University of Iowa
Iowa Research Online
Theses and Dissertations
2011
Global Fandom: The Circulation of Japanese
Popular Culture in the U.S.
Danielle Leigh Rich
University of Iowa
Copyright 2011 Danielle Leigh Rich
This dissertation is available at Iowa Research Online: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/4905
Recommended Citation
Rich, Danielle Leigh. "Global Fandom: The Circulation of Japanese Popular Culture in the U.S.." PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis,
University of Iowa, 2011.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/4905.
Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd
Part of the American Studies Commons
GLOBAL FANDOM: THE CIRCULATION OF JAPANESE POPULAR
CULTURE IN THE U.S.
by
Danielle Leigh Rich
An Abstract
Of a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the
Doctor of Philosophy degree
in American Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
July 2011
Thesis Supervisors: Professor Jane Desmond
Professor Kim Marr
1
ABSTRACT
This dissertation is a case study of the dissemination and circulation of Japanese
popular cultures in the U.S., specifically focusing on the collective reception practices of
individuals who identify as fans of Japanese animation, comic books, and video games.
The key questions driving this project are: what difference does it make that young
Americans are consuming popular cultures that are 1) international in origin and 2)
specifically Japanese in origin? To answer these questions I carried out ethnographic
research – such as subject interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation – to
understand the significance of young adults‘ interest in Japanese animation and comic
book works (usually referred to as ―anime‖ and ―manga,‖ respectively). In response to
my ethnographic investigation of U.S. fans‘ practices and experiences, I argue that many
young Americans use their practices of consuming and circulating these international
popular cultures to transform their immediate social landscapes, and therefore, their
social and national identities as well. I also draw on methodologies from a variety of
disciplines, pairing ethnographic fieldwork practices with audience reception and fandom
studies, transnational media studies, and book studies approaches in order make
connections between the social, cultural, performative, and national dimensions of
Japanese popular culture fandom in the U.S.
In addition to exploring subjects‘ relationship to the texts they consume, I also
target the embodied spaces and processes by which Japanese popular culture is actually
circulated and experienced by local U.S. audience groups. In doing so, I strive to follow
the ―digital life‖ Japanese popular culture has taken in its jump to English-language
translation world-wide and the significant role fans have played in facilitating unofficial
2
flows of Japanese popular culture through specific translation practices. I examine the
scholarly and fandom struggle over ideological questions of the ―authenticity‖ and
―Americanization‖ of adaptations of Japanese media in the North American marketplace,
as well as the struggle between fans and official adapters to assert forms of ownership
over these representations. Such struggles involve these groups‘ often conflicting
practices of adaptation, translation, and circulation of these cultures.
This research adds an important dimension to current scholarship on cultural
manifestations of globalization and so-called ―Americanization‖ processes as I show how
commodities from outside the U.S. are first received by U.S. audiences and then
transformed through this audience‘s participatory engagement with the production and
circulation of these works in the English language. As such, this research engages with
key issues of cultural transmission, translation, practices of media localization,
transnational flows, and identity formation and fandom.
Abstract Approved: ______________________________
Thesis Supervisor
______________________________
Title and Department
_______________________________
Date
Abstract Approved: ______________________________
Thesis Supervisor
______________________________
Title and Department
_______________________________
Date
GLOBAL FANDOM: THE CIRCULATION OF JAPANESE POPULAR
CULTURE IN THE U.S.
by
Danielle Leigh Rich
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the
Doctor of Philosophy degree
in American Studies
in the Graduate College of
The University of Iowa
July 2011
Thesis Supervisors: Professor Jane Desmond
Professor Kim Marra
Copyright by
DANIELLE LEIGH RICH
2011
All Rights Reserved
Graduate College
The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
______________________________
PH.D. THESIS
_______________________
This is to certify that the Ph.D. thesis of
Danielle Leigh Rich
has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the
Doctor of Philosophy degree in American Studies at the July 2011 graduation.
Thesis Committee: _____________________________________
Jane Desmond, Thesis Supervisor
_____________________________________
Kim Marra, Thesis Supervisor
______________________________________
Corey Creekmur
______________________________________
Sonia Ryang
_______________________________________
Mark Andrejevic
To My Mother
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I thank my advisor and mentor, Professor Jane Desmond.
From my first days in graduate school to the final revisions of this dissertation, Jane has
been there cheering me on and encouraging me to push the boundaries of my research
and writing. She has been a tireless advocate on behalf of my research, while
simultaneously offering me an inspirational model of activist scholarship. I feel blessed
by her thoughtful and generous guidance and must acknowledge that the work I offer
here would have been impossible without her emotional and intellectual support. Thank
you, Jane, for always being there for me.
In addition to knowing Jane as an advisor, my intellectual life was forever
changed by my time as her assistant at the International Forum for U.S. Studies. Under
the leadership of Jane and Virginia Dominguez, IFFUS exposed me to brave new worlds
in American Studies and helped me develop a new understanding of transnationallyminded scholarship. Like Jane, Virginia is an inspirational scholar and teacher, and I am
grateful to have met and worked with her during her time at the University of Iowa. The
scholars I met through my work at IFUSS were always interested in and supportive of the
research I do, and I greatly appreciate being given the opportunity to meet so many
exciting researchers working in sites all over the world.
I am also incredibly grateful for the support I have received from University of
Iowa faculty members Kim Marra, Mark Andrejevic, Corey Creekmur, Matt Brown,
Sonia Ryang, and former Iowa faculty member, Rob Latham. My time working as a
teaching assistant for both Corey and Rob has benefited me greatly as I continue to
develop and improve upon my own teaching methods and philosophies. Watching Corey
iii
and Rob in action in the classroom over the years has always been both educational and
exciting. I am also grateful to know such supportive faculty members as Kim, Mark, and
Sonia. Kim‘s steadiness and support as both the head of the American Studies
Department and as my faculty advisor has been greatly appreciated. I also thank Sonia
for giving me an opportunity to present my research in the classroom setting by inviting
me to speak to one of her undergraduate classes. That was an exciting moment during
the early stages of my research, and I enjoyed the opportunity to ―test‖ out this material
for a new audience. I also benefited greatly from the graduate courses I took with Matt
Brown, Mark Adrejevic, and Corey Creekmur, who all exposed me to many exciting
models of research in the fields of media, audience and book studies.
I thank both the Graduate College and the American Studies Department at the
University of Iowa for the financial, institutional, and intellectual support I have received
since arriving at Iowa. In particular, I want to acknowledge the time I spent participating
in the incredible American Studies dissertation group, led by Profs. Kim Marra and Laura
Rigal. I was lucky enough to share my work with the following fantastic American
Studies grads: Cinda Nofziger, Brad Parsons, Matt Thomas, Charlie Williams, Mark
Warburton, Patrick Oray, Mark Mattes, Ivana Takacova, Jonathan Hansen and Jennifer
Ambrose. In addition, I was also helped greatly by the support staff at the University of
Iowa‘s Human Subjects Office. The individuals there helped me develop the
ethnographic methods I used to conduct the research for this dissertation. As a first time
ethnographer I have frequently relied on HSO staff members to help me refine my
interview and fieldwork methodologies.
iv
I must also express gratitude to everyone who participated in this study as a
research subject. These individuals kindly shared their life experiences with me and were
extremely generous with their time. Without their involvement this study would simply
not exist in its current form and this would be a much poorer project without their efforts.
Finally, I want to thank my family and friends for all the love and support they
have given me over the years. Thank you, Meghan, for advising me on the practical side
of things throughout these last years of graduate school. I am quite pleased to be
following in my big sister‘s footsteps by completing my own Ph.D. program. Thank you
to Sharon and Brian, for being such amazing friends to me over the years. Iowa has
never been quite the same for me now that you two have moved on to new and exciting
challenges. Thank you, Jon and Monica, for all the support and encouragement you have
given me. You both were great cheerleaders on my behalf and my time here has been so
much richer because of your friendship. Thank you, Dad and Nevaire, for always
encouraging me with kind words of love and support. And last, but certainly not least,
thank you to Mom, for being my constant throughout all these years.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
viii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Researching Local Manifestations of Global Culture:
Methodology and Aims
Literature Review & Scholarly Debates: Positioning
the Audience
Structure of the Dissertation
1
8
15
CHAPTER TWO: YOUNG AMERICANS‘ ANIME FANDOM AND THE
INTERNATIONALIZATION OF IDENTITY
Introduction
Encountering ―Japan‖ Through Anime
Fandom, Education & Internationalization
Conclusion
19
24
59
83
CHAPTER THREE: FANDOM NETWORKS ACROSS SPACES: ANIME &
MANGA FANDOM AT LOCAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL AND VIRTUAL
LEVELS
Introduction
Fandom Identities as Virtual Productions
Performing Fan Identities through Social Networks
Conclusion
86
90
113
138
CHAPTER FOUR: FAN TRANSLATIONS AND FANDOM‘S ―GREY AREA‖:
HOW PIRACY AND PARICIPATORY PRACTICES CREATE ALTERNATIVE
FLOWS OF JAPANESE POPULAR CULTURE
Introduction
Consuming Culture as Productive Culture: The Role of Fan
Translations in Anime and Manga Fandom
How Fan Translation Practices are Transforming Official
Japanese Cultural Flows
Conclusion
vi
140
146
166
191
CHAPTER FIVE: THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF JAPANESE COMICS IN
U.S. PUBLIC LIBRAIES (2000-2010)
Introduction: Global Culture, Authenticity and Agency
Collecting the ―Manga Book‖
Manga and Youth Outreach
Manga, Graphic Novels, and Sequential Art Literacy
in the Classroom
Conclusion
196
201
225
238
249
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION
251
WORKS CITED
262
APPENDIX A: FAN SUBJECT QUESTIONNAIRE
271
APPENDIX B: ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LIBRARIAN SUBJECTS
279
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE #1: This image from the manga Bleach reveals how
certain U.S. publishers adapt sound effects into
English and incorporate them into the art of each panel.
194
FIGURE #2: An instructional page similar to this one appears in the
back of U.S.-published manga which read right-to-left.
195
viii
1
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Researching Local Manifestations of Global
Culture: Methodology and Aims
In May of 2010, Google.com ranked the Japanese popular culture fan website,
―Onemanga.com,‖ among the world‘s most 1,000 visited websites. 1 The title of the
website combines the English word ―one‖ and the Japanese word for comics, ―manga.‖
Onemanga placed 935th of 1,000 sites, translating into 4.2 million unique visitors that
month. To put this ranking in context, Google‘s August 2010 data ranked ―Facebook‖ as
the most visited website with over half a billion unique users monthly (for the first time
surpassing Google itself as the most visited website in the world).2 The majority of the
U.S. sites listed in the Google rankings are oriented toward online shopping or social
networking, while many (but not all) of the international websites listed are online
versions of regional newspapers. Unlike those U.S.-based or international-oriented
websites, Onemanga‘s primary function for fans of Japanese popular culture was not
shopping, social networking, or news. Instead it offered English-language fans the
opportunity to consume unauthorized digital copies of comic books from Japan translated
from Japanese into English by other fans.
The documented popularity of the Onemanga.com site is only a peek into the
thriving world of online fan networks devoted to producing and sustaining unofficial
1
Kevin Melrose, ―Onemanga Ranks Among World‘s Most Visited Websites,‖ Robot 6 28 May 2010
<http://robot6. comicbookresources.com/2010/05/one-manga-among-worlds-1000-most-visited-websites/>
(28 March 2011).
2
Sharon Guadin, ―Facebook Passes Google as the Most Visited Site of 2010,‖ Computer World 2 Jan 2011
<http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9202938/Facebook_passes_Google_as_most_ visited_site_of_
2010> (28 March 2011).
2
flows of Japanese popular culture. Throughout this dissertation I explore not only how
U.S. fans participate in these unofficial flows of Japanese popular culture, but how their
social identities are informed by their engagement with this international popular culture
at local and virtual levels. Broadly conceptualized, this dissertation is a case study of the
dissemination and circulation of Japanese popular cultures in the U.S., specifically
focusing on the collective reception practices of individuals who identify as fans of
Japanese animation, comic books, and video games. The key questions driving this
project are: what difference does it make that young Americans are consuming popular
cultures that are 1) international in origin, and 2) specifically Japanese in origin?
To answer these questions I carried out ethnographic research – such as subject
interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation – to understand the significance of
young adults‘ interest in Japanese animation and comic book works (usually referred to
as ―anime‖ and ―manga,‖ respectively). In response to my ethnographic investigation of
U.S. fans‘ practices and experiences, I argue that many young Americans use their
practices of consuming and circulating these international popular cultures to transform
their immediate social landscapes, and therefore, their social and national identities as
well. I also draw on methodologies from a variety of disciplines, pairing ethnographic
fieldwork practices with audience reception and fandom studies, transnational media
studies, and book studies approaches in order make connections between the social,
cultural, performative, and national dimensions of Japanese popular culture fandom in the
U.S.
Rather than offering textual analysis of specific representations from animated
shows or manga representations that have been widely disseminated in the U.S., I instead
3
track the relationship between actual commodities, their paths of circulation – whether
material or virtual – and how audiences make sense of international cultural forms and
representations through their everyday engagement with these works. While I avoid
offering my own readings of individual anime and manga texts throughout the
dissertation, I am careful to acknowledge various fan subjects‘ interpretations of specific
works when such readings further illuminate the contexts surrounding U.S. fans‘ broader
engagement with these popular cultures. This is a conscious choice to foreground
subjects‘ reception of various anime and manga texts rather than forward discussions of
texts I might find particularly rich for scholarly consideration.
In addition to exploring subjects‘ relationship to the texts they consume, I also
target the embodied spaces and processes by which Japanese popular culture is actually
circulated and experienced by local U.S. audience groups. In doing so, I strive to follow
the ―digital life‖ Japanese popular culture has taken in its jump to English-language
translation world-wide and the significant role fans have played in facilitating unofficial
flows of Japanese popular culture through specific translation practices. I examine the
scholarly and fandom struggle over ideological questions of the ―authenticity‖ and
―Americanization‖ of adaptations of Japanese media in the North American marketplace,
as well as the struggle between fans and official adapters to assert forms of ownership
over these representations. Such struggles involve these groups‘ often conflicting
practices of adaptation, translation, and circulation of these cultures. This research adds
an important dimension to current scholarship on cultural manifestations of globalization
and so-called ―Americanization‖ processes, as I show how commodities from outside the
U.S. are first received by U.S. audiences and then transformed through this audience‘s
4
participatory engagement with the production and circulation of these works in the
English language.
As such, this research engages with key issues of cultural transmission,
translation, practices of media localization, transnational flows, and identity formation
and fandom. Throughout the dissertation I often explore the impact of Japanese cultural
flows, a concept that originates in Arjun Appadurai‘s theoretical framework of ―five
dimensions of global cultural flows that can be termed (a) ethnoscapes, (b) mediascapes,
(c) technoscapes, (d) financescapes, and (e) ideoscapes.‖3 Appadurai offers these five
terms to help scholars intellectually frame the ―different streams or flows along which
material culture may seem to be moving across national boundaries‖4 My research on
how fans situate themselves in local social spheres through their engagement with both
Japanese popular culture, and each other, offers answers to Appadurai‘s provoking
question of how ―do small groups…deal with these new global realities as they seek to
reproduce themselves and, in doing so, by accident reproduce cultural forms
themselves?‖5 His ―small group‖ takes the example of the family unit, but in this
dissertation my ―group‖ is the scattered world of English-language anime and manga
fandom, with local, regional, national and virtual manifestations that intersect in complex
and often idiosyncratic ways for my fan subjects. In order to better understand how U.S.
fans engage these various social networks in order to constitute their identities in local
3
Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press, 1996), 33.
4
Appadurai, 45, 46.
5
Appadurai, 43.
5
social spheres and as transnationally oriented, I track subjects‘ everyday experiences and
question how their engagement with Japanese culture changes over time.
To conduct this research, I undertook in-person interviews with subject groups,
created online questionnaires, and observed the activities of self-identified fans as well as
a variety of cultural agents who oversee the circulation of Japanese animation and comic
books in the U.S. The primary subject group was comprised of twenty-three individuals
who self-identified as Japanese popular culture fans, who were interviewed in 2008 and
2009, and also completed a written questionnaire at the time of their interview. I
recruited fan subjects at fan community events, such as at the meetings of a university
anime club, and anime and manga-related events held at a public library located in
Eastern Iowa. I also recruited subjects by visiting University of Iowa classes on topics
related to Japanese history and Japanese culture (but not Japanese-language courses or
Asian studies courses taught primarily in the Japanese language).
Subjects‘ ages ranged from fourteen to thirty years, with the majority of subjects
(approximately 70%) between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two years.6 This youthful
demographic came about partially because when I launched the study I had greater access
to younger population groups (such as university students, high school students, and
young adult public library patrons, etc.). Since I was located in a small, Midwestern
college town, these populations were not as racially or ethnically diverse as they might
have been if I had recruited subjects from a larger city. Twenty-one fan subjects
6
Please see Appendix A for a copy of the questionnaire administered to fan subjects. A modified version
of this questionnaire was given to subjects aged 17 years and younger, with questions about piracy
activities eliminated from the questionnaire due to those subjects‘ underage status.
6
identified as white, one subject identified as Hispanic, and one subject as Asian.7 In
chapter 2, I explore how these subjects‘ experience of growing up in largely, but not
exclusively, culturally and racially homogeneous Midwestern towns and cities would
strongly influence how they experienced their social and national identities in relation to
Japanese popular culture.
This group was comprised of ten male subjects and thirteen female subjects.
Although subjects were asked to identify their gender, age, ethnic / racial identification in
a questionnaire, subjects were not asked about their sexual orientation (although a few
subjects did speak about their sexual orientation in their unstructured interviews).
Throughout key sections in this dissertation I address how subjects‘ class, gender and
national identities informed the ways in which they received Japanese media
representations. At the time they were interviewed almost all subjects were enrolled in
high school, community college, or a four year college and resided in the Midwest. I
supplemented the data I collected from interviews and questionnaires by observing a
variety of embodied and virtual fan community activities and events from 2007 to 2009.
Such events included local, regional and national fan conventions, university anime club
meetings, and public library anime festivals held for teen patrons. In addition, I observed
a variety of online English-language message boards dedicated to anime and manga,
including anime and manga related communities on the social blogging site
―Livejournal.‖ Thus, my conclusions, which are largely based on this smaller and fairly
homogeneous sample, are contextualized more widely through observations of online
7
In the future, such limitations to recruiting from a variety of subject populations could be overcome by
launching an online survey for fan subjects that would supplement data I collected locally in the Midwest.
7
groups more diverse in terms of regional location, racial categorization and sexual
orientation.
In addition to the fan subject group, in the fifth chapter I also examine the
experiences of a second subject group comprised of public or high school librarians. This
second subject group included twenty-six librarian participants, six of whom were
interviewed in person, while the other twenty participated in an online survey I designed.8
I recruited subjects by visiting local Midwestern public libraries and by advertising the
online survey on an email listserv devoted to the topic of graphic novels in public
libraries. Unlike the questionnaire I designed for fan subjects, librarian participants were
not asked to volunteer information about their age, gender identity, or their racial / ethnic
background. Instead, they were asked whenever possible to share demographic
information about the population their public library serviced.
These individuals who participated in the online survey worked in libraries that
were located all over the U.S. and serviced a wide variety of populations – from small
towns to densely populated suburbs of large U.S. cities, including areas with substantial
minority populations. This group was targeted because these individuals have first-hand
experience with how the manga format has been institutionalized in this U.S. public
sphere. Importantly, these individuals can speak to developments in how communities
comprised of younger readers have received these materials over the past ten years. By
including librarians‘ experiences of how these specific international popular cultures
circulate in local venues I also explore how the introduction of the manga format has
8
Please see Appendix B for a copy of the online survey / questionnaire that librarian subjects were asked to
complete to participate in this study.
8
informed how young Americans relate to comic book (or sequential art) cultures as a
whole.
Literature Review & Scholarly Debates:
Positioning the Audience
This research intervenes in scholarly debates about the role of global flows of
popular culture in our everyday lives. As I explore the relationship between local
audiences and non-local cultural forms, I develop a conversation that speaks to studies of
cultural globalization, audience reception, and media fandom. In order to theorize why it
matters subjects are interested in non-local cultures, I consider the relationship of
individuals 1) to the media that they consume, 2) to their everyday consumption
practices, 3) to the official and unofficial distributors of those media cultures, and 4) to
fellow audience members. In order to situate the work that follows, I now develop an
account of the language, concepts, and queries I use to frame this research in relation to
scholarly debates on audience reception and agency, as well as cultural processes of
globalization.
Although this study targets global processes relating to a variety of Japanese
media cultures, I also intervene in broader debates about the relationship of individuals to
media they consume on a daily basis. Throughout the dissertation I refer to the
individuals I interviewed as ―fans,‖ ―fan subjects,‖ or when performing their identities in
any number of group formations as ―audiences.‖ Only very rarely – usually when
discussing their actual purchasing habits – do I refer to these individuals as ―consumers.‖
However, I also frequently refer to practices of ―consumption,‖ which I target as a
9
behavior rather than an identity. I find Henry Jenkins‘ concept of ―participatory culture‖
useful when examining media fans‘ engagement with specific forms of culture as
producing meaning and, at times, social bonds. Relating his concept of participatory
culture to new media practices, Jenkins explains that participatory culture ―contrasts with
older notions of passive media spectatorship. Rather than talking about media producers
and consumers as occupying separate roles, we might now see them as participants who
interact with each other according to a new set of rules that none of us fully
understands.‖9 In this work I offer a consideration how subjects redefine their
relationship to both cultural forms and traditional content providers through their
practices.
To study how individuals are blurring the lines between ―producers‖ and
―consumers‖ through their practices, I use ethnographic methods, specifically
interviewing subjects and observing subject activities in a variety of spaces, such as local
and virtual fan communities. My ethnographic approach is to first target subjects‘ media
consumption practices and then to examine how those practices relate to other aspects of
their everyday lives. The theoretical basis for my research model is informed by Ien
Ang‘s articulation of the value of researching ―audience activity‖ in order to ―arrive at a
more historicized and contextualized insight into the ways in which ‗audience activity‘ is
articulated within and by a complex set of social, political, economic and cultural
forces.‖10 According to Ang, one of the intellectual aims of audience ethnography is to
9
Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York: New York
University Press, 2006), 3.
10
Ien Ang, ―On the Politics of Empirical Audience Research,‖ Media and Cultural Studies: Keyworks, eds.
Douglass M. Kellner and Meenakshi Gigi Durham (Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers, 2001),
183.
10
understand the ―embeddedness of ‗audience activity‘ in a complex network of ongoing
cultural practices and activity.‖ The ethnographic researcher then has a responsibility to
account for the ―structural and cultural processes through which‖ the audiences being
studied ―are constituted and being constituted.‖ To understand the ―embeddedness‖ of
my subjects‘ activities means a consideration of the various ways in which their specific
social positioning, as well as broader economic structures of media creation, distribution,
and circulation, influence how they not only receive media but also make sense of that
reception.
Ang also offers an important reminder that the ethnographic researcher is an
interpreter of culture, not an empirical ―bearer of truth.‖11 In a similar vein, my
perspective on how to ethically act as an interpreter of audience practices has been
informed by Janice Radway‘s work on romance readers in Reading the Romance:
Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature.12 When reflecting on the ethnographic
methodology she carried out for that study, Radway explains that ―even what I took to be
simple descriptions of my interviewees‘ self-understandings were mediated if not
produced by my own conceptual constructs and ways of seeing the world.‖13 I strive to
be conscious of how my subjects‘ interpretations of their own practices is informed by
their subject position, as well as how my social and academic positioning might inform
my own readings of their behaviors and analysis. However, because I am also
interrogating attitudes and behaviors which may trouble me ethically – such as online
11
Ang, 187.
12
Janice Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1991).
13
Radway, 5.
11
piracy practices, or discourses which stress Japanese culture is somehow inherently
―different,‖ perhaps more ―exotic,‖ than American culture – as a responsible researcher I
have to acknowledge fans‘ own interpretations while clarifying how my analysis of their
practices and discourses is also a form of scholarly intervention.
My ethnographic approach is also both multi-sited and multi-faceted, as I explore
not only different social (i.e. fandom-related) arenas in subjects‘ lives, but also other
spheres that inform their identities (such as their home life, educational experience, and
internet use). This approach is influenced by ethnographers who are re-imagining the
―spaces‖ through which it is possible or useful to study cultural practices. Responding to
prominent notions of ―cultural flows,‖ sociologist Christine Hines argues that
the space of flows, which in contrast to the space of place, is organized around
connection rather than location…[indicates that] the organization of social
relations is not necessarily linked to local context in a straightforward way. By
analogy, the field site of ethnography could become a field flow, which is
organized around tracing connections rather than about location to a singular
bounded site.14
Hine‘s theory of internet ethnography allows me to situate a ―virtual‖ community as an
ethnographic object which is created across geographic spaces, but nonetheless is created
through a variety of human interactions and practices.
However, I believe that the ethnography I offer in this work does more than just
track ―a field flow‖ that happens also to have virtual offshoots. I also examine how
subjects‘ engagement with virtual flows informs their offline practices and vice versa,
thereby making connections between local and virtual spaces by considering how
subjects navigate both those arenas in their everyday lives. This also helps me theorize
how global processes and effects can be experienced in local social spheres. For
14
Christine Hine, Virtual Ethnography (London: Sage Publications, 2000), 61.
12
instance, Patrick D. Murphy and Marwan M. Kraidy argue that ―situatedness of local is
not a site, place or space merely to pin down and capture, but rather a point of reference
through which to engage the emergent dimensions of globalization.‖15 In this work
―local‖ means a consideration of how certain types of spaces – such as the bookstore,
public and high school library, anime screening room, and online message boards – allow
anime and manga fans to share reception experiences, as well as textual interpretations,
with each other. I also offer a consideration of how subjects‘ activity in such spaces
allows them to make connections to global cultures, often on their own terms.
In addition, this work intervenes in debates about global cultural processes by
arguing that subjects‘ engagement with global cultures allows them to transform their
social and national identities. I do not treat such anime and manga works as simply
―Japanese,‖ or when adapted for the U.S. as ―Americanized‖ representations, and instead
try to examine how such works speak to the global, the national, and the transnational in
their journey from Japanese media culture to their placement in specific U.S. sites. James
L. Watson notes that in ―the realm of popular culture, it is no longer possible to
distinguish between what is ‗local‘ and what is ‗foreign‘….We have entered here the
realm of the transnational, a new field of study that focuses on the ‗deterritorialization‘ of
popular culture.‖16 This notion of ―deterritorialization‖ does not mean, however, that
commodities are somehow freed from locality. Rather, for Watson transnationalism
―describes a condition by which people, commodities, and ideas literally cross –
15
Patrick D. Murphy and Marwan M. Kraidy, ―Towards an Ethnographic Approach to Global Media
Studies,‖ Global Media Studies: Ethnographic Perspectives, ed by Patrick D. Murphy and Marwan M.
Kraidy (New York: Routledge, 2003), 14.
16
James L. Watson, ―Introduction: Transnationalism, Localization, and Fast Foods in East Asia,‖ Golden
Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, ed. James L. Watson (Stanford, California: Stanford University
Press, 1997), 10-11.
