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Editing anime images via probabilities of attribute tags allows controlling the degree of the manipulation in an intuitive and convenient manner. Existing methods fall short in the progressive modification and preservation of unintended regions in the input image. We propose a controllable anime image editing framework based on adjusting the tag probabilities, in which a probability encoding network (PEN) is developed to encode the probabilities into features that capture continuous characteristic of the probabilities. Thus, the encoded features are able to direct the generative process of a pre‐trained diffusion model and facilitate the linear manipulation. We also introduce a local editing module that automatically identifies the intended regions and constrains the edits to be applied to those regions only, which preserves the others unchanged. Comprehensive comparisons with existing methods indicate the effectiveness of our framework in both one‐shot and linear editing modes. Results in additional applications further demonstrate the generalization ability of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Doujin (どうじん) is a Japanese term referring to a circle where people share the same interests, usually something that belongs to the Anime, Comics, and Games (ACG) subculture. Individuals who belong to it and create related works, known as ACG doujin creators, are usually described as socially awkward and at potential risk of isolation. In such a context, they may theoretically exhibit higher autistic traits and manifest camouflaging tendencies, which may consequently be associated with their mental health. Nonetheless, the impact of autistic traits and camouflaging on mental health in this subculture remains significantly underexplored. Methods: We recruited 183 Taiwanese ACG doujin creators (age ranges from 18 to 41, 146 female and 37 male) via social networking platforms. Participants completed Chinese online surveys assessing socio-demographic information, doujin activities, past psychiatric history, the 35-item Version of Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ-35), Chinese version Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q-Ch), the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Linear regression analysis was employed to examine the associations between the aforementioned scales. Results: Our findings revealed that among ACG doujin creators, descriptively higher level of AQ-35 and CAT-Q-Ch than previous studies were found. Moreover, we observed a positive association between camouflaging behaviours and most AQ-35 subscales, with the exception of the mindreading subscale. Additionally, we identified that both camouflaging and autistic traits were significantly linked to higher PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores. Conclusions: Through this study, we gained insight into the distinctive characteristics of autistic traits, camouflaging behaviours, and mental health among Taiwanese ACG doujin creators, as the associations between the factors mentioned above are divergent compared to previous research. This topic demonstrated that camouflaging is also associated with adverse mental health in a subculture group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to investigate the function and themes of Arabic-dubbed anime originally released between 1985 and 2020 and aired on SpaceToon. To classify the function(s) of Arabic-dubbed anime, a fifth function was proposed, i.e., educational. Unlike the expressive and informative text types, the educational text types have informative and operative qualities. Using a qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis, the research looked at 60 opening title sequence lyrics to assess their use of rhyme, language variety, and themes. The research has found that only rhyme analysis indicated an expressive function, whereas the language variety and theme analyses indicated an educational function, leading Arabic-dubbed anime to be classified as mainly educational. Analysis of themes has shown determination, adventure and excitement to be the most occurring themes throughout the data. Themes, such as separations, destruction and Arabism, were kept to a minimum. This, however, does not mean nationalism and unity were scarce as well. In fact, the Chi-square analysis has shown that these themes occurred more than expected during the 1990s. The analysis also identified other educational themes that spiked during the 1990s, but they were less apparent in the 2000s and 2010s when some expressive themes were observed to rise. This indicates a shift of the Arabic-dubbed anime towards the expressive function since the turn of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the collaborative efforts that unfolded in the creation of the 2012 exhibition 'TOKUSATSU: Special Effects Museum – Craftsmanship of Showa and Heisei Eras Seen through Miniatures', which in turn paved the way for the establishment of institutional facilities for popular culture. Specifically, this article explores the collaborative dynamics of two recently established facilities: the Anime Tokusatsu Archive Center in Tokyo (2017) and the Sukagawa Tokusatsu Archive Center (2020) in Sukagawa, Fukushima. Sukagawa, Tsuburaya Eiji's hometown, has played a pivotal role in mobilising artists and communities to engage with these cultural spaces. Artist groups dedicated to tokusatsu and anime began to consider preservation and exhibition strategies to convey these art forms to other generations. This article analyses the building process, and the social cooperation in building these facilities, connecting them to broader popular culture movements in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an examination of Japanese anime director Kon Satoshi's artistic style, with a particular focus on his presentation of the title credits, by tracing his career as an internationally acclaimed auteur. It argues that Kon's last film Paprika (2006) can be read as a bold experiment that collapses the distinction between physical existence and media representation, which is manifested at two levels: visually, by the translucent projections of the credits and narratively, by the recurring trope of the butterfly dream. It demonstrates that Kon develops a unique aesthetic over his career that blurs the boundary not only between reality and fiction within the diegetic space, but more significantly between the diegesis (i.e., the fictional universe depicted in the animated films) and the tangible, everyday reality that we dwell in. From the perspective of media ecology, this article proposes to consider the diegetic space, which tends to be treated as a commodity that we unproblematically consume, as something that is thoroughly imbricated in and dialogized with our concrete existence in the physical reality. [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]

