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I would definitely agree that this manga lacks true discussion of what Japan actually did, instead focusing on satirized misplay by other countries to downplay Japan’s actions and in some cases use these post war ethical violations to kind of justify it.

Sensoron is a strong yikes

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. 

In the chapter a short history of mankind, Gellner explores the history of nationalism throughout mankind. The article divides civilization into three stages: foraging, agriculture, and scientific/industrial society. It then elaborates that high culture is necessary for nationalism to occur. The reading ultimately concludes that culture is invisible unless religion is involved. It claims in regards to nationalism that, “In the agrarian world, cultural similarity is not a political bond, and political bonds do not require cultural similarity”.  As the reading goes progressed into nationalism theory I become more confused with its discussion on nationalism.

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Sensoron

This manga was surprisingly enjoyable and pretty funny in some parts despite its commentary and vitriolic onslaught. Kobayashi creates what is essentially chapters and chapters of political cartoons to make a point about the immorality of the actions and beliefs of other countries toward Japan after World War II.

Our unit is on conservatism, elements of which are immediately apparent from the beginning. The guy is in the bathroom all the time for too long, continuously taking up resources and depriving the boss (or “real” citizen) from its use, and the “war” to reclaim those resources begins with the boss deploying tactics to kick him out and occupy it himself. When slightly criticized for his actions (them being called “slightly inhumane”) he decides to make up something wrong that the other guy did to give credence to himself. 

This analogy sets the stage for the entirety of the rest of the political cartoon. The lie spreads rapidly and the intended reaction arises, which is then used to unilaterally make a decision that seems fair but serves to the immense discredit of the victim. The idea of history being set by the victor is proved again and again, as praise begins to pile on from righteously defeating the evil foes. Kobayashi calls those who parrot these praises brainwashed, believing them to be caught in the web of lies spun by not only America, but China, Russia, and Korea -- all countries who have been wronged by Japan. Such an assertion is valid when lies are so apparent. An example is raised where there is a photo of severed heads whose captions vary, but attribute blame to Japan in multiple different scenarios. The most verifiable seems to attribute the photo’s origin to Manchuria, but the truth is drowned out by the incessant trumpeting of Japan’s cruelty, which begins to be called the objective reality.

He makes a point that these severed heads are “travelling through time and space to become evidence of injury in any time, in any place”, and this is a representative example of the injustices he explores in the rest of his manga. 

(Of course, this manga is written in a hyperconservative view and is discussed as such, it’s subject to its own fallacies and complete inaccuracies I’m not smart enough to know about.)

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(Pretty Late) Otakumentary Disc.

I found this documentary to fairly accurately express many elements of otaku culture,  and the direct commentary from people deeply immersed within the fandom and those who have researched it gave it a lot of credence.

I think there is a very vivid image and collection of stereotypes and thoughts that come to mind when someone says the words “anime convention”. There’s a common perception of anime fans as particularly nerdy or significantly more expressive of their feelings than fans of any other pop culture work. The stigma around anime watchers has been pretty long running, and many who find anime and start to become interested in middle and high school are vaguely aware of this and often don’t make that interest super public as a result, keeping their passion restricted to maybe friends who they know also have an invested interest or online forums. This creates the kind of insider culture we have discussed, and that’s pretty evident in watching the documentary. Any person with zero exposure to anime or fandom culture watching this would surely find some of the content extremely odd or potentially disturbing. In anime conventions when these people who have to suppress their passion in normal life to an extent, or who have had to suppress it for a long time in their past to avoid bullying or extensive criticism come together in a large group of people who they know are like minded, they’re able to let loose. This is fairly polarizing, so the opportunity is taken and the fans get really into it, dressing up as characters, roleplaying archetypes, creating parodies and merch, and the like. 

