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Comic inpainting is essential for language localization and adapting comics into animations, involving the removal of speech boxes, textboxes, and sound effects while maintaining artistic integrity. This paper introduces an automated approach leveraging the Manga inpainting method by Xie et al., adapted for western comics like Tex Willer. Tex Willer comics, known for their fusion of Italian art and American Western imagery, pose unique challenges due to their distinct styles. Customized Manga Restoration and Structural Line Extraction codes are employed, along with automated mask generation using deep CNN-based speech balloon detection and segmentation. Our contributions include the development of a precise model tailored to Tex Willer Comics, resulting in visually coherent inpainting results. The paper follows a structured format, covering State-of-the-Art, methodology, results, and conclusions, aiming to streamline the process of western comic inpainting for professionals in the comics and animation industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manga is a Japanese comic book that differs from comics in style and content and contains elements from Japanese culture. This study aims to get Turkish teachers’ opinions and suggestions about the content of manga and its suitability for students and to learn their students’ interest in manga from the Turkish teachers participating in the study. For this purpose, thirty questions created through Google Forms were sent to twenty-two Turkish teachers teaching Turkish in public and private secondary schools in different regions of Turkey. The answers were collected via Google Surveys and the data were interpreted by content analysis method. The research data were analyzed by dividing them into five different themes in line with the opinions of the participating teachers. As a result of the research, it was determined that the majority of Turkish teachers, who stated that students mostly prefer books with fantasy and adventure content, do not read manga, although they know Japanese manga by name. At the same time, although the teachers do not see the content of manga as suitable for Turkish culture and children, they are in favor of students reading manga genre with the changes to be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the adaptation of the Japanese manga and anime series "Hikaru no Go" in China, specifically focusing on its impact on Chinese audiences and the controversies surrounding it. It explores the interplay between media and memory, as well as the mediatization of cultural memory in the digital era. The article also discusses the transnational travels of anime and manga in China and the role of online streaming platforms in shaping Chinese audiences' cultural memory. It sheds new light on East Asian pop culture studies and media mix research from transcultural and transmedial perspectives. Additionally, the article analyzes the political implications of the representation of the Hong Kong handover ceremony in the Chinese online drama adaptation of "Hikaru no Go" called "Qihun" and its influence on collective memory and media culture. It highlights the complexities of transnational cultural exchange and the role of media mix in shaping cultural consumption and memory. [Extracted from the article]

This is a comparative, cross-cultural, and multi-disciplinary study of two extinct animals, the Tasmanian tiger in Australia and the Hokkaido wolf in Japan, and their ongoing cultural 'presence'. The thylacine was last documented in captivity in 1936, and the Hokkaido wolf became extinct around 1900. Both faced rapid extinction due to anthropogenic factors associated with colonisation and modernisation, including eradication policies. Nonetheless, both animals have ongoing cultural and conservation significance. In Australia, the thylacine has become a symbol of redemption and conservation advocated for by devoted citizens who do not believe the animal is extinct. In Japan, the story of the Hokkaido wolf has been kept alive by Tezuka Osamu, a legendary manga/anime artist. Tezuka's life project was to change anthropocentric human-nature relationships through his work. These two animals have significant ongoing implications for conservation and sustainability. The Tasmanian tiger offers a new approach to conservation through the pursuit of 'Lazarus species'. The Hokkaido wolf provides an alternative ontology useful for rethinking human-nature relationships. Both point to the significant roles that different worldviews and emotional commitments can play for sustainable futures. They present new possibilities for reimagining extinction in the Anthropocene, showing that even extinct animals can give us hope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to offer an analysis on how Italian places act as key narrative units in Japanese manga. Building on a quantitative and qualitative corpus study, the paper investigates how culturally salient locations are embedded in these narratives. It is first shown that authors develop salient locations ("places") as distinct entities playing key roles within narrative structures. It is then shown that these representations of places follow principles of cultural relevance, popularity, historical and geographical faithfulness. This is the case because authors creating manga set in Italy share knowledge and appreciation of Italian places and their cultural import with readers. These results are framed in a theory of geo-criticism and in a possible worlds analysis of places in fiction, hereby extended to graphic narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading is an important element of independent work on the language, but offering students additional reading to improve