13
transgress – national boundaries and are not identified with a single place of origin.‖17
This definition allows me to theoretically reimagine the spaces in which Japanese popular
culture is circulated and received around the world.
My central argument – that subjects‘ engagement with Japanese popular culture
allows them to transform their social and national identities – is an ideological
intervention in scholarly discourses which emphasize that individuals are generally
overwhelmed by the force of global cultural processes. For example, in his account of
Japan‘s rise to cultural prominence in the region of East Asia, Koichi Iwabuchi finds that
by negotiating Western economic and cultural influences, Japanese corporations are part
of a ―capitalist exploitation of cultural resonance in Asian regions has produced a new
asymmetry…[that] works in favor of Japan.‖18 Although Iwabuchi argues that the flow
of Japanese popular culture ―feeds new modes of transnational imagination‖ in young
people in East Asia, he measures that argument with a reminder that ―transnational media
and cultural flows are always deeply inscribed in uneven and unequal power relations.‖
Iwabuchi‘s finding of a ―transnational imagination‖ in East Asia does not ―guarantee
[that] the structural forces of globalization will construct a more egalitarian and
transnational connection‖ in the future. Although I contest Iwabuchi‘s conclusions about
the potential of audiences to intervene in global cultural flows throughout this
dissertation, his scholarly contributions to the field of transnational studies nonetheless
reminds me to address how economic and social structures of dominance and inequality
mark relations between individuals, media flows, and corporations in this study.
17
18
Watson, 11.
Koichi Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2002), 205.
14
There is no doubt that my intervention into scholarly discourses of cultural
globalization conflicts with Iwabuchi‘s cautionary conclusions about individuals‘ limited
ability to assert agency in response to global forces. My findings are different not only
because my research triangulates different audiences, local sites, and cultural flows, but
also because I emphasize the relationship of audiences to the media they consume. In
contrast, Iwabuchi tends to prize the activity and agency of media localizers and
conglomerates in determining the forms transnational culture takes in local contexts. My
goal is not to valorize audience reception but to understand how audiences structure their
practices in relation to specific cultural forms that must be adapted for English-language
consumption. By tracking fans‘ relationship to unofficial and official practices of
adaptation and distribution of Japanese popular cultures in the U.S., I find that individuals
are not merely the targets of cultural global processes, but can be active participants in
such processes as well. By participating in such processes across many dimensions of
their lives – including their home, educational and virtual lives – subjects refashion their
identities as transnational. More than just showing how Japanese popular cultures are
―localized‖ for American audiences, I reveal the complex cultural positioning both these
cultures and their audiences take on. In the end, I offer a new understanding of global
cultures that are experienced locally – but not culturally masked, or thoroughly
―domesticated‖ – through subjects‘ participatory engagement with both the texts
themselves and the pathways through which those texts flow.
15
Structure of the Dissertation
I begin this dissertation by examining how subjects transformed their social and
national identities through their engagement with Japanese popular cultures. I first
question how the fans I interviewed understood and articulated the significance of the
―Japanese-ness‖ of the commodities they consumed on a regular basis and chart changes
in how they related to the ―foreignness‖ of anime and manga. To do so I investigate
their first exposure to anime on cable television in pre-adolescence, and the later
incorporation of transnational concerns in their college and professional lives. I reveal
that many subjects actively used their interest in consuming Japanese popular culture as a
stepping stone to learning more about Japanese culture, history, and language in formal
education settings, and often tried to understand the nation of Japan through a variety of
strategies, including tourism, education, and mass media consumption. I also argue that
many Japanese popular culture fans actively worked to situate their identities as
transnational, but that this opportunity to ―internationalize‖ one‘s identity is strongly tied
to each individual‘s access to certain economic privileges of the American middle-class.
Having situated fans‘ evolving understanding of Japanese anime and manga as a
transnational touchstone that helped them constitute their adult identity, in the third
chapter I contextualize the ways in which anime and manga fandom in the U.S. is shaped
by fans‘ active participation in a variety of local, regional, national, and virtual fan
communities. Drawing on data collected through fan interviews as well as participant
observation of fan networks – in both virtual and embodied spaces – I outline the various
communication networks and pathways of cultural exchange that subjects use to express
their individualized identities as fans. While chapter 2 primarily focuses upon how
16
subjects‘ engagement with anime and manga as a perceived ―foreign‖ culture changes
over time, this chapter offers a detailed account of how subjects specifically enact their
fandom identity in a variety of local social spheres. Collective fans practices, therefore,
are situated in the private space of the home and the public spaces of high school and
college classrooms, anime clubs, the public library, anime fan conventions, the aisles of
U.S. public bookstores, and finally, the virtual public spheres of online fan forums and
social networks.
In chapter 4 I examine fans‘ creation and online distribution of unauthorized fan
translations of anime and manga works in order to consider the effects of these practices
upon continually developing formations of unofficial and official cultural flows from
Japan to the U.S. I draw upon interviews with self-identified fans who participated in
either creating or consuming fan translations in order to document the various collective
practices through which fans take it upon themselves to act as unofficial transcultural
producers. In addition, I also consider the perspective of officially sanctioned
transcultural mediators by analyzing press interviews conducted with official U.S.
licensors and adapters of Japanese anime and manga. Examining the perspectives and
experiences of both official and unofficial cultural mediators, I show how these illegal
fan practices have forced official licensors to adjust the strategies by which they produce
and distribute anime and manga for the North American marketplace.
In chapter 5 I turn to a significant public sphere through which manga, in
particular, has been ―domesticated‖ for young readers. I show how Japanese comics
have become institutionalized in the U.S. public library and chart the increasingly
prominent presence of manga books in public libraries and chain bookstores since the
17
year 2000. I draw on data collected through interviewing local Midwestern librarians and
from a survey administered to twenty librarians working in libraries located all over the
U.S. By tracking the status of manga in the library space, I also question what it means
to incorporate international cultures into mainstream American consumer and print
culture. What does the process of ―Americanization‖ (or ―localization‖) of manga mean
for how this visual culture is received by its readers? If manga becomes embedded in
these domestic cultural sites, is it received as ―foreign,‖ or perhaps specifically
―Japanese‖ in some ways? Finally, I also examine how the material object, i.e. the
manga book itself, has been influenced by both the mass culture industries of the U.S.
and Japan, as well how its placement in U.S. book culture informs how its representations
are received by its audience.
In the final chapter I explore the significance of how subjects have positioned
themselves in relation to both official and unofficial flows of Japanese popular culture. I
question how these flows of Japanese popular culture circulate and inform not only
fandom subcultures, but mainstream American youth cultures as well. I also consider
how these unofficial and official flows are influenced and transformed through subjects‘
participatory engagement with these media forms and the practices by which they come
to be adapted for English-language audiences. Finally, I also offer an assessment of how
I have ideologically situated the audiences of these cultures in relation to their social and
national positioning in both local and global contexts.
Throughout the dissertation, I often use the term ―international cultures,‖ and not
―foreign‖ or ―non-American culture,‖ to refer to Japanese popular cultures because I want
to examine the reception of these media forms both in the context of officially sanctioned
18
U.S.-Japanese cultural flows and how these cultures circulate outside those traditional
pathways of adaptation and distribution. I show how English-language fans from all over
the world initiate unofficial cultural flows of Japanese animation and comic books
through group-led acts of translation and digital dissemination. I argue that these fans
belong to a global fandom not because ―Japanese commodities‖ are intended to be a
reductive stand-in for ―the global‖ from this U.S. scholar‘s perspective, but because of
the ways in which fans working from specific U.S.-sites participate in these unofficial
cultural flows, while simultaneously experiencing Japanese media as local culture via
anime airing on cable television and manga‘s placement in public libraries and U.S. chain
bookstores. The title of this dissertation speaks my subjects‘ experiences of consuming
and contributing to both global and local manifestations of Japanese popular cultures.
19
CHAPTER TWO:
YOUNG AMERICANS‘ ANIME FANDOM AND THE INTERNATIONALIZATION
OF IDENTITY
Introduction
Why do so many young Americans become interested in Japanese popular
culture? This is a question frequently posed to me not only because I research the topic,
but also because I identity as a fan of Japanese animation and comic books (commonly
known as ―anime‖ and ―manga‖). People want to know how did I ―get into this kind of
stuff.‖ Although I came of age only a few years prior to the majority of the fans I
interviewed, I discovered that the spark that inspired their interest in these works was
often quite different than mine. While I came to Japanese popular culture as an adult
through my interest U.S. comic books – discovering in my mid-twenties an international
comic book subculture nestled within, and running parallel to, that U.S. fan subculture –
most of the fans I interviewed had simply turned on their home television as tweens and
teens and found not merely American ―cartoons‖ awaiting them, but Japanese ―anime.‖
Although I knew from both personal and research experiences that there is a thriving
fandom for Japanese popular cultures within the United States – one that had also helped
foster a world-wide network of English-language fan communities and forums – by
interviewing fan subjects I discovered that an entire generation of fans had a shared
history of some childhood exposure to Japanese anime aired on U.S. cable television.
Among subjects, this youthful experience planted a seed that would later bloom in older
adolescence, as fans obtained the independence and social means to sustain their
20
engagement with both these international popular cultures and the English-language
fandom communities surrounding them.
In interviews with fan subjects my first question would come to mirror the one
that had often been posed to me: ―When did you first become interested in Japanese
popular culture?‖ I would often follow that with, ―Did you know it was Japanese at the
time?‖ and depending upon their answer, I would further inquire how the subject knew it
was Japanese or how he or she learned of the national origin of these media works.
Subjects‘ responses to these questions have allowed me to develop in-depth accounts of
how they first related to the ―Japanese-ness‖ of the media they consumed, how their
understanding of these popular cultures changed over time, and how that interest would
come to inform their understanding of their social and national identities. Although my
sample size of fan subjects was relatively small – I conducted twenty-three interviews
with fans aged fourteen to thirty – I was able to obtain rich and detailed narratives of not
only subjects‘ experiences as audiences of these popular cultures, but how their everdeveloping engagement with such cultures permeated and transformed their everyday
lives.
While some subjects‘ engagement with the culture and the surrounding Englishlanguage fandom would deepen over time, others sometimes pulled away from this
model of engagement and from regular consumption of these works. However, almost
universally these subjects‘ adult worldviews had been shaped in no small part by their
youthful interest in what mainstream America might dismiss as ―foreign‖ entertainments
consisting of ―backwards‖ oriented comic books and cartoons populated by big-eyed
characters with unusual hair-colors. Through the interview process I found that subjects‘
21
interest in Japanese popular culture was not merely a trend or a fad, or something that
they necessarily ―grew out‖ of, so much as it become a shared participatory platform that
allowed them to see and experience themselves and their local environments in new
ways. Among a few subjects such interests even became the inspiration for shaping the
entire trajectory of their adult life.
Inspired by the histories related to me by subjects, I begin this dissertation by
charting the process by which U.S. fans first experienced Japanese culture as popular and
domesticated media culture as children, as well as their growing consciousness of that
culture as ―Japanese,‖ as they matured. By seeing subjects‘ engagement with Japanese
culture as an on-going process, rather than delineating my investigation to focus only
their consumption practices, I found that for many fans anime and manga became a
stepping stone to learning more about Japanese culture, history and language. Almost
half of subjects aged eighteen and over chose to seek ways to experience Japan outside
their practices of consuming its popular culture; many subjects not only seek education
but also first-hand experience of the country through tourism and study abroad programs.
In this chapter I argue that when subjects engage broader aspects of Japanese
culture they are actively situating their identities as transnational. I conceptualize this
process as fans actively working to ―internationalize‖ their lives and argue that this
follows a consumption-oriented stage in which Japanese culture tends to serve as the
―exotic‖ in fans‘ lives. In the second stage, fans often seek training in international
subjects, such as foreign language education, and experience living abroad for an
extended time period (six months or longer), and some even prepare for careers with
international dimensions. This argument throws fandom culture into a larger social and
22
international context, as it reveals that fans actively participate in global processes,
instead of merely being targets of them through the transnational flow of corporatelycontrolled media culture.
However, I also believe that any study of Americans‘ interest in consuming
Japanese culture also needs to recognize those fans‘ tendency to exoticize Japanese media
forms and representations. This history of exoticizing cultural works which originate
outside of a recognizably Anglo-American cultural lexicon speaks to Americans‘ often
unquestioned cultural privilege born of uneven economic, cultural and social exchanges
between U.S. and other nations (even so-called ―first world‖ nations such as Japan).
While Japan is the third largest economy in the world, there is no doubt that processes of
globalization are often perceived by scholars as forms of Americanization or
Westernization.1 I want to complicate the belief, though, that fans‘ incorporation of
Japanese culture into their lives is a simple form of postmodern orientalism on one side,
or reverse imperialism on the other, by investigating the motivations behind fans‘ desire
to seek greater knowledge and understanding of Japanese culture. This chapter offers
analysis of a complex and evolving set of fan perceptions and attitudes about the
significance that ―Japanese-ness‖ plays in not only anime and manga representations, but
fans‘ self-conscious reflections about their own interest in those representations as well. I
want to demonstrate that fans‘ interest in ―knowing‖ various aspects of Japan separately
from the consumption of Japanese media representations indicates that processes of
1
Frederic Jameson, ―Notes on Globalization as a Philosophical Issue,‖ in The Cultures of Globalization,
eds. Frederic Jameson and Masao Miyoshi (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998), 57, 59, 63.
23
cultural globalization can often be uneven, transformative, and participatory. 2
Importantly, by exploring instead of assuming U.S. fans‘ cultural privilege, I hope to
avoid simply valorizing fans‘ interest in Japan and acknowledge the variety of motives
that can drive fans‘ interest in anime, manga, and Japanese culture.
Throughout this chapter I explore how fans have understood and explained their
experience of Japanese popular culture as ―different‖ than their experiences of American
media. Rather than analyzing media objects as texts in isolation from how various
audience groups make sense of them, I instead explore the significance of how fans
derive meaning from both media texts and the practices by which they consume sets of
representations through participation in various interpretive communities. In the
following chapters I continue to build on this methodological philosophy as I position
fans as actively constructing the meanings associated with their interest in Japanese
popular culture and explain how fans have used new media forms in order to participate
in unofficial translation and circulation flows of anime and manga texts. My
methodology has been inspired by influential audience reception studies, particularly
Janice Radway‘s Reading the Romance, as well as work which theorizes and explores the
significance of fandom identity formation and fan practices, such as Henry Jenkins‘
Textual Poachers.3 In addition, I want to place my work in conversation with
2
Although Henry Jenkins makes similar claims about Japanese popular culture fans – whom he has called
―Pop Cosmopolitans‖ – I slightly critique his formulation of this identity later in this chapter and in the
conclusion of this dissertation. Henry Jenkins, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Media Consumers in a
Digital Age (New York: NYU Press, 2006), 153-172.
3
Janice Radway, Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1991). Henry Jenkins, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and
Participatory Culture (New York: Routledge, 1992). Other significant works on fandom include Matt
Hills, Fan Cultures (New York: Routledge, 2002), Cheryl Harris and Alison Alexander, eds., Theorizing
Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity (Creskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 1998), and Jonathan Gray, Cornel
24
transnational and global culture studies which track the flow of popular cultures which
cross borders of nation and language. I argue that to merely question what makes
Japanese popular culture ―special‖ and/or ―different‖ from American culture only
fetishizes the objects themselves and divorces them from the various contexts in which
they are given meaning by cultural producers, transcultural gatekeepers, and audience
groups. By focusing on the actual practices my subjects have related to me, I can better
grasp what ―difference‖ they themselves see in anime and manga texts, as well as how
they come to constitute their identity by making sense of their attraction to such
―difference.‖
Encountering ―Japan‖ Through Anime
In 2008 and 2009 I conducted twenty-three interviews with individuals aged
fourteen to thirty years old who identified themselves as ―fans‖ of Japanese popular
culture, usually understood to mean that they had an interest in anime, manga,
videogames, or Japanese popular music (often referred to as ―j-pop‖). It is important to
note that all subjects aged eighteen years and older were enrolled in some form of higher
education – some were taking community college classes, while the majority were
enrolled in a four-year college program, and a few were in graduate school programs. All
but two identified as white and many of the subjects had grown up in the Midwest. I
argue that this group‘s access to higher education strongly influenced, if not determined,
how they understood and explored their interest in non-American cultures.
Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington, eds., Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (New
York: NYU Press, 2007).
25
The question guiding my research has always been, ―What difference does it
make that certain groups of young Americans are interested in popular cultures that are
specifically Japanese in origin?‖ In response to this first wave of interviews, I have
concluded that access to many of the social and academic freedoms of the U.S. higher
education system allowed these subjects the opportunity to seek various ways of
―knowing‖ the nation of Japan, and at times, more generally, the region of East Asia.
These fans actively use the resources that higher education makes available to them in
order to first learn more about the media forms that interested them, and then come to a
better understanding of the culture, history, values, and language, that has informed the
production of that media. While many of these fans were born and raised in fairly
homogeneous settings (i.e. small, predominantly white-populated Midwestern towns), I
argue that they often seek knowledge about transnational cultures in ways that realign
their identity beyond the space of the small town, the university campus and classroom,
the Midwest, and even the very borders of the U.S.
Most subjects link the origin of their interest in Japanese popular culture to their
experience of watching shows like Pokémon, DragonBall Z, Cowboy Be-Bop, Bleach and
Naruto (among others) on the cable channel Cartoon Network. Shows like Dragon Ball
Z started airing on the network in the late 1990‘s, while Pokémon begin airing in 1998,
and continues airing on the network to this day.4 The Cartoon Network pioneered regular
blocks of programming comprised of both Japanese and U.S. animated shows. The first
block, ―Toonami‖ premiered in 1997 and originally aired weekday afternoons after
school let out (this block would later move to primetime on Saturday in 2004), and
4
Jason Mittell, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture (New York:
Routledge, 2004), 90.
26
generally featured action-oriented Japanese anime titles, usually classified as ―shonen‖
(or boys‘ fare) in Japan, such as DragonBall Z. In contrast, ―Adult Swim‖ programming
aired at night, after prime-time hours ended, and featured anime and American cartoons
with more mature themes, such as Cowboy Be-Bop.5 Subjects can often specifically
name which anime originally caught their attention, in spite of the fact many were in
elementary school or middle school when they were first exposed to these programs. In
contrast, parents of Japanese popular culture fans aged thirteen to eighteen commonly
reference the animated films of Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, known for his fantasy
driven tales, such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986),
My Neighbor Totoro (1988), and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) as their children‘s first
exposure to Japanese anime.6 However, fans themselves were more likely to reference
later exposure to shows like Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z as their first remembered
experience of Japanese anime.7 While many subjects explained that they did not know
that shows like Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z were Japanese in origin at first, they usually
learned of these titles‘ original cultural context by the time they reached midadolescence.
Why do subjects not remember the films of Miyazaki as being Japanese? One
female subject, who did remember watching the films as a child growing up in China,
5
Laurie Cubbison, ―Anime Fans, DVDs, and the Authentic Text,‖ The Velvet Light Trap 56 (Fall 2005):
54.
6
These are the dates of the original Japanese releases and not the dates adaptations of these films were
released for the U.S. market.
7
Subject #1b, Interview, 9 January 2009. Subject #2b, Interview, 16 January 2009.
27
explained that she had assumed the films were Chinese, not Japanese, at the time.8 One
wonders if other subjects raised in the U.S. similarly assumed that the Miyazaki films
were American in origin, thanks to both their broad fantasy style and adaptation choices
made by North American licensors. Manga translator and scholar Frederick Schodt notes
that Miyazaki‘s first film to be localized for U.S. audiences in 1985 – Nausicaä of the
Valley of the Wind – was based on his original comic, which was strongly influenced by a
European art tradition. Schodt notes that Miyazaki‘s ―people, props, costumes and
locations most closely resemble those of medieval Europe, or sometimes the central
Asian steppes.‖9 When the film was first was adapted for U.S. audiences almost twenty
minutes were edited out of the final cut, and its complicated story ruthlessly simplified to
create ―an action-oriented story with the stock Judeo-Christian theme of ‗Good battles
evil for the future of mankind.‘‖10 In his work on the flow of Japanese culture to the
region of East Asia, Koichi Iwabuchi also notes that by 1995 Disney became both the
U.S. and worldwide distributor of Miyazaki‘s films.11 The various adaption strategies
adopted by U.S. media corporations (not to mention reliance upon Disney‘s distribution
networks), paired with Miyazaki‘s incorporation of Western-themed myths and artistic
styles would have probably made it difficult for younger children to place these films as
international in origin.
8
Subject #19a, Interview, 3 December 2008. In addition, only one other subject mentioned having watched
Miyazaki films, but said he had done so as part of a ―cultural exchange‖ assignment in his Japanese
language class in high school. Subject #3a, Interview, 3 March 2008.
9
Frederick L. Schodt, Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press,
1996), 279.
10
11
Schodt, 281.
Koichi Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2002), 38.
28
In spite of some parents‘ recollection of their children watching Miyazaki films,
subjects have very different and very vivid impressions of the ―first‖ Japanese anime they
remember watching. One subject mentions that although he thought the show Dragon
Ball Z seemed ―weird‖ at first, he quickly became a fan through numerous viewing
parties with friends.12 Likewise, another fan mentioned discovering Japanese popular
culture thanks to airings of Dragon Ball Z on the Cartoon Network, and commented that
the show felt ―so different from anything on American television.‖13 Importantly, fans
often distinguished Dragon Ball Z from American television not because it seemed
specifically ―foreign‖ in its content, but because watching the show felt ―more like
reading a book than anything else,‖ thanks to the serialized nature of its plots.14 While
one subject now looks down upon his original interest in Dragon Ball Z, calling the show
―pointless,‖ there is no doubt that the show‘s serialized structure – a single plot arc could
run for many episodes – kept pre-adolescent and adolescent male viewers returning for
more.15 Importantly, many of those male viewers were not returning to the timeslot to
watch the show in isolation, but often returned to watch with a group of friends, thereby
turning their interest in anime into a socializing outlet.
Significantly, most male subjects mention first becoming interested in Japanese
anime shows which emphasize masculinity and stereotypically masculine values since
they feature prolonged fight scenes, action plots, and adolescent male heroes. In contrast,
female subjects were more likely to mention Pokémon as their first exposure to Japanese
12
Subject #3a.
13
Subject #4a, Interview, 15 March 2008.
14
Subject #4a.
15
Subject #9a, Interview, 1 August 2008.
29
animation. Pokémon episodes aired on both Cartoon Network and the Warner Brothers
network (or, as it was known during the 1990‘s, ―The WB‖) starting in 1998, and have
aired regularly on the Cartoon Network ever since then.16 David Buckingham and Julian
Sefton-Green note that Pokémon‘s cross-gender appeal is ―unusual…in this pink-andblue world of young children‘s culture.‖17 They cite the show‘s ―preadolescent and
asexual‖ male protagonist, Ash, as well as the inclusion of stereotypically male and
female values into the show‘s themes, to explain how the show garnered such a large
mixed gender youth audience in the U.S. One subject mentioned being teased in
elementary school because she had a ―crush‖ on the main character, Ash, but felt that the
show had no particular ―gender preferences,‖ and noted that she had many female friends
who also were interested in the show.18 Another male subject mentioned that as a young
boy he went to see the Pokémon movie without prior knowledge of the franchise because
it seemed like a ―cool‖ thing to do the time.19 Pokémon was clearly a significant part of
popular children‘s culture in the U.S., since almost all subjects I interviewed who were
attending elementary school in the late 1990‘s and early 2000‘s appeared to have had
some direct exposure to, or even outright interest in, various aspects of the franchise,
even if they did not watch the show regularly.
Importantly, Pokémon wasn‘t simply a show to my female subjects – it was
something they also ―played,‖ as one subject noted. In elementary school this subject
16
Mittell, 90.
17
David Buckingham and Julia Sefton-Green, ―Structure, Agency, and Pedagogy in Children‘s Media
Culture,‖ in Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise of Pokémon, ed. Joseph Tobin (Durham: Duke
University Press, 2004), 16.
18
Subject #15a, Interview, 9 September 2008.
19
Subject #18a, Interview, 20 November, 2008.
30
was an avid Pokémon card collector and also became interested in the related video
games on various Nintendo game systems.20 Koichi Iwabuchi notes that the U.S. branch
of Nintendo handled the worldwide adaption of Pokémon and he credits the international
success of the franchise to the exportation of the Americanized adaption of the show.21
Whether or not elements of ―foreignness‖ were excised from the U.S. version of the show
does not mean that my subjects consumed Pokémon in the same way they did its
animated American counterparts. Buckingham and Sefton-Green note that Pokémon is
something you ―do, not just something you read or watch or ‗consume,‘‖ stressing that a
certain level of interactivity is built into the representations themselves.22 However, they
also caution against imbuing these forms of activities – trading cards, video game playing
– with too much ―agency,‖ since this form of ―play‖ is structured by game designers and
the ―operations of the market, which made these commodities available in particular
ways in the first place.‖ Although their point is well taken, my subjects‘ strong social
engagement with various aspects of franchise – these games were often played with
friends – reveals that Pokémon was teaching children how to interact with the media they
consumed not just as individuals, but also through participation in local social networks.
In speaking to both genders, the show Pokémon also encouraged its female
audience to participate in franchise-related media that are otherwise associated with
male-oriented childhood pursuits in the U.S. For example, while it is not that uncommon
20
Subject #11a, Interview, 25 August 2008.
21
Iwabuchi, 38. Iwabuchi is careful to point out that the Americanized version was only exported to nonAsian countries, hinting that less cultural adaption was considered necessary to sell the show in the region
of East-Asia.
22
Buckingham and Sefton, 12. For further discussion of the global success of Pokémon as a multimedia
empire please see Anne Allison, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006).
31
for girls to play video games in the U.S., the Pokémon franchise was also comprised of
comic books and trading cards, which are certainly associated with young male
entertainments.23 One female subject related her growing self-consciousness about her
interest in Pokémon games and comics as she matured. Part of this self-consciousness
was fostered by the dominant gender associations with trading cards and comics that
permeates even pre-adolescents‘ perceptions of what society deems socially-appropriate
gendered behavior. This subject noted when she was in elementary school, she knew of
only one other girl in her school who ―played Pokémon,‖ but because it was still deemed
socially acceptable to have male friends at age seven or eight, she still had peers with
whom she felt she could share her interest. However, by the time she was in middle
school, she stopped playing because Pokémon was not ―cool anymore‖ and she did not
have girl friends who ―liked that kind of stuff.‖24 This subject also describes the various
ways in which her interest in the franchise created conflict with her parents, particularly
with her mother, who felt that Pokémon was really for ―little boys, like her brother.‖
While she acknowledges that the amount of money she was spending on the franchise –
i.e. buying cards and video games – became a point of tension with her parents, she also
believed that her mother felt very strongly that comic books and video games were
strictly boys‘ pursuits. However, this fan‘s experience was not universal among my
subject group – another subject mentioned that she had plenty of female friends who
watched (and we might assume ―played‖) Pokémon with her.