El artículo analiza, desde las premisas de la psicología positiva y la literatura en torno a la resiliencia, la evolución de los personajes Tohru Honda y Yuki Sohma del anime Fruits Basket (Yoshihide Ibata, 2019-2021). Este estudio tratará la adaptación animada del manga homónimo de Natsuki Takaya como una ejemplificación simbólica del trauma familiar y de las graves consecuencias que implican para la salud mental y las habilidades sociales de los individuos. Además, la serie está basada en una leyenda japonesa a la cual se inserta un personaje original que actúa como tutor de la resiliencia y agente facilitador de la aceptación de los problemas de salud mental y particularidades en la juventud que la rodea. Asimismo, este texto presenta como arco central de los personajes la superación de las secuelas de dichos traumas sin estigmatizar ni estereotipar sus trastornos ni usarlos como tema central de la trama.

Tekst przybliża zjawisko tzw. fanzinów mangowych, czyli niezależnych, wydawanych własnym sumptem czasopism poświęconych zagadnieniu popkultury japońskiej, tworzonych przez osoby zafascynowane tym tematem i skierowanych do ludzi podzielających to zainteresowanie. Autor artykułu skupia się na omówieniu najstarszych polskich magazynów tego typu, wprowadzonych do obiegu wewnątrz subkulturowego w latach 1995–1997 i prezentuje ich charakterystyki bibliologiczno-historyczne. W pracy omówiono aż dziesięć polskich fanzinów mangowych, w tym krakowski fanzin „Kawaii”, czyli najstarsze rodzime czasopismo tego typu.

Like every particle in the universe encompassing the atomic structure of reality, soccer was a product of an entropic cycle whereby its inception in 1893 resulted from a historical hodgepodge of games involving kicking the ball to a goal post. Out of which, today's soccer was borne, underscored as a complex semiotic system made up of form, value, and content (Yuruevich, 2020). Overtly conscious of the intersectionality between soccer, language, and theory, Blue Lock–a popular Japanese anime – plays soccer with one goal: to dribble the semiotic system of soccer across a deconstructed and decontextualized pitch. By putting Blue Lock at the midfield for literary analysis and spectatorship, this paper argued that the semiotic system of soccer is not fixed; rather, it caught in a perpetual state of différance that, in turn, underscore its robustness as a structure. Conclusively, the semiotic system of soccer was illustrated to be constructed by the deferral of meaning and anti-language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on anime with realistic settings based on Japanese locations and on new practices among viewers inspired by these films. Japanese animation is famous for its ability to create fantasy landscapes and otherworldly sceneries, yet it is not known for its pursuit of realism. Animation, as a medium, is used for creating new worlds rather than depicting the existing one. But in the last two decades by presenting real sites in Japan, anime has made a remarkable shift in its orientation towards realism. Director Shinkai Makoto has established his career on rendering digital images of places from his surroundings and turning them into movies. Many other animators followed in his footsteps and created series depicting real-life locations from Tokyo as well as rural Japan. Kyoto Animation Studio is famous for using detailed renderings of real-life locations as settings of its nichijōkei anime series. These new practices in creating anime have resulted in new practices among viewers, such as seichijunrei and butaitanbō. In these new fan practices the evolution of anime as a medium can be observed: from one that creates fantastic landscapes into the one that gives a new visibility to existing locations.