their linguistic and cultural competences is an extremely difficult task, due to the evolving tastes of young people and the variability of the media they use. Given the popularity of manga and digital comics in France, Romance philology students were asked to read a series selected from the webtoons.com/fr platform in French. A survey was then carried out to find out their views on how this tool could be used in French language learning. The results of the survey clearly indicate that the webtoons.com/fr platform can be used as an effective tool for learning French. According to the respondents, reading the selected series allowed them, above all, to develop lexical resources and was also an enjoyable pastime that increased motivation to learn the language. Students also paid attention to the combination of word and image, appreciating both the aesthetic and practical side of reading digital comics. Finally, the practicality of using the platform, its ease of use and accessibility was emphasised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The LGBTQ+ Comics Studies Reader" is a collection of articles and interviews edited by Alison Halsall and Jonathan Warren that aims to provide an intersectional framework for LGBTQ+ comics criticism. The book explores how LGBTQ+ comics offer space for representation, self-discovery, activism, and community building. It expands the traditional definition of queerness and includes works from various origins, emphasizing a global perspective and diverse connections among queer lived experiences. The book also highlights the importance of mainstream comics in the spread of queer literacy and provides a valuable contribution to the field of LGBTQ+ comics scholarship. [Extracted from the article]

This article was aimed to study the demonstration of urban images as topographic or background effects for depicting the social reality of life in large megacities. The research considered four literary works of Japanese and Chinese writers, namely the manga 'Hanzawa Naoki' (2020) by Jun Ikeido, the novel 'Convenience Store Woman' (2016) by Sayaka Murata, the manga 'Tokyo Ghoul' (2011) by Sui Ishida, and the Chinese novel 'Northern Girls' (2004) by Sheng Keyi. It was found that each literary work demonstrated the symbolism of the urban platform, on which specific cultural and social rules were formed (in the Japanese sense, the term 'joshiki' was used). So, there was a certain transformation of the Japanese traditional worldview to a mutually beneficial life activity, which can lead to marginalization. The study results also showed that the folklore images of Japanese yokai have transformed in the fantasy genre as metaphorical social roles that lack a sense of tolerance and liberality in the context of modern society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Yoshiko Okuyama's book, "Tōjisha Manga: Japan's Graphic Memoirs of Brain and Mental Health," which explores the genre of tōjisha manga and its ability to depict the lived experiences of individuals with mental and neurological conditions. Okuyama argues that tōjisha manga humanizes these conditions and challenges ableist thinking. The book includes case studies of five tōjisha manga series and examines their use of visual language and collaboration between creators and individuals with lived experiences. The article praises Okuyama's use of images and accessible writing style, and suggests that the book would be valuable for university libraries and classrooms discussing disability and graphic memoirs. [Extracted from the article]

Despite enjoying a global fandom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Yuki Kaori's manga series Angel Sanctuary (1994–2000) has received little consideration in studies of the Gothic. Yet the manga presents Gothic scholars with rich opportunities for locating manga, and particularly shōjo (young girls') manga, within its own Gothic tradition. Steeped in global religious imagery, Angel Sanctuary uses incest, genderbending, and fractured identities to explore trauma and to critique the cross-cultural hegemonies that produce it. This essay considers the relationship between the Gothic and gendered identity in Japanese girls' comics and investigates its manifestations in the manga's depictions of incest, twins, and traumatic formations of the doppelgänger. In doing so, the essay locates Yuki's work alongside the Female Gothic and argues for the increased inclusion of manga in Gothic scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses how affective stance is used for evaluation and positioning in fan discourse. Adopting a corpus-based approach, the paper focuses on affective stance verbs in an English-speaking popular media fandom on three social media platforms, Twitter, Tumblr, and Reddit. Fans use affective stance to construct positions in relation to the popular media franchise, in this case a popular Japanese manga and anime series. By combining quantitative and qualitative linguistic analysis the study shows that stancetaking verbalises fans' investment in the fictional world of the narrative media, in the franchise production, and in the context of fan productivity. The discursively constructed positions reflect common fan practices such as publicising fan affect and emotions, reviewing the franchise critically, and sharing textual fan productivity. The analysis associates platform differences with the social norms of the fans and the technological affordances that enable their interaction. Because hashtag-based interaction on micro-blogs is primarily indirect, the study argues that the interactive functions of stance can be understood in relation to the general fandom affect. • Stancetaking in a narrative media fandom marks investment in fictional world. • Social media platforms vary in frequency