Course Syllabus

 Course Syllabus for teaching Japanese Animae 

Course Name: Japanese Anime and Modern Culture

Course Code: 101

Instructor Name: Austin Uzama

Instructor Contact & Office hours:     (Monday & Tuesday 3-4pm)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In Japan, television animations (whether Japanese or other) are called anime. Manga and anime are perhaps Japan’s biggest cultural export, and they make up one of the most recognizable art styles of the country. In Japan, anime is not just culture for kids. Rather, anime series like Neon Genesis Evangelion, Attack on Titan, Death Note, and Cowboy Bebop were all hugely successful amongst adults too. Indeed, many of these series were intended for adults developing complex themes and plotlines and presenting three-dimensional and realistic characters. How can   we understand anime’s global popularity in North America? What does that popularity mean for Japan, Asia, and the world at large? Using primarily English sources, this course will explore the development of the study of anime from its rise in the late 1990s to the present day. We will examine how its analytical approach has been enriched, starting from the traditional text-interpretation of anime visuals to the contemporary ethnography of cutting-edge anime production studios in Tokyo.

OBJECTIVES

This course will explore a variety of dimensions of anime so that students can understand the development of the key concepts within scholarly debates about anime.

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

  • provide key intellectual perspectives on anime;
  • critically analyze the scholarly debates on anime; and
  • discuss the implications of anime’s impact on Japan, Asia, and the world at
  • Understand the reason(s) why anime is part of Japanese culture
  • Understand the economic value of anime to the Japanese economy

METHOD OF EVALUATION

  • Class Contribution (e.g. reading preparation, participation in discussions): 20%
  • Presentation: 30%
  • Attendance: 20%
  • Final paper: 30%

COURSE PLAN AND READING LIST

 Week 1: Introduction

 Question: What is anime? It’s history, understanding the rationale for anime’s global popularity, and what does it mean for Japan, Asia, and the world at large?

Suggested Reading

  • Denison, 2015. Anime: A Critical Introduction. London: Bloomsbury. Pp. 1–29 (Ch. 1: Introduction and Ch. 2: Approaching anime: Genre and subgenres).

Week 2: Anime as Artworks

 Question: How to evaluate anime artistic value?  Do you agree or disagree with Napier (2001)?

Core Reading

  • Napier, 2001. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. New York, NY: Palgrave. Pp. 3–14, 27–34 (Ch. 1: Why anime? and Ch. 2: Section ‘Anime and Japanese cultural identity’).

Suggested Reading

  • Napier, 2001. Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke. New York, NY: Palgrave.
  • Murakami, 2000. Superflat. Tokyo: Madra Publishing

Week 3: Asia & Anime

 Question: Who disagree with Napier’s (2007) argument regarding anime?

Core Reading

  • Napier, 2007. From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West. New York, NY: Palgrave. Suggested Reading
  • Morley, David, and Kevin 1995. Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes and Cultural Boundaries. London: Routledge. Pp. 147–173
  • Roh, David, Betsy Huang and Greta 2015. Technologizing Orientalism: An introduction. In Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History and Media. David Roh, Betsy Huang and Greta Niu eds. Pp. 1-19. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Week 4: Anime as Media

 Question: Critically assess Steinberg’s (2009) argument regarding ‘anytime, anywhere’ features of anime’s media mix.

Core Reading

  • Steinberg, 2009. Anytime, anywhere: Tetsuwan Atomu stickers and the emergence of character merchandizing. Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3): 113–138.

Suggested Reading

  • Allison, 2006. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Pp. 1–34 (Ch. 1: Enchanted commodities).
  • Ōtsuka, 2010. World and variation: The reproduction and consumption of narrative. Mechademia 5: 99–116.

Week 5: Labour and Cultural Production of Anime

Question: Outline the current working conditions of workers in the anime industry and discuss how they can be improved.

Core Reading

  • Morisawa, 2015. Managing the unmanageable: Emotional labour and creative hierarchy in the Japanese animation industry. Ethnography 16(2): 262–284.

Suggested Reading

  • Condry, 2009. Anime creativity: Characters and premises in the quest for Cool Japan. Theory, Culture & Society 26(2–3): 139–163.
  • Hanzawa, 2019. Geographical dynamics of the Japanese animation industry. Netcom 33(3/4).

Week 6: Distributing Anime

 Question: Will global media platforms such as Netflix be the saviour of the anime industry?

Core Reading

  • Mihara, 2020. Involution: A perspective for understanding Japanese animation’s domestic business in a global context. Japan Forum 32(1): 102–125.

Suggested Reading

  • Denison, Rayna. 2018. Anime’s distribution worlds: Formal and information distribution in the analogue and digital eras. In Routledge Handbook of Japanese Media. Fabienne Darling-Wolf Pp. 403–418. London: Routledge.
  • Clements, Jonathan. 2018. Anime: A History. London: The British Film Institute. Pp. 177–190 (Ch. 9: The Pokémon shock: Anime goes global 1984–97, 1997–2006).
  • Steinberg, Marc. 2020. Delivering media: The convenience store as media mix hub. In Point of Sale: Analyzing Media Retail. Daniel Herbert and Derek Johnson Pp. 239–255. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Week 7: Anime Fandom

Question: Is otaku (an anime fan) a reformer or an enemy of society?