The article focused on Isao Takahata's anime "My Neighbors the Yamadas," to determine how the category of the everyday in postwar Japan features as the platform of contestation between modernist drives and anti-modernist,tradition-centric reactions. Cited are the political manoeuvres of the post-war Japanese government and the private sector in control over the employees' urbanised everyday within economic growth, and Takahata's anti-modernist' appeals to an everyday.

The automatic colorization of anime line drawings is a challenging problem in production pipelines. Recent advances in deep neural networks have addressed this problem; however, collectingmany images of colorization targets in novel anime work before the colorization process starts leads to chicken-and-egg problems and has become an obstacle to using them in production pipelines. To overcome this obstacle, we propose a new patch-based learning method for few-shot anime-style colorization. The learning method adopts an efficient patch sampling technique with position embedding according to the characteristics of anime line drawings. We also present a continuous learning strategy that continuously updates our colorization model using new samples colorized by human artists. The advantage of our method is that it can learn our colorization model from scratch or pre-trained weights using only a few pre- and post-colorized line drawings that are created by artists in their usual colorization work. Therefore, our method can be easily incorporated within existing production pipelines. We quantitatively demonstrate that our colorizationmethod outperforms state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anime has become a global phenomenon due to its diverse cultural representations, relatable characters, and unique storytelling. However, there is limited research on the relationship between character personality and popularity. The aim of this study is to understand the relevance of the characters' personalities to the audience's evaluation of various characters. This study analyzed the correlation between the MBTI personality evaluations of characters in anime and their popularity, based on the data of the personality of each animation character reviewed by audiences. In this study, 885 characters from 200 anime aimed at a male audience were selected as a sample for research. The results showed that personality traits such as introversion, intuition, and thinking had an impact on the popularity of female characters but not male characters. The overall results were influenced by the larger sample size of female characters. By addressing this question, the study can contribute to the design of a character's personality and overall success in anime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 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]

Film has a long history of spectral association, from the possibilities of projection, the dancing image that hangs in the air, to the translucence of the media itself. Taking inspiration from a Japanese animation, Michael Chapman, Professor and Chair of Architecture and Industrial Design at Western Sydney University, has created a series of works that seek to fill in the haunted blanks and uncanny parallaxes that exist between the space we view and perceive in the filmic sequence and an 'objective' reality of that architecture. He uses some of the compositional protocols of the traditional scroll and machinery to produce his proposal – a parallel world that haunts the absences and holes within the original. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Laboratorio is the property of Universidad Diego Portales 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.)

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]

Copyright of Sophia, Colección de Filosofía de la Educación is the property of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana 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.)

Purpose: Guided by stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study analyzed the user-generated content (UGC) produced by attendees from six anime conventions in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 739 online reviews and 1,932 photos were collected from the social platforms of six large anime conventions in the USA (Yelp and Facebook), and the study employed thematic analysis and image analysis to analyze the collected UGCs. Findings: The findings revealed eight main themes (i.e. ambient and space, customers, service and products, sign and symbol, social density, emotional status, motivation, and behavior intention) and 32 subthemes across the three dimensions of SOR theory. Leveraging the power of cutting-edge image analysis, the image labels obtained from the analysis contributed to the creation of network clusters. The result of the image analysis also continued consistently with the thematic analysis result, which reflected SOR theory. Research limitations/implications: Theoretically, the study applied SOR theory and blended thematic and image analyses to gain a comprehensive understanding of anime convention attendees' experience and categorized the attendees' emotional status as positive or negative to reflect their overall evaluation. Practically, this study highlighted some complaints from attendees and provided suggestions for operators. However, the study focused only on large anime conventions in the USA; future studies should compare attendees' experiences with small and large conventions or anime conventions worldwide. Originality/value: The study utilized UGCs to understand the key patterns essential to attendees during anime conventions in the USA and applied SOR theory to its investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the transformation of religious and non-religious practices in contemporary Japanese youth culture. The article employs both western analysis of 'nones' and Japanese theories to explain this transformation. Three concepts characterize (non-)religiousness in Japanese youth culture: 'practicing belonging', 'vicarious spirituality', and 'gendered fetishism'. These concepts are first exemplified in a culture surrounding the concept of 'tulpa' (created paranormal beings, derived from Tibetan Buddhism) in Japan. Other examples reflecting each of these concepts are presented, along with a discussion of why Japanese youth culture came to manifest such characteristics. In so doing, we will refrain from drawing a rigid line between religious and non-religious settings, acknowledging that what may appear religious to Japanese scholars may not be viewed as such by western scholars. The factors behind the transformation of religiousness in Japan affect not only religious and spiritual but also non-religious or secular settings, resulting in parallel phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the process of script development in the anime industry, with a specific focus on the collaborative environment known as the writer's room. The author draws on participant observation of two anime series to explore the social dynamics and consensus-building involved in script development. The article emphasizes the importance of stakeholder consensus and the influence of negotiated social values and relationships in shaping scripts. It also discusses the roles of producers, studio staff, and writers in the script development process. Overall, the article provides insights into the complexities and challenges of script development in the anime industry. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides an in-depth analysis of the labor model and working conditions of animators in the anime industry during the 1970s and 1980s. It examines the shift from valuing artistic originality to valuing technical skill and craftsmanship, as well as the impact of market forces and consumer demand on the industry. The article emphasizes the importance of considering the perspectives and experiences of animators in understanding the transformation of the industry. It also discusses the rise of Original Video Animation (OVA), labor shortages, the concept of talent, limited retakes, and the decline of creative freedom. The article concludes by discussing freelance work and the significance of networking and collaboration in the industry. Further research is suggested to fully comprehend the effects of these changes on the industry and its workers. [Extracted from the article]