and function of stance verb constructions. • Positions taken through stancetaking reflect the practices of the online community. • Stance as an interactive process occurs in relation to the general fandom affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ateji (当て字) pertains to one of the unique uses of language in the manga that is constructed with two types of Japanese scripts. Its one-of-a-kind structure presents challenges in translation, but feasible solutions have hardly been explored. Drawing on ateji categories, social semiotic multimodal approach and translation procedures, this study performs qualitative content analysis to identify practical ways to reconstruct the closest meaning of ateji. It finds that most of the adopted translation procedures reflect partial meaning transformations because of the target language's lack of semiotic resources that can be used to convey ateji's complex meanings. Nevertheless, translations published in the 2010s have shown that a smaller font size – the semiotic resource of the typography mode – is used in glosses to produce the closest meaning transformation of ateji into the target text. This finding has also revealed that writing and typography are effective modes of ateji translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking an arguably minor character from Tezuka Osamu's oeuvre, Natsume Fusanosuke argues how the Pig Gourd's cameos even in the artist's most serious works demonstrate a bifurcated sense of play and high-brow artistry in his manga. Natsume employs an early version of his 'manga-expression theory' (manga hyōgen-ron) manga-analysis approach, which he began to develop in this, his first manga-studies monograph and seminal study of the 'god of manga' Tezuka Osamu. This translation of a chapter essay from Where Is Tezuka Osamu? (1992) demonstrates Natsume's versatility in isolating thematic patterns or formal experimentations in an artist's style, including character design and page layouts. Natsume's 'manga-expression theory' approach, which focuses on three basic elements of manga (words, pictures, and frames), can be seen in this essay on Tezuka's trademark Pig Gourd character, who will pop up or even decimate panel borders to show not only Tezuka's embarrassment at being unable to resist a sight gag but also his bold desire to play with panel possibilities. The larger picture that Natsume describes here is how this ubiquitous cameo character became a litmus test of readers' tastes as the manga master's target demographic became older and wise to his stylistic idiosyncrasies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the two editions of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas' A Tale of Two Shamans (2001, 2018) and how each incorporates "Indigenous methodologies, pedagogies, and epistemologies" (Pearce 319), this article explores the relational and situated knowledges that coalesce in the story and its telling. Using Haida and settler languages like English, Yahgulanaas' book is an early example of his Haida manga practice. Haida manga can be understood as a way of Indigenizing comics because the use of Haida framelines deconstructs the spatial grammar of panel and gutter in favor of interconnected imagery and design. Likewise, Haida manga linguistically critiques colonizing assumptions regarding territories and borders as land-bound, shifting the location of the cultural practice to a region defined by water, with its political possibilities and cultural connections. Yahgulanaas' books weave these actions and intentions into consumer objects, differently legible and knowable across diverse reading publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, advertising in Spain has used anime characters to promote licensed products or products related to their commercial exploitation. However, despite the enormous growth in manga and anime consumption in recent years, there has been no corresponding growth in the use of anime narratives in advertising campaigns of products or services of brands outside the manganime universe. To this end, we aim to determine the elements that cause the disparity between the increase in anime consumption and its continual absence in advertising creativity in Spain, specifically, in advertising campaigns for products or services that are not directly related to anime series. An interpretive construction is proposed by means of a focus group with university students that allows us to determine their reactions to advertising campaigns from other countries that use anime narratives. Among other aspects, our results reveal the need to understand the narrative universe of anime, its characters and subtext. Similarly, we believe that there should be aesthetic and audiovisual coherence and shared values between anime and brand so that the public accepts it positively and not as an intrusive element. Finally, we define four main variables on which to design advertising campaigns based on anime narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a letter from the editors of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture. It provides a brief overview of the articles featured in the journal's latest issue. The articles cover a range of topics, including the promotion of jewelry and accessories in interwar France, the fashion activism of Extinction Rebellion and Fashion Act Now, the revitalization of the kimono market in Japan, the work of sustainable fashion influencers in Finland, a Latin American and Latinx fashion exhibition, an exhibition on contemporary African fashion, and a book review on the intersection of fashion and the feeling body. The letter aims to inform readers about the diverse perspectives and research presented in the journal. [Extracted from the article]