23
As part of my fieldwork, I was employed as a sales clerk at a comic book shop for about a year (summer
2007-summer 2008), and during my time there I observed that while boys would often purchase baseball
cards, it was more common for both girls and boys to buy trading cards related to anime and manga
franchises.
24
Subject #11a.
32
The question remains, does this ―interactivity‖ mark subjects‘ engagement with
Pokémon as different somehow than their reception of other U.S.-produced shows and
games they were also experiencing at the same time? Scholars like Iwabuchi stress that
Pokémon was always intended to be exported to non-Japanese countries, and, therefore,
implies that the show lacks obvious ties to Japanese culture. However, I would argue that
whatever the shows‘ intended cultural portability, we should not gloss over the ways in
which Japanese cultural industries left an indelible imprint upon how the franchise
attempted to structure the audience‘s relationship to the various representations and
cultural objects they would consume under the banner of ―Pokémon.‖ While Pokémon
shows and games may avoid specific references to Japanese culture (or are adapted for
local markets by excising any such references), it is important remember that the
franchise as a whole brings with it cultural forms and practices that were experienced in
specific ways by its various audiences. It is the fans, when giving accounts of their
childhood experiences as Pokémon-watchers, who assert their belief that these
representations and objects were distinct from the domestic American culture they
otherwise remember consuming as children.
As a whole, subjects seem to have such strong memories of their first exposure to
Japanese anime because they recognized some form of ―difference‖ in its representational
forms and narratives. When asked if they watched American television on a regular basis
as adults, most subjects responded that they did not. One subject noted that while he
watched Japanese anime, he had not been interested in American animation growing up
since he found those shows to be merely ―cartoons‖ intended for young audiences.25 In
addition, many subjects mention losing interest in Pokémon in middle school, because, as
25
Subject #14a, Interview, 17 September 2008.
33
one fan put it, she discovered that ―there was something more to this [Japanese anime]
than Pokémon.‖26 What happens once such individuals, who are attracted to some
―difference‖ they see in Pokémon, begin to mature? If American cartoons do not fulfill
their entertainment needs, where do they look next and how exactly do they discover that
there is ―something more‖ to Japanese popular culture?
The majority of subjects I interviewed who were aged eighteen to twenty-one
were exposed to Japanese popular culture as embedded within mainstream children‘s
culture. They happened to encounter Japanese popular culture at a younger age thanks to
its wider dissemination on American television by the late 1990‘s. Whether watching
Pokémon or Dragon Ball Z was their first exposure to Japanese anime airing on U.S.
television, subjects often identified a transitional moment in which they came to realize
that Japanese anime, in particular, was not merely oriented to pre-adolescent, or even
adolescent, audiences. Unlike American cartoons which seem to fall into two primary
categories – children‘s entertainment (which might range from educationally-oriented
shows like Dora the Explorer, to shows based on popular superhero franchises, such as
Spider-Man) and more adult-oriented social satires / comedies (such as The Simpsons and
South Park) – the Japanese anime industry has been producing shows for various age and
gender demographic groups for decades.
Since most anime shows are based on original manga works, it is important to
note that Japanese manga have been targeted at increasingly diversified Japanese
audiences since the late 1950‘s and 1960‘s. Frederick Schodt reminds us that ―animation
[in Japan]…has prospered on the back of the manga boom,‖ although as an exported
26
Subject #15a.
34
culture manga tends to follow the popularity of anime.27 In other words, while anime is
commonly exported ahead of manga and actually makes manga exportation possible by
introducing international markets to the artistic styles and tropes of Japanese popular
visual culture, it should not be forgotten that the development of a strong comic book
culture both preceded and helped constitute a thriving and diverse anime culture in Japan.
Therefore, when my subjects encountered adult-oriented anime as teenagers, they were
receiving the benefits of the tail end of a long process, borne out of the specific
interlocking histories of the Japanese anime and comic book industries.
In order to understand how the anime my subjects were encountering on their
television was markedly different than U.S. animation, it is helpful to know how anime
and manga first become entertainments targeted at every age group in their culture of
origin. There was a ―manga boom‖ in post-World War II Japan, thanks to its relative
―cheapness‖ as an entertainment form. Manga was cheap both in its production costs, as
manga were printed on pulp paper and sold in magazine form, and as an ephemeral
object, since they could easily be tossed aside or trashed after consuming them.28 The
demand for cheap entertainment in the post-World War II was ―an outgrowth of the
explosion in demand for inexpensive entertainment that occurred…after years of
deprivation.‖ Manga were primarily children‘s entertainment in the post-War era, but
even then artists like Tezuka Osamu were adopting mature cinematic techniques ―such as
close-ups and changing frames and points of view‖ inspired by American film and
27
Schodt, 275, 305.
28
Schodt, 81.
35
animation.29 By the late 1950‘s, successful manga magazines aimed at both young male
and female audiences were created, and the decade would also see the underground
development of what their early creators would call ―gekiga‖ manga, or ―dramatic
pictures,‖ aimed at adult audiences.30 Manga artists like Yoshiro Tatsumi, whose work is
currently being released by major graphic novel publishers in the U.S., labeled his
manga stories ―dramatic pictures,‖ because his narratives were intended to ―read much
more like novels with very realistic and graphic pictures; [gekiga] emphasized serious
drama rather than comedy.‖31 Gekiga would be a vital development in Japanese comic
book culture since it would continue to grow the adult market for manga throughout the
1960‘s and 1970‘s.32 In her history of Japanese manga, Kinko Ito explains that ―gekiga
appealed to junior and senior high school students who had grown out of children‘s
manga, and it later became popular among university students as its readers aged.‖33 Ito
goes on to detail how genres of manga continued to diversify during the 1970‘s, 80‘s, and
90‘s, leading to comics aimed at not only adolescents, but adult women and men as
well.34
29
Schodt, 25. See also Natsu Onoda Power, God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of PostWorld War II Manga (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2009) for discussion of Tezuka Osamu‘s
influence on the post-World War II manga industry in Japan.
30
Kinko Ito, ―Manga in Japanese History,” in Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations of the World of
Manga and Anime, ed. by Mark W. MacWilliams (New York: East Gate Book: 2008), 36.
31
Ito, 36.
32
Ito, 36, 39.
33
Ito, 36.
34
Ito, 39-47. See also Sharon Kinsella, Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Society (New
York: Routledge, 2000) for one of the first academic studies in English on manga oriented toward adult
readers.
36
Susan J. Napier has argued that anime culture rests on a foundation built by
manga, particularly in its repertoire of visual tropes, as well as the simple fact most anime
are adaptations of original manga stories.35 I would also add that anime has, therefore,
been strongly influenced by manga‘s diversity in subject matter and genre. As a result,
by the 1990‘s any number of fiction genres were represented in anime, including action,
science-fiction, romance, fantasy, horror, comedy, sports and so on (and many anime
shows include elements of more than one genre). While in the U.S. animated shows are
usually called ―cartoons‖ and associated with children‘s entertainment, the word ―anime‖
has come to encompass a wide-range of representational styles and genres. However, in
bringing such diverse works to youthful American audiences, U.S. licensors were often
working to – whether they intended to or not – change dominant understandings about
what animation could be.
We might wonder how anime, with its widely divergent subjects and styles, was
able to become integrated into a television culture which understood animated works in
very limited terms. Jason Mittell has argued that by the early 1960‘s American cartoons
had been firmly established as children‘s entertainment (i.e. ―kids-only‖), which would
become their entire cultural identity.36 ―Following their Saturday morning exile,‖ he
explains, ―cartoons became stigmatized as a genre only appropriate for children,
removing the traditional affiliations with the mass audience.‖ To understand the status of
American animation within U.S. culture in the four decades preceding the Pokémon
35
Susan J. Napier, Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, Updated Edition: Experiencing
Contemporary Japanese Animation (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), 21. See also Thomas
Lamarre, The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
2009) for analysis of anime as a visual medium.
36
Jason Mittell, 77.
37
boom and after their mid-1960‘s relegation to children‘s fare, I find Sean Leonard‘s use
of the concept of ―cultural sink‖ particularly useful.37 According to Leonard, a ―cultural
sink‖ is a void of some form within the media culture of a capitalist state, which leads to
the attraction of ―foreign objects,‖ much as a black hole would. A cultural sink formed in
the U.S. when American cartoons went through a process of sanitation beginning in the
1960‘s and 70‘s, alongside the movement of most animated shows to Saturday mornings
in the U.S., which ―filed the genre under a ‗kid-only‘ label that alienated adult viewers.‖38
Leonard‘s cultural sink theory is evidenced by my subjects‘ experiences as young adults,
who developed a ―taste‖ for Japanese anime, thanks to the fact it met a particular
consumer need that U.S. animation was otherwise not attempting to fulfill. This
audience, virtually ―abandoned‖ in the words of Leonard, embraced the ―difference‖ they
saw in Japanese anime, which in many cases was a difference of audience-address.39
Upon entering junior high or high school, many subjects discovered that ―there
was something more to this [Japanese anime] than Pokémon,‖ as one subject put it,
thanks to the expanding role of Japanese anime programming on cable channels like
Cartoon Network.40 Many subjects, likewise, mention discovering specific shows on
Cartoon Network‘s ―Adult Swim‖ line-up during this time period. Male subjects
consistently mention works such as Cowboy Be-bop, an action-oriented space story with
elements of the American Western genre, and Trigun, a futuristic sci-fi western about an
infamous gunman with a bounty on his head. Female subjects, in contrast, were more
37
Sean Leonard, ―Progress Against the Law: Anime and Fandom, with the key to the globalization of
culture,‖ International Journal of Cultural Studies 8, no. 3 (2005): 281-305.
38
Leonard, 283.
39
Leonard, 284.
40
Subject #15a.
38
likely to mention Inuyasha, a long running fantasy show, which follows a modern
Japanese high school girl‘s fall into a past time and her quest to help a half-demon, halfman recover a very powerful jewel. While subjects‘ viewing practices were remarkably
similar as elementary school students – i.e. Pokémon was encountered at some point by
most subjects – their interest in specific anime shows diverged once they were exposed to
the greater diversity of adult-oriented anime. Yet, their consumption practices developed
in very similar ways because of the limited distribution outlets for anime in the U.S. By
creating the ―Adult Swim‖ programming block, the Cartoon Network actually educated
adolescents that animation could also ―speak to adult audiences,‖ as one subject put it.41
Subjects‘ perception of anime as more than just child-oriented entertainment was
generally accompanied by the realization that they shows they were watching were
specifically Japanese in origin. One subject noted that he was clued into anime‘s culture
of origin thanks to the use of Japanese names and the recurring visual motif of the
Japanese flag popping up in the shows he watched.42 Another notes that by middle
school she had realized that the animated fantasy shows she was watching on the Cartoon
Network were not American in origin, and felt ―they weren‘t making much an effort to
hide that.‖43 Multiple subjects make reference to terms and iconography that Americans
as a whole might perceive as emblematic of ―traditional‖ Japanese culture, and, therefore,
indicate some subjects experience anime as ―exotic‖ in comparison to American culture.
Two male subjects specifically referenced being attracted to the image of the
41
Subject #4a, Interview, 3 March 2008.
42
Subject #13a, Interview, 11 September 2008
43
Subject #17a, Interview, 17 October 2008.
39
―Samurai.‖44 In his ethnographic study of Japanese characters, Ian Condry has pointed
out that both the figure of the samurai and anime itself have been used to reduce all of
Japan into a simplified understanding of ―some generalized national culture of Japan.‖45
Samurai, Condry explains, ―evokes the idea of a character (warrior with sword), a
premise (samurai are guided by honor, empowered by swordsmanship), and a worldsetting (historically Japan, generally 1400s to 1800s. It is often at this level of generality
that samurai are seen as representing Japan, at least Japanese manhood, as a symbol of
loyalty, perseverance and skill.‖46
Significantly, it was my male subjects who were more likely to mention being
interested in the samurai figure, perhaps fascinated with a masculinity that is constructed
as non-Western yet still maintains Westernized ideals of masculinized strength (use of
weaponry, training the male body, etc.). In his article demonstrating how anime
characters may be the key to understanding how Japanese media culture flows between
media forms, Condry argues scholars should attend to the complicated creative and
economic processes that inform anime production as a way to avoid reproducing Western
consumption of ―cool Japan‖ in scholarly work.47 The notion of ―Cool Japan‖ has been
most influentially articulated by journalist Douglas McGray, who made note of the
international popularity Japanese commodities in his 2002 Foreign Policy article
44
Subject #9a. Subject #13a.
45
Ian Condry, ―Anime Creativity, Characters and the Premises in the Quest for Cool Japan,‖ Theory,
Culture & Society 26, no. 2-3 (2009): 160.
46
Condry, 141.
47
Condry, 159.
40
―Japan‘s Gross National Cool‖48 Anne Allison notes that the term ―[signals] a
recognition that youth sells; that it sells to sell to youth; and that selling a particular
iteration of youth sells something for Japan and something of Japan in all those global
markets currently flooded with Japanese kids‘ goods.‖49
Condry supports his critique of ―Cool Japan‖ through his study of the production
processes within Japanese media industries, thereby demystifying the creative process by
which anime is first created and then exported outside of Japan. In contrast, I critique
this concept by examining how the eventual target of those processes – the U.S. audience
– experiences such a thing as ―Cool Japan.‖ I track how subjects negotiate this concept,
and argue that they often seeks a variety of personal and professional experiences of
Japan that may complicate their original ―orientalist‖ attraction to Japanese anime. I also
place these fan consumption practices within a complex network of social and virtual
contexts to better understand how shared practices of consumption can help inspire
meaningful and varied forms of cultural knowledge production. For example, one of the
male subjects who had been drawn to the image of the samurai, ―Mark,‖ went through a
long process of learning about Japan that changed not only his understanding of the
culture, but his very identity.
Mark was first inspired to take classes about Japanese history because he wanted
to bring greater cultural knowledge about this samurai to his viewing practices.50
Inspired by his coursework and his interest in both traditional and popular Japanese
48
Douglas McGray, ―Japan‘s Gross National Cool,‖ Foreign Policy 130 (2002): 44-54.
49
Anne Allison, ―The Cool Brand, Affective Activism and Japanese Youth,‖ Theory, Culture & Society 26,
no. 2-3 (2009): 89-90.
50
Subject #3a.
41
cultures, Mark would later visit Japan multiple times. During his first visit to Japan he
mentioned that he made it a point to visit a castle in Osaka, where he could see the actual
swords and armor samurai had used. However, this was only one aspect of his
experience during his month-long student exchange program. Influenced by his time as a
student in Japan, Mark was making plans to begin his professional life in Japan when I
interviewed him. His desire to work in Japan after graduating college was not merely a
fanciful whim, but something he had planned over the course of a number of years. Later
in this chapter we will return to this subject‘s story, but for now I will note that his
experiences in Japan ended up complicating his once more simplistic desire to relate to
Japan as a distant and rather one-dimensional object of curiosity.
Mark‘s path from ardent samurai fan to building a transnational lifestyle –
although not representative of all fans – mirrored many other subjects‘ journeys to
transform the depth and manner in which they related to Japanese popular culture and
Japan as a nation. Before such journeys could commence, however, subjects had to
become aware that the cultural representations that so fascinated them were not American
in origin. Once subjects became aware that the cultural objects they were consuming
were not created and produced from within U.S. culture industries, they also started to
make certain value judgments about both the texts they consumed and the significance of
their interest in those representations. In other words, they started placing significance in
understanding what exactly ―Japanese anime‖ was, what specifically made these
representations ―Japanese,‖ and how their interest these works would be received among
their peers.
42
As subjects became familiar with the range of genres represented in anime, they
started to develop fan identities that reflected their sense of taste. One subject mentioned
that during high school he had friends who considered themselves ―anime connoisseurs,‖
and they helped him develop his ―taste‖ and exposed him to shows that featured more
complicated plots. 51 He cited shows that aired on Cartoon Network‘s ―Adult Swim‖
programming block, such as Cowboy Be-Bop, and Trigun, which he clearly considered
works of higher caliber than anime shows that might air immediately after school and
were aimed at a younger audience. Like many subjects who felt they graduated from
watching Dragon Ball Z or Pokémon, this subjects‘ comments reveal that fans take pride
in not merely watching Japanese anime but developing certain level of ―taste.‖ As young
adults, fans‘ identity formation often splits according to what type of anime they like to
watch and, therefore, fans were often learning to analyze these shows as grassroots
cultural critics. By distinguishing what shows they were ―fans‖ of, subjects were also
developing a base of knowledge that allowed them to identify aspects of the show that
marked it – as well as themselves – as distinct from American culture and local
consumption practices that were otherwise prevalent in their experience of domestic
media.
Interviews subjects commonly asserted that anime was not merely for children,
often citing their serialized nature and on-going plot structure. One female subject notes
that she was attracted to the more ―complex‖ narratives featured on ―Adult Swim,‖
referencing Inuyasha and Full Metal Alchemist, which started airing when she was in
51
Subject #9a.
43
high school.52 Significantly, fans of anime do not merely associate the shows they watch
with culturally-specific notions of ―difference,‖ or representations of ―the other,‖
although there are, no doubt, elements of that association which informs their interest in
Japanese popular culture. Instead, they tend to cite how they experience Japanese anime
as a cultural form, which is also what makes Japanese anime ―different‖ to them, and not
merely that such works may feature samurai or other stereotypically Japanese, or East
Asian, cultural references. For instance, one subject claimed that anime and manga tell a
―continuous story‖ which is self-contained. This makes them unlike American
mainstream comics, the majority of which are based on superhero franchises which
extend decades into the past (such as Superman or Batman).53 Two other subjects
separately used the same words to explain to me that watching anime was like ―reading a
book,‖ i.e. a novel.54
By relating anime shows to literary fiction, subjects assert the existence of
cultural value within these texts in ways which allow them to simultaneously constitute
their identity as specialized because their interest in media is likewise specialized. One
subject explained that anime ―just had a different feel to it – with American stuff its
explosions and punches and…there‘s a good guy and a bad guy and they‘re destined to
fight. But with the Japanese stuff there‘s good guys and bad guys on both sides. The
story-line is a lot more complex, you can choose your side. And you can root for
different characters.‖55 Importantly, this subject points to a representation of a complex
52
Subject #15a.
53
Subject #20a, Interview, 4 December 2008.
54
Subject #4a. Subject #11a.
55
Subject #3a.
44
moral universe that allows for a multiple avenues for viewer identification. To identify
with the ―bad‖ guy is not necessarily problematic because, according to this subject, even
antagonists are created by the Japanese writers and producers to be relatable. Through
his engagement with the text, this subject has not only distinguished Japanese anime as
distinct, he also constructs himself as an individual who asks more of media texts than
most American viewers.
As a whole, subjects seemed to agree that Japanese anime and manga offered very
different repertoire of stories and characters than American media did. It was common to
hear subjects note that the continuous stories of anime were ―so different than anything
on American television.‖56 Part of the attraction of anime for many subjects was that it
held so much diversity – one subject felt that Japanese consumer culture had ―anything
you could want,‖ indicating that he felt American culture was limited in its
representations or its ability to speak to a variety of audiences.57 Although a number of
subjects reported regular viewing of American television shows or American films, they
often did not describe themselves as ―fans‖ of those media. One subject noted that he
would watch American television but didn‘t have ―any deep intellectual connection‖ with
those representations.58 However, these statements are founded on forms of cultural
conditioning that encouraged them to perceive Japanese and American cultures as
diametrically opposed in their values and media creative practices.
56
Subject #4a.
57
Subject #3a.
58
Subject #9a.
45
We might ask where exactly did these ideas come from and how might they be
informed by the fact subjects first come to understand ―Japan‖ primarily by consuming
Japanese popular media? Subjects would frequently voice generalizations about
Japanese culture in order to make sense of their own consumption of anime respective to
their subject position within American culture. For example, one subject felt that
Japanese culture was so ―different‖ than American culture because their culture was
based ―on respect…which you don‘t see a lot of that in America nowadays.‖ Japan, he
stated, ―allows for different ways of thinking,‖ which he contrasted with U.S. values
which he felt were too strongly based on a Christian belief system.59 Another voiced the
opinion that American culture was ―close minded‖ and felt that in Japan one could find
anything one could possibly desire, not only in terms of media representations but also in
terms of social acceptance. This subject had recently started attending college and she
spoke out against ―clique-y‖ behavior of her peers, revealing that her attraction to
Japanese culture was perhaps inspired by a sense of alienation from her own local
culture. She imagined Japan to be a place where anyone could find a ―clique,‖ using the
example that even if she dressed up in fandom clothing (known as ―cosplay,‖ or costume
play), she believed she could find a group that would accept, even participate in, such
practices, while in the U.S. she would be ―ostracized‖ if she did that.60
In contrast to the way some fans would speak of Japan in generalizing terms
drawn primarily from their experience of consuming Japanese anime and manga, a
number of subjects were careful to distinguish between the country‘s media cultures as
creative expressions of a few Japanese people and how one might actually experience
59
Subject #9a.
60
Subject #8a, Interview, 24 April 2008.
46
Japanese society in an embodied context. Such subjects often had personal experiences
of cross-cultural contact; however, this cross-cultural contact may have come about
because of their interest in Japanese popular culture or may have been the seed that
helped inspire it. One subject who had moved a great deal as a child – thirteen times in
thirteen years – seemed to bring an entirely different set of perceptions to his
understanding of international cultures. When discussing his experience of exposure to
mandatory language learning in the New Jersey public school system, he asked, ―How
you can say your country is the best without having experience some others?‖61 In this
way, the subject seemed to be both dissecting unthinking American nationalism and
slavish devotion to Japan as the exoticized ―other.‖ While he admitted that when he was
first exposed to anime in late elementary school and in middle school, he had the mindset
that Japanese culture was ―really cool,‖ he later came to develop what he called a ―more
generalized‖ interest in the region of East Asia. When he stated ―we have so few shared
cultural values,‖ he abstained from making a value judgment about one culture being
better or worse than the other.
This subject was unique among this fan group in the degree to which he
conceptualized himself as more of an observer of his local environment than an active
participant. Significantly, he also self-identified as Hispanic, or more accurately, as
biracial since he wrote he was ―White / Hispanic‖ in his questionnaire. He noted that his
experience of having an uprooted childhood gave him ―no concept of home,‖ which made
him ―less likely to think of America as [his] place.‖ This subject appeared to have an
almost outsider perspective about his experiences of both American and international
cultures, probably influenced by his feeling that he was not very strongly rooted in any
61
Subject #18a.
47
one local community, or even any one ethnic or racial group. While most subjects were
reacting strongly against their predominantly white, Christian home town cultures by
seeking Japanese culture as visibly transnational, or in their words ―different‖ than their
own, this subject consciously identified himself as an outside observer to American
culture. In contrast, others subjects seemed to use their interest in Japanese culture to
critique American culture from within. In the future it would be useful to explore in
greater depth how fan subjects‘ racial identities and positioning in various regional
environments informs how they perceive both Japanese culture and their own interest in
that culture.
The complexity of how fans receive Japanese culture and make sense of their
interest in ―Japan‖ makes it problematic to assume that fans are simply exoticizing Japan
on the basis of their exposure to anime representation. Thomas Lamarre notes that in
―the mass media, the general trend was to sensationalize, exoticize, or demonize what
was happening between [anime] fans and their ‗image‘ worlds,‖ and cautions against
scholars making a similar misstep in their approach to the study of anime and manga.62
Importantly, just as I would not want to exoticize anime and manga because they are
Japanese, nor would I want to fall into the same trap with fan-created imaginary
―Japans.‖ This perspective also helps me situate fans as receiving Japanese culture from
specific cultural contexts and locations. Henry Jenkins has critiqued how cultural critics
have framed the notion of media imperialism as simply ―Western‖ culture becoming a
force ―cultural homogenization‖ in every instance.63 Jenkins argues that such
62
Patrick W. Galbraith and Thomas Lamarre, ―Otakuology: A Dialogue,‖ Mechademia 5 (2010): 361.
63
Jenkins, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers, 156.
48
formulations often ―[blur] the distinction between at least four forms of power: economic
(the ability to produce and distribute cultural goods), cultural (the ability to produce and
circulate forms and meanings), political (the ability to impose ideologies) and
psychological (the ability to shape desire, fantasy, and identity).‖ In order to avoid such a
reductive move, Jenkins points to the work of ethnographers who offer more complex
accounts of how media culture is actually received in local contexts. ―The same media
content,‖ he writes, ―can be received in radically different ways in region or national
contexts, with consumers reading it against the backdrop of more familiar genres and
through the grid of familiar values.‖64 In this study, I expand upon a consideration of
national contexts by examining how my subjects have been influenced not only by their
regional background, but also their social positioning.
To a number of fans ―Japan‖ might be an imaginary space that they create based
on their individual needs borne out of their local social experiences. Most subjects who
participated in the first round of interviews I conducted in 2008 hailed from what they
perceived as a ―small town‖ environments or smaller communities in the upper Midwest
(I estimate a significant number of study participants were raised in communities of less
than 60,000 people). Their experiences in these fairly homogeneous communities –
white, Christian, U.S.-born – strongly influenced how they themselves would perceive
not only the media cultures from Japan that they consumed, but also how they understood
the significance of their own interest in those cultures. Henry Jenkins has described these
fans as ―pop cosmopolitans,‖ which is ―someone whose embrace of global popular media
64
Jenkins, Fans, Bloggers and Gamers, 156-157.
49
represents an escape route out of the parochialism of [their] local community.‖65
―Cosmopolitans,‖ Jenkins argues ―embrace cultural difference, seeking to escape the
gravitational pull of their local communities in order to enter a broader sphere of cultural
experience.‖66 However, Jenkins does not offer specific examples of what
―parochialism‖ fans are seeking to ―escape.‖ Based on my ethnographic research and I
would argue that more than mere ―escape,‖ their engagement with anime and manga (i.e.
media marked as ―transnational‖) allowed many subjects to better negotiate their
immediate social spheres.
Many of my subjects seemed quite aware that Japanese anime and manga gave
them a way to not only distinguish themselves from the perceived insularity of their local
community, but also as a way to make sense of their experience of their culturally
homogeneous home-life. One subject actually expressed the desire to be exposed to other
cultures, noting that she came from a very small community that lacked what most
Americans would probably call ―diversity.‖67 This subject had very little interest in
American media, but through her exposure to shojo (or girls‘) manga in particular, she
engaged a cultural form that she felt had no counterpart in American culture. For
example, she explained one would never see shojo plot-lines – particularly ones which
emphasized flexibility in characters‘ gender identities – in American media.
This fan also conceptualized media and media representations as distinct from the
experience of lived Japanese culture (in other words she understood that the culture itself
might not be as tolerant of gender-play as the girls‘ comics that she enjoyed were), but it
65
Jenkins, Fans, Bloggers and Gamers, 152.
66
Jenkins, Fans, Bloggers and Gamers, 155.
67
Subject #12a, Interview, 4 September 2008.
