character Squealer. A non-human character was selected to minimise the influence of preconceptions about identity. Drawing on Androutsopoulos's (2012) three-level film analysis framework and Bucholtz and Hall's (2005) identity framework, the approach incorporates both computerised and manual discourse analysis. The computer-facilitated keyword analysis provides initial insights into the character's demographic information and speech style, showing the key linguistic features used by the character's species, and by extension, the focal character. This is complemented by a detailed analysis of dialogue from selected scenes which shows how various aspects of the character's identity are expressed using different linguistic devices in different contexts. The analysis demonstrates that shifts between the use and non-use of certain linguistic features serve to foreground different aspects of a character's identity--namely, stances and presentational personae. By integrating corpus linguistic analysis with scene-based analysis drawing on sociolinguistic concepts, the study shows how we can gain insights into telecinematic characters' identities through language. The paper also highlights issues encountered in applying corpus linguistic methodologies to analyses of Japanese language, which may be of use to future researchers and software developers in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese popular culture has become a major global phenomenon, with thousands of manga, anime, and video game titles translated and localized every year in dozens of countries. However, despite the international success of Japanese pop culture, fandom in Japan remains insular and socially marginal. Japanese society generally regards otaku and fujoshi as undersocialized, immature, and even dangerous. This paper examines the collision of these two fan cultures as depicted in Kio Shimoku's manga Genshiken. A somewhat self-deprecating love letter to otaku and fujoshi, the text depicts a university otaku circle that is eventually joined by an American exchange student, Susanna Hopkins. Through the inclusion of this exchange student the text expresses anxieties about the exportation and repatriation of Japanese subculture. Sue only expresses herself in quotes from subcultural texts, suggesting that the process of exportation transmogrifies Japanese subculture to the point where it is no longer legible to Japanese fans. This subculture, dehistoricized and decontextualized from the social and cultural strata of Japanese fandom, is made illegible in its home country, revealing deep uneasiness about the spread of Japanese subcultural fandoms that have escaped Japanese cultural authority and invites scrutiny to insular fandom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will deal with the isekai anime ‘Tensei shitara slime datta ken‘ (eng.: That Time I got reincarnated as a slime) and will examine its potential power and messages in a new shed light. As the main argument of this paper will deal with the main character and his ‘semi-diplomatic’ attempts to build a nation out of the blue, I will argue that in critically analyzing the strategic ends, ways and means used by the main character can give insight into to mindset of an archetypical understanding of how and under which circumstances leadership and social interaction between human beings is presented in a Japanese context. For a better understanding of this – unfortunate – less researched field, I will present the current state of research regarding isekai animes. After a synopsis of the series of interests, specific aspects and actions of the main character will be highlighted to contribute to a better and critical understanding of the presumed unintended message that ‘Tensei shitara slime datta ken‘ is sending.

As opposed to most contemporary usage of the word “picturesque” – which is generally taken to mean visually attractive in a quaint or charming way, or else something that resembles a picture – William Gilpin introduced this term to the English cultural debate in 1792. Gilpin used “picturesque” to typify an aesthetic ideal wherein roughness, raggedness, and ruins would be privileged over smoothness, symmetry and perfection. Over time, his conceptualization of “the picturesque” led to a celebration of disorder, decay, and ruin, a kind of glorification of violence also familiar to the Gothic romances of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, following the unimaginable havoc and mass destruction caused by the two world wars, ruins and images of ruins started to be viewed very differently. This paper seeks to explore how the picturesque mode has been used as an instrument of caution in the works of Studio Ghibli, spearheaded by two creative artists and directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata Isao, who have experienced the horrors of WWII firsthand in their own childhoods. This paper specifically looks at two famous anime feature films produced by Studio Ghibli – Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) – that deal with the impacts of war and convey strong anti-war messages by uniquely employing the picturesque mode of representation.