This also likely engenders the prevalence of shadow cultural capital that we have discussed in the course so far. In the desire to distinguish themselves and prove that they are indeed an “insider” and to relate, many engage in production of their own ways to add to the fandom. Some participate in cosplay contests where they devote hours and hours of their time and a lot of money to crafting or buying costumes where they can ‘become’ characters and compete against others to show their devotion and win prizes for having the best cosplay. These people often also roleplay the characters they are to delve into the role even more. Some create merchandise in the form of t-shirts, keychain accessories, posters and other forms of art to sell to people and spread their contribution to what they love.

It’s not difficult to see how such a community can have this infectious desire for participation. The aforementioned insider culture has effectively ripped away the originally derogatory connotations of “otaku” in Japan, and transformed it into the westernized meaning of “otaku” as a symbol of pride and devotion. They are so dedicated that they will spend extremely long lengths of time and significant amounts of money to create and add to this realm of merchandise and cultural capital. Anime is an invested interest that is pervasive in their lives and carries a lot of sentiment for them, so being deeply immersed among thousands of people who feel exactly as strongly as they do is liberating, and often the first real experience many have of relating to others in this regard.

I really enjoyed this documentary. As an anime watcher, it was relatable in some regards (though I haven’t struggled with repression or anything to that extent, never had a problem with being open about it) as well as pretty insightful and hilarious in the self-aware way that we have a way of describing anime culture.

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I do feel like doujinshi here are significantly less popular, so those who do create it are seen even more as the most ultra invested into the fandom so as to actually create more material and sub-plots to the original work. It’s comparative uselessness in relation to stickers or shirts or buttons makes the devotion shine a little bit more in their eyes, I think.

True Otaku: The Documentary

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.

Overall, I think documentary did an alright job of covering anime fandom in the west.  I wish it were more diverse though in its content, i.e. show more than just cosplayers.  Although, I think it does show the bonding and sense of community people develop through their fandoms.

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I also found a slight bias in Japan’s portrayal of themselves. While the stoic, mature, and calm depiction of Japan may perhaps fit the stereotype in our modern world where it is often romanticized, these adjectives aren’t really the first ones I’d think of in the context of World War II.

Hetalia (EP. 1-19) | 4/6/20

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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Wasn’t really a fan of this one, but I find it hilarious how people will try to anthropomorphize anything. Literally anything.  I think they’re called gijinka in Japan?  I’ve seen Pokemon gijinka, soda gijinka, and even vehicle gijinka.  Does anyone else remember when Internet Explorer had a cute anime girl as its mascot?  I really thought that it was just some weird fever dream I had, but upon looking it up (on Google Chrome of course), I found out that it was a real thing that happened.

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Hetalia Axis Powers

Hetalia has a very interesting premise to have countries represented as cutesy boys. Some would probably argue that the anime’s intense fujoshi elements detract from it, a sentiment in which I would be likely to agree, but while there is no insignificant amount of vapid comedy, it does have the substantial amount of commentary that an anime about international relationships entails.

All of the nations are anthropomorphized into personifications of their actions and ideologies in the World War II era, however there were bound to be issues and controversies that result as a consequence of the depictions being solely from a Japanese perspective, as well as a modern one, and perhaps most impactfully the necessity of oversimplification in order to better fit the scene of a comedic series. To name a few examples, France is quite self explanatorily romantic and more focused on the arts than war, an artifact of its less than stellar track record in the two world wars. America is loud and gluttonous, Germany is disciplined and neat, Japan is hardworking and     reticent -- personalities whose origin is not very hard to ascertain should you think about stereotypes surrounding countries in the modern era. Major controversial political events/ideologies are not directly portrayed in the anime, but the side effects of them are evident. For example, Nazism in Germany during the time period is not referenced, but the character is kind of intimidating and there’s a distrust or fear towards him from some of the other countries, namely France.

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Comparing the pursuit of Elysium to reality is rather apt. We can’t just think “Hey let’s go to a different planet and everything’s cool!” There are massive problems associated with that, as such possibilities are likely many many years away, and likely won’t be possible if we can even get there.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Cutscenes | 4/3/20

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.

Just like in reality, we can’t just hope to find a magical place that makes everything better.  We can’t just leave when this planet is at its limits.  When this environment finally collapses, so will civilization.  

