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Sensoron really surprised me with it’s strong conservative messages. Despite our previous discussions of Japanese conservative ideology in anime and manga, our class has never really explored Japanese conservatism to this extent. 

As someone who loves to learn about history, using the manga medium to distort history in favor of the author’s perspective is wrong on so many levels. Kobayashi uses language such as group lynching when referring to the Tokyo War Crimes Trial. This manga tries to justify Japan’s actions by saying that other nations committed war crimes and Japan is only persecuted because they lost frustrates me. That’s the  equivalent of two children fighting over cookies with the child who at a dozen saying that other child who ate a single cookie is just as guilty. As someone who is Jewish, deescalating Nazi war crimes because they lost the war is wrong on so many levels. 

I’m really bummed out that I can’t go to SwampCon and MomoCon this year; I was really looking forward to attending both.  Despite that, I had fun watching True Otaku with everyone.  It was pretty interesting to see a more in-depth look at western fandom, even if the documentary is a bit dated.

Compared to Japan, western fandom has a more positive view on the term ‘otaku.’  Here, many fans of anime enthusiastically call themselves ‘otaku’, perhaps out of ignorance of its connotation in Japan, or out of desire to make it more positive.  Additionally, this isn’t something big, but there is one slight difference in its meaning in the west.  Here, ‘otaku’ refers to fanatics of anime and manga (personally, I lovingly use the term ‘mega-weeb’).  While in Japan, ‘otaku’ can refer to hardcore fanatics of well, anything really.  Anything from anime and manga to computers and idols.

Another thing I noticed was that this documentary largely focuses on the cosplay fans create and wear around conventions.  Something we noted in class was the difference between otaku and fans of other things is that in order to closer to their object of desire, otaku create more fictional works, for example in the forms of cosplay and doujinshi.  Something an interviewee points out in this documentary is that not only will a cosplayer slave over the details of their outfit to make sure its as accurate as possible, but that they will often take on the persona of whatever character they’re dressed up as.  It helps them to feel like they are actually that character, meaning they get closer to their object of desire than they would if they were only mimicking the looks of that character.

These cosplayers accumulate shadow cultural capital as they improve their skills and gain attention.  They sort of, obtain a ‘higher status’ within fandom.  Cosplaying is definitely not for me – I don’t think I could ever dedicate myself to that, but I do enjoy seeing other peoples’ cosplays.  Seeing one of your favorite characters brought to life is exciting, and personally, I really enjoy the creation process many cosplayers post on their social media.

On another note, as I mentioned before, one of the ways otaku create fictional works is through doujinshi. Doujinshi are really a more popular thing in Japan, and the closest equivalent I can think of that we have here is fanzines (short for fan magazines), which are basically short anthologies of many artists’ and writers’ works.  Even then, I only see them sold online – we certainly don’t have anything as large as Comiket or Comifes (at least nothing that I’m aware of).  It makes me wonder why something like cosplay is so widespread in both the west and Japan, but doujinshi are not?

This documentary also didn’t really mention anything about fanmerch or artist alleys at conventions. Although to be fair, I’m not sure how big artist alleys were back in 2010 and 2011.  As an artist myself, I really love artist alleys; they’re a great place to get merchandise like charms, buttons, and art prints. (I’m still mourning the loss of SwampCon, I saved up a bunch of money, haha).  I like showcasing my collection to my friends who are in the same fandoms as me, and looking back on it, it may just be another way of accumulating shadow cultural capital and status.

I’ve never watched Hetalia before (never been a big history person), but I know it was really popular a few years ago.

The over exaggeration of stereotypes was pretty funny in some parts and way overplayed in others (the whole ‘pasta’ thing was getting a bit too much for me).  It’s kinda weird to see the Axis Powers be played off as ‘moe’ anime boys with silly personalities.  Of course, I know that nothing in this anime is meant to be taken seriously, and that no character is meant to be truly ‘bad’, but it’s still jarring to watch, lmao.

What I really found interesting was how you can see bias of history telling throughout the show (e.g. the depiction of South Korea vs the depiction of Japan as read in the article). In the episodes we watched, Japan is portrayed as stoic, mature (even as a kid), calm, and agreeable.  Conversely, many of the other characters, while mainly silly, are depicted as arrogant, brash, cowardly, etc.  As Hetalia was written by a Japanese man, this bias was to be expected.  It’s difficult to tell history from a totally neutral point of view, but as we can see, sometimes biases are more prominent than others.