Nineteen Eighty-Four and Psycho-Pass depict two dystopian settings from which two trapped dystopian protagonists struggle to escape, each in his own respective method. Winston Smith may be seen as a traditional anarchist, someone who identifies his target well and rebels against this established order on mature consideration of action and consequences. Shogo Makishima, the protagonist of the Anime Psycho-Pass, on the other hand, adopts a different tactic. Like modern terrorists, his immediate and short-term attacks aim at establishing a climate of fear and horror rather than a change of the established regime. Through his acts, he shows us that he is our contemporary, insofar as he acts as a 21st century terrorist rather than a literary figure. He may be read in a Leninian-Trotskean fashion as well. He believes that violence and crime may be ethical if they "serve the revolution." This paper will attempt at providing a more in depth reading of the two characters as anarchists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Colorization of line-arts in storyboards for media industries including movie, animation, and game. Automatic colorization of comic strips, anime style images, and cartoons. Line-arts are used in many ways in the media industry. However, line-art colorization is tedious, labor-intensive, and time consuming. For such reasons, a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN)-based image-to-image colorization method has received much attention because of its promising results. In this paper, we propose to use color a point hinting method with two GAN-based generators used for enhancing the image quality. To improve the coloring performance of drawing with various line styles, generator takes account of the loss of the line-art. We propose a Line Detection Model (LDM) which is used in measuring line loss. LDM is a method of extracting line from a color image. We also propose histogram equalizer in the input line-art to generalize the distribution of line styles. This approach allows the generalization of the distribution of line style without increasing the complexity of inference stage. In addition, we propose seven segment hint pointing constraints to evaluate the colorization performance of the model with Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) score. We present visual and qualitative evaluations of the proposed methods. The result shows that using histogram equalization and LDM enabled line loss exhibits the best result. The Base model with XDoG (eXtended Difference-Of-Gaussians)generated line-art with and without color hints exhibits FID for colorized images score of 35.83 and 44.70, respectively, whereas the proposed model in the same scenario exhibits 32.16 and 39.77, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to overview the differences between various embodied experiences we, as users, can have when interacting with contemporary visual media. By using the concept of modes of imagination, the author is approaching the problem of media specificity from another perspective. Using the four different "Ghost in the Shell" narratives as a coherent case study, the paper discusses the different modalities in which the most important categories of contemporary visual forms of representation (cinema, animated cartoons, graphic novels and video games) create immersive practice. The assumption is that "cinematic mode" or the "gaming mode" have their own ghost-like "modality", as they bringing the user/ reader/ viewer inside their imaginative world differently. The discussion about modes and modalities is not rejecting the semiotic modes theories, it rather proposes a change of view. Starting with the philosophical intuition of Jacques Derrida, who claimed that what we imagine is never the image that we see, by the fusion of the two fundamental dimensions of any illusion, this author takes into consideration the deep separation between image and imagination. Using the insightful method of "hauntology", the author overviews the most important theories about media specificity and proposes the use of cinematic modalities as experienced by the users of film as fictional world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Multimedia franchise refers to developing a single production across various media such as comics, anime, and film. The media types are diverse, including comics, anime, movies, games, novels, and stage. People who enjoy a single production in one medium may enjoy the same production in another. A single production can be enjoyed in multiple media. However, evaluations for production are different among all franchised media. A production franchised in a medium obtains high evaluations, while the same production franchised in another medium may obtain low evaluations. Production evaluations in a medium are often conducted by comparing to previous evaluations in another medium. Therefore, evaluating a production franchised across various media may be related to the order of multimedia franchises. By analyzing the order of multimedia franchises and the evaluation of production together, it may be possible to gain knowledge on obtaining high evaluations in the multimedia franchise. We assume a correlation exists between the order of multimedia franchises and the production evaluation. In this paper, we group productions according to the order of multimedia franchises and conduct sentiment analysis on reviews to find the tendency of evaluation in each media within the group. For the analysis, we create a database that shows the progression of multimedia franchises for each production. The database includes the presence/absence of 10 types of multimedia franchises for 101 productions and the number of years. We choose four orders from the database's most common multimedia franchise types. We then collect reviews of production for each medium and conduct sentiment analysis. We calculate the rate of positive sentences of review of the production for each medium. Then, we analyze the relationship between multimedia franchise order and the polarity of reviews. Analysis results showed that the rate of positive sentences was highest for "stage," followed by "comic," and the lowest for "anime." Furthermore, the transition from "anime" to "comic" increased by about 9% in positive sentences of reviews, while the transition from "comic" to "stage" decreased by about 4% in positive sentences of reviews. In the future, we plan to