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Xenoblade Chronicles 2

With Xenoblade Chronicles 2, we continue our theme of damage caused by humans leading to the deterioration of the world. Colossal titans make up the land of the world, and these gigantic beings are the only land left to live on in the world. However this is not only a finite supply, it is dwindling as well -- the humans are messing with the environment to suit their own needs, and the titans are beginning to die out as a result. They view the land as some impenetrable divine force, but the consequences of their actions are readily evident. As the titans die out and habitable land mass diminishes, fighting between nations for power and land increases. This functions as a positive feedback loop when that fighting further reduces environmental health.

The conclusion that humanity is too deeply flawed to save that land is explored with the search for somewhere else. They look toward Elysium as a place of respite, a place where they can start anew with a fresh outlook. The idea is raised that we must sacrifice our own desires for the good of humanity. Whatever we find so important that we’re destroying our world clearly isn’t, or we will have nothing left to fight for in the end.

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The demonstration in the film of mankind just refusing to learn when the same thing happens over and over is definitely a scary reflection of reality. It begs the question of whether it’ll take a massive nuclear fallout and near extinction for humans in reality to realize that the world is what we make it to be, and if we destroy it, soon we won’t have the power to make it any way at all.

Nausicaa Valley of the Wind | 3/30/20

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.

I really loved this movie. I swear, it probably took me 2 and a half hours to get through the whole thing because I kept replaying the scenes where Nausicaa was gliding through the air.  Everything was just so well done, from the soundtrack to the animation. Another Studio Ghibli gem.

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Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind

Taking place in a post apocalyptic setting where very few humans remain alive in a world dominated by nature, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind offers substantial commentary on environmentalism and human nature relative to it.

War waged by humans destroyed the Earth long before the film takes place, and with so few humans remaining, nature started to reclaim its territory. Ravenous insects and toxic air leave humans struggling to survive in a world they created. The “Sea of Decay” spreads rapidly, swallowing up any civilization and nation it passes through.

The film has a lot to say about warfare. This entire predicament was caused by an ancient war, leading to humans becoming victims of their own frivolity. The insects are relatively peaceful until people act violently toward or around them. Even knowing that, nothing really changes. The Tolmekien army invades other nations to “unite” them into their big “peaceful” conglomerate, and the queen of that nation is still insistent on burning the Sea of Decay away, despite Obaba’s insistence that trying to end the insects rule with violence has historically lead to the world becoming rife with flames and ruin. The first Tolmekien ship crashes and burns, and everyone on it dies as the soldiers shoot the insects on its surface. When Nausicaa meets Asbel, he is about to die from trying to kill a swarm of insects that are chasing him. When she was a child, her elders kill a baby Ohm saying that humans and insects cannot exist in the same world.

In contrast to that, we have Nausicaa, a heroine who treats all life with compassion and respect. She wished to save the Ohm then as well as calmed the Ohm who chased Yupa in the beginning of the film. She calmed the insect in the Valley so her villagers didn’t have to kill it, saving them from more ruin. There is a clear theme of compassion and basic respect for life, and Miyazaki could not possibly make more clear that we have to stop destroying the world we live in for vapid reasons if we wish not to become victims by ourselves, and if we keep killing for the sake of killing, eventually nature will take back its domain in real life and consume us as well.

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I think the double standard you raised is pretty evident obviously in the anime and the world as a whole. Many girls who don’t dress particularly feminine now kind of romanticize it, those who are unironically being “not like the other girls” and cool and whatever. Dressing “like a man” is much less obvious because everything men wear is relatively nongendered, usually its just jeans and a t-shirt, and even wearing tuxes to prom is a normal thing for women. However a man wearing a dress or skirt is far more striking, enough to elicit comments and make many people view them as gay or trans. I guess they can wear earrings now tho so hooray for “progress”.