50
was her engagement with the media form itself that allowed her a space of identity
negotiation in her own culture. While her mother thought it was quite strange that her
daughter was reading ―comic books,‖ (i.e. assumed to be a media form for young boys,
not girls) the subject noted that her reply to her mother‘s concern was the defense that she
was not reading ―comics,‖ but, in fact, reading ―manga!‖ She perceived an added value
to these works because they explored specific problems and issues related to gender
identity – as she self-identified as a ―tomboy‖ – and, therefore, she felt these manga
narratives mirrored her own experience of negotiating her gender-identity in a specific
U.S.-context. These works were not merely attractive because they were ―Japanese‖ in
origin, but because they explored certain experiences she felt she could relate to, and
reading them allowed her to develop a cultural competency that she could apply to her
own life experience. However, she was also very conscious that this particular Japanese
cultural form addressed her experiences in ways which she felt U.S.-produced works did
not.
While this subject engaged these works on the level of performance of gender
identity, those who most consciously negotiated the ―foreignness‖ of these objects
seemed to be the ones who were most interested in re-imagining their identity from
within their local culture. For example, one fourteen year old subject expressed a desire
to continue to be ―open‖ to international cultures, which she formulated as an interest that
extended beyond her consumption of any specific set of anime or manga texts. She
seemed to firmly believe that it was important to seek out experiences and cultures that
she would generally not be exposed to in the course of everyday teenage life in a small
51
Midwestern college town.68 Although only just beginning high school, she showed in
interest in learning other languages – not limited to Japanese – and visiting other
countries as often as she could. While college towns offer more opportunities for crosscultural contact than more isolated rural communities, this subject still seemed to see her
environment as too limiting in respect to accessing other cultural experiences.
This interest in defining oneself as someone who is ―open‖ to non-American
cultures was a worldview that was in some degree shared by all subjects but one. In
contrast to these ―pop cosmopolitans,‖ I offer the counter-example of the subject,
―William,‖ who flatly denied that anime and manga were ―special‖ or that their
international context distinguished them in any way from other media.69 (In spite of that
assertion, William was also the other subject who acknowledged he was fascinated by the
figure of the samurai). He cited the popularity of J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series,
commenting that a ―good story is a good story‖ and claimed that the culture in which
creative works were produced was of no consequence to the final product. In fact, the
subject expressed an intense dislike for other cultures on the basis of his experience of
travel abroad, usually taken for business purposes, not tourism or study abroad programs
(which were the primary reasons for other subjects‘ various visits abroad). Having been
to both Western Europe and China, he generally seemed frustrated by the ―difference‖ he
experienced during his travels. He specifically critiqued aspects of each country when he
felt their norms varied in any way from the U.S.‘s. He noted that he had not had any
good experiences leaving the country, except for a visit to Canada, which he merely
considered the ―51st state‖ and, therefore, a cultural and geographical extension of the
68
Subject #1c, Interview, 7 May 2009.
69
Subject #13a.
52
U.S. This subject was one of the very few did not express an interest in experiencing
Japanese culture first-hand, and conveyed to me that his interest in Japanese media
representations were of no significance to his social identity.
The question remains: what makes these anime and manga works particularly
―Japanese‖ to other subjects, and why did William vehemently reject the notion that
specific cultural contexts influence representations, narratives, and characters in popular
media? What is at stake in whether or not anime is perceived by consumers as
―Japanese‖ or not? In spite of this fan‘s belief that his interest in anime and manga had
no significance to how he performed his social identity – since he felt media was ―the
same‖ no matter its particular culture of origin – it is worth noting that the subject went
online every week to read manga chapters of his favorite long-running shonen (boys‘)
manga titles, Naruto and Bleach, which were translated and distributed by various fan
groups. The fact that he felt compelled to consume unofficial, fan-translated digital
versions of these works points to a culturally-specific practice that developed because he
was an English-language fan of media originally created for Japanese audiences.
In response to this subject‘s claims, I would note that while it is true that both the
U.S. and Japan have produced many comic books which feature action oriented plots and
male heroes, manga titles like Bleach and Naruto are greatly informed by the specifics of
both the Japanese publishing industry and the nation‘s broader media culture. Both are
featured weekly in Japan‘s long-running Shonen Jump manga magazine and have been
translated and adapted for the U.S. market by Viz Media (a subsidiary of the publishing
company that owns Shonen Jump in Japan). Naruto takes place in a fantasy world
comprised of various ―ninja‖ villages that often go to war against each other, while
53
Bleach takes place in modern-day Japan with added supernatural dimensions. Both
feature a young, or adolescent, male ―hero‖ as the protagonist. These specific narrative
and character elements often directly reference or draw upon Japanese cultural concepts,
such as the figure of the ―ninja‖ in the case of Naruto, or of ―shinigami‖ (which means
―death god‖ or ―death spirit‖) in Bleach.
However, even beyond the level of content, I argue that the fans have developed
consumption practices which become an ingrained reminder that these works had to do
some form of adaptation to reach the English-language audience; adaptation can occur
through the work of unofficial or official groups in the case of both anime and manga.
Translation of the language is only one key part to accessing these works in English; in
the case of manga the English-language fan is expected to learn to read right to left
(reproducing the original Japanese reading orientation), while in the case of anime many
fans are expected to learn how to read English-language subtitling, or adapt to English
language dubbing practices.
In his influential study of how Japanese popular culture is received in the region
of East Asia, Koichi Iwabuchi claims that certain Japanese media forms travel to other
nations with a stronger sense of ―Japanese-ness‖ than others. Expanding upon Japanese
manga critic and creator Otsuka Eiji‘s concept of ―mukokusei,‖ which is ―the
unembedded expression of race, ethnicity and culture,‖ Iwabuchi argues that certain
forms of Japanese consumer culture are in fact culturally ―odorless,‖ where ―odor‖ is a
metaphor for the way in which ―cultural features of a country of origin and images or
ideas of its national, in most cases stereotyped, way of life are associated positively with
54
a particular product in the consumption process.‖70 He claims that specific Japanese
cultural objects are ―odorless‖ in that the country‘s ―bodily, racial, and ethnic
characteristics are erased or softened.‖ He categorizes ―odorless‖ Japanese cultural
objects as the ―three C‘s: consumer technology (such as VCRs, karaoke, and the
Walkman); comics and cartoons (animations); and computer video games.‖ Use of a
Sony Walkman, for example, does not bring forth an image of a Japanese way of life in
the same way that eating at McDonald‘s ―confers…its powerful association with
Americanness.‖71
Iwabuchi‘s formulation of ―cultural odor‖ is problematic because it assumes
certain audiences will receive these cultures in specific ways – and one must not forget
that Iwabuchi‘s study is focused on the flow of Japanese popular culture to East Asian
sites. He is careful to point to the limited nature of what Japanese media reaches the
West – primarily anime and video games, as opposed to television dramas, Japanese
popular music, and fashion magazines – and comments that the first grouping is more
likely to lack visible racial and ethnic markings than the second.72 Iwabuchi wants to
forward a new understanding of globalization that de-centers a notion of Western
dominance in global forces, and instead looks more closely at how a select number of
multinational corporations are working to integrate global flows with local distribution
and adaption practices. His example is the American success of Pokémon, which is
inextricably linked to the partnership of the media franchise with Warner Brothers, since
it was Warner Brothers which distributed the first Pokémon movie world-wide. Iwabuchi
70
Iwabuchi, 27.
71
Iwabuchi, 28.
72
Iwabuchi, 34.
55
points to the fact that it is the American adaptation of Pokémon which is exported to the
rest of the world (with the exception of Asia). Therefore, Iwabuchi rejects the notion of
the ―Japanization‖ of culture and instead points to another more complicated process,
―The Americanization of Japanization.‖73 My critique of Iwabuchi‘s approach to the
study of global culture is that he focuses primarily upon how cultural producers and
distributors adapt and localize texts for foreign markets. His study, therefore, neglects
the totality of audiences‘ experiences to a great degree.
My ethnographic research reveals my subjects experience a more complex
trajectory over time. While it is true Americans might first perceive anime characters as
―Caucasian,‖ as subjects matured they started to consider the significance of the cultural
origin of the shows they were watching and the comics they were reading.74 When first
exposed to anime as young adolescents, most subjects have no choice but to watch anime
as it is presented to them on cable television (i.e. dubbed into English). As they
developed an interest in anime shows beyond what is available to them through that
particular media outlet, they often chose to watch anime in Japanese with English
language subtitles (when the option is available to them). One subject even went so far
73
74
Iwabuchi, 38.
In their overview of how Western academics have approached manga as a subject, Mio Bryce, Jason
Davis and Christie Barber note that multiple scholars have attempted to redress the misperception that
Japanese characters in manga ―look white.‖ In the case of shojo superheroine Sailor Moon, who has blond
hair and blue eyes, Bryce, Davis and Barber explain that ―what non-Japanese viewers are responding to
when looking at Sailor Moon is an aesthetic arrangement or distribution of culturally distinctive visual
codes or conventions being employed to economically convey, in the case of shōjo manga, youth, beauty,
femininity and emotion.‖ However, no subject ever described anime or manga characters as ―white,‖
although they often considered what it meant to read about characters embedded within a very different
cultural context than their own. Mio Bryce, Jason Davis and Christie Barber, ―The Cultural Biographies
and Social Lives of Manga: Lessons from the Mangaverse,‖ SCAN: Journal of Media Arts Culture 5, no. 2
(2008).
56
as to import Japanese video games to help him develop his Japanese language skills.75 Of
course, there is no doubt many choose to watch anime in Japanese because they desire
what they might conceptualize as ―authentic‖ experiences of anime and manga
representations. Iwabuchi has described this desire as ―the yearning for another culture
that is evoked through the consumption of cultural commodities [which] is inevitably a
monological illusion.‖76 While many fans might only experience Japan as ―monological
illusion‖ through some of their consumption activities, I argue that for the majority of my
subjects this is actually a phase that they inevitably pass through in order to know Japan
not merely as an object of popular ―consumption,‖ but through a multiplicity of
experiences.
Once subjects recognize ―Japanese-ness‖ in the anime and manga representations
they watch, their understandings of what their interest in Japanese popular culture
indicates about their social and national identities continues to evolve. Previously I
discussed the fact that two of my subjects -- Mark and William – revealed to me that they
were fascinated by the figure of the samurai, both going to so far as to take Japanese
history classes in order to bring a greater cultural knowledge to their viewing practices. 77
As explained earlier, the subject William had rejected opportunities to align himself with
other ―pop cosmopolitans,‖ while Mark would go on to not only study the culture and the
language, but made long-term plans to begin his post-graduate life there. Similarly,
another subject, ―Phillip,‖ started to foster a cross-cultural context for his own life as an
adolescent, and he planned to continue to develop his cross-cultural experiences in his
75
Subject #13a.
76
Iwabuchi, 34.
77
Subject #3a. Subject #13a.
57
post-graduate years.78 As a high school student, his interest in Japanese culture was so
great he participated in a year-long study abroad program even though he had yet to
formally learn Japanese in the classroom setting. Instead of staying in student dorms,
Phillip spent his year with three different host families and attended a Japanese-language
high school where his primary responsibility as a student was learning the language.
This experience would have a lasting effect upon how Phillip understood both his
own identity and his perception of his place within his local culture. Upon returning to
the U.S. he found himself experiencing reverse ―culture shock,‖ and explained that he felt
he had changed in significant ways. He saw himself as more ―independent‖ thanks to his
experiences, but these changes were not necessarily easy to express in his small Iowa
hometown of 12,000 people (the city he lived in outside of Tokyo had a population of
150,000). However, once he entered college he felt he was better able to express his
interest by taking Japanese courses in language, history, and culture, that would greatly
inform how he conceptualized his previous experiences as both a fan and an exchange
student.
―When people say they are interested in Japanese culture,‖ Phillip explained,
―they mean, aka I watch a lot of anime.‖ Placing himself in opposition to such
individuals, he said he wanted to be able to say he is interested in ―Japan itself,‖ not just
one aspect of Japan. While his experience was not exactly typical of most of my
subjects‘ travel experiences to Japan – a number of subjects‘ trips to Japan lasted one to
sixth months in length, while only three subjects had lived in the country for a year or
longer – his conscious decision to ―experience‖ Japan beyond its commodity culture was
an attitude that a number of subjects shared. Other subjects explained they started to
78
Subject #9a.
58
realize the importance of studying Japan in relation to the rest of the world, instead of
isolating the country as an object of study. For example, by wanting to ―know‖ Japan
than for ―more than one thing,‖ Phillip emphasized it was also important to study Japan‘s
relationship with China, Korea and other East Asian nations to understand the country in
various historical and geo-political contexts.79
While the choice to study Japanese culture, history, and language, does not mean
that fans are not continuing to participate in the exoticization of Japan through knowledge
production practices, I would argue that by actively seeking out other aspects of Japanese
culture many subjects attempt to complicate their understanding of the nation. While
attraction toward perceived ―difference‖ – through youthful exposure to Japanese anime
on U.S. television – is often what inspires fans‘ continued interest in Japanese popular
culture, it appears that the longer that subjects engage with Japan through education and
language learning the more likely it is they will come to understand Japan in multiple
contexts and not just as a ―consumer‖ of cool Japan. Subjects‘ interest in this kind of
prolonged engagement with Japan no doubt hinges on the fact the majority of fans I
interviewed were enrolled, or planning to enroll, in higher education of some form.
While this study accounts for the experiences of a particular class of American fans of
anime and manga, I argue that it also reveals the way in which social class impacts not
only adolescence and collegiate life, but often post-graduate life as well. The second part
of this chapter further examines this second stage of fans‘ social, intellectual, and even
professional, engagement with Japan, a process which I define as subjects
―internationalizing‖ their lives.
79
Subject #9a.
59
Fandom, Education & Internationalization
Long after their youthful embrace of ―pop cosmopolitanism,‖ many subjects
continued to engage Japan and Japanese culture. Jenkins‘ (theoretical) ―pop
cosmopolitans‖ use practices of consumption and their interest in Japanese popular
culture as a way of distinguishing themselves from their local culture as adolescents.
Many of the fans I interviewed, however, had matured beyond this stage and had been
actively seeking other ways of ―knowing‖ or experiencing Japan. For example, the
subject who expressed a desire to see Japan for ―more than one thing,‖ was doublemajoring in Japanese and International Studies.80 The subject who asked, ―How you can
say your country is the best without having experience some others?‖ was likewise
majoring in International Studies and planning to take the U.S. foreign service exam after
he graduated, in the hopes he would be assigned to the region of East Asia.81 Clearly,
these individuals were not content to receive a limited version of ―Japan‖ through
consumption of its popular media.
A significant percentage of subjects who had discovered anime as young
adolescents would also go on to not only take majors in fields related to the study of
Japan, but also planned to incorporate their interest in non-American cultures into their
professional lives. The path forged by these ―internationalists‖ was often first inspired by
the desire to experience Japanese culture without having to rely upon transcultural
intermediaries such as translators, adapters, U.S. media corporations, and mass media
distributors. While I believe it is important to acknowledge this path may often be
inspired by an uncomplicated desire for the ―authentic,‖ I argue that subjects‘ motivations
80
Subject #9a.
81
Subject #18a.
60
can deepen significantly over time in part due to their experiences in intellectual, social
and embodied transnational contexts. Through intensive study of Japanese and East
Asian cultures, subjects are afforded an opportunity to develop a transnational social
identity that is not defined only through their consumption of Japanese popular culture.
By charting such progression over time I reveal that participating in a transnational
fandom enables many subjects to complicate their social and national identity
positioning.
The first step many subjects take on their path to internationalizing their lives is to
enroll in formal Japanese language training. We might question why many fans yearn to
become their own expert translator of Japanese anime and manga works. In part, many
fans feel dissatisfied with cultural mediators making decisions – on their behalf – about
how anime and manga should be adapted into English. This process of adapting ―global
product for a specific local market‖ is usually referred to as localization.82 In their article
detailing how Pokémon was localized for the American market, Hirofumi Katsuno and
Jeffrey Maret explain that they use this term rather than ―translation‖ to highlight various
acts of adaptation beyond language translation that occur when a show travels one culture
to another. For example, they note that the show transmits information through
audiovisual cues, such as dialogue, background music and sound effects, as well as visual
cues, such as signs, symbols, and facial expressions. One subject, who enjoyed many of
the shonen (or boys‘) shows on Cartoon Network, explained that he started to realize that
there were aspects of these shows that did not necessarily translate when it was dubbed
82
Hirofumi Katsuno and Jeffrey Maret, ―Localizing the Pokémon TV Series for the American Maket,‖
Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon, ed. Joseph Tobin (Durham: Duke University
Press, 2004), 82.
61
and localized for American consumption.83 He was so frustrated by the fact that he was
unable to decode un-translated street signs, as well as other culturally specific references,
he decided to learn Japanese. Greater proficiency in the language would in turn allow
him to ―read‖ all the signs and symbols in the shows he watched, which were often left
un-translated for American audiences.
I found this subject‘s experience was shared by many other fans, particularly his
realization that the media he was watching had been adapted in certain ways which
informed how he experienced translated works. In general, fans consistently express
negative reactions to any perceived smoothing out of anime or manga‘s ―foreignness‖ for
U.S. audiences. In response to the discovery that there is always some form of
―adaptation‖ or ―interpretation‖ of anime and manga texts licensed for U.S. distribution,
subjects often feel motivated to learn Japanese, and study Japanese culture and history, in
an attempt to gain various skills that will allow them to decipher as many levels of
meaning as they can when they consume those media. This belief is also founded on the
perception that it is possible to construct a more ―authentic‖ viewing experience through
language learning.
Subjects who pursue intellectual engagement with Japan are incorporating skills
they have developed as viewers and readers of Japanese popular culture into other areas
of their life, and, therefore, continue seeking skills that would allow them to become
more proficient ―readers‖ of these cultures. James Paul Gee has argued that
―Millennials‖ – or children born in the U.S. after 1982 – have adapted to ―new
capitalism‖ by perceiving themselves in ―entrepreneurial terms,‖ in which they
83
Subject #3a.
62
themselves are a kind of ―project‖ they manage. 84 By building up a ―set of skills,
experiences, and achievements‖ they believe they can adapt to the various changes and
fluctuations in a post-millennial job market. Referring to these individuals as ―shape
shifting portfolio people,‖ Gee notes that success is defined by how well they are able to
―rearrange these skills, experiences and achievements creatively (that is, to shape-shift
into different identities) in order to define themselves anew (as competent and worthy)
for changed circumstances.‖85 Gee notes that many of the common ―cultural pursuits‖ of
these individuals encourages different forms of learning – such as skills gained through
playing video and computer games – that are not respected in formal education settings,
but which, nonetheless, are significant methods for gaining experientially-based skill sets
for this generation.86
Some subjects related to me that their interest in Japanese popular culture forms
and reading practices were often maligned in both their school settings and their homes.
In opposition to the tendency of those around them to dismiss their interests as ―odd,‖ or
―unusual‖ (perhaps even a ―waste of time‖), many subjects have adapted the reception
habits they use to consume anime to be useful in other areas of their lives. Here I outline
the various skill sets subjects seek to consume anime (with a discussion of the skills
associated with manga consumption to follow in chapter 5) in ways which support Gee‘s
argument that millennials manage their own identities as ―portfolios.‖ While Gee has
examined a number of popular youth cultures in relation to learning practices, I expand
84
James Paul Gee, Situated Language and Learning: A Critique of Traditional Schooling (New York:
Routledge, 2004), 105
85
Gee, 105.
86
Gee, 108-09.
63
upon his arguments by showing how engagement with Japanese popular cultures allows
subjects to manage (or constitute) a transcultural social and professional identity.
Among middle-class American fans, Japanese anime fandom encourages various
forms of engagement with the Japanese language. Even fans who have not taken a
Japanese language class often share very specific attitudes about how media, which was
originally created in Japanese for Japanese audiences, should be consumed by Englishspeaking fans. For example, the majority of fans – whether or not they already know or
are planning to learn Japanese – express a preference for watching Japanese anime with
the Japanese language voice track and English language subtitles turned on. When I
attended anime club screenings at the university level, public library anime festivals
geared toward middle and high school patrons, as well as anime screenings at both
national and regional fan conventions, I found that the majority of fans consistently
choose to watch anime in Japanese with English language subtitles rather than dubbed in
English.87
A subject, who was also president of an anime club at the University of Iowa,
explained that his club always allows members to vote on whether to watch anime
dubbed in English or with English subtitles, and watching subtitled anime has almost
always been the preferred choice of the club members.88 Subjects usually have a very
specific reasoning that supports their viewing practices. One subject critiqued anime
voice acting practices in the U.S., noting that the ―industry isn‘t taken seriously‖ here,
and felt that U.S. production norms actually undermined the quality of the adapted
87
Only one subject expressed a preference for watching anime with the English voice track (i.e. dubbing)
turned on. Subject #7a, Interview, 27 March 2008.
88
Subject #4a.
64
product.89 She cited the fact that voice actors record their tracks separately from other
AV actors, and that individual actors ―might not be informed about the show [or] their
character.‖ This subject believed that voice acting was taken more seriously as a
profession in Japan, which by her reasoning would result in higher quality voice acting.
By listening to the Japanese voice actors‘ performances, fans emphasize the significance
of receiving the inflection and tone of the characters as interpreted by the Japanese actors
and directed by Japanese producers, as opposed to the interpretations that the North
American cast and director create for English-language adaptations. While listening to
anime in Japanese increases subjects‘ exposure to the Japanese language, this practice
also may be perceived as a desire for empty forms of authenticity (particularly if the
subject in question does not understand Japanese speech patterns and inflections).
In spite of subjects‘ general dismissive attitudes toward English-language
dubbing, their actual viewing practices reveal a more complicated engagement with
anime as a culturally-adapted media form. Only in rare exceptions did subjects who
regularly watch subtitled admit to preferring the ―dubbed‖ version of a specific anime
title. In one instance, a subject cited ―nostalgia‖ as the reason he would watch an anime
with English dubbing turned on, since he explained that was how he first experienced
certain shows as a young adolescent.90 A few select shows were singled out as having a
―great‖ English language dubs, but for the most part fans seemed to see these as an
exception to the hard and fast rule that English-language adaptations of anime titles were
89
Subject #14a.
90
Subject #3a.
65
inferior to the Japanese ―original.‖91 However, my subjects‘ preferences seemed
situational, as were most subjects‘ decisions about whether or not to watch anime in
Japanese or English. Many fans revealed a certain amount of flexibility in their viewing
practices, as they often adapted their viewing habits depending upon their specific
viewing group. Two subjects noted that when they watched anime with family members
– such as siblings or their own children – they would watch it dubbed in English.92
Such adaptability reveals within certain social contexts fans are willing to make
their anime-viewing practices more approachable to new or uninitiated viewers (perhaps
in the hopes that they can also ―convert‖ fellow viewers and turn those casual viewers
into fans like themselves). I argue that these flexible viewing practices show subjects‘
eagerness to turn their anime consumption into a social experience that can encompass
people outside the circle of Japanese anime fandom. Although fans might use their
consumption practices of subtitled Japanese anime to set them apart from their
contemporaries – as the language difference helps them to visibly assert their interest in a
non-American culture – by watching anime in English in certain social settings they also
work to reach out to anime viewers who might not consciously identify themselves as
anime and manga fans.
In contrast, when fans gather as members of a fangroup they seem to share very
strict expectations that watching anime in Japanese with English language subtitles is
what defines them as fans. People who identity as ―fans,‖ but are in favor of watching
anime dubbed into English, are often derided for their preferences since the prevailing
wisdom is that one cannot be a ―real‖ fan if he or she is willing to accept U.S. localizers‘
91
Subject #4a.
92
Subject #9a. Subject #20a.
66
versions of the text. On anime fansites debates constantly rage between fans who believe
that watching anime subtitled is the only way anime should be viewed and the minority
who believe that English language adaptations are worthwhile versions of various anime
texts. Even a mainstream online media outlet like Amazon.com, which hosts various
―discussions‖ between account holders, has an on-going discussion thread entitled ―WHY
does anyone watch ‗dubbed‘ anime?‖93 This thread has been a lightening rod for
conversation about fan viewing practices, as the originator of the thread posted his
incredulous query in November of 2008 and by September of 2009 the thread reached
530 comments. The creator of the discussion thread opens with a rather inflammatory
question, wondering who would actually choose to watch dubbed anime, which in his
view is essentially abandoning ―one of the major features of anime,‖ i.e. the
performances of the Japanese voice actors. In his post he critiques what he believes is the
small pool of talent available for English-language dubbing, resulting in the overuse of a
few ―big names voice actors,‖ finally concluding, ―It's highly doubtful that the dubbing
industry will ever produce talent to rival Japan's finest and most versatile se[i]yuu [voice
actor].‖ Although the poster chooses to use the Japanese word for voice actor – seiyuu –
he also misspells the word, undermining his self-representation as an expert on Japanese
anime.
In response to his query, a large number of posters respond to his statement,
listing dubs and subs that they love or hate and outline specific criteria which make a
particular English adaption ―good‖ or ―bad‖ according to their perspective. Responding
to others‘ criteria of ―good‖ and ―bad‖ adaptations, fans tackle issues such as
93
Amazon: Customer Discussion: Anime Forum, ―WHY does anyone watch ‗dubbed‘ anime?‖
Amazon.com 25 Nov 2008, <http://www.amazon.com/tag/anime/forum/ref=cm_cd_ tfp_ef_tft_tp?
_encoding= UTF8&cdForum=FxQ0GK9SZ4YFRV&cdThread=Tx1WN60M8CA7A6O> (7 Nov 2009).
67
authenticity, fan elitism, as well as the very question of what does it mean to adapt
foreign media representations for U.S. audiences. When someone states that "there is
also the content that is lost in translation during the dubbing process,‖ a commenter
responds. ―[w]hy is it that people say this? It's not as if subtitles aren't translated too.‖
This response smartly undercuts the idealized notion that circulates in fandom
communities that watching anime in Japanese with English language subtitling is akin to
receiving meaning the way a proficient or native Japanese language speaker would.
English language subtitles are also an interpretation of the Japanese language script;
subtitles not only add another layer of meaning to the original text, I also argue that they
necessitate that viewers employ a different set of media literacies in order to ―consume‖
the representation. In other words, watching subtitles asks that fans to be able to make
sense of the narrative by interpreting not only images and sound, but also be able to decode those systems of meaning while simultaneously reading a written language. In
response to the demands of such a viewing experience, another poster also points out that
by reading subtitles certain individuals might find it challenging to comprehend the story,
particularly since anime is primarily a visual medium. He or she explains,
For me, the most important aspect of watching an anime is in the visuals – people
often take the visuals for granted and they fail to reali[z]e that, just as a script
leads from scene to scene and drives the action, a visual artist (by which I mean
the draughtsman) also takes pains to lead the eye through a scene and from scene
to scene.
These ongoing arguments reveal fans are often critiquing the significance and meanings
inherent in their own viewing practices, as well as the shared community ideologies and
perceptions that support and naturalize these practices.