analyze the content of reviews and further explore the relationship between the multimedia franchise order and the reviews' polarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world of anime and manga, Japanese animation and comics respectively, has developed into a pop-culture phenomenon with a rising popularity worldwide, triggering a shift from a niche market into the mainstream. Anime and manga are strongly hybrid texts which incorporate diverse pretexts, thus, this paper will focus on the pretexts of Japanese religion, mythology, and the supernatural in anime and manga, and an analysis of how these pretexts have constructed this mediums pictorial representation of such ideas. This paper will also examine how artists intertextualise recognised images as a form of symbolic shorthand to create new narratives via the retelling (or re-envisioning) of a vast accumulation of well-known stories, characters and settings for modern audiences. This paper draws heavily on the works of Miyazaki Hayao, who is greatly influenced by Shintō notions of purification and pollution. Other notable anime and manga included are: Watase Yuu's Ayashi no Ceres and Kishimoto Masashi's Naruto, both of which use Japan's rich mythological database within their works as central components for their series; and the horror filled Hundred Stories which intertextualises traditional folktales and superstition, based in already recognised images and meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at recent isekai ('different world') anime in relation to 2018s Goblin Slayer. It argues the latter is a settler-colonialist critique of the unconscious structural violence within former's tropes and presumptions. Isekai anime provide a space where superexploitation and the redistribution of surplus value are buried within a fantasy of non-alienated, non-commodified labor, and Goblin Slayer represents the exhaustion of this fantasy and the return of the repressed unconscious of settler violence on the frontier. Using Patrick Wolfe's theorization of a neoliberal settler-colonialism, this paper argues that Japanese settler-colonialism is not a primitive form of capitalism or a historical episode shed by postcolonialism but a contemporary mode of production that coexists alongside imperialism. Through an analysis of the historiography of the Japanese Empire, this paper constructs a general theory of settler-colonialism that situates Japan at the forefront of the late capitalist world system, anime as the system's cultural representation, and otakudom as its labor regime. Finally, it asks what lies beyond the settler-colonialist critique and the space Goblin Slayer opens up against its own ideological limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses geek culture in Mexico and looks at how fandoms are integrated, as well as the processes through which role models are shaped out of the fantastic narratives at their center. Using ethnographic methods, it was observed that geek culture consists of fandoms grouped together around a variety of different fantastic narratives (comics, anime, videogames), and these, in turn, inspire specific behavioral models, according to their stage of life and specific needs at that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originally released in 1998, Nakamura's anime series Serial Experiments Lain anticipates many social transformations that have occurred in the decades since its broadcast. The series highlights the ways in which cognition and consciousness are transformed as technical assemblages through interaction with the internet. This change in cognition can be characterized in part by a bifurcation of Cartesian identity; individuals develop more than one sense of self, with different identities offline and online. The series articulates this bifurcation of Cartesian identity both by its emphasis on the fantastic, a narrative and visual style that makes it unclear where the Wired ends and the "real world" begins, and by updating the narrative figure of the "double" for the digital age. Individuals grapple with their own digital "doubles," versions of themselves that exist online with disregard for the emotional needs of their friends. In doing so, the series helps formulate a general understanding of the social problems posed by the formation of digital identities. What does friendship mean when individual identity is divided between online and in-person personas? This bifurcation in Cartesian identity leads to the "empathy problem," which is loss of empathy from technology use in conjunction with a rupture in the continuum from empathetic understanding to sympathetic compassion. The empathy problem is an innate byproduct of two competing desires among internet users: the desires for privacy and visibility. This problem has amplified other concerns that have been stressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including loneliness and depression. Although technological developers hope to mitigate the current psychological problems of digital spaces through increases in synchronous telepresence, particularly amid the rise in remote work, this paper argues the empathy problem is a byproduct of these two competing desires, due to the differential in representation these competing desires produce. As such, the empathy problem is a foundational issue that will continue to challenge individuals working and acting in digital spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares two aesthetic movements, Italian futurism and Japanese cyberpunk, which served as the high points of utopian modernism and nihilistic postmodernism, respectively. Through a comparison of aesthetics between the movieAkiraand Italian futurist works by Fortuna Depero, Umberto Boccioni, Balla Giamoco, and others, this paper shows the cyberpunk movement as a postmodern critique of utopian modernist concepts: the machine body, the revolutionary character of youth and destruction, masculinity, speed, rational architecture, and the cleansing effect of war. Through a synchronic comparison, fundamental features of Italian fascist capitalism, the Japanese bubble economy, and the linkage between culture and economics in these contexts are explored. Finally, a close reading of the themes, aesthetics, and philosophy of theAkiramovie shed new light on this movie’s place in the worldwide ‘anime boom’ and its universally resonant themes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]