This is the first paper in our series on the combined analysis of the Dynamics and stellar Population (DynPop) for the MaNGA survey in the final SDSS Data Release 17 (DR17). Here, we present a catalogue of dynamically determined quantities for over 10 000 nearby galaxies based on integral-field stellar kinematics from the MaNGA survey. The dynamical properties are extracted using the axisymmetric Jeans Anisotropic Modelling (JAM) method, which was previously shown to be the most accurate for this kind of study. We assess systematic uncertainties using eight dynamical models with different assumptions. We use two orientations of the velocity ellipsoid: either cylindrically aligned JAMcyl or spherically aligned JAMsph. We also make four assumptions for the models' dark versus luminous matter distributions: (1) mass-follows-light, (2) free NFW dark halo, (3) cosmologically constrained NFW halo, (4) generalized NFW dark halo, i.e. with free inner slope. In this catalogue, we provide the quantities related to the mass distributions (e.g. the density slopes and enclosed mass within a sphere of a given radius for total mass, stellar mass, and dark matter mass components). We also provide the complete models which can be used to compute the full luminous and mass distribution of each galaxy. Additionally, we visually assess the qualities of the models to help with model selections. We estimate the observed scatter in the measured quantities which decreases as expected with improvements in quality. For the best data quality, we find a remarkable consistency of measured quantities between different models, highlighting the robustness of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: Anime and manga have drawn a global audience and become popular in a wide range of genres, including in Malaysia. These two popular cultures occasionally include LGBT elements in their storylines. This article examines Malaysian university students' views on LGBT elements in anime and manga. The specific objectives were to (1) identify anime and manga that incorporate LGBT elements, which are consumed by university students in Malaysia, and (2) investigate their views on the effects of consuming these materials. Methodology: Online Google survey forms were distributed to students studying the Japanese language at five public universities in Malaysia. In these universities, Japanese is offered as an elective or part of a core course and is taken by students from various faculties. 280 students responded to the survey. However, only data from 150 respondents was analysed. There were 56 (37%) male and 94 (63%) female respondents. Findings: 34 (22.7%) respondents mentioned anime and manga titles that have LGBT elements, with some titles fitting under the LGBT genre. According to 96 (64%) of respondents, consuming anime and manga with LGBT elements has negative consequences, including the normalisation of the LGBT concept, which may lead to individuals identifying themselves as part of the LGBT community, excessive sexual content, going against the norm, the extinction of humans, and becoming anime and manga addicts. In contrast, 37 (24.7%) respondents believe consuming such materials has a positive effect. This group argues that, despite the controversial LGBT elements, anime and manga promote positive ideals in their storylines while also raising awareness of LGBT communities. Contributions: This study reveals that the consumption of anime and manga featuring LGBT elements has an impact on the acceptance of the LGBT concept among Malaysian youth, despite its contradiction with the religious and cultural values of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In conducting an exploratory data analysis to study the hit mechanisms of manga and anime works with appealing supporting characters, the author began by assessing the volume and content of Twitter posts on Demon Slayer and observed that SNS not only facilitated communication between devoted fans, but also served to fulfill the desire to own merchandise and to provide a place for publication of derivative works. Furthermore, in an analysis using the Character Quantitative Survey unaided recall data, the top unaided recall works were classified into four types based on supporting character popularity patterns. The results obtained by creating a composite variable of unaided recall weighted by simple total based on the number of recall of the work's name or character and assessing the mean values and correlations of each variable measured for each work showed that the composite variable of unaided recall had a strong correlation with the indices of tie-in merchandise purchase and purchase intention, and with the indices of 'high spirit and fun' and 'attention and impersonation' in the field of offered experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In visual narratives like comics, the most overt form of perspective-taking comes in panels that directly depict the viewpoints of characters in the scene. We therefore examined these subjective viewpoint panels (also known as point-of-view panels) in a corpus of over 300 annotated comics from Asia, Europe, and the United States. In line with predictions that Japanese manga use a more 'subjective' storytelling style than other comics, we found that more manga use subjective panels than other comics, with high proportions of subjective panels also found in Chinese, French, and American comics. In addition, panels with more 'focal' framing, i.e. micro panels showing close ups and/or amorphic panels showing views of the environment, had higher proportions of subjective panels than panels showing wider views of scenes. These findings further show that empirical corpus analyses provide evidence of cross-cultural variation and reveal relationships across structures in the visual languages of comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work attempts to approach the image that museum institutions disseminate among their potential public through the resource of the comic. It also tries to show how this 21st-century image surpasses the characteristics granted to museums in postmodernity. The idea of a museum capable of creating a public or a transformative visiting experience is not as unidirectional as one might suppose. This work takes the nine concepts of museology suggested by Mara Jiménez Blanco, professor in the UCM, as theoretical categories. These concepts result from an original synthesis of the history of internationally renowned institutions. This study shows how all these concepts appear to a greater or lesser extent using mass media such as comics or comic strips. Different methodological approaches and techniques have been used for this purpose. The results obtained have implications both for museums and for their public. For the former, by encouraging reflection on their public image. For the latter, the presentation of the museum in a different language that combines imagination and history, two elements that are part of the co-creation of the tourist experience at cultural heritage sites. [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]

In April 2022, a first-year PhD student published his first peer-reviewed article in the journal Qualitative Research. Less than four months later, amid viral public outrage, that article, Karl Andersson's "I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan," was removed from publication and formally retracted by the Journal Editors. This paper explores the controversy surrounding the so-called "masturbation article" and its relevance to the field of publishing studies. I begin with a general overview of the shota manga genre and its legal context and provide a factual short history of the affair. I then demonstrate what a good-faith positive peer review of Andersson's article may have included and critically assess Qualitative Research's Retraction Notice, alongside other published ethical complaints. I conclude by showing how both Andersson's article and the Japanese manga he studies have been censored for the same reasons, with troubling implications for freedom of speech in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Understanding Korean Webtoon Culture: Transmedia Storytelling, Digital Platforms, and Genres" by Dal Yong Jin explores the growth and significance of webtoons in South Korea. The book traces the history of webtoons and their emergence as a popular form of digital comics among millennial and gen z readers. It discusses the specific conditions that led to the rise of webtoons, including the convergence of cultural products, advancements in digital technology, and the popularity of transmedia storytelling. The book also examines the international proliferation of webtoons as part of the Korean Wave and highlights the unique characteristics of webtoons that challenge Eurocentric modes of media industries. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date study of webtoons and will be of interest to researchers and readers interested in South Korean media and culture. [Extracted from the article]

This paper studies the relations between outside properties and personalities of created characters in comics/anime. Fans of comics/animes can generally predict the personality of a character from how the character is expressed in the drawing. From this facţ it seems that people have some common unconscious senses for relationships between outside properties and the inside personality of characters. We propose a method to study the relationships between outside properties and personality by calculating the conditional probability for certain attributes. We analyze the dataset of Character Elements Kingdom, which is a fan site of characters appearing in comics and anime. Given the appearance or personality as the conditional attribute, the posterior probability distribution for a category of attributes is obtained. From the posterior probability distribution, we discuss the relationships between outside properties and personalities of created characters. Through the discussion, we confirmed that there were some tendencies for the relationships between appearance and personality, e.g., "black hair girls seemed to be relatively stable though blond hair girls seemed to be relatively active." These findings suggested typical patterns of designing created characters in Japanese comics/animes. We believe the knowledge obtained through our study can be referenced for creating new characters in some narrative content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manga, a Japanese comic, conveys contextual information about underlying stories based on the expression of a mixture of textual and pictorial elements. Two experiments were designed to assess whether individuals' eye movements when reading manga were consistent, independent of the specific materials, and stable over time. Experiment 1 examined the consistency of eye‐movement parameters when participants read two distinct manga works and a narrative text and demonstrated that the parameters were consistent among the different reading materials. Experiment 2 provided evidence of the stability of parameters over time (i.e., an average interval of approximately 3 months). In summary, eye‐movement parameters observed during manga reading were reliable stability indices over time and consistency among diverse materials. These findings imply that gaze behavior during manga reading could be an effective methodology for investigating individual differences in various aspects of cognitive processes, such as face perception and story comprehension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]