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I’m not really familiar with the Xenoblade series at all (funnily enough, I was thinking just last week of picking this game up for some stay-at-home lockdown fun hours), but after watching these clips, I can see why some of my friends are fans of it.

As discussed in Drama of the Anthropocene, as humans become the dominant species on the planet, we also become the biggest influencers on the climate and the environment.  As our technology rapidly develops, we become less connected with nature – we see ourselves as living outside of nature, not in it.  Nature and the environmental resources become tools at our disposal, tools used to maximize our comfort in the short run, as Cobb put it.  Without proper reflection and action taken to remedy our relationship with the environment, we are on a clear path to destruction.

We can clearly see a degrading environment in XC2.  The Titans, from what I think I understand, are creatures that basically serve as land for people to live on.  They’re dying, however, and as habitable land dwindles, so do the natural resources that come from those ecosystems.

Rex desire is to reach Elysium, a supposed paradise with unlimited resources that can bring peace among humans.  When he arrives there however, he finds it desolate and in ruins.  It’s a stark contrast to the image of Elysium he had in his mind.

Much like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a commentary on the destruction of the environment due to human actions.  

The messages of this movie are very obvious.  The people in this universe were so entrenched in war that they caused the destruction of both civilization and the environment, unintentionally creating the Toxic Jungle/Sea of Decay.  A thousand years passes, but failure to learn from the past has resulted them in repeating the same actions.  In their fight to rid themselves of the insects and Toxic Jungle, civilization plunges itself into war once more with each other.  They fail to realize that the very thing that they want to destroy has actually been sustaining them for years, and that they were about to completely ruin a thousand years’ worth of healing.  Fortunately, the Giant Titan never develops fully, and the Toxic Jungle isn’t wiped out, but even so their fighting causes destruction of the environment (the forest of the Valley).

Nausicaa is able to help others see the true nature of the Toxic Jungle, and in the very last minutes we can see them rebuild and embrace the Toxic Jungle and its insects.  Of course, in real life it’s going to take more than just one cute anime girl to save the environment, but this movie gives a very positive message on how every individual voice counts.

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Wow, I never thought anything could get me to care about bugs before, but here I am.

Sailor Moon, I think at the time being the early and mid 90′s, was a masterclass in showing how women can empower each other and be supportive in a time where things are definitely dominated by a patriarchal system, even if in the show that is not the situation. The goal of the creators is immediately clear as there are young and strong female leads doing things that, at the time, would be expected coming from a male protagonist almost in a shōnen style, but no longer is it targeted towards a male-audience. Of course, the show is great as there is something to appeal to everyone without losing the essence of femininity and empowerment. 

In watching this, I see a lot of things we touched on in class. Specifically the categorization of the Otaku and the idea of commercialization and its relation to the Otaku culture.

As we discussed earlier in class, we were trying to differentiate between the cultural capital and the shadow capital. One distinction that we made was that cultural capital actually helped increase your socioeconomic status while shadow capital cannot. Cultural capital can help with concrete things that would increase your economic status by making you more appealing at a job interview for example. However, contrary to this idea, it seems that the doujinshi creators had the opportunity to make a lot of money. On the other hand, it seems that economically driven Otaku’s are slightly looked down upon.

Another thing that is interesting is the idea that there are different types of Otaku’s. Ogiue differentiated the old leader of the manga club as one of the Otaku’s that she doesn’t like. This is another idea that we touched upon. Fan discrimination is the best expression to describe what happened. Specifically, the discrimination splits Otaku between economically driven ones or not.

After watching the assigned episodes of Genshiken I was pleasantly surprised because inspite of the old art style and odd concept I found the series to be really enjoyable. I liked watching Sasahara go from being extremely timid and scared to reach out –> to someone who became more comfortable in their own shoes and started to care less about what the people around him thought and did. 

Initially he is hesitant to join Genshiken because not only is he afraid of expressing himself as an otaku but he isn’t sure if he even fits into the society’s definition of an Otaku. However, as time passes he starts really vibing with the other members and starts reading doujinshi which was something he never allowed himself to do prior to joining the club. Aside from Sasahara’s character growth we see a lot of commentary on otakus and fandoms.