The genre of reincarnation isekai anime, wherein a protagonist dies in their original world only to be reborn in a fantastical one, has grown significantly in global appeal. Yet, this genre's expansion also normalizes controversial themes such as mental health issues, sexual and violent content, and the sexualisation of virtual minors. This article employs a data-driven approach, analysing user-generated coding of themes and properties from English-speaking fan sites, to critically examine three emergent and interconnected dimensions: the success of series deemed 'trashy', the complexities surrounding sexual themes, and the rising appeal of the 'zero-to-hero' motif in a post-pandemic world. The findings reveal a paradoxical allure of 'trashy' but popular content, complex ethical dilemmas surrounding sexual themes, and an increased resonance of empowerment motifs resulting from the pandemic. These discoveries provoke renewed discussions on anime's role in shaping and reflecting societal values and raise questions about regulatory challenges in a globalized media setting. The study confirms the need for more nuanced understandings of the genre's growing global influence, particularly outside of Japan, and calls for continued research to delve deeper into its complexities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space design is a research field with a broad framework that interacts with different disciplines. Scale, one of the most important components of this field, is used to increase the cinematic effect in the configuration of f ilm spaces. While literature has several studies on cinema and space, little research has been conducted on animation and human size. Because of the use of two distinct human scales and the association of houses with these, this work differs from similar researches. This study aims to reveal the impact of the human scale on the production of the spatial configuration by using the experimental aspect of the cinema. The objective is to evaluate data that effectively informs the audience about scale differences. In this study, the qualitative research method was used through descriptive analysis. The study was conducted by coding, analyzing, and following the findings through scenes in the example of the film The Secret World of Arrietty. As a result of coding, f ive main themes were obtained. The themes with the highest frequency value were human scale and space. In the conclusion we state that the use of the combination of codes in cinema and perception changes with the change in human size allowing audiences to transfer the meaning.

El presente artículo se inscribe dentro de la reflexión sobre la serie de animación japonesa Hakuoki Shinsegumi Kitan (Idea Factory, 2010), una adaptación de una saga de videojuegos otome con el nombre Hakouki. La narrativa se sitúa en la era Edo donde la protagonista, Chizuru, se ve obligada a vestirse de hombre y vivir bajo las reglas de los miembros del Shinsengumi, una de las últimas fuerzas policiales del período del Shogunato Tokuwaga. A partir de un enfoque interdisciplinar, analizaremos cómo la animación de esta serie japonesa traduce y modeliza la cultura otaku a partir de tres componentes fundamentales: emoción, historia y estética.

