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By converging 3A—artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), and anime culture, a new type of non-naturalistic and stylized anthropomorphism has been exercised on the latest hologram social robot—"Hupo." By combining scopes of human–machine communication and cultural studies, this study investigated how this 3A convergence constructed the user experience of Hupo. Through in-depth interviews with 25 users, we revealed their expected experience related to the dual identity of anime otaku and technology geeks alongside social segregation and loneliness. We found their actual experience highlighted how anime elements offset their dissatisfactions caused by AI weakness and the uncanny valley. Three specific anime-enabled strategies were illustrated, namely anime characterization, gamification, and idolization. Our analysis suggested that pop culture offers not technical solutions but temporary compensation for the current AI limitations. Nevertheless, such fusions between anime otakuism and instinct-served technologies also raise concerns about a further animalized human society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In popular culture, anime has become a global attraction that not only entertains but also connects various layers of culture. One of the pinnacle works in the world of anime is "One Piece" by Eiichiro Oda, and the Thousand Sunny ship in this anime stands out as a symbol of rich culture. This in-depth study aims to explore and analyze the elements of the stilt architecture on the Thousand Sunny ship, revealing the importance of visual and symbolic understanding in anime. The research method includes visual analysis and literature study to detail the meanings and values embedded in these stilt architecture elements. This exploration not only provides a new perspective on anime but also presents a significant contribution to understanding popular culture and the complex interaction between visual and narrative elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With their fingers on the pulse of popular culture, RDCWorld, a digital content creation group primarily composed of young Black men, enjoys a following largely gained from their anime-inspired videos that unite a community of like-minded Black nerds in the US and speaks to the power digital media has to construct spaces based on identities that have historically been marginalized, within both Black and White-dominated spaces. Using a content analysis of their videos and textual analysis of fan comments and social media engagement, I argue that RDCWorld's performance as Black nerds subverts traditional notions of identity, play, and space by resisting notions of the stereotypical cool Black aesthetic, integrating transnational media with Blackness to create new modes of self-representation, challenging hegemonic constructions of public play, and by normalizing spaces of free Black expression through their anime and gaming convention, DreamCon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation studies in media have been carried out for decades since the 1950s. When media is adapted between different forms, the narrative inherently changes; even more so when they cross a cultural divide between Japan and the United States. That is precisely the topic of discussion between the anime Ghost in the Shell (1995) and its live action film adaptation Ghost in the Shell (2017). With narrative being a key focus for comparison in this article, Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey is applied. Taken from his seminal work Hero with a Thousand Faces, the theory of the Hero's Journey has been the go-to reference for monomyth studies for decades which identifies the parallelism and common themes in diverse stories, from classic myths embedded in ancient cultures to film and other contemporary media based on popular culture. Yet, most studies stop there, and do not consider bringing in Campbell's other works—namely his follow-up collection of books The Masks of God which delves deeper into the mythologies of various regions. His books, Oriental Mythology and Occidental Mythology, zeroes in on the myths in the East and West, which would aid in conducting comparisons between materials originating from the two opposite regions, further supplementing its usefulness in adaptation studies concerning Japanese anime and their corresponding Hollywood adaptations. This article covers the changes in narrative themes corresponding to Campbell's Oriental and Occidental mythology between the anime Ghost in the Shell (1995) and its live action film adaptation Ghost in the Shell (2017). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of anime on the prevalence of Japanese popular culture among Art and Design students. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study employed a questionnaire-based quantitative survey of 186 college students enrolled in arts and design programmes at three higher education institutions. Five Likert-scale questionnaires were utilised to collect the data, which was subsequently analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Findings: The majority of respondents had rather limited time to watch anime. This is due to the time constraints for completing their tasks and projects. That was proven by the low average viewing rate of anime among respondents. The findings showed only 39 respondents watched anime for more than 6 hours and above, while the majority of 147 others, or 79%, watched anime for 5 hours and below in a week. Nevertheless, the influence of Japanese popular culture still has a significant impact on this study, even at low and moderate levels. Conclusion: This study found that anime has managed to spread the influence of Japanese popular culture among respondents despite being weak and moderate. This result was also due to the low frequency of watching anime. The data may be different if the average frequency of watching anime is high. Research Limitations: This study is limited to art and design students only. For future studies, it is recommended that studies be conducted on other majors to find the difference in results. Contribution to Literature: This study may add to the literature of relatively understudied anime-related studies, especially in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the overlooked phenomenon of how black British grime music artists intentionally and selectively remix Japanese pop cultural artifacts to carve out a hybrid cultural space that gives voice to their urban realities and articulates