68
There is no doubt that these community discussions and critiques are greatly
informed by way in which new media technologies have allowed fans a range of options
in how they consume anime representations. Fans who buy North American DVD
releases of anime titles are no longer constrained by the limited features of VHS tapes,
which do not allow for multiple language and subtitling tracks. Previous to the rise of
DVD technology in the late 1990‘s, VHS viewing of anime gave fans two limited
viewing options; official VHS releases were generally dubbed into English, while VHS
―fansubs,‖ or unauthorized fan translated versions of anime shows, were in Japanese with
English language subtitles. VHS fansubs were often distributed on an individual basis,
and were very time consuming to create and then circulate from person to person. In
order to access anime texts fans had the option of mailing each other copies of tapes or
trading them at fan conventions and anime screenings.94 Today, digital fansubs, which
have replaced VHS fansubs, have opened up English-language anime fandom to English
language speakers all over the world since they eliminate the cost and hassle of
transferring material copies of anime shows from fan to fan.95 In addition, the
availability of officially-adapted DVD-releases, as well as online streaming or
downloadable anime, means fans have access to anime shows outside of what is
broadcast on U.S. cable networks or screened at anime clubs and conventions.
Over the past decade, the majority of anime licensed for the North American
market and released in NTSC / REGION 1 DVD format offer a Japanese language track
94
95
Subject #17a.
Significantly, there are also ―fansubs‖ created with other subtitle language tracks besides English – one
can find anime fan-translated into English, Spanish, Italian, German, and Vietnamese, just to name a few
examples.
69
with English language subtitles.96 In addition, most anime DVDs simultaneously offer an
English language track – known as the ―dubbed‖ version – although due to the 2008 U.S.
recession certain anime adaptation companies have stopped producing English language
soundtracks for all of their anime releases. In general, however, DVD technology
empowers both the consumer to determine their own experience of Japanese media and
the U.S. licensor to create transcultural media products that appeal to different fan desires
and needs. In her study of anime fans‘ use and perception of anime DVDs, Laurie
Cubbison explores the way the ―potential of the DVD format….allow[s] for a more plural
experience of the text than other formats can,‖ since the viewer is empowered to ―turn
subtitles on and off and switch between multiple audio tracks.‖97 Cubbison shows how
official North American anime DVD releases ultimately satisfies both fans who are
proponents of ―subs‖ and those who advocate for ―dubs,‖ since ―the capacity of the
format rendered the sub versus sub debate moot by providing a product both factions
would buy and feel satisfied by the authenticity of their viewing experience.‖98 Although
the debate has never really been laid to rest among anime fans as shown by the example
of the contentious Amazon.com thread – started three years after Cubbison‘s study was
published – Cubbison is correct in noting that anime DVDs meet a variety of fan
consumer needs.
By choosing to watch anime in Japanese with English-language subtitles, subjects
have learned to experience visual media in new ways. They have had to hone reading
and listening comprehension skills that they otherwise would not necessarily find
96
NTSC/REGION 1 DVDs are distributed in the United States and Canada.
97
Cubbison, 46, 50.
98
Cubbison, 50.
70
―useful‖ in their everyday lives if it were not for their conscious decision to consume
Japanese anime in specific ways. One subject even explained that her older brother
became much more fluent in his English language literacy since the two of them made it
a practice to view subtitled anime together; otherwise, she explained, her family was not
able to interest him in traditional literacy forms, such as novels.99 Significantly,
engagement with anime and manga encourages fans to become proficient in a host of
―new literacies,‖ or texts which cross or intermix a variety of platforms, ―including
traditional print documents, graphic arts, spoken and embodied language, and other forms
of online and post-typographic communication.‖100 According to Rebecca Ward Black
these new forms of literacy are linked to ―new information and communication
technologies (ICT) that allow for traversal across temporal and spatial boundaries.‖101 In
her study of anime watchers‘ creation of fan works and language learning practices,
Black argues that interest in anime, manga and fanfiction have encouraged the
―development of literacy and social practices that traverse accustomed national, cultural,
linguistic, and producer-consumer boundaries.‖102 By looking at literacy as a ―social
practice,‖ Black outlines a theoretical perspective from which to conceptualize these fan
readers ―as active, agentive literacy users, [who] take up dominant forms of literacy and
fashion them to suit particular needs and perspectives of local contexts.‖103
99
Subject #17a.
100
Rebecca Ward Black, ―Just Don‘t Call Them Cartoons: The New Literacy Spaces of Anime, Manga,
and Fanfiction,‖ in Handbook of Research on New Literacies, eds. Julie Coiro, Michele Knobel, Colin
Lankshear, and Donald J. Leu (New York: Routledge, 2008), 584.
101
Black, 583.
102
Black, 584.
103
Black, 585.
71
Black‘s research shows how fans‘ proficiency in Japanese gives them a special
status within fandom communities that they might not otherwise experience in their
immediate social sphere. Black specifically examines how English language learners (or
―ELLs‖) from Asia who ―are often a disadvantage in English based writing and reading
activities in classrooms have the opportunity to take on powerful identities as experts on
anime, manga, and Asian languages or culture within this social space.‖104 Although my
subjects were not ELLs – with the exception of one Chinese-American subject who had
immigrated to the U.S. as a child and who spoke English fluently – they positioned
themselves in ways which were both similar and different from Blacks‘ subjects.
I argue that Japanese language learning has become an integral component in how
native English speaking fans constitute their social identities. Nine out of nineteen
subjects I interviewed that were eighteen years old or older had previously studied or
were currently learning Japanese.105 The national rates of Japanese language enrollment
in higher education increased 21.1% between 1998 and 2002 – just around the time many
of my subjects would first begin watching anime – almost twice the percentage of the
increase in Spanish language enrollment during that same time period.106 However, it is
important to note that in 2002 total Spanish language enrollment in higher education was
746,267 compared to 52,238 in Japanese. While clearly these numbers reflect a national
trend of increased interest in Japanese language learning, there is no doubt that my
104
Black, 601.
105
It is worth noting that the three teenage fans I interviewed who were under the age of eighteen did not
yet have access to Japanese language classes, as many public high schools in the U.S. do not offer courses
or electives in East Asian languages. In spite of that fact, two of the three teenage subjects expressed
interest in learning Japanese in the future.
106
Elizabeth B. Welles, ―Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Education,
Fall 2002,‖ Profession (2004): 130.
72
subjects‘ enrollment rate in Japanese was much higher than the national average. A
number of subjects who had not taken formal Japanese language instruction seemed
interested in doing so in the future, and others mentioned that they had often been
inspired to teach themselves Japanese vocabulary they had come across while viewing
anime or participating in anime fandom.107
As a result of their language training, a significant percentage of subjects learning
Japanese – 33% or one-third – would go on to participate in fandom groups responsible
for translating and distributing unofficial digital anime or manga texts online. Like
Black‘s ELLs, these subjects use their language skills as a way to position themselves
within fandom as cultural mediators. However, it is important to note that many of my
subjects were able to enter fandom as ―experts‖ even if they did not know the Japanese
language. One subject participated in a fansub group by acting as their English language
proofreader, while others often acted as fangroup organizers, either by leading anime and
manga clubs in high school or becoming elected leaders of anime clubs at the collegiate
level.
Importantly, this entire subject group of Japanese language learners continued to
engage Japan‘s popular culture, but for more varied – sometimes utilitarian – purposes
than they did before they started learning the language. In particular, those that enrolled
or completed advanced Japanese language classes (year three and beyond), will often
employ un-translated Japanese anime shows, manga, and video games as personal
teaching tools to help them gain greater proficiency in the language. One subject
explained that he had found an online Japanese website that allowed him to buy manga
directly from Japan and helped him to maintain his reading comprehension skills now
107
Subject #5a, Interview, 18 March 2008. Subject #8a.
73
that he was no longer receiving formal instruction in the language.108 Another subject
explained that he used manga to help him learn Japanese while he lived in Japan, working
as a secondary school English language instructor.109 Since he worked full-time during
the day speaking English, manga consumption became a self-directed teaching practice
that he could do in his spare time. Additionally, he explained that manga‘s popularity
and ubiquitous nature in Japan made it a daily practice that he shared with both his fellow
Japanese teachers and his students.
A few subjects mentioned that they imported Japanese video games as well, one
subject going so far as to buy a Japanese Sony Playstation (as opposed to a Sony
Playstation made for U.S. the market, which will not play media in Japanese region
formats). He described playing Japanese video games as a ―great teaching tool,‖ since he
could ―see and hear Japanese at the same time‖ when playing the games.110 Another fan
expressed interest in what he described as ―uniquely Japanese games,‖ and singled out
one by the name of Okami.111 This game, originally created by a Japanese studio for
release in both Japan and the U.S., features a wolf-spirit from Japanese folk legends and
adapts traditional Japanese art forms such as Ukiyo-e (or woodblock) to create painterly
backgrounds. This game may have been created by a Japanese studio but was
simultaneously released in both the U.S. and Japan and has been adapted for many video
game platforms in the United States. The subject noted that by taking a Japanese
108
Subject #1a, Interview, 29 Feb 2008.
109
Subject #16a, Interview, 28 September 2008.
110
Subject #3a.
111
Subject #9a.
74
literature class he was exposed to folk stories that helped him gain a greater appreciation
for how the game adapted Japanese traditional culture into contemporary popular culture.
By using Japanese anime, manga, and video games as teaching tools, subjects are
engaging these works in new ways. Additionally, by reading manga or watching anime
in Japanese on their own time, and without the help of cultural intermediaries, subjects
afford themselves the opportunity to sift through unfiltered information and learn to
translate Japanese culture – not just the Japanese language – for themselves. Not only are
they reinforcing what they have learned in the classroom, they are also bringing two
worlds together – their scholarly pursuit of Japanese culture and their everyday
consumption of anime and manga – in order consolidate their identity as fully
transcultural within their local U.S. environments.
As noted earlier, a number of fans who were inspired to learn Japanese in order to
become their own ―translator‖ of anime and manga texts went on to become transcultural
mediators within fandom. A few were even considering seeking work as professional
Japanese-to-English translators after they finished their degrees. I found that subjects
often used their knowledge of Japanese to critique how U.S. media corporations adapt
anime and manga for the North American market. One subject, ―Molly,‖ explained that
she personally disliked ―professional translations‖ and actually preferred fan translations
of manga.112 However, she was so predisposed to disliking official cultural adaptations
and translations that even before she learned Japanese she had volunteered to help out a
fan translation group with non-translation related tasks. She joined a well-known fan
group her senior year of high school and became the English language ―editor‖ – i.e. she
edited the fans‘ English language translations of the manga‘s Japanese script. She would
112
Subject #17a.
75
later create her own scanlation group and act as a Japanese-to-English translator after
years of Japanese language study. This gave her the opportunity to make specific
translation and adaptation choices that she felt should be employed as a general rule by
the North American media corporations who officially licensed anime and manga texts.
Molly explained she often disagreed with a number of translation choices that Englishlanguage publishing companies made – such as not using honorifics, or not including
endnotes / footnotes to explain cultural references – and felt she could redress those
choices through her own fan translations. She explained to me that she was interested in
maintaining both ―readability‖ and ―accuracy,‖ implying that official translations often
sacrificed one for the other. By learning Japanese this subject felt empowered to
intercede in cultural flows between Japan and English-speaking fan communities and
foster her own cultural adaptation practices.
Fans generally seem to share a certain perception that U.S. media companies are
almost always doing some form of masking (perhaps even harm) to foreign content
through their localization practices. This belief often inspires fans to attempt to develop a
greater mastery of the material in its ―original‖ (assumed, perhaps, to be a more
―authentic‖) form. By deeming only non-localized versions of Japanese anime to be
―authentic,‖ fans are, in a sense, rejecting U.S. adapters‘ cultural authority to decide how
they can experience non-American cultures. With their Japanese language experience
some fans feel qualified as ―experts‖ to critique adaptation choices made by U.S. media
corporations. These fans use their expertise to assert their preferences in how anime and
manga are translated for U.S. audiences, and are able to use their knowledge to critique
practices they see as damaging the integrity of the original creation.
76
However, these attitudes also tend to imagine that the object in question is a
transparent expression of Japanese culture, a belief that many scholars have taken issue
with, pointing out that anime and manga are cultural forms greatly informed by
transcultural exchanges between Japan and ―The West‖ (or specifically, American culture
industries such as comic books and film).113 In spite of their original interest in
participating in fan translation groups, many of my subjects who become proficient in
Japanese have career aspirations as Japanese-to-English translators. Significantly, many
translators and adapters currently working in the U.S. anime and manga publishing
industry started out as fans. 114 This fact implies that some subjects may grow out of the
desire to treat the anime and manga texts as ―special‖ or ―authentic‖ representation of
Japanese culture, and eventually prefer to foster sustained intercultural flows between
Japan and English-speaking nations.
I found that learning Japanese is only the first step many of my subjects take in
order to begin internationalizing their lives. I did not get the sense that individuals
learning Japanese were only doing so to consume Japanese media in its original form.
While clearly fans were motivated to learn Japanese to consume anime and manga
without relying upon U.S. corporations to act as intermediaries of Japanese popular, their
studies also encouraged them to internationalize their perspective of the world. In other
words, fans do not choose to learn the language in isolation from other types of study of
Japan, and as a group they actively seek classes in Japanese history, literature, and
113
Mark W. MacWilliams, ―Introduction,‖ in Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations of the World of
Manga and Anime, ed. By Mark W. MacWilliams (New York: East Gate Book: 2008), 18.
114
Minako O‘Hagan, ―Fan Translator Networks: An Accidental Translator Training Environment,‖ in
Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, Methods and Debates, ed by John Kearns (Continuum, 2008),
178-179.
77
culture. Almost all subjects interviewed showed some kind of interest in visiting Japan
and knowing more about the culture (as a whole) and the nation‘s history. However,
their engagement with Japanese coursework is not just about ―mastering‖ Japan through
the acquisition of knowledge; by becoming students of Japanese culture, these subjects
were creating opportunities to experience not only Japan itself outside the space of the
classroom or the anime screening room, but also themselves as members of an
internationally-minded community of young Americans.
For example, at least two subjects found that by entering into Japanese language
courses and culture studies they had an opportunity to meet and socialize with others who
were interested in Japanese popular culture.115 This opportunity would become
particularly significant for subjects who were raised in small towns with limited access to
non-local cultures and experiences. One subject explained that she had always thought
she ―was completely weird because [she] loved this Japanese culture,‖ but in college she
discovered people in her classes and in online forums that shared her interests.116 Now
instead of hiding her interest in manga, as she had in high school, she traded manga
books with the friends she had made in her Japanese language classes. These experiences
helped her realize that manga could also be for people her in her ―age group,‖ and gave
her the courage to ―accept‖ her interest in cultural forms which people from her
hometown, and her own family, might not necessarily understand. Another subject noted
that by taking Japanese language classes, he could easily meet other students who were
interested in anime, which gave him another avenue for social interaction as a college
115
Subject #9a. Subject #12a.
116
Subject #12a.
78
student.117 While in chapter 3 I will examine the ways in which online fandom spaces
allow subjects to assert their fan identities across spatial boundaries, it is worth noting
that the space of the classroom also allows fans to assert their identities as a loosely
affiliated community (as opposed to the more structured experience of belonging to an
anime club).
In interviews conducted with U.S. Japanese language learners, Natsuki Fukunaga
investigated how consumption of anime has inspired fans to develop an interest in foreign
language literacy. Although her sample was extraordinarily small – only three students –
it is worth noting even with such a small sample she uncovered three different
motivations that inspired anime fans to learn Japanese, which in turn reflected differences
in how each individual integrated their interest in Japanese popular culture into their
everyday lives.118 Fukunaga explains that her student ―Emily‖ wanted to establish herself
socially within the anime community at her university, ―Ted,‖ planned to train as a
Japanese-English language translator, and ―Sean‖ studied for a year in Japan and planned
to attend go to graduate school to become an ―expert in areas of history, traditional and
contemporary culture and society, linguistics, literature and martial arts.‖ Fukunaga sees
these subjects‘ motives as resulting in three different outcomes with three different levels
of commitment to Japanese culture, with Emily‘s commitment to Japanese culture
perceived as relatively short-term, since once she established herself socially in her anime
club she lost interest in learning Japanese.
117
118
Subject #9a.
Natsuki Fukunaga, ―‘Those Anime Students‘: Foreign Language Literacy Development through
Japanese Popular Culture,‖ Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 50, no. 3 (Nov 2006): 219.
79
With the data collected from a larger sample of subjects, I instead perceive
subjects‘ establishing a range of experiences that allowed them to engage Japanese
culture both through their enrollment in Japanese studies courses, but also through social
activities such as attending an anime club. In both instances, subjects are using their
interest in anime and manga to enter into arenas that foster a variety of forms of
engagement with Japanese popular culture. However, I do agree with Fukunaga‘s
general conclusion that language education gave fans the opportunity to ―[engage] with
the new language and culture in unique ways to meet their own needs and desires to
know other people, languages, societies, and the world.‖ I would also add that this
engagement affords subjects an opportunity to develop a relationship to Japan and
Japanese culture that was not defined by consumption of ―Japan‖ through media, or
fascination with Japan as the ―exotic‖ element in their lives.
The majority of subjects I interviewed who discovered anime and manga as young
adolescents would go on to use enrollment in higher education as a way to affordably
access knowledge about Japanese culture. Significantly, many of these subjects‘ class
backgrounds were firmly rooted – ideologically, at least – in the American middle class,
which allowed them the relative freedom to explore their own intellectual interests at the
collegiate level. However, not all subjects necessarily had the luxury of attending college
immediately after earning a high school diploma. One subject explained that she had
chosen to return to college after a number of years partly because she was inspired to
learn Japanese in a classroom setting thanks to her interest in anime and manga.119 This
subjects‘ interest in an international culture gave her a path – perhaps an excuse or clearly
defined motivation – to enter the higher education setting that she otherwise lacked in her
119
Subject #20a.
80
life. In addition to their interest in the academic study of Japanese culture and language,
most subjects expressed an interest in traveling to Japan, and a significant number had
already visited the country. As a whole, subjects expressed interest in experiencing
Japanese culture beyond watching a television show or reading a comic book that
originated from that culture. Many had planned, or were currently planning, visits to
Japan that went beyond the ritualized encounter with another culture that in the U.S.
might only be understood as ―tourism.‖
Most subjects traveled to Japan as ―students‖ of Japanese culture. A few went on
high school student exchange trips, while a greater number spent a significant amount of
time in Japan as part of their travel abroad experience as university students. Subjects
would often live with Japanese host families or in student dorms during their time in
Japan. One subject stressed that his experience of living in Japan was greatly enriched by
staying with host families (over the course of a year he spent time with three different
host families, and noted each family exhibited different levels of English-language
proficiency, forcing him outside his linguistic comfort zone).120 He described his
relationship with his host families as a process of ―give and take,‖ through which he
would share his culture with them as they did with him.
Everyone who had been to Japan valued their experiences immensely as it gave
them an opportunity to incorporate what had formerly been an object of consumption –
whether that was in the form of popular media, such as anime or manga, or as knowledge
though coursework – into various aspects of their daily lives. A few subjects had already
traveled to Japan twice, and all who had already been expressed a desire to return – often
not just as students but as professionals. Significantly, additional subjects were in the
120
Subject #9a.
81
process of making plans to travel to Japan either through study abroad programs or were
making plans to travel to Japan after they graduated from college. A number of subjects
who had not been to Japan themselves often referenced stories of friends or family
members who had already traveled there, which gave them gain a greater understanding
of how travel to Japan would enrich their experience of Japanese culture as a whole.121
Graduating with a four year degree from a U.S. university will not end many of
these subjects‘ engagement with Japanese culture and language. Four subjects mentioned
that they planned to enroll in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programmes, commonly
known as ―JET,‖ which requires its participants to commit to teaching the English
language in Japanese communities for two years. A number of other subjects were
interested in potentially using their Japanese language skills to find jobs as Japanese-toEnglish translators. One subject wanted to find work as a Japanese-to-English translator
in the U.S., and two others expressed a desire to seek translation work while living in
Japan.122 One of the graduate students I interviewed expressed a strong commitment to
teaching Asian languages and cultures in U.S. high schools, since he felt that the U.S. had
weak Asian studies programs in secondary education.123 This subject had already lived in
Japan for six years working as an English teacher, and he had returned to the U.S. to
receive a master‘s degree in Education in the hopes he could help reform secondary
education curriculums in the U.S. to include some form of East Asian studies. Two other
subjects were interested in combining their Japanese major with a second major –
121
Subject #14a.
122
Subject #20a. Subject #17a. Subject #9a.
123
Subject #16a.
82
specifically, International Studies and Medicine – as a way they could bring a specific set
of skills to potential work in Japan or other nations in East Asia.124
As noted earlier, James Paul Gee‘s formation of ―shape-shifting portfolio people‖
is particularly useful to understanding how these subjects enter professional fields based
upon skills that they first acquired in order to consume popular international youth
cultures, and often continue to develop in order to later manage (or constitute) a
transcultural social and professional identity. As a result, I argue that these subjects are
actively positioning themselves as transcultural mediators. While some seek to become
literal ―mediators‖ by becoming professional translators, as a whole these individuals are
exploring forms of cultural exchange that are not based only in the circulation of media
cultures, but also incorporate person-to-person relationships and interactions.
International culture is not merely on the periphery of these subjects‘ lives as something
that they only consume, or an interest that they will ―grow out of‖ as they mature, but
something that they participate in and help produce. Even subjects who had not yet
started to acquire the ―skill sets‖ necessary to position themselves on a transnational
stage, expressed an openness and interest in doing so in the future. This reveals that fans‘
interest in Japanese popular culture speaks to a need to not merely ―dominate‖ an
imaginary Japan through consumption, but a strong desire to experience international
cultures and contexts first-hand. These subjects actively seek experiences that challenge
and often reconfigure their sense of self and their world in order to develop new ways to
navigate across and through cultures.
124
Subject #19a. Subject #20a.
83
Conclusion
While most subjects seemed to share similar origin stories – watching anime in
the home as young adolescents – in this chapter I have argued that the most significant
similarity in how they developed as fans was the ways in which their engagement with
Japanese anime and manga would come to inform how they constituted their adult
identities. As these fans matured they have transformed their interest in traditional acts
of consumption (such as watching television and reading comics) into practices of
socialization and production via online and real spaces (such as anime clubs, reading
groups, fan conventions and even Japanese classes). The societal, perhaps primarily
parental, assumption that their interest in anime and manga was ―just a phase‖
underestimates the ways in which these texts sustained subjects‘ need for greater
exposure to cultures and experiences of the world that were different from their local
ones. More than just sustained that need, I have shown how interest in this particular
international popular culture also helped them foster their attempts to engage non-local
cultures in multiple real world arenas, including their educational and professional lives.
In a world in which America is geographically isolated from the rest of the world, to find
and recognize ―difference‖ via the television, a technology almost every American child
has access to, became one the most significant and widely available paths subjects used
to overcome both the physical and cultural borders of the U.S.
I organized this chapter to reflect my discovery of two very broad stages that fans
pass through in their understanding of Japan and Japanese culture – starting from an
imagined Japan pieced together from their experiences of Japanese popular media to a
Japan experienced through multiple contexts of the classroom and visits to the country
84
itself. While these stages cannot be entirely distinguished from each other – as
sometimes subjects search out the classroom environment to bring new forms of
knowledge to their consumption practices – it is clear that most subjects‘ engagement
with Japan deepens and changes focus over time. In addition, although each fan‘s
journey through these stages may be highly individualistic, since most share certain
educational privileges of the American middle class, they feel well-equipped to express
themselves and their interests in the culture through coursework and study abroad
programs. While most fans seemed to begin in the same place – watching anime from
home as young adolescents – I believe that the most significant similarity in how their
paths developed over time was the ways in which their engagement with Japanese anime
and manga would come to inform how they constituted their adult selves. Study
participants who identified as fans of Japanese popular culture embark on
internationalizing journeys that actually begin in their home via exposure through an
international children‘s show, and this journey does not end with a visit to Japan, but
often continues throughout their entire adult lives.
My findings reveal that fandom studies can benefit by targeting not merely
audience reception or consumption practices, but how such activities change or develop
during the progression of subjects‘ lives. While many fandom studies target brief periods
of time in subjects‘ lives, through the interviewing process I was able to reconstruct
personal narratives about how individuals‘ engagement with Japanese popular culture
fandom developed over time, as well as how that engagement would eventually influence
other arenas of their lives. This work speaks to the possibilities of extending the study of
fandom activity and audience reception practices across different stages of life – i.e. pre-
85
adolescence, adolescence, and young adulthood – to further grasp how these temporary
social formations can lead to a lasting impact upon how young Americans position
themselves in the world.
86
CHAPTER THREE:
FANDOM NETWORKS ACROSS SPACES: ANIME & MANGA FANDOM
AT LOCAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL AND VIRTUAL LEVELS
Introduction
This chapter maps subjects‘ experience of their anime and manga fan practices as
overlapping networks that take place in ―real‖ and ―virtual‖ spaces. The majority of
academic work being done on Japanese popular culture in English adapts the tools of
literary and cinema studies in order to analyze comics and animated shows as
representational forms. I have chosen to forgo direct textual analysis in order to outline
how Japanese popular culture is experienced and made sense of by individuals in the
U.S., who often constitute their social identity as fans through a shared set of specific
consumption, interpretive, and performative practices. I want to make connections
between the virtual and embodied spaces fans use to not only consume Japanese popular
culture, but also to communicate how their interest in shared sets of specific texts informs
their social identities. To avoid enforcing an artificial division between ―consuming‖
versus ―producing‖ fan practices, I explore how fans bridge these spaces and roles
through their shared activities – spaces and roles which are not experienced as disparate
by ―the fan‖ at all.
I argue that fans‘ consumption of Japanese media is often turned into a productive
practice. However, what is ―produced‖ is entirely dependent upon how individual
subjects constitute themselves as a fan via specific social networks available to them
locally or virtually. Through in-depth interviews with self-identified fans of Japanese
87
popular culture, I track how locally-situated individuals participate in both the flow of
Japanese popular culture into the U.S. and the formation of local and virtual
environments that allow for fans to receive these works as members of communities. My
focus is upon how Japanese popular culture fandom in the U.S. is constituted through a
wide range of practices that are informed not only by a multiplicity of interpretative
communities fans have constructed, but how fans incorporate their engagement with such
communities into their everyday lives.
In order to understand how subjects move through a variety of spaces in order to
assert themselves as fans of Japanese animation or comics, I adapt a method George E.
Marcus describes as ―multi-sited ethnography.‖1 In the 1990‘s, Marcus offered a
theoretical basis for an ethnographic method that adapts methodologies traditionally used
to approach a single site in order to give a ―holistic‖ account of a ―peoples or local
subjects.‖2 Significantly, Marcus notes that multi-sited ethnography developed through
―anthropology participating in a number of interdisciplinary…arenas that have evolved
since the 1980‘s, such as media studies, feminist studies, science and technology studies,
various strands of cultural studies.‖3 In order to understand how Americans‘ interest in
certain international popular cultures has influenced their lives, I have studied the sites
through which they articulate and produce their identities as fans. Following Marcus‘
articulation of an interdisciplinary practice of anthropology allows me to develop a
―mobile ethnography [that] takes unexpected trajectories in tracing a cultural formation
1
George E. Marcus, ―ETHNOGRAPHY IN/OF THE WORLD SYSTEM: The Emergence of Multi-Sited
Ethnography,‖ Annual Review of Anthropology 24 (1995): 95-117.
2
Marcus, 97.
3
Marcus, 97.
88
across and within multiple sites of activity.‖4 In addition to interviewing fan subjects, I
have observed online anime communities and discussion forums, as well as spaces where
fans gather in embodied spaces as a community, such as anime conventions, anime
screenings, and anime festivals.