Wandering Son

How insane of a world that dressing differently could bring such consequences. I’ve always wanted to watch Wandering Son, as I keep up with a lot of lgbt anime, and I’m glad I’ve finally watched it. This story focuses on two transgender kids and the differing struggles that both have to face. I’ve always found it interesting that society is far harsher on men breaking free of their boundaries and straying at all away from “masculinity.” By extension, this makes trans women face far more criticism than trans men. If I’m not mistaken, this may have to do with history; as women had to fight their way up the social ladder, society is now far more lax in whatever they may pursue. For men, however, sitting at the top meant they had nowhere to go, and therefore weren’t forced to find progress as quickly as women. Standards on the male sex have been bolted in place. Attitudes toward “masculinity” have been far too constricted as opposed to femininity, and we can see this when a woman wears pants in public compared to a man wearing a skirt. Masculine things are acceptable for all genders, yet things traditionally deemed feminine are far out of reach for those not completely girl presenting. But this applies to everyone, especially men but for trans men as well; why does femininity denote the opposite of being a man? Why do trans men have to reject all things feminine in order to be considered by society as “passing”? And why do trans women have to embrace femininity in order to be recognized as women? I’m not asking on the individual level, but the societal. It’s such that transgender people seemingly have to completely present as their gender in order to escape bullying, like how we’ve seen Nitori be bullied since her classmates knew she was born male versus Yuki who has fully transitioned and is even admired by I think Doi for being pretty. All of this conversation hurts my brain and I may have zero idea what I’m talking about, as I know this creates controversy within the trans community as well, but it’s certainly something to think about in terms of the construction of gender.

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Wandering Son

Wandering Son deals with the struggle of finding and accepting their gender identity. For a lot of people this isn’t a problem, but for some, an immense discomfort can begin to arise from simply being in their own body.

Both of our main characters go through this: Nitori, considered to be an extremely pretty girl at his school, is biologically male despite his wishes, and Takatsuki, who while biologically female, leans more toward the tomboyish side where she feels more comfortable. Both have particular problems associated with yearning to be comfortable with themselves while taking into consideration other people; they are trying to navigate the waters of entering a new school and trying to make friends and keep them while struggling with their own demons. This can be particularly daunting when obviously everybody who learns their secret or sees the manifestations of it (i.e crossdressing) will not be super receptive and accepting. Nitori’s sister, for instance, calls him sick for dressing as and “pretending” to be a girl. When he eventually goes fully into who he wants to be, many in the school turn on him. He begins to get bullied, persecuted, people yell slurs, and the like. Takatsuki has less overt problems due to another tomboyish girl who has normalized it, so when people see her dressing as a boy it’s not as striking or offensive to them. However, there is a certain alienish feeling from just slipping under the radar and still being viewed as a girl -- her problem isn’t solved yet.

So both then have to deal with these feelings of isolation. Nitori, after being bullied, turns to isolation to avoid the harsh words and actions, and Takatsuki fears taking the full leap. Both are able to cope a little since they have each other with whom to stand in solidarity with, as well as them meeting an older transgender woman who is able to give them a little bit of support in harsh times. The anime also goes into the fetishization of trans people with Doi, whose support is nigh meaningless because it’s rather toxic, as he is just like everyone else in public but only likes it in private (not even sympathizing or supporting, just fetishizing).

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It’s pretty cool to see all the different ways the show incorporates this feminine theme. Just like you said, it has the subplots structured in every episode that they recognize and triumph over in some way.

sailor moon.

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. 

To talk about how the show structures its characters and its small plots in every episode, our sailor guardians are at times put into a spot where things that would typically bother or entice a woman, at least from a stereotypical standpoint, is being exploited such as jewelry or their insecurities such as their weight, by the antagonist. Though this is no problem for Usagi or other guardians as they recognize it and bring it down. Something else to consider that we don’t really get to see from these first episodes is that the inclusion of other sailor guardians also presents a means of empowering women of all kinds and presentations. What I mean by that is that they can dress and act how they want, are supported in it, and are just as strong as their fellow guardians and friends because ultimately one can support feminism and bring other people up in this process but the worst thing that one could do is be hypocritical and claim that dressing, acting, or presenting in a particular way is anti-feminist when what determines if you’re anti or pro-feminist is just your beliefs and actions. Something that I think would be nice to talk about though is perhaps the state of feminism in Japan during the early 90′s and we’d be able to look into the impact of the show in a better context.