counterhegemonic black subjectivities. From the early 2000s, at the same time as state-centered discourses of 'Cool Japan' emerged to explain the global rise of Japanese pop culture, grime artists were already on their own terms sampling Japanese video games and anime to articulate emergent feelings of 'coldness', which reflects their sense of alienation on the margins of British society. The author introduces 'Cold Japan' as the other Cool Japan, and a way of understanding this fundamentally intertwined mode of cultural hybridity and being that forms the essence of black Britain's grime. This article uses the cyborg figure to disclose how grime artists transform Cold Japan into a site of countercultural resistance to subvert their oppression by self-generating and embodying transgressive posthuman identities. Examining how selected 'cold' Japanese pop cultural elements and technologies entangle with urban black life and identity formation in 21st century Britain, the article contributes to discussions on the impact of transnational flows of Japanese pop culture and cultural hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese anime has continued to gain recognition as one of the strongest cultural influences in a globalized world. We examine how the transnational process of decontextualization-recontextualization can shift the messages of popular culture texts as situated in differing collective memories. To highlight this process, we analyze Shingeki no Kyojin (known to English-speaking audiences as Attack on Titan). Shingeki no Kyojin provides insightful grounds for analysis given its tremendous popularity in both Japan and beyond, its message of resistance against U.S. militarism, and its recontextualized uptake by the American alt-right, even including an Arizona congressman. Our analysis reveals the importance of understanding popular culture alongside context and the impact of decontextualized-recontextualized transformations of meaning on transnational processes of collective memory discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes depictions of work in postmillennial Japanese media, particularly anime and manga, in order to theorize the function of imaginative responses to the social dislocations of neoliberalism. Critical studies of precarity in Japanese popular culture have tended to treat depictions of work as direct representations of actual socioeconomic conditions, overlooking the affective, experiential dimensions of mediated work images and their potential for imagining social relations beyond imposed precarity. The article explores this neglected potential by focusing on the anime and manga trope of isekai (other‐world), which depicts life and work in a fantastic environment. These depictions are compared with analogues in live‐action films and television during the period of Japan's neoliberalization. Invoking philosophical concepts of social imagination and drawing on autonomist theory for inspiration regarding the visualization of postcapitalist sociality, analysis will demonstrate how their imaginative responses can produce visions of collectivity amenable to postcapitalist projects without explicitly political content. The article hopes to draw out latent capacities within superficially escapist media forms and offer a possible counternarrative to pessimistic discourses about popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presenting interviews undertaken throughout 2006–2007 with editors at Tokyopop and Viz Media, this article explores the importance of manga in bringing Japanese pop culture to the North American mainstream, and manga publishing as a creative industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this article is to analyze the anime of Boku no Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) and describe the social, fami ly and school context, with emphasis on the protagonist Izuku Midoriya and the relationship between teacher and student, seeking to understand and align relevant issues to the context of the individual, school, family and teacher, and their nuances that can add to the understanding between this triad that has been the subject of studies by several resear chers in the educational sphere. Thus, having as centrality the following problem: what elements does the society presented in the narrative move the character to obtain his virtues? What possible roles can the school play for the potentiality of the student who is not "inserted" in society? Can the family nucleus be a different way for the education and formation of the individual? To meet the objectives, the research occurred in order to consider how the authors are considering the studies on pop culture in education, i.e., it is a qua litative research, such documents were analyzed using the Technique of Content Analysis, proposed by Bardin (2011). The results obtained were satisfactory, permeating extremely relevant issues tha t relate to our experience in the school environment, highlighting how this triad, social context, family and school, becomes essential for the development and constitution of the personality of the human being, that the values present in this fictional society drive individuals, resulting in pedagogical gains. Finally, the characters that represent the educator of the fictional school in question, who through his didactics provides the students with a pleasant and open space for the exchange of experiences, strategies for the elevation of self-esteem and developing parameters to expand critical and reflective thinking, essential aspects for the effectiveness of the teacher-student relationship and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manga and anime have been closely related to literature since their origins. At the beginning, they were linked to native textuality and they have gradually been expanding to include books from all over the world. In the following article, we will draw a timeline to determine the characteristics that the usage of literature in manga and anime have acquired over the centuries, while proposing a classification to address different modern productions and the diverse ways they refer to the world-renowned universal classics, which are part of the established canon. Finally, we will present as an example the study of a particular anime from the described model's point of view. To do this we are going to use both the tools provided by cultural history and the ones from comparative literature, in order to provide new tools for future literary studies linked to Japanese mass culture. [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]