In his 1995 formulation of multi-sited ethnography, Marcus articulates a number
of potential methodologies which could be used to frame both an ―object‖ of study and
the various paths through which the object in question travels. I have employed two
methodologies to help focus my investigation of fan culture – I both ―follow the people,‖
which means I follow the fans and their performance of their fandom in a variety of
spaces, and I also ―follow the thing,‖ or fans‘ relationship to the circulation of various
media representations in material and digital forms.5 The subject of this study extends
beyond an audience group‘s reception of a single text, or genre of texts, to draw out the
complexities in how these fans construct their lives and identities not only through their
engagement with the texts but also with each other. I track how such engagement may
happen in a variety of environments, and how each individual fan subject creates a
complex network for themselves that weaves in and out of virtual spaces and local public
spheres.
In order to understand subjects‘ fan practices within the various contexts through
which they experience and make sense of them, I found it important to monitor both their
online and embodied engagement with anime and manga fandom. I, therefore, conduct a
form of internet ethnography (or ―netnography‖ as it is sometimes referred to) that has
been taken up by many new media researchers working to explore identity-formation
4
Marcus, 96.
5
Marcus, 106-107.
89
practices constituted through subjects‘ on-line practices. Robert V. Kozinets notes the
variety of social research applications for internet ethnography, citing prominent studies
on cross-cultural illegal file sharing practices, videogamers response to gamer-oriented
online advertising, and online consumer activism.6 Kozinets emphasizes that internet
ethnography targets the ―self-presentation strategies that people use to construct a ‗digital
self‘ and stresses the importance of treating online social interactions as one would socalled ―real interactions,‖ since the ―world as people live it…includes the use of
technology to communicate, to commune, to socialize, to express and to understand.‖7
The online communities that I analyze here were not chosen randomly, but were inspired
by the types of online activities referenced by fans I interviewed. In those cases when
subjects did not mention a specific online community, I offer discussion of a community,
or a set of community practices, that I believe reflects or illuminates subjects‘ online
experiences as much as possible.
While internet ethnography has been validated as a methodology to study a
variety of social practices, I want to note that this particular study adapts internet
ethnography methods into a larger framework for understanding how subjects‘ online
practices relate to, and become part of, their everyday lives. This framework is built by
linking data collected through subject interviews, observation of fans‘ embodied practices
(which, as noted earlier, include anime screenings, anime clubs, fan conventions, and
anime festivals) and finally, observation of a few key online fan communities. Unlike
chapter 2, where I tracked a fairly well-ordered progression in how subjects related to
6
Robert V. Kozinets, Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online (London: Sage Publications:
2009) , 1. Please also see Paul Booth, Digital Fandom: New Media Studies (New York: Peter Lang, 2010).
7
Kozinets, 1-2.
90
anime and manga as an international popular culture from their pre-adolescence into their
young adulthood, this chapter reveals that as a group subjects develop their performance
of their fan identity in a much less linear manner. After interviewing approximately
twenty-three fans aged fourteen to thirty, I found that subjects do not ―progress‖ from
virtual environments to embodied ones, or vice versa. Instead, I argue that subjects‘
understanding of themselves as fans is a multi-layered experience in which they take as
they need from both virtual and embodied environments.
Throughout this chapter I use the word ―network‖ to describe fan practices across
a range of environments to help underscore the fact that fans, as a whole, find and sustain
their own pathways in order to produce not only their unique fan identity but
communities where they can perform this identity. I begin by examining how subjects
use the internet and participation in online fan communities to construct and perform
their identities. In the second section of the chapter I reveal how fans transition backand-forth from virtual and embodied fan communities in very individualistic ways. In
both sections I am also careful to attend to how the transnational origin of anime and
manga informs how fans understand and perform themselves in both local social spheres
and virtual online networks.
Fandom Identities as Virtual Productions
While almost all of my subjects discovered Japanese animation because it aired
on cable television in their home, none of the subjects who identified as ―fans‖ were
content to only receive that limited stream of Japanese media content into the United
91
States.8 Understanding that the media they consumed was Japanese (or not domestic) in
origin meant subjects started actively seeking information about related media, such as
videogames, comics, and pop songs, which were often part of the same anime franchise
that had first caught their attention. This usually meant relying upon the internet as a
source of information in order to learn what exactly ―Japanese anime‖ was, and perhaps
come to understand why it had interested them in the first place. For many subjects, the
internet then very quickly became a rich source for digital copies of Japanese anime and
manga works that were not otherwise available in the North American maketplace.
These unofficial digitized adaptations – translated and distributed online by fans –
allowed subjects to experience a wide range of Japanese media thanks to formation of
these English-language online fan-networks devoted to the circulation of Japanese anime
and manga (such translation and distribution networks are the subject of chapter 4).
These online networks devoted to unofficial flows of Japanese culture also put
subjects in contact with virtual audience groups who shared their interests and reception
practices. While one or two subjects were able to find fellow fans in their own homes –
often through older siblings who introduced them to anime and manga – a few others
would discover a context for their interest in their immediate social spheres, such as at
their middle school, high school or college. However, a significant sub-set of subjects,
often raised in culturally-homogenous small town environments, would only come to
understand their interest as a type of fandom by searching out online communities. This
online exploration gave subjects an opportunity to understand their own needs and desires
8
The few subjects who were not exposed to anime on U.S. television generally pointed to specific Japanese
video game franchises – such as the Final Fantasy game series – that were licensed for the U.S.
marketplace and which inspired their specific interest in Japanese media. Subject #1a, Interview, 29 Feb
2008. Subject #16a, Interview, 28 Sep 2008.
92
as audiences that they felt their local community or peer group could not provide.
Contact with online anime and manga fandom enabled many subjects to understand
themselves as a ―fan‖ since it exposed them to like-minded individuals who shared their
interest in certain sets of texts, as well as virtual communities devoted to discussing and
analyzing those texts.
One female subject, ―Ann,‖ explained in her interview that it was quite a relief
when she first discovered so many online communities devoted to anime and manga. 9
While Ann did not engage these communities directly, instead choosing to watch their
activities from the sidelines – known in internet speak as ―lurking‖ – visiting them helped
her envision herself as an adult fan. The very existence of such communities led her to
realize that ―people [her] own age‖ were interested in these media after adolescence and
that she wasn‘t ―completely weird because [she] loved this Japanese culture.‖ Just
obtaining knowledge of online fandom networks helped her to accept her interests as
valid, in spite of the fact that her family and her small town community thought her
interests, as well as her level of interest, as ―strange.‖ She noted that while she knew of
―casual fans‖ in high school, no one was really ―into‖ anime and manga the way she was.
Lacking models for fan identity in her immediate social sphere, this particular subject
used her online activity as a way to understand herself as a fan. Although Ann did not
directly engage other fans through these networks, her awareness of their existence and
practices gave her the courage to be more open about her interests in her everyday life.
She chose to take Japanese language classes as a college student, which helped her to find
―people like her,‖ i.e. other fans, and meant she felt she no longer had to keep ―a part of
[her] life‖ a secret from the people around her.
9
Subject #12a, Interview, 4 Sep 2008.
93
She was clearly not the only female fan who felt socially isolated by her interests;
before one of my subjects, ―Melissa‖ started a high school anime club, she noted that she
went online seeking people to simply ―talk to about anime.‖10 Melissa explained that she
engaged other fans through a variety of different websites, and each site met different
needs she had as a fan of anime and manga. She singled out the site, ―Gaia Online,‖
which she explained was similar to Facebook, (except ―you don‘t know anyone‖), and
gave her a sense of connection with fandom. Gaia Online is a social networking site
focused on online gaming with forums devoted to such diverse topics as anime, manga,
U.S. media entertainment, gaming, music, and sports. Through participation in the
forums, Melissa noted that she ―learned more about anime,‖ and perhaps, even about why
she had become interested in anime in the first place. Online fandom participation
clearly offered Melissa an avenue for self-expression that she otherwise lacked in her
everyday life.
I believe that many subjects like Ann and Melissa entered online fan
environments as a way of not only expressing their interest in anime and manga, but also
as a way of making sense of that media and why they were interested in in it. Fandom
begins through what John Fiske describes as ―semiotic productivity,‖ which ―consists of
making meanings of social identity and of social experience from the semiotic resources
of the cultural commodity.‖11 Significantly, Fiske notes that semiotic productivity begins
as an ―interior‖ process and ―when the meanings made are spoken and are shared within a
face-to-face or oral culture they take a public form that may be called enunciative
10
11
Subject #11a, Interview, 25 Aug 2008.
John Fiske, ―The Cultural Economy of Fandom,‖ The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular
Media, ed, by Lisa A. Lewis (New York: Routledge, 1992), 37.
94
productivity.‖ ―Eunciative productivity‖ fosters the formation of a shared language,
―which is specific to its speaker and its social and temporal context. Fan talk is the
generation and circulation of certain meanings of the object of fandom within a local
community.‖12 Writing in the early 1990‘s, Fiske is clearly thinking only about ―face-toface‖ productions of fandom communities, but I argue that my subjects‘ turn to online
anime and manga communities is a parallel attempt to turn their individual experience of
―semiotic productivity‖ into ―enunciative productivity‖ through the contemporary
communication networks available to them. The virtual aspects of these networks (as
opposed to those Fiske discussed) enable adolescent subjects the ability to connect
socially to individuals who share similar media interests but are located outside their
immediate social spheres.
However, by forwarding this argument I am very purposefully reading against
some of my own subjects‘ perception of online their activities. Ann, for instance,
responded in her written questionnaire that ―no,‖ she did not participate in online fan
communities, but, nonetheless, in her interview revealed how central her knowledge of
the existence of such communities became to how she understood her own identity.
When subjects aged eighteen to thirty were asked in a questionnaire, ―Do you participate
in online manga and anime fandom groups,‖ ten answered yes, while nine answered that
they did not actively participate in online fandom communities.13 Significantly, when the
nine subjects that answered they did not participate in online fandom groups were asked
in interviews about whether or not they used the internet to watch or download fan12
13
Fiske, 38.
The internet-use practices of subjects aged seventeen years and younger are not considered here because
those subjects were given a different questionnaire than those aged eighteen and older had received
(therefore, their responses would not synchronize with the ones given by adult subjects).
95
translated anime (known as ―fansubs‖) or read fan-translated manga (known as
―scanlations‖), six of those nine responded that they currently did or had previously done
so on a regular basis. In other words, sixteen of nineteen subjects had some form of
online engagement with fandom communities and practices, even if they did not perceive
themselves as ―active participants‖ in those fandom communities.
Subjects categorized their online activity differently depending upon whether or
not they considered downloading or acts of consumption a form of ―participation.‖
However, the ten subjects who did perceive their online activities as forms of
participation in fandom revealed that their activities varied in levels of consistency and
intensity. For some, access to online fandom communities simply meant that they had
access to an informational resource that allowed them to learn more about anime and
manga franchises. For others, online communities offered a variety of spaces that
allowed them to communicate with other fans about their interest in specific anime or
manga texts. And finally, for some subjects participation in online communities afforded
them a space through which they could share creative or interpretive works – based on
anime or manga properties – with other fans.
Most significantly, whether or not fans answered ―yes‖ or ―no‖ to the question of
whether or not they actively participated in fandom communities, most fans explained
that they had relied upon specific anime and manga information networks when they
started to become conscious of themselves as fans of Japanese anime or manga. More
than one fan named the site the ―Anime News Network‖ (often referred to simply as
―ANN‖) as an important online resource site that they visited on a regular basis.14 In
addition to daily reportage on the activities of the anime and manga industries in both
14
Subject #4a, Interview, 15 March 2008. Subject #9a, Interview, 1 Aug 2008.
96
Japan and the U.S., coverage of fan conventions held in each country, weekly editorial
features, and reviews of anime and manga texts, the Anime News Network also houses an
enormous electronic encyclopedia with thousands of entries on anime and manga works.
Fans looking for information on a particular show could enter the title into the search
engine and find data related to the show‘s number of episodes, a breakdown of its
production staff (including directors, writers, key animators and voice actors), and even
find out if the title has been licensed for North American distribution.15
Other subjects who listed participation in online communities on their
questionnaire tended to prefer spaces created to share specific forms of textual
engagement or consumption. One subject strategically joined fan websites that reflected
her interests in gaming; she was particularly focused on Japanese video games such as
Final Fantasy XVIII.16 This subject constituted her fan identity as a gamer by seeking
social connections through both local and virtual social networks. Not only did she
frequently visit online forums such as ―1up.com,‖ she also gathered with her friends to
play these games on a regular basis. This individual was able reinforce her fan identity
using both spaces, even though one space was devoted to discussing the text, while the
other space allowed for the social consumption of said text.
For other subjects, producing specialized textual readings of an anime show or
manga title would become the preferred way to engage in virtual networks. One female
subject, ―Shannon,‖ described the online groups, in which she considered herself an
15
Managing site editor Zac Bertschy has referenced the encyclopedia as the most popular (i.e. heavily
trafficked) website feature on the site‘s weekly podcast. Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis, ―ANNCast
Holiday Special: Part II,‖ Anime News Network, 30 Dec 2009 < http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/
anncast/2009-12-30> (19 Jan 2011).
16
Subject #7a, Interview, 27 March 2008.
97
active participant, as ―fanbases.‖17 The use of the word ―fanbases‖ indicates this fan
understood that she was incorporating specific readings of the text into her online
communication practices. These fanbases had their own language which would be
understood by those in the ―know‖ but which would probably be impenetrable to
outsiders. In her questionnaire, Shannon listed her online communities as ―HitsuHina
fanbase,‖ ―Yorusoi Fanbase‖ and a ―Code Geass fanbase.‖ While Code Geass refers to
the title of a show, it is significant that the other two fanbases refer to romantic pairings
fans enjoy reading into a very popular shonen (boys‘) franchise, Bleach. Among anime
and manga fans, Bleach is a well-known media property in both Japan and the U.S.,
thanks to the show‘s airing on the Cartoon Network‘s ―Adult Swim‖ programming block.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of online English-language communities devoted
not only to the discussion of the show, but to the production of fanworks (such as fanart
and fanfiction) about a variety of romantic pairings which fans advocate for through
various readings of subtextual cues of the show or manga. The subject‘s first two
fanbases were created by combining a shortened version of each character‘s name (for
example, Hitsugaya/Hinamori becomes ―HitsuHina‖, and Yoruichi/Soi Fong becomes
―Yorusoi‖).
In Bleach, Hitsugaya and Hinamori are two characters of the opposite sex, while
―Yorusoi,‖ refers to a romantic pairing between two female characters. The Livejournal
―Yorusoi community‖ (which is most likely one of the communities housing the
―fanbase‖ the subject saw herself as a participant of) notes that this ―community is
dedicated to the romance / friendship / relationship of [the characters] Shihouin Yoruichi
and Soi Fong.‖ As for the ―basics‖ of community behavior, the information page
17
Subject #15a, Interview, 25 Sep 2008.
98
explains, ―Play nice, play safe, play smart. Keep your posts rated. Keep it centered
around either Yoruichi or Soi Fong (both is preferable)….Don't bash/flame fellow comm
members – that's not cool.‖18 The fact this fan ―shipped‖ (fan-lingo for advocating a noncanonical romance between two characters from a television show, comic, film, video
game, or novel) both a heterosexual and same-sex couple hints at a degree of textual
flexibility in how fans engage these texts.
Although one romance is heterosexual and the other lesbian, the subject‘s interest
in both reveals an audience need to read romantic and sexual subtexts into a ―boys‘‖
manga, a category of Japanese comics which tends to emphasize long battle-oriented
story arcs, and characters‘ individual fighting abilities, rather than their emotional lives or
romantic relationships. Why does this subject enjoy reading romance into a text that
emphasizes action and male-oriented narrative pleasures? Significantly, her reading
practices are linked to English-language fandom practices of forwarding relationshiporiented textual readings of not only anime and manga texts but American television
shows and films as well. In his study of fans‘ creative appropriation of media texts,
Henry Jenkins argues that men and women are socialized to engage fictional narratives
quite differently, and that ―girls were taught…to make sense of male-centered narratives
while boys were only taught to devalue female centered narratives.‖19 For many women,
such experiences encouraged them ―from an early age to find their own pleasures in
stories that reflect the tastes and interests of others.‖ Jenkins explains that
only by imagining the characters as having a life existing apart from the fictional
narrative can these women envision their own stories rather than accepting those
18
―The Yorusoi Community Profile,‖ Livejournal <http://community.livejournal.com/yorusoi/profile>. (03
Nov 2009).
19
Henry Jenkins, Textual Poachers (New York: Routledge, 1992), 114.
99
offered by male centered work. Women colonize these stories through their
active interest in them, a process that help to explain why female fan culture
clusters around traditionally masculine-oriented genres and why the women must
so radically reconceptualize those genres as they become the basis for fan
enthusiasm.20
Jenkins‘ notion of women ―colonizing‖ male-oriented stories may explain why many
female readers in the U.S. seem interested in reading romance narratives into shonen
(boys‘) comics, rather than read romance-oriented manga aimed at female audiences.21
By forwarding certain readings of anime and manga texts, fans also help build a
significant bridge between two fandom cultures: anime and manga fandom, which has
become increasingly friendly to female participants over the last decade, and Western
fanfiction fandom, which has primarily been a female dominated fandom space (as
Jenkins has shown).
These two fandom spaces often overlap through fans‘ use of the social networking
site Livejournal, where users ―friend‖ each other (allowing users to read each other‘s
posts), and also to create and join ―communities‖ devoted to discussion topics of users‘
choosing. In spite of this potential cross-cultural fandom overlap, Livejournal is often
associated with female fandom identity and self-expression. Melissa Gregg notes that
Livejournal has been perceived as feminized space, while ―blogs‖ are understood to be
more masculine:
the adage ‗Blogs are for boys, journals are for girls‘ summarized early
observations that online diaries such as Livejournal (LJ) served as natural
extensions of the highly personal and intimate practice of teenage girls keeping a
diary. With LJ in particular, the emphasis on interaction, conversation and
communities of friends enabled by the software has been argued to facilitate girls‘
20
21
Jenkins, 114.
Since the late 1990‘s, Shonen Jump has started to respond to the existence of such ―colonizing‖ by
Japanese fans by placing teasing references to same sex love and desire (in other words, offering itself as a
text that can easily be queered by fans, and, therefore, courting those same fans in a kind of covert manner).
100
‗naturally‘ chatty disposition. LJ reflects a different relation to readers than blogs
tend to allow because a journal page is often simply a means of entering and
keeping tabs on a community of friends.22
In other words, the Livejournal space itself is structured to encourage a sense of
community in users through its emphasis on the sharing of journal entries to those the
user has either ―friended‖ or been friended by. Structuring reader participation into
Livejournal practice is received as feminine in disposition, as opposed to blogs, since
blogs, as Gregg comments, ―appear to be more of an opportunity to espouse one‘s
singular opinion.‖ Among subjects interviewed for this study, only female subjects listed
Livejournal as an example of an online fandom site they visited. I believe that female
subjects were attracted to Livejournal because it engenders the kind of textual colonizing
Jenkins describes as a social practice.
In particular, Livejournal has been a popular space for housing fan communities
devoted to forwarding romantic readings – both straight and queer – into a wide variety
of texts, including many anime and manga works. One community on Livejournal with
ties to U.S. media and anime fandoms, named ―Ship Manifesto,‖ is offered as a
a project designed to bring together shippers of every conceivable pairing and
share with the world what it is that draws us to those pairings. This community's
goal is to provide readers with a detailed listing of pairings, insight into the
characters behind the pairings, and contextual understanding of what makes the
pairing work. This community will also provide newcomers with a starting point
for further exploration.23
This particular website allows members to post ―shipping‖ manifestos for any number of
texts, including U.S. television shows, U.S. films, anime shows, manga books, and so on.
22
Melissa Gregg, ―Posting with Passion: Blogs and the Politics of Gender,‖ Use of Blogs: Digital
Formations, eds, Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (Peter Lang, 2006), 151.
23
―Ship Manifesto,‖ Livejournal <http://community.livejournal.com/ship_manifesto/profile> (9 Nov
2009).
101
The site also allows for multiple readings of texts within the community space, since
various members may post manifestos which may make a case stating why any two
characters should be read as a couple (even if that character has already been paired up in
a previously posted manifesto).
Returning to the example of the shonen (or boys‘) work Bleach, I found that the
main character, Ichigo Kurosaki, has no less than five manifestos posted analyzing him as
romantically linked to other characters from the series. These manifestos introduce the
characters, explain ―Why this pairing?‖ (meaning, why does the manifesto author find it
interesting to pair these characters), offer multiple (sub-)textual readings that support the
pairing, advocate for fan support for this set of textual readings, and finally, list a number
of fandom ―resources‖ where fans can find fanfiction, fan art, and communities dedicated
to the pairing in question. One fan explains the basis of their interest in pairing Ichigo
with the male character, Renji, noting ―Renji starts off as becoming what looked to be
Ichigo's greatest rival, but in a quick turn, due to their connection to Rukia, they become
the greatest of allies.‖24
The character of Rukia, mentioned in passing in the Ichigo and Renji manifesto as
merely a ―connection‖ between those two characters, has a separate manifesto devoted to
reading her and Ichigo as a couple. When making a case for the pairing, the author
comments it ―is true that Rukia and Ichigo are not the most romantic of duos, for all the
fangirling we make of them. They are not characters that find it easy to openly express
that type of emotion. Instead, their relationship is all about subtexts – the wonderful,
24
zealot1138, ―Strawberry and Red Pineapple - Ichigo x Renji Ship Manifesto,‖ Ship_Manifesto, 1 Dec
2009, <http://community.livejournal.com/ship_manifesto/252001.html> (26 Jan 2011).
102
subtle things that we see beneath the surface in other actions and gestures.‖25
―Fangirling‖ is offered here as a feminine appreciation for a shared reading of subtextual
romance cues in the story (the gender identities of manifesto authors and the community
members are assumed to be female). There is pleasure not only in reading subtextual
cues to produce a reading of the text, but also in the ways in which such subtextual
readings are shared amongst a like-minded community of female fans.
Another manifesto, which advocates for the three characters of Ichigo, Rukia and
Renji to be read as a single romantic / friendship pairing, also points to the pleasure of
reading romantic subtexts into a male-oriented story. The author comments that because
Bleach is a shonen manga, ―characters communicate their warm sentiments in kicks,
wallops and headbutts.‖26 However, the author of the manifesto argues that ―Bleach isn't
quite as devoid of physical contact between characters as a [shonen] series could be, but
it's still kind of a Big Deal when it happens. 'Ships have been launched by a single hand
on a shoulder.‖ Once again, reading subtext into the story – not only into what characters
say but how they are depicted interacting through visual cues – is an important
component of the original work that fans use to support their shared textual readings
(since ―`ships‖ are clearly comprised of a number of fans who see and support similar
readings of such sub-textual cues).
The existence of hundreds of specific shipping sites on Livejournal such as
―Yorusoi‖ and ―Shipping Manifesto,‖ reveals that female fans actively form online
communities that meet very specific needs of the participants. They allow these fans to
25
Glassbomb, ―Ichigo/Rukia (Bleach): I Will Follow You into the Dark,‖ Ship_Manifesto, 20 Aug 2006.
<http://community.livejournal.com/ship_manifesto/148385.html> (26 Jan 2011).
26
Hallwd, ―Near Wild Heaven: Rukia x Ichigo x Renji (Bleach),‖ Ship_manifesto, 8 October 2009.
<http://community.livejournal.com/ship_manifesto/248251.html> (26 Jan 2011).
103
share interpretations of texts via online social networking sites, while also freeing them
from trying to find individuals in their immediate local social sphere who would
understand not merely their interest in anime or manga, but also their interest in
producing against-the-grain readings of such media texts. The Livejournal communities
referenced here are one aspect of a much larger online network which enables (primarily
female) fans to collectively engage both various anime and manga texts, as well as each
other, using the text itself as a basis for connection.
While only a few female subjects saw themselves as participants in these kinds of
very specific kinds of ―fanbases,‖ in general, female subjects were more likely to refer to
some form of online fandom community engagement that was either social or creative in
nature. Eight out of ten subjects who responded ―yes‖ to the question of whether or not
they were active in online fan communities were female, and these were the subjects
most likely to reference joining specific communities linked to either a set of texts (such
as a show, like Code Geass) or creative practice (such as sharing fanworks, i.e. fanfiction
and fanart). There is an entire fandom culture of ―sharing‖ not only fan-translated
versions of the texts themselves, or textual commentary, but also artistic productions
inspired by those texts. Many anime and manga fans join communities in order to share
certain types of fanworks, such as fanfiction, or join groups devoted to sharing fanworks
all inspired by a single show. Through participation in these spaces fans develop a shared
discourse, or a ―fan language,‖ that allows them to perform their identity as both a fan
and community member through online discussion and through the sharing of fanworks.
Rebecca Tushnet has defined one prominent form of fanwork – ―fanfiction‖ – as
―any kind of written creativity that is based on an identifiable segment of popular culture,
104
such as a television show, and is not produced as ‗professional‘ writing. Fan authors
borrow characters and settings, such as Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker or the Starship
Enterprise, for use in their own writings.‖27 While Tushnet is speaking of written texts,
her definition of fanfiction could also apply to a number of common fan creative
practices that span anime, manga and U.S. television and media fandoms. The collective
production and consumption of fanworks – in addition to consuming the media texts
themselves – offer a basis for shared identification and collective identity production
according to Tushnet. Media texts are to fandom groups, Tushnet writes, ―as myths and
folktales one were, the raw materials out of which people build their own original works.
These works then link the stories and their authors to an existing and receptive
community by virtue of their shared raw materials.‖28
It is important to note that the ―raw materials‖ that Tushnet cites as the inspiration
for fanfiction greatly influences the types of fan works that fans create and share through
online communities. Unlike the U.S. media American fans often look to, the so-called
―raw materials‖ – i.e. anime and manga texts – often must often be digitized, translated,
and then circulated in order for large numbers of English-language fans to be able to
build an interpretive community based upon that work. Second, such materials are part
of a popular culture that is drawn (rather than ―filmed‖) and, therefore, fans often employ
a visual repertoire in order to ―build‖ out of these particular materials. It is not surprising
that while fanfictions based upon anime and manga narratives are a significant part of the
English-language anime community, there is also a strong emphasis upon fanart
27
Rebecca Tushnet, ―Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law,‖ Loyola of Los
Angeles Entertainment Law Journal 17, no. 3 (1997): 655.
28
Tushnet, 656.
105
production. Just as in fanfiction, fans borrow the characters and settings from their
favorite anime and manga texts to produce not only individual works of art, but often
entire fan comics (or doujinshi as they are known in Japan).29
Jenkins‘ concept that fans are ―textual poachers‖ of certain U.S. and U.K.
television shows is useful when applied to English-language anime fandom, particularly
since the barrier fans have historically experienced to simply consume anime and manga
texts has inspired a participatory relationship to the translation and circulation of these
media forms. Since fans have historically had to rely upon each other and fan networks
of VHS duplication – particularly during the late 1980s and 1990‘s before the
introduction and consumer-adoption of DVD technology and widespread use of high
speed internet – I argue that ―textual poaching‖ is structurally built into the practices by
which anime and manga fans access these texts.30 While the acceptance of doujinshi
practices in Japan is particular to that culture, the American fan‘s tendency to offer
―alternative‖ readings of texts through a variety of creative productions may be particular
to their already-established status as transcultural poachers, indicating that Japanese
popular culture fandom encourages English-language fans to feel that they are, in part,
caretakers of the texts themselves.
