ANIME FANDOM IN THE WEST

HYBRIDITY, IDENTITY, AND

TRANSNATIONALISM

Katharina Freund

1. Introduction & history

2. Nerd identity, rejection of coolness

3. Global, local, and transnational media

4. Difference, transformation, & “empty” culture

5. Moral panics and parental confusion

6. The “carnivalesque”

Overview

What are anime & manga?

Anime アニメ

Japanese word for animation

Any animated television series or film created in

Japan

Manga 漫画

Japanese comic books

Both have wide-ranging audiences in Japan (all

ages, men & women)

Historical Background

First appeared in North America in 1970s

Incredibly specialized fan group

Specific films/series, e.g. Akira (1988)

Fandom develops online

Fans can communicate and organize across long distances

More material from Japan

Japanese series picked up by American television

Power Rangers (1993), Sailor Moon (1995), Pokemon (1998)

Widespread distribution & mainstreaming (2000-2010)

Anime commonly seen on Western TV

New York Times adds “Best Selling Manga” in 2009

Manga easily available in large bookstore chains

Who are anime fans?

What does it involve?

Online communities

Fan clubs

Conventions

Costuming

Role-playing

Fanfiction

Anime Music Videos

Art

Toy collecting

Subgroups: gamers, yaoi girls, gothic lolita, media fandom, etc.

Identity, Coolness, and Nerd Pride

“If I wasn’t into anime, I’d be a gangster ho.”

Otaku おたく

Japanese for a person with obsessive interests

Extremely negative connotations

Withdrawn from society

Moral panic

1989: Miyazaki Tsutomu, the “Otaku Murderer”

2001: Osaka School Massacre

2008: Akihabara Massacre

Usually used as an insult

Lost in translation

Images of merchandise sold on cafepress.com

Densha Otoko 電車男

“Train Man”

True (?) story that has

become multi-media

phenomenon

Sympathetic otaku

protagonist

Nerds, Geeks, and Losers

“There is Life Outside Your Apartment!”

“We‟re all kindred spirits…”

“…Most of us weren‟t the coolest people in school, a lot of us were „the nerds‟ of whatever class, so, you

know, if everyone‟s in the same boat why would you go out of your way to be cruel to other people who are just like you… The young teenage, 14-15, are worst years of your life, the ugly, gangly, awkward stage

where you‟re trying to figure out who you are, so yeah I can see why they would use something like an anime convention which is so [in falsetto] „everybody loves

each other!‟ as an escape instead of just an interest.”

Female fan, aged 21.

Local, Global, Transnational

“The Simpsonzu”, by spacecoyote.http://spacecoyote.deviantart.com/art/The-Simpsonzu-46036660

Hybrid Media

Hollywood hostility to “foreignness”

Sony: mukokuseki (無国籍, stateless) policy

Removing Japanese “odour” from products to make them

globally accessible

Sekai no

Global

世界の

Nihonteki

Japanese

日本てき

“An American Classic”

Mixing Cultural Codes

“The rough transition and lack of continuity between the

Japanese and American footage is a sign of… the

dreamlike and monstrous scrambling of cultural codes.

Our Wonder Bread heroes are not just turning

Japanese, they‟re becoming altered beings in a

parallel aesthetic realm, with its own internal logic,

myths, and ethics. And maybe their audience is

somehow transforming too… The tykes currently

addicted to the show may end up becoming a mass

market for more mature and vital Japanese popular

shows now shrouded in hipster subculture – e.g., anime.”

(David 1994:73 quoted in Allison, 125)

Discovery of Difference

Allison: foreign-ness and non-American aspects of

anime are what attract young people to it

“…Whether the attraction is coded as global culture or

as culturally Japanese, it involves not only a perceived

difference from American pop but also a constructed

world premised on the very notion of difference itself –

of endless bodies, vistas, and powers that perpetually

break down into constituent components that re-attach

and recombine in different ways.” (2006, p. 2)

Transformation & Change

Ranma ½Takahashi Rumiko

Ghost in the ShellMasamune Shirow

Sailor MoonTakeuchi Naoko

Identification with the Other

“The desire for transformation, or the experience of some different identity, is a central concern expressed in the appropriation of anime by Western fans. Part of this desire for difference is because many fans feel some level of alienation from the dominant culture… The racism, prejudice, and nationalism associated with essentialist identities of Australian-ness create feelings of disaffection that generate a desire for new kinds of identifications.”

Norris 2005, n.p.

“Empty” Culture

Anglo teenagers in US, Canada,

Australia feel a “lack” of culture

Fragmented: no shared cultural

identity

“Our generation wasn‟t raised with as much of a sense of cultural pride as other generations, we‟re disconnected from our origins – if you have no relatives „back home‟, can‟t speak the language, and know very little about the culture or religion, can you really claim an identity to that background?”

Female fan, aged 20.

“Mundanes”

Non-fans are narrow-minded, repressed, boring,

called “mundanes” by some fans

“I think that‟s what‟s appealing about the whole anime fandom is that it‟s something different. You can go to school and be a part of a select few

and everyone else, they look at you strangely, but you can, even if it‟s not the truth, you can at least you can pretend that maybe all these outsiders yearn to be a part of your little select group.”

Female fan, aged 21.

Yaoi Girls

Yaoi: Genre about

same-sex relationships

between men

Written by women for

female audience

“The hell with what my mom thinks, the hell with what grandma thinks, this is what I like and if they don‟t like it they can go to hell!”

Female yaoi fan, aged 17

“Don‟t expect to get it.” – Bellafante (1993:88)

Confusing Parents with the Carnivalesque

“Animania”

M: My parents wanted to come to the con this year to see what it was all about. Imagine how horrible that would have been!

F1: [in shock] Why are you dressed like a skank – and why do you have that boy on a leash?

M: [more shock] Why are you on a leash!?

F2: Who is that 50 year old man and why Is he wearing a tail?

F1: Why is he wearing a dress!!

Semiotics of Fandom

Anime fans stepping outside sign system of

Western culture

Using signifiers that have unknown signified

Confuses Western parents & non-fans

Hybrid slang: combining fandom, Japanese, English

“I’m telling you, it was the slashiest thing I’ve ever seen. It may have been a little OOC, but it was still a great fic. And I’m not even a big

fan of that pairing, nee, Sarah-chan?”

“Honto desu. Mattaku.”

“Convention of Fools”: Carnivalesque

Mikhail Bakhtin, 1984: Social theory used to

explain gregarious and theatrical behaviour

Traits:

Excess, spectacle, theatricality, the grotesque

Inversion of traditional hierarchy

Flouting social and behavioural norms

Exposing the private and socially unacceptable

Free intermingling of bodies, extreme interaction

E.g.: American Wrestling (Barthes), Hallowe‟en

Extreme Interaction

“The Glomp”

Theatrical Clothing

Flouting Social Norms

Exposing the Hidden

Commodity Capitalism

Going Mainstream

In conclusion…

Media representations and historical changes in

cultural identity

Global flow of information and hybrid media

Youth identity and identification with the Other

Moral panic and parental fears

Unique sign system adopted by youth

“Carnivalesque” behaviour

Role of commodity capitalism in fandom

Are there any questions?

Thanks for listening!