This essay is a review of the monograph 'Japanese Culture through Videogames' by Rachael Hutchinson (Routledge 2019).

This essay is a review of the monograph 'The Anime Ecology: A Genealogy of Television, Animation, and Game Media' by Thomas Lamarre (University of Minnesota Press, 2018).

Rayna Denison’s comprehensive study Anime: A Critical Introduction constitutes an innovative and compelling approach to the study of anime not simply as a “genre”, but as a continuously shifting set of texts influenced by context and by the constant exchanges at work between the practices of the industry, the global communities of fans and the academic discourse around it. In Denison’s own words the subject of her book is “not just anime, but the ways in which anime is talked about by those enabling its creation and watching over its global dispersal—including industry professionals and academics, but also the trade presses, popular presses and fan communities supporting anime’s domestic and transnational life” (2). Starting with these premises, then, Anime: A Critical Introduction is not a study that simply focuses on the analysis of specific anime texts, but rather on the exploration of the primary sources cited above, with a privileged eye for places of popular debate rather than for the assertions of authoritative figures, such as anime directors, that tend to restrain debates on the meanings of anime instead of sparking further reflection.

Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist) (2001, Hagaren in short) is a Japanese comic book franchise that not only expanded into a larger supersystem through its transmedia storytelling on multimedia platforms, but also through the global fandom of cosplay (the Japanese term for costume play), a form of popular culture that is heavily promoted by the Japanese government's Cool Japan policy. Hagaren is set in an unidentifiable European landscape, a common depiction in many Japanese manga and anime, yet, in the 2017 live-action film that was globally distributed on Netflix, audiences witness a full Japanese cast performing European characters. This cross-racial performance, or yellow washing, challenges the border-crossing narrative and global viewership of the Hagaren's manga and anime franchise. By examining how Hagaren's supersystem developed out of the interplays of media industries, fan culture and broader governmental policies, this article aims to excavate the multifaceted politics of not only cross-border consumer identities, but also cross-racial performances propagated by the transmediation of Japanese popular culture on the global stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current K-12 and undergraduate students have grown up with constant exposure to visual popular culture (e.g., movies, TV programs, graphic novels, etc.). Because youth find pop culture references in the classroom to be engaging, many science and engineering instructors have shown that examples found in visual pop culture can be used to teach science and engineering concepts. One recent study on the efficacy of using pop culture for instruction found that high school students learning from graphic-novel style comics acquired deeper understanding of complex subject matter and reported higher engagement with the instructional materials as compared to students learning from traditional text materials. Furthermore, the increased engagement with the instructional comics was even greater for students who were less likely to self-identify as a "science person." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Anime, as a growing form of multimedia, needs a better and more thorough organization for its myriad unique terminologies. Existing studies show patrons' desire to search and get recommendations for anime. However, due to inadequate indexing and often confusing or inaccurate usage of terms, searching and acquiring recommendations remain challenging. Our research seeks to close the gap and make discovery and recommendations more viable. In this study, we conducted a facet analysis of anime genre terms that are currently used in thirty-six anime-related English-language databases and websites. Using a card sorting method with an inductive approach to the 1,597 terms collected, we identified and defined nine facets and 153 foci terms that describe different genres of anime. Identified terms can be implemented within different organizational systems including library catalogs, recommendation systems, and online databases to improve genre definitions and search experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese anime experiences a bumpy road on mainland China's online platforms, with constant removals and edits. This has led audiences to express dissatisfaction and scholars to call on the government to develop a systematic censorship system. However, the need for improved censorship measures is not limited to the government. At least three types of subjects are involved in the censorship process of Japanese anime on online platforms. Taking Bilibili, a Chinese video platform, as a case study, we classify censorship on Japanese anime into government censorship, public censorship, and self-censorship. As the case study shows, these three types of censorship demonstrate dynamic relationships of opposition, coordination, and unity, instead of a unilateral act of government pressure, and there is no simple antagonistic relationship between the subjects. We propose advice for each subject, expecting to alleviate the current conflicts and establish more reasonable interactions between the three parties for introducing and censoring Japanese anime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies showed that interest in anime motivates students to learn the Japanese language and culture (Manion, 2005; Fukunaga, 2006; William, 2006). However, little has been written about the practical use of anime in a Japanese language classroom. By employing the method of classroom research, this study will try to narrow the gap between theory and practice of using anime as a teaching tool in the Japanese language classroom. This qualitative study will focus on discussing what the participants think about the use of anime as a teaching tool. A course named “Learning Japanese language and Culture through Anime” was planned and conducted in a public university in Malaysia. During the administration of the course, the data were collected via the participants’ learning diaries at 7 intervals and a group interview at the end of the semester. The findings presented from the data analysis on the participants' perception of the use of anime as a teaching tool include motivation, language and cultural awareness, critical thinking, sense of prejudice, and stereotypes. The findings reveal that giving a place for anime in the Japanese language classroom is like opening a new door for educators to connect with the students and deepen understanding about the students’ learning experiences of using anime as a language and culture learning tool. This is important to provide insightful ideas to the Japanese language educators regarding the option of using anime as a teaching tool.