29
In Japan, doujinshi comprise a thriving secondary comic book culture that co-exists with the manga and
anime industry. In his book Dreamland Japan, Frederick Schodt outlines his experience of attending a
doujinshi convention in Japan called ―Komiketto,‖ or ―Comic Market,‖ where ―circles‖ of amateur artists
put out their comics for display and sale. These conventions can draw hundreds of thousands of fans who
actually come to purchase ―original‖ comics, or comics based on other professional work, i.e. anime or
manga franchises. Schodt‘s experiences date from the early to mid-1990‘s, but it is worth noting that
doujinshi conventions have been a thriving practice in Japan since the mid 1970‘s. Unlike in the U.S.,
where enforcement of copyright has allowed intellectual property owners to ―crackdown‖ on female fans‘
creation of Star Wars ―fanzines‖ in the past, Japan‘s doujinshi scene ―owes a lot to the rather relaxed ideas
of copyright in Japan.‖ Frederick Schodt, Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga (Stone Bridge
Press: 1996): 40-42.
30
Sean Leonard, ―Progress Against the Law: Anime and Fandom, with the key to the globalization of
culture,‖ International Journal of Cultural Studies 8, no. 3 (2005): 281-305.
106
In response the visual-orientation of anime and manga culture, many U.S. fans
have been inspired to draw versions of their favorite anime and manga characters, and
join social networking online sites in order to share these works and receive attention
from others in fandom. In particular, multiple subjects in my study mentioned having
joined, or interest in joining ―Deviant Art,‖ a website known for encouraging amateur
artists and allowing fans to upload images they have drawn, either by hand or with digital
software. In 2008, the managers of the website estimated that there were 8 million artists
with a Deviant Art account and claimed the website hosted 58 million works of art.31
The site runners also claimed that one of the most popular ―artistic‖ genres on the website
was ―anime and manga‖ and reported that approximately twelve percent of daily
submissions were created in an ―anime and manga style,‖ pointing to a substantial body
of anime and manga-inspired fanart being produced by fans.
Although Deviant Art emphasizes the production of drawn or painted works, the
site also enables a variety of interactions between account users. One female subject,
―Melissa,‖ explained that she tended to use her Deviant Art account to upload
photographs of ―cosplay‖ (or costume play, where fans dress up as characters from their
favorite anime or manga) she had taken at fan conventions.32 By doing this, she was able
to share her convention experiences online with other fans, who would also share the
photographs they had taken at the convention. This subject‘s use of the site reveals that
there are many ways in which fans can participate in virtual fandom through sharing
―creative‖ fanworks. The photographs Melissa shared on Deviant Art document the
performative practice of other fans‘ ―costume play,‖ and by sharing them online this fan
31
―Panel Discussion: Deviant Art,‖ Anime Expo 2008, July 2008.
32
Subject #11a, Interview, 25 August 2008.
107
is also building networks that incorporate both the fan convention experience and online
networking into her fan identity. Most of the fan websites devoted to sharing fan-based
creative works – particularly the ones I have discussed in this chapter, such as
Livejournal and Deviant Art – encourage fans to produce works as individuals but also to
act as each other‘s audience and system of support.
Importantly, female subjects were also more likely to list communities created for
the purpose of developing shared textual readings of anime and manga works. Although
this data is derived from interviewing a small subject group, I argue that these findings
reveal that female subjects articulate different needs than male subjects by joining such
online communities, and as a result these female fans not only structure their online
activity differently, they also conceptualize their relationship to the text differently as
well. Female subjects were more likely to attribute significance to their online practices
in forming their identities as fans, while male subjects tended to give their activities
significance only if they were linked to specific embodied practices, such as attending an
anime club meeting or an anime convention. In contrast to the eight female subjects (out
of ten subjects total) who thought of themselves as active participants in online
communities, six of the nine subjects who answered that ―no,‖ they were not active
participants in online fandom groups, were male. Male subjects tended to explain their
lack of interest in online fandom groups by noting that they preferred, as one male subject
put it, ―face-to-face‖ interactions.33 As a whole, male subjects in this study tended to
33
Subject #3a, Interview, 6 March 2008.
108
think of the internet not as a space in which they performed their fandom, but as an
―informational resource‖ for anime they wanted to know more about.34
For example, one of the few subjects who listed participation at Anime News
Network on his questionnaire (rather than referencing it casually in his in-depth interview
as other subjects tended to) also wrote that he participated in the ―Adult Swim‖ forums
(the official online forums for the Cartoon Network‘s nighttime animated programming),
as well as a listerv for a local annual anime convention.35 These three communities
allowed this subject, ―Mark,‖ to weave in and out of a number of spaces that necessitated
articulating one‘s fandom is distinctly different ways. Anime News Network emphasizes
its journalistic coverage of the anime and manga industry on its front page, but also
allows fans to comment upon new stories, editorial features, and create their own topics
for discussion in the forums. It is also worth noting that the site is frequented by Englishlanguage anime and manga fans from all over the world and, therefore, conversations
often happen between people of very difference national, social, and ethnic
backgrounds.36 In contrast, the Adult Swim forums are used by individuals who
participate in shared consumption practices of anime in the U.S., since fans gather on the
message boards to discuss a specific show, or shows, they watch every week. Finally, his
34
Using my observation of online fan practices as a basis of comparison to the experiences of this subject
group as related to me in interviews, I believe that this gender division in how subjects approached the
performance of their fandom identity would shift slightly if we were to examine online engagement among
fans more broadly. In general, I have observed that male-identified fans do participate in online
communities and forums, but they are generally more focused on critical analysis and discussion of texts,
rather than forms of creative production that are often undertaken within female-oriented fan communities.
35
36
Subject #4a.
This statement is based upon my observation of the ANN comment threads over a number of years;
posters at ANN have the option of listing their ―location‖ as part of their site user id. While many posters
do list cities or regions in the U.S., a large number list international locations. Importantly, posters also
frequently comment upon whether or not certain anime or manga works have been licensed for their
particular country or region.
109
membership in a local anime convention listserv connected Mark to fans in his local area;
such as individuals he might have previously met and socialized with in the convention
space and at the university anime club. Participation in these various spaces indicates
that this particular subject accessed virtual spaces that allowed him to situate himself in
local, national, and even international contexts, through interaction with other fans.
Mark‘s engagement with online fan communities is emblematic of the fact that
male subjects generally only cited participation in such communities if they were
concretely linked to embodied social practices. Male subjects were also more likely to
cite goal-oriented reasons for why they would engage fandom communities or resources
online, such as searching for information about specific Japanese media texts. One
reason male subjects frequently cited for visiting fan websites was to discover new anime
titles to watch. Yet, for one male subject, ―Phillip,‖ even this practice was perceived as
less useful than receiving recommendations from his immediate social group. 37 After all,
his friends had a better understanding of his ―taste‖ in anime and, therefore, were a
deemed a better resource than online fandom spaces. In addition, Mark, who had
explained that he preferred the ―face-to-face‖ aspect of anime fandom culture, allowed
that when he did visit online communities he usually did so to share appreciation for an
anime text or track the careers of Japanese voice actors who worked in the anime
industry.38 Male subjects visited online spaces they considered useful, but not necessarily
spaces devoted to developing shared readings of texts. In other words, male subjects
were much less likely to perceive their online activity as a constituting factor in their
performance of their fan identity.
37
Subject #9a.
38
Subject #3a.
110
In spite of male subjects‘ disavowal of the internet as a significant space to
perform their fandom identity, both male and female subjects who did not feel they were
―active‖ in online forums also consumed unofficial, fan-translated digitized versions of
either manga or anime works online on a regular basis. This practice of consuming fantranslated texts was also shared by the majority of subjects who did think of themselves
as active participants in online communities as well, pointing to the almost universal
practice of consuming fan-translated texts among this particular subject group.
Generally, these subjects relied upon fan-created distribution networks in order to
consume shows that were either unavailable through traditional U.S. media distribution
networks, or to keep up with new episodes of anime shows (or chapters of manga) that
fan groups produced translations of far in advance of U.S. publishing and media
corporations.39 Both male and female subjects distinguished between their practices,
often asserting that watching or reading fan-translations was a form of consumption, not
―active‖ participation. However, I once again read against my subjects‘ perceptions of
their behaviors by noting that it takes a certain familiarity with online fan practices in
order to be able to access fan translations. For example, fans often have to understand
how to use file-sharing programs such as bittorrent, or know which fan websites will
allow them access to files which exist in breach of copyright law. I would argue that
consuming fan translations is a form of fandom participation, and one which has
significant consequences to how U.S. fans understand their own identities (a theme
explored in greater depth in the next chapter).
39
Subject #3a. Subject #9a. Subject #13a, Interview, 11 Sep 2008. In the next chapter, I will discuss the
recent implementation of simultaneous releases of popular anime shows in Japan and the U.S., and explore
how U.S. media adapters of Japanese content are attempting to replicate and sanction a version of the
―fansub‖ (or fan- translated anime) experience to try to retain the American fan audience.
111
My findings about how male and female subjects engage the internet differently
as fans very much mirrors current research findings on how gender informs internet use.
By the year 2000, many internet researchers found that the ―digital divide‖ in the U.S.
between male and female internet users was eliminated, meaning that not only were there
as many women as men using the internet, but that women were also using the internet as
much as men were.40 Researchers Stacy E. Thayer and Sukanya Ray found that by 2006
out of ―94 million Americans with internet access, the overall population is evenly split
between men and women.‖41 However, they also note that ―despite the even number of
users research shows gender difference found in preference and style for internet
activities.‖ In other words, as another group of researchers put it, women were using the
internet for ―communicating,‖ while men used it for ―searching.‖42 In their study of
college students‘ internet-use practices, Jackson et al. found that female students were
often motivated to access the internet to use email in order to communicate with friends
and family, while their male subjects were motivated by the desire to find information.
Researchers‘ findings of a gender split between female social-oriented versus
male task-oriented internet use is obviously reflected in my interviews data findings. It is
also worth noting that multiple studies on the role of gender in U.S. internet use also
speculate it that it is possible that age, rather than gender, may be a much more important
factor determining internet practices. For example, Thayer and Ray comment that
―results indicate that young adults spend more time communicating online and building
40
Hiroshi Ono and Madeline Zavodny, ―Gender and the Internet,‖ Social Science Quarterly 84, no. 1
(March 2003): 113-114. Stacey E. Thayer and Sukanya Ray, ―Online Communication Preferences across
Age, Gender and Duration of Internet Use,‖ CyberPsychology & Behavior 9, no 4 (2006): 433.
41
42
Thayer and Ray, 433.
Linda A. Jackson, et al., ―Gender and the Internet: Women Communicating and Men Searching,‖ Sex
Roles 44, no. 56 (2001): 375.
112
online relationships with friends and unknown individuals more than middle and late age
adults.‖43 Similarly, Hargittai and Shafer found that ―age, level of education, and
experience with the medium‖ were perhaps more ―important predictors‖ than gender in
how ―skilled‖ individuals were at using the internet to complete a series of assigned
tasks.44 The youthful demographic of my subject groups means that they are more likely
to find it acceptable to develop social relationships with individuals they have never met
face-to-face (an important component of fandom, particularly for fans who come from
small towns with limited opportunities to express their interests in local contexts).
However, even among this fairly youthful subject group – with subjects between eighteen
and thirty years of age – female fans were generally the only ones who placed
significance upon their online practices as social practices.
Throughout the first section of the chapter, I have outlined two very different
perspectives on what it means to ―participate‖ in fandom, and found that female subjects
were more likely to see online interactions as constitutive of their fandom identity, while
male subjects more likely to prize ―face-to-face‖ interactions. Significantly, female
subjects were more likely to feel the need to engage fandom, and each other, through
textual analysis. In contrast, male subjects were task-oriented; for such fans online
engagement was primarily about accessing fandom resources, which included not only
information about anime and manga but also fan-translated versions of anime works.
(However, as noted earlier, both groups consumed online fan translations and perceived
such practices as non-participatory). While keeping this gendered distinction in mind, I
43
44
Thayer and Ray, 438.
Eszter Hargittai and Steven Shafer, ―Differences in Actual and Perceived Online Skills: The Role of
Gender,‖ Social Science Quarterly 87, no 2 (June 2006): 441.
113
now examine how subjects perform their identities as fans across and through virtual and
embodied social networks. I also track how fans move from virtual networks to
embodied ones and back again, and theorize how navigating these various spaces informs
subjects‘ sense of themselves as U.S. fans within very specific local and virtual contexts.
Performing Fan Identities through Social Networks
From my experience of interviewing fans and observing their local, regional,
national and virtual gatherings, it has become clear to me that there is no one way to
express one‘s social identity as a fan of Japanese popular culture in the U.S. Fans
attending college may go to a Japanese language class or Japanese history survey in the
morning with their fellow travelers, and then attend an anime club screening later that
night. Fans still attending high school often check fan websites every morning at a
school computer station, pass manga around with a group of friends during the day, play
Japanese video games after school at a friend‘s house, and watch streaming anime on
their home computer at night before going to bed. In particular, adolescent fans may
incorporate anime-inspired dress and accessories into their wardrobe in order to declare
their love of specific shows and comics to those in the ―know.‖ I have also often
observed teen fans hanging out in groups at both libraries and local chain bookstores,
sitting quietly reading manga together in the aisle of these spaces. Once they have
finished a volume of manga they will often hand it over to another in the circle, or stop
reading in the middle of an important scene to make a comment about it to a friend.
While some of these practices seem to be entirely built upon the ―material‖ (or
―real‖) world – such as teen fans knowing that both their local library and chain
114
bookstore would have manga books available to them – other practices may be dependent
upon individual fans connecting their local social environments to their online
networking practices. In this section, I examine how male and female fans‘ attempt to
incorporate their fandom into their everyday lives encourages them to visit both virtual
and embodied social environments in order to perform their fan identity socially.
Although each subject‘s fan identity is highly individualized, it is constructed in
reference to collective experiences of fandom that take place in such diverse
environments as online forums and social networks, high school and college classrooms,
in the home with friends, at the public library, and at specialized fan events, such as
school-supported anime clubs and regional anime conventions. Each fan engages these
environments selectively in order to construct their sense of themselves as a fan.
Although I continue to explore subjects‘ online practices in this section, I am also
attending to how those online practices are inextricably linked to subjects‘ experience of
their local social environments. In addition, this section also charts how fans mature as
social beings, as subjects‘ first attempts at constituting themselves as a ―fan‖ is often
limited to only certain social spaces deemed ―safe.‖ As subjects age, I show how they
often find or build a greater number of safe spaces that allow or encourage the
performance of their fandom.
Both male and female subjects, who discovered anime as pre-adolescents through
exposure to English-language adaptations of children‘s anime shows, often had to figure
out how to integrate their interest in Japanese popular culture texts into their young adult
identity (although their routes to do so were highly individualistic). As noted in the
second chapter, a remarkable number of subjects aged eighteen to twenty-one were first
115
exposed to anime through Pokémon, a global media phenomenon which included not
only an animated show, but also trading cards, video games, and comics. Subjects related
that they eventually ―out-grew‖ that children‘s show but remained anime fans thanks to
the incorporation of teen and adult-oriented anime programming on Cartoon Network.
Therefore, anime as a cultural form continued to hold their interest past early adolescence
and into adulthood. Yet the transition to adult fandom for female subjects seemed more
fraught than it was for male ones; importantly, female study participants articulated a
language of coming to accept themselves as fans – similar to a kind of GLBT ―coming
out‖ process – that was almost entirely lacking in male subjects‘ discourse.
There appeared to be a kind of continuum of self-acceptance among female
subjects. It was much more common for younger female subjects to express some kind
of internalized prejudiced against anime fans or anime fandom practices. For example,
when I interviewed, ―Tina,‖ a recent high school graduate, she seemed to project her own
discomfort with what her interests said about herself onto other groups of fans.45
Although she had a group of friends in middle-school with whom she watched anime,
when she entered high school she rejected other anime fans because ―they are generally
scary people.‖ She felt that people who like anime often have ―social problems‖ because
they can‘t always tell ―fiction from reality.‖ She seemed to dislike it when people were
too performative as fans, i.e. when they could be easily identifiable within her cohort
through their dress or, even worse, their behavior. It was incredibly important that she
not appear to be like the most visible anime fans since they were ―freaks.‖ By making
sure she was not easily identifiable she was showing the world, ―I‘m not crazy, I have a
grounding in reality.‖ While she herself owned a few shirts that had anime images on
45
Subject #14a, Interview, 25 Sep 2008.
116
them, she insisted that those were for ―home‖ and she would never wear them in public.
She also insisted that even though she had anime merchandise at home (i.e. the t-shirts),
that didn‘t make her a ―closet anime freak.‖
While other female subjects, such as Ann, had expressed some discomfort with
performing her fan identity (believing that she was ―weird‖ for liking anime in high
school and feeling she had to stay closeted about her interests as a result), Tina‘s unease
with fandom was clearly the most extreme among all subjects in this study. Only one
male subject, ―William,‖ rejected the notion of fandom as vocally as Tina.46 William had
introduced two of his friends to an anime show, and while one of those friends was ―like
him‖ and had not become overly interested in the show, the other friend had ―bought the
video games, bought the [manga] volumes, and the card games‖ all associated with the
anime franchise. He clearly looked down on his friends‘ fandom, noting that ―we‘re a
little scared of him,‖ and he ―takes it way too seriously,‖ since William only played
videogames ―for fun.‖ In short, he explained he wanted his friend to understand ―this
isn‘t real.‖ Williams‘ unease with his friend‘s behavior may also be a subtextual critique
of his friend‘s performance of his masculinity as well. William had made sure to mention
that the friend who was ―like him‖ (i.e. did not take anime seriously) was also a ―sports
fan,‖ indicating that sports fandom is an acceptable interest for American men, while
anime fandom is not. There is also the sense that taking ―video‖ or ―card‖ games
seriously is somehow childish and, therefore, not sufficiently masculine behavior.
However, in contrast, none of the other male subjects interviewed seemed concerned that
their interest in anime, manga, or video games might articulate anything in particular
socially – either positive or negative – about their gender identity.
46
Subject #13a.
117
The negative attitudes Tina, Ann, and William expressed toward other fans (or in
the case of Ann, toward herself) is striking. Not only did Ann and Tina use derogatory
words such as ―weird,‖ and ―freak,‖ both female subjects‘ believed that one could be ―in
the closet‖ as an anime fan. (For Ann, being in the closet was a form of self-repression,
while Tina seemed troubled by fans she thought were too devoted to anime and manga,
perhaps preferring fans to strategically engage closeted behavior). Natsuki Fukunaga, a
Japanese language instructor at a public U.S. university, likened one of her students‘ use
of the word ―weird‖ to describe herself and her interest in anime to the ―use of the word
queer in Queer Theory: The world is used pejoratively by those outside the affinity
group, but those inside the group embrace it as a way of identify with one another and
empowering themselves.‖47 Fukunaga‘s theory – published in 2006 – has actually
become a reality with U.S. fans‘ fairly common use of the word ―otaku.‖ While in
Japanese this word has fairly negative connotations of being ―obsessed‖ with something –
usually anime, manga or video games but not limited to those cultural commodities –
American fans have taken up the word proudly as a self-identifying marker.48
When interviewed in 2008, only one subject referenced the world ―otaku‖ in his
interview, but having lived in Japan for a number of years he only used it to describe the
everyday practices of Japanese anime and manga fans, not American ones.49 However,
in the years since I interviewed these subjects I have seen the word ―otaku‖ used quite
liberally amongst anime fans online and even by a number academics who study anime
47
Natsuki Fukunaga, ―‗Those Anime Students‘: Foreign Language Literacy Development through Japanese
Popular Culture,‖ Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50, no 3 (2006): 218.
48
Laurie Cubbison, ―Anime Fans, DVDs, and the Authentic Text,‖ The Velvet Light Trap 56 (Fall 2005):
45-57.
49
Subject #16a.
118
and manga culture in both Japan and the U.S.50 The use of the word by American fans is
an attempt to do exactly as Fukunaga theorized – as a way to solidify not only personal
fan identities but group bonds as well. Importantly, subjects‘ competence in navigating
their fan identity in embodied social spheres would be the key to their acceptance of their
own identities. Ann, who was twenty years old, had overcome her own desire to ―closet‖
her identity as a fan through encounters with other manga and anime fans in her
university Japanese language classes. In contrast, Tina, who was eighteen when
interviewed and had yet to begin attending college, still maintained clear divisions
between herself and those other fans who had ―social problems.‖
While Ann had once shared a milder form of Tina‘s internalized prejudice against
anime fans, she eventually learned to overcome it once she found online models for her
fandom while simultaneously discovering local social spheres where she could express
herself openly as a fan. As subjects gain more experience socializing as fans, their
perspectives on fan practices, and even their own participation in those practices,
changes. Tina, I would argue, seemed to be undergoing such a process at the time I
interviewed her. While Tina had been aware of her interests since middle school, in high
school she had avoided friendships with other anime fans. This seemed to change after
she graduated from high school and ended up attending a local anime convention at the
behest of her group of friends (and in spite of the fact she claimed such activities had
never interested her). In fact, more than simply attending the convention she even
allowed her friends to dress her up as a character from Bleach. Although she had always
50
For instance, in the 2010 issue of Mechademia (the only U.S.-based academic journal devoted entirely to
the subject of Japanese popular culture), three different articles have the world ―Otaku‖ in their title.
Mechademia 5 (2010). See also Hiroki Azuma, Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2009) for discussion of otaku subculture in Japan.
119
―made fun‖ of people who dress up in costume, she allowed her friends to turn her into a
―cosplayer‖ (i.e. someone who dresses up in costume at fan conventions). Her
participation in cosplay practices was completely at odds with her insistence that she did
not express her anime fandom in ―public.‖ While the experience was not entirely
positive for her – dressing up in costume meant that she ―got dragged‖ into activities with
other convention goers (most likely that she was asked to have her picture taken in
costume per standard anime convention practices) – she nonetheless noted that had also
―met a lot of people‖ that otherwise she would never know had she not participated.
Female subjects‘ local social environment became a significant factor in how they
perceived their own interests and, therefore, how comfortable they might feel openly
structuring their identity around practices of consuming anime and manga. The subject
Melissa noted that it was acceptable to be a ―casual [anime] fan‖ in her high school, but
she felt as though she was different from those individuals because she made a concerted
effort to watch the anime shows she liked when they actually aired (usually late at night
on the Cartoon Network).51 She contrasted her own practices to the behavior of casual
fans who would most likely only watch when an anime show ―just happened to be on.‖
Female subjects seemed to be acutely conscious of the ways in which their interests set
them apart – in their estimation – from their peers. In contrast to Melissa, who as a high
school student came to recognize and then embrace her interest in anime as something
that set her apart, Ann felt as if she alone was ―into‖ anime and manga at her high
51
Subject #11a.
120
school.52 She cited her small community as the reason she felt isolated in her interests,
since it was ―harder to be even a little different‖ there.
While Ann noted that online communities helped her realize she was not ―weird‖
for liking anime and manga, when she went to college she essentially ―came out‖ (to once
again borrow the language of GLBT culture) as an anime and manga fan. Entering
college freed her to enter into a variety of spaces – both real and virtual – that allowed her
to develop her identity as a fan of anime and manga. While as a high school student she
claimed she did not know enough people who were fans of anime to start her own club,
after discovering online forums as a college student she made a conscious effort to find
people ―like her.‖ By enrolling in Japanese language classes, she discovered friends with
whom she could trade manga, thereby enabling her own ―acceptance‖ of her interests.
Once she felt comfortable performing her fan identity, Ann explained that she was able to
tell her high school friends that she watched anime and read manga because ―I don‘t care
what they think [about it].‖ Through her local and virtual experiences in fandom, Ann
found it easier to integrate her interests into her social identity as a whole.
Melissa faced similar struggles with social isolation when she attempted to start
an anime club at her junior high, and discovered that not many people would ―openly‖
admit to watching anime since it was not considered ―cool.‖ Peer pressure to conform
was not the only obstacle these subjects faced when they tried to construct their fan
identity; female subjects often seemed to face very specific pressures from their parents
(often from their mothers in particular) to ―grow out of‖ their comic book-reading, gameplaying, anime-watching ―phase.‖ Both Melissa and Ann understood the familial
resistance that they experienced to their interest in anime as linked their gender identity.
52
Subject #12a.
121
Ann‘s mother could not understand why a teenage girl would want to read ―comic
books,‖ while Melissa‘s mother was uncomfortable with her daughter expressing so
much interest in the Pokémon franchise, particularly the video games and comic books,
which she felt were ―boy‘s activities.‖ Clearly, female subjects were more likely to
acknowledge feelings of self-consciousness about their interest in anime and manga,
especially if they were socialized to think their childhood interest in shows like Pokémon
was coded as masculine.
In contrast to Melissa and Ann, Shannon came from a family that thought her
anime interests were ―funny‖ rather than threatening, perhaps leading to her youthful
perception that the Pokémon franchise ―had no gender preference.‖53 Shannon also did
not relate an experience of learning to ―accept‖ herself or her fandom as she matured;
instead she reported participating in both online and a variety of local fan spaces since
her middle school years. Shannon related an experience quite similar to male subjects in
that she noted that in junior high she ―realized that were more to this [i.e. anime]
Pokémon‖ and started to engage online resources to learn more about anime (which
replicates many male subjects‘ narratives about how they became fans of anime after
youthful exposure to shows like Pokémon or Dragon BallZ). Shannon was able explore
both local and virtual fan networks without feeling pressure for her engagement in one
type of space to emotionally validate her identity in the other. In other words, she did not
feel the need to question her interest in anime, or worry that her interest was somehow
inappropriate because of her gender identity. Shannon was not the only female subject
who found it fairly easy to transition to adult fandom; at least two other female fans
seemed to have accepted their interests in anime, manga and Japanese video games
53
Subject #15a.
122
without question (and one of those female fans expressly noted that her family had
always been ―cool‖ with her interests).54
As subjects matured they also started to understand their identity through their
engagement of embodied social spheres, often making them feel more willing or better
able to perform their fan identity outside of their home or online fandom networks. As
noted earlier, such spheres include the local chain bookstore, public library, high school
and university classrooms and anime clubs. As explained in chapter 2, many anime and
manga fans were first exposed to Japanese popular culture as children or young
adolescents via anime which aired on U.S. cable networks and which had been adapted
into English for U.S. youth audiences. As these subjects matured they grew to
understand that these animated shows were not only Japanese in origin but that most were
based upon Japanese manga properties. Becoming more familiar with anime and manga
forms also helped subjects recognize the ways in which these cultural forms were being
localized and distributed in the U.S. Ann, for example, explained that although she had
watched anime shows on Cartoon Network she had no idea that Japanese comic books
were available in English until she passed by an entire aisle in the bookstore labeled
―manga.‖55
Ann noted that she only stopped to take a closer look at the aisle of manga
because she had caught sight of familiar title on the spine on one of the books. Inuyasha,
whose anime counterpart had run regularly on Cartoon Network‘s ―Adult Swim‖
programming for years, was available at her local bookstore in comic book form, adapted
from the original Japanese by the same media company that had adapted the anime for
54
Subject #5a, Interview, 18 March 2008. Subject #7a.