La adaptación de cuentos de hadas permite mantener vivas las historias a lo largo del tiempo. En la actualidad también puede servir como una herramienta de japonización al permitir introducir elementos propios de la cultura nipona en historias originariamente occidentales. Esta investigación explora ese uso de la adaptación de los cuentos de hadas a través del análisis del anime Belle, basado en la clásica historia de La Bella y la Bestia. Mediante un análisis comparativo con la popular versión animada de Disney, se han identificado las divergencias más relevantes entre las dos obras. De esta manera, se ha comprobado cómo Belle introduce conceptos e ideas concretos que permiten acercar un imaginario concreto sobre Japón y su cultura.

This commentary employs semiotic analysis to scrutinize the pilot episode of the anime series “Attack on Titan,” with a specific focus on the theory of symbolic annihilation and the trivialization of women. Situated within the patriarchal context of Japanese culture, the commentary explores how the episode perpetuates traditional gender roles and hegemonic masculinities, while simultaneously trivializing and victimizing women. The commentary suggests that the pilot episode serves as a compelling example of symbolic annihilation, echoing the reflection hypothesis that media often mirrors society’s dominant values. Despite the series’ later episodes offering more nuanced portrayals of gender and sexuality, the pilot episode reinforces traditional Japanese gender norms, thereby contributing to the trivialization and symbolic annihilation of women’s lived experiences in media. The commentary adds a critical dimension to the existing literature on gender representations in anime and highlights the need for further studies that explore how anime’s treatment of gender roles and representations evolves throughout a series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of global interest in anime among young adults, several studies have examined the acquisition of Japanese through watching anime in formal settings; however, studies focusing on learners with no formal training in Japanese are scarce. The present study focuses on this latter population of anime viewers and examines their L2 listening development and whether it is impacted by years of viewing and anime genre. This study also investigates the extent to which relevant vocabulary can be incidentally acquired from watching anime. Native English-speaking anime viewers in the US, who had never formally studied Japanese, completed a questionnaire and took the listening comprehension portion of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. They also viewed 12 subtitled episodes of an action/adventure anime series and took pre-tests and post-tests assessing meaning-recall of 40 relevant target words. 38% of the viewers correctly answered at least half of the questions on the listening test, yet years of viewing and anime genre appeared to have no significant impact on the listening scores. The vocabulary post-test also showed significant learning gains. These findings emphasise the potential benefits of extensive viewing – more specifically anime viewing – in L2 development, even in the absence of formal language study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

An adaptation and continuation of Inoue Takehiko's successful manga Slam Dunk (1990–1996), The First Slam Dunk (2022) opened to resounding success in South Korean theaters, becoming the most viewed Japanese film in the country (animated or otherwise), in April of 2023. Part of the film's success was due to the manga's immense popularity, published during the Cultural Ban when it was ostensibly illegal to disseminate Japanese culture. Between its critical role in the semi-legitmization of manga before the Japanese Cultural Influx and the inconsistent localization practices of publisher Daewon CI, Slam Dunk becomes an opportunity to observe an engaged site of dynamic interchange that troubles rigid borders of cultural flow. That hybridity, also evident in The First Slam Dunk, helps us understand the film's curious crossover success with the built-in audience of middle-aged fans and newer, younger female viewers. As pundits have noted, nostalgia is central to The First Slam Dunk, but like the original manga, the film's nostalgia does not observe strict boundaries of nation, gender, generation. Instead, it gestures to the broader experience that its eclectic audience shares, namely the post-crisis conditions of the last 30 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Esferas is the property of Esferas 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.)