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Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon, at the time of its inception, was one of, if not the first big anime to showcase female leads and have them be the driving positive force in the show. It is similar to many of the popular shonen at the time, however the male protagonists are substituted for female ones, which was a big step towards empowerment at the time and goes quite a ways into exploring human desire.

The show delves into greed with the emphasis on the jewelry store in episode one, the desire to know who we are in life and where we will end up with the venture into the fortune house in episode two. Then we see a shift towards the characters wanting to be better versions of themselves -- in episode 4 the subjects of being conventionally attractive by being slim and the desire to be wanted are navigated. The leads go to a gym in the pursuit of this goal, which is a strong reference to the need women have and still feel in society to be desirable. In episode 8 they wish to be smarter and attend cram school to be good students and therefore good members of society. This very linear approach conveys this sense of progression, that we were always looking towards the next thing to do progress. I can see a contrast to animalization in this phenomenon, where rather than being content with our current state, we have an inability to see the satisfaction in where we stand, and are constantly looking forward because what we have is often never good enough.

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I also think your connection to capital and how it’s kind of hard to excel at is really insightful. The accumulation of real capital should be a sign of sure success in adding to the genre and creating your own works, which is what would normally be optimal. But money can start to be gained and if it becomes about the money rather than simple otaku desire to contribute, your overall capital is then devalued.

Genshiken Second Season

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.

It seems that the accumulation of real capital devalues shadow capital. Like the creation of Doujinshi,many otaku find a way to own and take control of their object of desire. The ways in which they attempt to often enable them to gain shadow capital. Once they start gaining capital the shadow capital begins to devalue. This is an important reason why this idea is shamed in Genshiki. For example the artists didn’t want any money, all they wanted was a nice dinner which is supposed to be seen as good and positive.

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Genshiken Second Season

In this season there’s a focus on a new character as the anime dives into deeper themes, exploring sexuality and more derision within the otaku community.

More specifically, it explores the stigma of yaoi, both with fujoshi (women enjoying yaoi) and fudanshi (men enjoying yaoi), as well as relating it to the previous theme of living two lives almost: a private life where you can express yourself and your interests, and a public life where you suppress what may commonly be deemed inappropriate. Hato is a male who enjoys crossdressing and reading yaoi. He is ridiculed by other students after this fact manages to spread, and the impact of everyone’s opinions on him becomes clear as he starts to assimilate into a more feminine identity. 

There’s kind of a pyramid where in season 1 we see otaku are ridiculed, and in season two we see fujoshi and fudanshi ridiculed as well, however it is in that order. It is more acceptable for a woman to enjoy consuming yaoi doujinshi than a man, which is likely the reason for his transformation. Finding this comfort seems to function as a positive feedback loop, where his life is revolving more and more around these interests as he starts to view the world from his perspective as a doujinshi.

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I agree that seeing Sasahara’s transformation was pleasant. He was an extremely bland character in the beginning, which is probably on purpose in the pursuit of showing how otakus repress themselves at first before becoming for content in who they are and their interests.

Genshiken

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. 

Within the otaku fandom we see a lot of commonalities. For one there is a huge focus on consumerism related to merchandise. This is especially seen in episode 3 when everyone is scrambling to buy doujinshis and limited edition trading cards and such. Everyone is buying the merchandise in order to stay in touch with fandom and is therefore going according to the assigned reading. Beyond just this, we see how in many groups the people within that group all conform to certain stereotypes and when they don’t they are almost ostracized. For example, the guy that is in the other manga club criticizes Kousaka and he is like who is that guy he doesn’t even look like an otaku, etc. We also see people like Kugayama conform and we can see this in episode 3 when he is sitting on the ground exclaiming the convention hall is so hot while he wipes his sweat(and whilst he is wiping his sweat 3 otakus behind him wipe their sweat in the same motion at the same exact time) which signals his conformity to the otaku title.