3 0 0 0 OA Towards a Queer Perspective on Manga History : Sexy Stillness in the Gay Art of Yamakawa Jun'ichi
- 著者
- ERNEST DIT ALBAN Edmond "Edo"
- 出版者
- 国際日本文化研究センタープロジェクト推進室
- 雑誌
- Dōjin Journal : An academic journal on popular cultures established by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:24357901)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1, pp.15-26, 2020-11-30
This paper aims to construct a theoretical and methodological approach for discussing, on a textual level, the intersections of queer and homosexual representations in gay manga produced by gay men and cisgender women. The main argument is that gay manga revolves around alternative takes on the representation of the mobility (animation) of characters, a phenomenon that will be framed through the notion of sexy stillness. The analysis of this new notion of sexy stillness is conducted through the comparison of the technical aspects of gay manga artist Yamakawa Jun'ichi's art with canonical girls' manga series. Great care will be given to the specific moments describing the inner motion of characters, as well as the place of these scenes within the visual composition of narratives. Analysis of some elements of the media and social context will also be incorporated in order to explore the meaning of sexy still techniques within manga history and LGBT movements in Japan. In doing so, the goal is to present similarities in terms of the visual expression of queerness as a basis for supporting future works on the different social or communal projects, media production systems, and political impact of gay manga genres.
- 著者
- HERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ Álvaro David
- 出版者
- 国際日本文化研究センタープロジェクト推進室
- 雑誌
- Dōjin Journal : An academic journal on popular cultures established by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:24357901)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1, pp.37-47, 2020-11-30
Hatsune Miku, a software conceived to produce songs, has evolved as a fictional character in the hands of its users since its release in 2007, prompting the development of a strong identity around her image and initiating an innovative movement of amateur content production. In this paper, I examine the software Hatsune Miku, developed by Crypton, and its double nature as a character and as software. I argue that while the influence of Dwango's video sharing website Nico Nico Dōga (today Niconico) and the development of participatory culture on the internet were also decisive factors, it was this double nature that encouraged in a rather natural way the development of a stance towards, and later, a legal framework for, the intellectual property of voice characters like Hatsune Miku. This legal framework transformed the scene of content production and consumption in Japan by allowing not only free appropriation of the fictional character by users, but also its re-appropriation by companies for commercial exploitation. By focusing on how the de-appropriation and re-appropriation schema used by Crypton developed, this paper aims to explain recent transformations in Japanese content production and consumption.
- 著者
- PELÁEZ MAZARIEGOS Edgar Santiago
- 出版者
- 国際日本文化研究センタープロジェクト推進室
- 雑誌
- Dōjin Journal : An academic journal on popular cultures established by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:24357901)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1, pp.27-36, 2020-11-30
This paper analyzes the role of Mexican fans in the promotion and distribution of Japanese media content in Mexico, focusing mainly on anime. During the 1990s, in the middle of the global craze for Japanese content, Mexican audiences became highly involved in the consumption of Japanese animation. While new television broadcasting companies began partnerships with Japanese enterprises, such as Bandai and Tōei, to bring Japanese media content to Mexico, fans or otaku became not only active consumers but also promoters of anime, hoping that bigger audiences would prompt large media companies to supply more of these cultural goods. After Japanese content was removed from mainstream media in the early 2000s, some of these fans decided to take matters into their own hands and get more involved in the distribution of anime and other related products by starting their own companies. Through trial and error, these entrepreneurial fans discovered ways to navigate the business environment in Japan and establish successful arrangements with Japanese companies that met the demands of the Mexican market, becoming cultural intermediaries that revitalized and created a second "boom" in anime consumption in Mexico. This research argues that Mexican fans of anime have evolved from text readers and poachers into cultural brokers who form a bridge between Japanese anime producers and Mexican consumers, and are, therefore, a central part of the distribution of anime and other Japanese content in Mexico.
1 0 0 0 OA Two-Page Spreads and War : Battlefield Representations and Individual Expressions in Norakuro
- 著者
- YAMAMOTO Tadahiro
- 出版者
- 国際日本文化研究センタープロジェクト推進室
- 雑誌
- Dōjin Journal : An academic journal on popular cultures established by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:24357901)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1, pp.1-13, 2020-11-30
In the manga series Norakuro, author Tagawa Suihō employs a multifaceted, multilayered style of expression to depict a variety of scenes related to war. This manga series for children was published between 1931 and 1941 and centered on the military exploits of a stray dog called Norakuro. In the series, Tagawa effectively uses two-page spreads – one image across two pages – to convey both the expansive nature of the battlefield and the individual experiences of the characters involved in conflict. Over time, as the issues and themes of war appeared more frequently in children's manga, Tagawa's use of the two-page spread increased, and this form of expression became indivisible from the depiction of battlefields. In this paper, I will examine not only the ways in which the forms of expression employed in two-page spreads in Norakuro transformed as the lived realities of war influenced manga content, but also the ways in which Tagawa's own worldview and ideals informed his depictions.