As one of the most successful pieces of transnational popular culture, we rhetorically analyze the compelling critique of neoliberal capitalism in the 2020 anime film, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train. Alongside this criticism of neoliberal capitalism, we theorize relations of mujō (無常/impermanence) found in the film, foregrounding this Buddhist principle to advance ways of being that resist neoliberal capitalist impulses. We forward three tenets that emerge in our analysis of this film: (1) recognizing that all beings are embedded within shared entanglements; (2) holding all beings responsible to serve others; (3) transcending the bounds of death by passing the torch of omoi (想い/human feeling). We argue that Mugen Train’s protagonists, the Demon Slayers, embody mujō that demonstrates how those under capitalist subjugation can only be liberated by recognizing human community grounded in such a relational ethic. We thus situate relations of mujō as a critical rhetorical theory that releases us from the neoliberal capitalist pursuit of mugen (無限/limitless). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to examine the innovation of comics in the real space of spectacular forms, in particular the impact of comics and graphic stories on cinema, anime, and video games as a global component of contemporary screen spectacle culture. The research methodology is based on the use of semiotic, analytical and cultural methods in revealing the peculiarities of the innovative influence of comics on various types of media in the space of modern spectacular forms. The scientific novelty of the study consists in carrying out an analysis of the evolution of the influence of comics on the development of modern screen spectacular forms, as well as the first cultural research of the innovative features of the synergy of comics and modern forms of screen spectacular culture. Conclusions. Comics provide a wide range of visual and narrative models that can be successfully used in the culture of screen forms of entertainment. Comics are capable of creating multimedia universes that open wide perspectives for the creation of cinematic universes that expand into various media formats. Such universes can become the basis for the creation of franchises, series and video games, expanding the audience and creating new opportunities for media convergence. In addition, the innovation of comics in the culture of screen spectacle forms is manifested in their influence on visual practices, aesthetics and experiments with structure and genres. This makes it possible for sketching to be the very medium that is able to create completely new and unique strategies of narrative constructions, which allows the creators of screen spectacular forms to experiment with many aspects of the composition of the work. [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]

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The concept of platformisation has been used throughout contemporary Chinese sociology and media studies to explain the process by which emerging local digital platforms facilitate and revolutionise daily life. Scholars have also examined how fans of ACGN (anime, comics, games, and novels) create heterotopias through the development of virtual communities and the departure of online territory from more conventional cultural and heteronormative norms. This article analyses an often-overlooked subject: the mainstreaming, platformisation, and re-conventionalisation of digital platforms and their impact on creative video production and fandom culture. We investigate Bilibili, a video-sharing social media which can be considered as the former home of Chinese ACGN culture, with a particular focus on the current commercial expansion that has seen it deviate from ACGN's cultural themes. Howard Becker's (1982) categorisation of innovative creators (mainstreams, mavericks, misfits) and Jones et al. amphibians are utilised to examine the ways in which the various video creators and former ACGN fans have (or have not) adapted to the platform's commercialisation, mainstreaming, and re-conventionalisation. [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]

The author comments on the works of some hyperrealist artists ‒ presented in the exhibition Seems Alive held in Rome at the Palazzo Bonaparte ‒ with reference to the “uncanny” sensation that can be felt when the perception of “inanimate” collides with that of “animate”, and vice versa. He also decries this condition with that of “intimacy”. [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]

Streaming services have become a primary intermediary between international content producers and global audiences, and their palpable influence as gatekeepers, tastemakers, and disruptors of media industries abroad have significant ramifications for the way television is produced and distributed. Using the case study of how Netflix is influencing the Japanese anime industry, this research outlines the contradictory ways that the streaming service engages with international media and how local creators are grappling with the specter of globalism that Netflix represents in their own work. Utilizing textual analysis, discursive analysis, and interviews with industry insiders, this article identifies some of the shifts that are occurring in the anime industry due to the advent of Netflix on the level of production and text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The editorial article titled "Virtual Facts" highlights the virtual theme and the confrontation between the virtual and the real. It mentions the short film "Everything's Fine" by Diana Acién, which addresses the subjective experience during confinement. It also highlights Dr. Nea Ehrlich's article on documentary animation and the virtualization of culture. Other contents include a study on animation in Germany during the Third Reich, the adaptation of fairy tales into anime, and the modeling of otaku culture in the series Hakuoki Shinsengumi Kitan. The magazine issue concludes with a study on the setting of environments in Virtual Reality. [Extracted from the article]

This article is part of the reflection on the Japanese animated series Hakuoki Shinsegumi Kitan (Idea Factory, 2010), an adaptation of an otome video game saga with the name of Hakouki. The narrative places us in the Edo era where the protagonist, Chizuru, is forced to dress as a man and live under the rules of the members of the Shinsengumi, one of the last police forces of the Tokuwaga Shogunate period. From an interdisciplinary approach, we will analyze how the animation of this Japanese series translates and models otaku culture based on three fundamental components: emotion, history, and esthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]