Core Reading

  • Galbraith, 2019. Otaku: And the Struggle for Imagination in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Pp. 1–19 (Introduction: “Otaku” and the struggle for imagination in Japan).

Suggested Reading

  • Ito, 2012. Introduction. In Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World.

Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Izumi Tsuji eds. Pp. xi–xxxi. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

  • Lamarre, Thomas. 2006. Otaku In Japan after Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present. Tomiko Yoda and Harry Harootunian eds. Pp. 358–394. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
  • Kinsella, 1998. Japanese subculture in the 1990s: Otaku and the amateur manga movement. Journal of Japanese Studies 24(2): 289–316.
  • Galbraith, 2019. Otaku: And the Struggle for Imagination in Japan. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Pp. 49–75 (Ch. 2: “Otaku” research and reality problems).

Week 8: Anime and Copyright

Question: Do you agree with Condy’s (2013) argument that fansub is (somewhat) acceptable?

Core Reading

  • Condry, 2013. The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success Story. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Pp. 161–184 (Ch. 6: Dark Energy: What Overseas Fans Reveal about the Copyright Wars).

Suggested Reading

  • Leonard, 2005. Progress against the law: Anime and fandom, with the key to the globalization of culture. International Journal of Cultural Studies 8(3): 281–305.
  • Ito, Mizuko. 2012. Contributors versus leechers: Fansubbing ethics and a hybrid public culture. In Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World. Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Izumi Tsuji eds. 179-204. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  • He, Tianxiang. 2014. What can we learn from Japanese anime industries? The differences between domestic and overseas copyright protection strategies towards fan The American Journal of Comparative Law 62(4): 1009–1042.

Week 9: Anime Policy

 Question: Do you think government policy can help anime?

Core Reading

  • Daliot-Bul, Michal and Nissim Otmazgin. 2017. The Anime Boom in the United States: Lessons for Global Creative Industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard East Asian Monographs Pp. 138– 159 (Ch. 5: Japan’s Anime Policy: Supporting the Industry or “Killing the Cool”?).

Suggested Reading

  • McGray, 2002. Japan’s gross national cool. Foreign Policy 130: 44–54.
  • Otmazgin, 2011. A tail that wags the dog? Cultural industry and cultural policy in Japan and South Korea. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice 13(3): 307- 325.
  • Craig, Tim. 2018. Cool Japan: Case Studies from Japan’s Cultural and Creative Industries. Ashiya: BlueSky Publishing. Pp. 7–24 (Ch. 1: The “Cool Japan” Strategy: Industrial Policy for Cultural Industries).

Week 10: Anime Tourism

 Question: Critically assess Uzama (2012) and Yamamura’s (2015) arguments concerning the key factors in using anime as a tool to promote tourism to a particular location.

Core Reading

  • Yamamura, 2015. Contents tourism and local community response: Lucky Star and collaborative anime-induced tourism in Washimiya. Japan Forum 27(1): 59–81.
  • Uzama, A. 2012. “Yokoso! Japan: Classifying Foreign Tourists to Japan for Market Segmentation”. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management 21(2): 132-154

   Suggested Reading

  • Seaton, Philip and Takayoshi Yamamura. 2015. Japanese popular culture and contents tourism: Japan Forum 27(1): 1-11.
  • Seaton, Philip, Takayoshi Yamamura, Akiko Sugawa-Shimada and Kyungjae 2017. Contents Tourism in Japan: Pilgrimages to “Sacred Sites” of Popular Culture. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press. (Introduction, Ch. 1: The players and patterns of contents tourism and Conclusion)

Week 11: Anime in Asia

Question: How can Japan envision a new relationship with Asia through anime?

Core Reading

  • Morisawa, Tomohiro. 2019. Rethinking anime in East Asia: Creative labour in transnational production, or what gets lost in translation. In Persistently Postwar: Media and the Policies of Memory in Japan. Blai Guarné, Artur Lozano-Méndez and Dolores Martinez eds. Pp. 162–181. New York, NY: Berghahn.

Suggested Reading

  • Mōri, 2011. The pitfall facing the Cool Japan project: The transnational development of the anime industry under the condition of post-Fordism. International Journal of Japanese Sociology 20(1): 30–42.
  • Shiraishi, Saya. 2000. Doraemon goes abroad. In Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Timothy Craig Pp. 287–308. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

Week 12: Concluding Thoughts

Question: Returning to the first question: What is anime? How can we understand anime’s global popularity, and what does it mean for Japan, Asia and the world at large?

Suggested Reading

  • Mihara, Ryotaro. 2020. A coming of age in the anthropological study of anime? Introductory thoughts envisioning the business anthropology of Japanese animation. Journal of Business Anthropology (forthcoming: Spring 2020 Issue).
  • Berndt, Jaqueline. 2018. Anime in academia: Representative object, media form, and Japanese Arts 7(4): 1–13.
  • Koulikov, Mikhail. 2020. A field in formation: A citation analysis of Japanese popular culture studies. Portal: Libraries and the Academy 20(2): 269–283.