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]

This paper presents examples of collaboration between anime producers and the Japan Self-Defense Force. By situating the transitions within the context of the broader trends in collaboration between anime producers and locations (namely, the development of contents tourism), the key turning point in anime producer — JSDF collaboration is be identified and explained. Then, the reasons why in recent years JSDF has been actively collaborating with the production of pop culture contents in the realms of fantasy and fiction with an anime fanbase will be discussed. What is happening in Japan today is a fantasization (= contentsization) and consumption of the military, rather than a 'drift to the right' or resurgence of militarism. The pressures to produce military or 'moe military' anime are driven by the market rather than the military. [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]

This article discusses the concept of fandom structures centring on Japanese popular culture fan conventions by highlighting potential factors underlying young Malaysians’ involvement in such conventions. Data were collected from participatory observations at four conventions and interviews with nine Malaysians involved in conventions for at least 5 years. These participants felt marginalized in their school lives because of their fondness for anime, yet they expressed a sense of togetherness while at conventions. For those continuously involved, the conventions were not limited to only a temporal ritual space, as may be explained with the term ‘communitas’. While experiencing a feeling of ‘communitas’ with other convention attendees as of members of their discursive fandom, they acquired a hierarchical system within other activity-based fandom. In this way, young Malaysians have not merely been subsumed into an existing system as the respective structural fandom communities enable the inclusion of democratic aspects by being open to the public through local conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper focuses on three anime movies and their respective soundtracks: Ponpoko: The Heisei Tanuki War (Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko, 1994, director: Takahata Isao, music: Shang Shang Typhoon), Ghost in the Shell (Kôkaku kidôtai [literally: Mobile Armored Riot Police Against Chaos Attacks], 1995, director: Oshii Mamoru, music: Kawai Kenji) and Princess Mononoke (Mononoke hime, 1997, director: Miyazaki Hayao, music: Hisaishi Joe). The choice of these anime movies falls back to the fact that at the time of their release, they marked undisputed milestones in the history of the anime genre due to their powerful expression modes and idealistic foundations. The music of these three anime movies is comprised in the stress ratio between two concepts - "domesticating plagiarism" and "hybridizing authenticity" - in the quest for identifying their contribution to overcoming classical dichotomies such as original-copy and West-East. While anime soundtracks can be observed from a variety of perspectives - as a medium, a genre, a technique, a form, an ideology or an aesthetics -, the current research endeavor brings in the foreground the ideological-aesthetical parameters of anime soundtracks, particularly and directly derived from the individual visions of their respective composers and refering unmistakenly to the magic and the deeper levels of significance of animation as a means of expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studies have confirmed that there is apparent connection between interest in anime and Japanese language learning among the Japanese language learners (Manion, 2005; Fukunaga, 2006; William, 2006; Abe, 2009), the practical use of anime in teaching Japanese Language as a Foreign Language has not been studied in depth. The present study aimed to discover the language features that can be learned by the Japanese language learners through critical viewing of anime in classroom. A course named "Learning Japanese language through Anime" was carried out in one public university in Malaysia for a duration of 10 weeks. Along with the administration of the course, the participants' worksheets on language analysis and learning diaries were collected. The findings showed that language used in anime is more casual in most of the contexts involving daily life. This language use is quite different from what the students usually listen to and use in the classroom where the educators heavily emphasis on the polite ways of speaking using the material designed specifically for pedagogical purposes such as textbooks. Although at times, the language presented in anime maybe even harsh or rough in an exaggerated way, rather than ignore this, it may be better to address it critically under the guidance of educator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a research project that explored young British readers’ engagement with manga in literary, aesthetic, social and cultural dimensions. Sixteen school pupils from two secondary schools participated in a number of interviews to provide feedback on selected manga and their own participation in manga fandom. The results show that four distinct features characterise this particular cultural group, including exclusivity, competitiveness, defensiveness and transculturalism. This article aims to discuss these features by exploring the political roots of popular culture, the constant negotiation of power both outwardly and inwardly in fandom, and the fan’s desire to engage with an exotic culture through the text. It is noteworthy that the declaration of one’s identity as a manga fan shows a deep level of passion with which fans demonstrate confidence in their expertise and a determination to defend a taste that is considered illegitimate and degraded by institutional authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]