55
Subject #12a.
123
U.S. distribution. While Ann explained that as a high school student she was unable to
afford manga – it was ―too expensive‖ compared to consuming anime through cable
television, which her parents provided – she was often able to borrow manga books from
her friends instead of buying them. Although not all subjects went on to embrace manga
books as counterparts to the anime shows they watched (as Ann did), by the year 2004
children and adolescents could have easily encountered Japanese popular culture – in the
form of anime or manga – on U.S. television, in chain bookstores, or their public library
(the role of manga in the public library is the subject of chapter 5).
By trading manga amongst the friends she met in Japanese language classes in
college, Ann developed her own social network predicated upon collective acts of
consumption. Younger teen subjects incorporated similar practices amongst their group
of friends (for example, Tina had explained she had done something similar with her
middle school friends). I have also observed other instances of collective consumption
occurring among teen fans, who often go to the library or chain bookstore and read
manga in a group. In other words, they turn what we often conceptualize as a ―private‖
activity into a social experience. The fact they do this at both public libraries and chain
bookstores indicates that fans can turn a commercialized space into a communal one (at
least temporarily). We might question why teens choose to read manga at the library,
rather than check them out, since they do not need a source of spare cash to loan books
from the library (as they would to purchase manga at the chain bookstore). It could be
that they are taking advantage of the library as a public or ―safe‖ space where they can
socialize as fans. While subjects did not discuss such practices in interviews, both the
public and high school librarians I interviewed all attested to the fact that teenage manga
124
fans often consistently choose to read books at the library – often on a daily basis at the
high school library – instead of checking them out and taking them home.
In addition to turning reading manga into a shared practice, a number of male and
female subjects launched regular anime viewing events with their friends. A few subjects
had started such practices high school, and a number subjects either continued through
college or would start anime viewing groups then. Phillip explained that he had planned
late night anime viewing parties with friends since the end of middle school and
throughout his high school years.56 While Phillip did not appear to plan regular anime
gatherings with the friends he made in college, he still made it a point to attend the local
anime convention with friends every year. When I interviewed Tina, she was still
participating in weekly viewing parties with her friends in order to watch new episodes of
the show Code Geass.57 When I asked if she and her friends would find another show to
watch together after Code Geass finished its run, Tina explained that they were instead
making plans to go to the local anime convention together dressed up as characters from
the same anime. Importantly, the actual watching of the show seemed less important than
the fact she and her friends still were able to engage each other via the text long after they
concluded their collective consumption of it. For this subject, there was no clear
distinction between her and her friends‘ collective consumption practices of the show and
their performative engagement with the text itself (i.e. planning each person‘s costume so
that they could perform their group appreciation for the show in an embodied fandom
space).
56
Subject #9a.
57
Subject #14a.
125
As subjects continue to mature they often are able to develop a greater number of
social arenas through which they can express themselves as fans. Watching anime at
home or in a college dorm room with friends is an important first step to turning anime
viewing into a shared social practice, but these spaces are related to the home and,
therefore, are still private (or ―safe‖) ones. A few subjects would eventually take it upon
themselves to create such safe spaces for fandom performativity in very public spheres.
Melissa, for instance, became an active agent for proselytizing anime among her peers as
a high school student.58 She was able to do this by first joining the ―Teen Advisory
Group‖ at her city‘s public library. In this capacity, she, along with other teens in the
advisory group, would meet on a monthly basis with the young adult librarian to
brainstorm ideas for teen reading programs and event programming. Joining this group
brought her in contact with other teens who felt passionate about a variety of literacy
forms, and she felt this experience helped her find people to ―relate to‖ and with whom
she could share her appreciation for anime. This community engagement, undertaken
alongside individuals her own age, gave her the courage she felt she needed to become an
open fan of anime as a high school student.
In consciously deciding to be open about her interest in anime, Melissa noted that
she had to shake off her peers‘ attempts to reduce her identity to her anime interests. She
said they would often call her ―anime! Girl,‖ as if it was an insult. In spite of this, she
took pleasure in becoming a vocal fan-organizer at her school. With the support of her
principal she started an anime club, an act which was strongly encouraged by the school
administration since it was believed that students interested in anime were otherwise
unlikely to join after-school activities and clubs. Melissa explained that instead of feeling
58
Subject #11a.
126
that she was defined only by her interest in anime she combined ―two aspects‖ of her
identity, one that was more oriented toward social activities and the other that was
interested in consuming Japanese anime and manga. The club would eventually grow to
a size of thirteen members, a significant number considering Melissa‘s graduating class
was comprised of only fifty-six students. As she grew more comfortable in her role as a
fandom social networker, Melissa created a safe space for other teenage anime fans who
might not otherwise have the opportunity to openly express their interests.
Embodied fan spaces – such as fan conventions, high school and university anime
clubs, and public anime festivals – are important sites that allow subjects to perform a fan
identity they often might first tentatively explore in private spaces. As subjects matured
they developed expanding spaces of ―public-ness‖ through which they felt comfortable
expressing themselves as fans. Fans often start performing their identity in private or
semi-private ―safe safes,‖ and they eventually expand to public spaces, sometimes
sanctioned by institutions, such as public libraries, schools and bookstores. By the time
they reached college most subjects seemed willing to incorporate embodied fan practices
into their daily lives without feeling overly self-conscious about their fan identities. For
example, a number of subjects belonged to a university anime club which held a weekly
screening event, and, therefore, attending the screening allowed those individuals to
incorporate anime viewing as a social practice into their everyday college life.59
According to subject reports and my own observation of one club‘s activities, attendance
at these clubs fluctuated between ten and fifteen people a week, and while one club had
more male than female members, neither club membership was limited to one gender or
race.
59
Subject #2a, Interview, 5 March 2008. Subject #4a.
127
While more male subjects reported actively attending university anime clubs, only
one female subject reported attending, although her attendance was less regular.60 The
formation of university anime clubs has historically been a central practice that allowed
fans to find each other and also access Japanese anime. In his discussion of the history of
anime clubs and fan-translation practices, Sean Leonard shows that from the late 70‘s to
the early 90‘s, U.S. anime clubs were dependent upon a ―closed commons‖ of anime
distribution in order to gain access to Japanese animation. Leonard explains that
Anime fan distribution networks (networks of Japanese animation fans who
imported and distributed videos across a vast underground international network
from 1976-93) represented what I deem ‗proselytization commons,‘ or spaces
where media and ideas could be freely exchanged to advance a directed cause.61
Leonard finds that these distribution networks were rigidly controlled by a single
organization throughout those years, ―The Cartoon / Fantasy Organization‖ or ―C/FO,‖
which ―built a model of control into the commons,‖ ensuring science-fiction or anime
clubs had to rely upon this group if they wanted physical materials to screen at their local
clubs.62
After 1993, Leonard shows that changes in the Japanese animation industry‘s
perception of the viability of the American marketplace, as well as an increase in
affordable dubbing / translating media technologies allowed successive groups to create
―an open proselytization commons into which anyone was welcome.‖63 What this
implies, although Leonard never actually states it, is that the ―closed networks‖ were run
60
Subject #5a.
61
Leonard, 282.
62
Leonard, 290.
63
Leonard, 292.
128
by male participants in fandom and dominated by hard science-fiction interests, which
would change radically once local anime clubs could more easily obtain anime to screen.
Fan spaces that were once gendered by virtue of this rigidly controlled fan distribution
network would eventually open up, not only because of increased access to Japanese
anime but also because by the mid-1990‘s anime on VHS had become commercially
available in the U.S., thereby widening the potential audience of anime greatly.
Through interviews with fan subjects, I learned that there were two anime clubs
active at the University of Iowa during the 2007-2008 academic year. One subject,
―Lucas,‖ explained that the anime club he attended focused exclusively on anime
screening (and was considered more ―male-oriented‖), although he knew of a second
university screening club that split its events into two parts; the first half of the night
would be devoted to ―socialization,‖ while the second half the night would transition to
screening anime shows.64 Lucas did not comment upon whether or not this club attracted
more female involvement because of its split event schedule, but he did note that ―guys‖
(i.e. he and his friends) had a more ―vested‖ interest in the first anime club. The subject
Mark reported attending both anime clubs regularly and noted he tried whenever possible
to attend with his friends.65 One female subject, ―Angela,‖ had been once to the first
anime club (which often screened more male-oriented anime according to subjects) and
while she thought it had ―seemed cool‖ she had not managed to attend regularly.66
Although the first anime club occasionally screened shojo anime (i.e. anime
oriented toward a young, female audience), for the most part they tended to screen shows
64
Subject #4a.
65
Subject #3a.
66
Subject #5a.
129
that might be perceived as male-oriented or even ―gender neutral‖ according to Lucas,
who considered himself a regular attendee of the club‘s screening events.67 Each club
also had different methods for deciding what shows to screen; one subject informed me
that the anime screened at the first (more male-oriented) club was picked by the (usually)
male ―President‖ and when I visited the second anime club I observed that members were
invited to vote for which shows they wanted to screen that night. This second anime club
instituted a more democratic system that encouraged fans to assert their taste as a group,
instead of having a leader make decisions for the group as a whole. Since most of the
anime club members were male they would also be likely to elect a male president, which
in turn, would ensure that the club would be more welcoming to prospective male
attendees than female ones.68
By attending weekly anime clubs, male subjects, in particular, were able to
incorporate their appreciation for anime into their social lives on a regular basis, since the
structure of a ―club‖ implies a shared identity among members. In addition, using
university spaces to hold meetings also offered an open invitation to other student anime
fans to join the group (as opposed to screenings in one‘s home or dorm room, which is
private and, therefore, is a closed rather than open social network). While at least four
male subjects reported that they regularly attended an anime club while at college, an
even greater number of male and female subjects had attended local or regional fan
conventions. In total, three male subjects and seven female subjects reported attending
67
68
Subject #4a.
Another female subject actually started her own club for video gaming at college and explained that she
simply did not feel the need to attend a club to watch anime since it was widely available commercially and
through rental companies like Netflix, Subject #7a. As Sean Leonard‘s research shows, anime clubs were
once essential to how fans accessed anime in the U.S., but my interviews in 2008 reveal that subjects were
probably more driven to participate in such clubs to socialize, not just to find local anime distribution
networks.
130
anime conventions, and most had attended multiple conventions or had made it a standard
practice to attend a convention on an annual basis. If anime clubs help fans increase their
exposure to a variety of anime shows while socializing with other fans, anime
conventions encourage fans to participate a much wider variety of performative practices
with other fans and to do so for an extended period of time (often for two or three days).
When questioned about their convention experiences, subjects almost always
reference around four or five specific activities that they both enjoyed and most
associated with the convention event. As a researcher, I have attended anime
conventions in a variety of locations in the U.S., each serving very different communities.
In 2007 and 2008 I attended a state convention in the Midwest with around 3,000
attendees. In addition, I attended a regional convention with around 14,000 attendees in
2007, and a national convention with around 40,000 attendees in 2008. I observed that
most conventions share certain basic programming events and that there exists a fair
amount of standardization in terms of what exactly takes place at an ―anime convention.‖
First, anime conventions generally hold multiple, usually simultaneous, anime
screenings. It is common for a number of rooms to be set aside for screening anime, and
at larger conventions the screening schedules can often run for 24 hours a day (even
smaller, or regional, conventions often screen anime past midnight, into the early
morning hours). At least two subjects mentioned these screenings as a key attraction at
anime conventions.69
Second, anime conventions hold panels covering a wide variety of anime, manga
and gaming-related topics during the day. Panel topics range from discussion of specific
anime shows to demonstrations of Japanese cultural traditions, such as the tea ceremony.
69
Subject #5a. Subject #9a.
131
At smaller conventions the majority of panels are run by fans, who comprise both the
audience and the presenters, while larger conventions host U.S. and Japanese industry
panels. Industry involvement allows fans a chance to interact directly with various
creators, performers and transcultural adapters. These panels tend to be very popular
since fans are given access to official cultural mediators and allowed to communicate
with industry insiders through question and answer sessions. One subject noted that the
―highlight‖ of his first convention experience was being able to meet U.S. voice actors
and other people who worked in the industry.70 Panels are a significant part of the
convention experience since they offer fans a collective forum that allows them to
conduct face-to-face discussions about their interests and about the culture of fandom as a
whole.
In addition to convention spaces devoted to discussion and anime screenings,
conventions often have multiple ―gaming‖ rooms set up that allow fans to gather together
and socialize through play. There are rooms focused on video games – some Japanese in
origin, some not – but also rooms available for role-playing games such as Dungeons &
Dragons. Although Dungeons & Dragons has no specific link to Japanese anime
fandom, its placement in the convention space appears to be a significant connection to
traditional science-fiction fan conventions (which are traditionally more male-oriented).
One female subject explained that she has always enjoyed playing Dance Dance
Revolution! at conventions, an arcade game that challenges participants to time their
dance steps to lights and musical cues on a platform.71 This game may be perceived as
more female-friendly since it is not a traditional ―shoot ‗em up‖ video arcade game. In
70
Subject #4a.
71
Subject #5a.
132
addition to game rooms, larger conventions also have a ―library‖ room of manga books,
where convention goers can read manga for free. Once again, reading – an activity
usually understood as a private practice – is turned into a communal one. Importantly,
manga in such rooms is often donated by U.S. manga publishing companies, revealing
just one of the many ways in which corporate and fan interests come together at the
convention site.
In many ways, the commercialization of certain aspects of the anime convention
is embraced by fans. One of the biggest draws of the convention is the ―dealer‘s room,‖ a
place where anime, manga and merchandise vendors set up booths and sell consumer
goods. For subjects who come from smaller towns, or lack access to commercial venues
for anime-related merchandise, conventions are also an opportunity to express their
appreciation for anime through their purchasing habits. Visitors are able to purchase a
variety of goods including DVD box sets, anime character key chains and ―plushies,‖ (or
stuffed toys, usually in the form of an anime character) as well items associated with
Japanese culture, such as kimonos or well-known Japanese snack foods (such as
―pocky‖). In a way, convention attendees are invited to consume Japan in a variety of
ways throughout their convention experience. Not only are they invited to consume
animation, comics, video games, but even to partake in recognizably ―Japanese‖ dress
and foodstuffs.
Yet, subjects are not merely consumers when they enter into convention space.
As noted earlier, there is a strong sense of fans actively creating a shared cultural
experience. Panels allow fans to express themselves through the formation and
circulation a shared discourse, and their participation in a range of convention activities
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encourages subjects to use their bodies to perform their fandom throughout the
convention space. Socialization remains the most significant aspect of the anime
convention experience according to subjects, and most noted in interviews that they
prefer to explore the activities of the convention with a group of friends.72 Certain
subjects began attending conventions regularly with friends as adolescents, and one
subject even went on a road trips to attend conventions in neighboring states; her decision
to travel was primarily motivated, she explained, by the fact she could attend the nonlocal anime convention with her friend.73 As one subject put it, one‘s convention
experiences depended entirely upon ―who you go with,‖ and he noted he tended to have
more fun when he went to be with his friends, rather than for any specific convention
event.74 Similarly, the subject Melissa described the experience of attending and making
plans for a convention as a social one; she and her friends planned in advance what
costumes they would wear, what anime they would screen in their hotel room, and what
―events‖ they would attend at the convention together.75 Like other subjects, she felt the
convention was a ―social experience‖ and that she did not attend merely ―for the
convention experience.‖
For some fans, attending a local anime convention is an opportunity to turn what
might feel like socially isolating practices – such as engagement with online fan groups –
into embodied social networks. One subject, ―Molly,‖ who had created her own fan
translation group for manga, noted that even though her group communicated primarily
72
Subject #1a. Subject #5a. Subject #9a. Subject #15a.
73
Subject #5a.
74
Subject #1a.
75
Subject #11a.
134
through online networks they would also gather together at anime conventions when they
were able. By planning to meet at conventions with individuals she primarily knew
through electronic communication, this subject drew upon her already existing online
social networks when she entered other fan-oriented spaces. Molly noted that even if
members of the group did not know each other before the convention, they would all plan
to wear a ―group shirt‖ so they could recognize each other once they were there. This
would also be a way to assert their collective identity as fan translators within the
convention space. This opportunity to enact one‘s online life in embodied spaces was
made possible by the fandom ―convention‖ practice. Its existence encourages fans to set
aside a number of days in the year and devote them to expressing their appreciation for
anime and manga and, therefore, to solidify what their fan identity would look like if it
was not necessarily relegated to certain hours of the week or day.
For many fans, attending an anime convention is also an opportunity to live that
identity through dress. At the convention, ―costume play‖ or ―cosplay‖ is one of the most
visible and performative aspects of fandom identity. When fans participate in cosplay
practices they dress up as characters from their favorite anime series and expect other
fans to recognize their simulation of this fictional identity. Cosplay can be a full
recreation of an anime character identity – with costume, hairstyle and makeup employed
-- or it can be a simple nod to the character with the use of a recognizable character
accessory. In her article on the history of cosplay practices, Teresa Winge explains that
―cosplay includes all body modifications and supplements, such as hair, makeup,
costume, and accessories, including wands, staffs and swords….[t]his dress functions as
character identification and provides a basis for role-playing and interactions with other
135
cosplayers.‖76 It is common practice for cosplayers to ―pose‖ for pictures for other fans
and it is usually considered polite convention behavior for fans to request permission
before snapping pictures of others. This is a fairly simple social interaction that is
repeated many times throughout the day, but it also becomes a ritual which can lead to
discussion between fans – who otherwise might not know each other – about the details
of the costume, or even inspire discussion of the character portrayed.
Shannon, who had been attending a local annual anime convention since she was
fourteen years old (and was eighteen years old at the time I interviewed her), particularly
enjoyed her cosplay experiences when her character was ―recognized‖ by other fans. 77
―Being recognized‖ meant that other fans were telling her she had ―done a good job‖ with
her costume. Even though Shannon described herself as ―shy‖ and ―anti-social,‖ through
costume play she was able to adapt to the social dynamics of the convention space
without difficulty. Angela, who participated in this practice on a yearly basis, explained
that cosplaying could be ―awkward‖ since other fans might know more about her chosen
character than she did. However, she continued to cosplay because she found it to be a
fun group activity she could do with her boyfriend and friends. Dressing up as a
character ever year allowed this subject to participate in fandom without having to
demonstrate that she had any particular ―specialized‖ knowledge about anime or about
her character. She had started attending anime conventions at the age of sixteen, and
when interviewed at the age of twenty she said she still planned to attend the local anime
76
Teresa Winge, ―Costuming the Imagination: Origins of Anime and Manga Cosplay,‖ Mechademia 1
(2006): 72.
77
Subject #15a.
136
convention in costume once again.78 Although cosplayers of both genders are quite
common at conventions, it is worth noting that female subjects were more likely to
indicate that they had an interest in the practice, or to report that they made it a point to
cosplay when they attended anime conventions.79
As noted earlier, cosplay practices also allow fans who do not a dress up in
costume an opportunity to participate in the cosplay experience. For instance, the subject
Melissa had previously participated in the practice at conventions by documenting her
friends‘ cosplay activities and then uploading those photographs onto her Deviant Art
account.80 After years of watching others dress up, Melissa reported that she and her
friends were planning their costumes for next year‘s local anime convention. They all
planned to dress up as characters from their favorite anime show – FLCL – and,
therefore, emphasize themselves as a close-knit community of fans, since their outfits
would have to be constructed in advance and with each other‘s consultation. She even
noted that part of the appeal was the social aspect of costume play, as she and her friends
made it a point to attend an event known as the ―cosplay show,‖ commonly scheduled at
anime conventions, during which fans will enter into various contests for ―best costume‖
(such as ―best male,‖ ―best female,‖ ―best group‖ costume, etc.). The anime convention
gave Melissa and her friends the opportunity to spend an extended amount of time
together, since they planned to rent a hotel room at the convention center and have a
marathon viewing of their favorite anime together there. While Melissa mentioned
specific convention activities that interested her (such as visiting the ―dealer‘s room‖ to
78
Subject #5a.
79
Subject #5a. Subject #7a. Subject #14a. Subject #15a.
80
Subject #11a.
137
buy anime and manga-related merchandise), it is obvious that the draw of the convention
is the fact it encourages a space in which she and her friends can assert their identities as
a group.
Attending an anime convention held annually is a culmination of many fandom
related activities subjects do throughout the rest of the year. It is a consciously social
experience that incorporates aspects of how they perform their fandom in the home, at
school, at the public library and at local anime clubs and festivals. The anime convention
features activities they often do on those other spaces – such as screen anime shows with
friends, read manga with others – but also enlarges, regularizes, and even protects the
public space surrounding those activities.
Costume play can be seen as a literal representative of the performativity and
visibility the anime convention itself encourages. At all the anime conventions I had
attended I noticed that widely practiced costume play drew attention to fans‘ identities
beyond the ―safe‖ space of the convention. As fans often left the convention space to
travel to and from their local lodging, to visit local attractions, or even simply to grab a
bite to eat, the culture of fandom spilled out into other spaces, made quite noticeable to
outsiders thanks to the brightly-colored, unusually-constructed clothing that fans wore in
order to portray their chosen animated character. In this way, such individuals were not
merely expressing their identity as a fan among insiders, but to the outside world as well.
Thanks to the sheer number of people both attending these conventions and wearing a
costume, they were also not communicating their fandom as individuals. They were
performing very individualized identities – i.e. specific characters – through visible
collective practices. In this way, fans seemed to transform the spaces through which they
138
traveled to simply access the convention spaces, and in doing so made a collective claim
for the real world significance of their interest in Japanese popular culture.
Conclusion
In seeking out virtual and embodied spaces in which to articulate their fandom
identity, subjects are often consciously constructing their social identity as embedded
within fan communities. However, a number of subjects I interviewed were not merely
participants in such fan spaces, they were also the creators of these spaces by instituting
anime clubs in their high schools, advising librarians about public anime and manga
festivals, forming their own fan translations groups, and constructing social networks to
enact consumption and performative practices at anime conventions. As a whole,
subjects develop embodied and virtual networks that connect the various spaces in their
lives in order to assert their identity as a fan. They do not isolate themselves through
these interactions but actually develop connections that bring their social, educational,
home, online lives into dialogue with each other. They tend to reject boundaries that
would isolate their interest in anime and manga as separate from how they express
themselves as individuals and community members.
The approach I develop here to track subjects‘ engagement with both online and
local manifestations of anime and manga fandom expands and deepens scholarly
understandings of how a variety of social networks allow individuals to constitute their
identities. Importantly, this process seemed to differ greatly according to gender, with
female subjects more likely to attribute social significance to their online activities while
male subjects tended to underplay their importance in favor of ―face to face‖ interactions.
139
However, by analyzing subjects‘ perceptions about their activities, as well as their actual
practices as reported in interviews and which I observed at fan events, I develop
interactive accounts of subjects‘ online and embodied performance of their fandom.
The unique contribution of this chapter to fandom studies is my placement of both
embodied and virtual practices into a broader consideration of how young Americans
actively use the resources and institutions that are available to them to constitute their
sense of self.
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CHAPTER FOUR:
FAN TRANSLATIONS AND FANDOM‘S ―GREY AREA‖: HOW PIRACY AND
PARICIPATORY PRACTICES CREATE ALTERNATIVE FLOWS OF JAPANESE
POPULAR CULTURE
Introduction
In the past ten years, the English-language fandom for Japanese animation and
comic books has been greatly influenced by fans‘ creation of and participation in a
variety of unofficial online networks devoted to the production and distribution of fantranslated anime and manga works. The fans I interviewed often used the phrase ―grey
area‖ to indicate that while they generally understand that the creation and distribution of
fan-translated texts may violate laws of copyright protection, such practices create
alternative and highly-valued modes of unofficial transcultural production. The majority
of subjects who participated in this study and self-identified as fans of Japanese popular
culture reported regular consumption of fan-translated anime and manga texts. Whether
or not subjects regularly read or watched unofficial fan translations, they generally
expressed strong attitudes about such practices, how they have affected the U.S. market
for anime and manga, and affected the strategies by which U.S. licensors have adapted
these products for American audiences. Fans understand they do not ―own‖ the product
that they are either translating or consuming, yet they assert a kind of proprietary
caretaking of these representations through their shared translation practices, as well as
through their online distribution and circulation of such works.
141
In this chapter I analyze fans‘ consumption and creation of online fan translations
in order to develop an account of fans‘ own understanding of their practices, and then
consider the effect of these practices upon the continually developing formations of
unofficial and official cultural flows from Japan to the U.S. In order to examine these
unofficial translation acts – which seek to make Japanese popular culture available in
digital forms for free, and translated into English for the benefit of other fans – I have
adopted the umbrella term ―fan translation‖ to describe multiple translation practices.1 I
will suggest that such acts enable subjects to intervene in global flows of Japanese
popular culture. Among English-language anime and manga fans, the specific terms used
to describe these practices are generally known as ―fansubbing‖ in the case of anime, or
―scanlating‖ in the case of manga.2 These terms have then been adapted within fandom
to describe various aspects of the practice – ―fansubs‖ refer to the translated digital anime
file, while someone who participates in the process by which anime is translated and
distributed online for free is usually called a ―fansubber.‖ This means that people who
participate in the practice are conferred a specialized identity within fandom argot – for a
fan to say ―I am a fansubber‖ is his or her way of claiming a role as an unofficial
transcultural mediator, although the actual skill they contribute to creating a digital fan
1
Although anime and manga translation communities each employ different technologies to edit English
language scripts into digital copies of anime and manga texts, and have slightly different methods of
circulating their files through online distribution networks, as a whole these communities overlap in
constituting a fan culture based on alternative practices of consuming unsanctioned anime and manga
works. It is common for subjects to consume both types of fan translations, and in general fans who engage
in such practices share a number of perceptions and attitudes about the practice of producing free translated
versions of anime and manga texts for other fans. In this chapter I am less concerned with various
differences between these two fan cultures than with the ways in which they form a broader context that
influences how fans understand themselves in relationship to each other, to the official licensors, and even
to the original creators in Japan.
2
While both ―scanslation‖ and ―scanlation‖ are terms used by fans, I use the more common term
―scanlation‖ throughout this chapter.
142
translation file (i.e. a ―fansub‖ or ―scanlation‖) may not even involve acts of linguistic
translation.
The terms ―fansubbing‖ and ―scanlating‖ refer to a set of practices, which is why
fans often work in groups to produce digitized translated anime and manga works. In the
case of manga, for example, fan groups assign tasks to individual members to digitally
scan manga texts, translate the manga script from Japanese into English, alter the scans
with computer graphic programs in order to insert the English script into the digital copy,
and finally, circulate the edited scans through a variety of online distribution networks.3
Similarly, with anime shows fans translate the verbal script, use video editing software
programs to insert their own English-language subtitles into the digital copy, and then
distribute the large data file through peer-to-peer file sharing networks. The most
commonly used peer-to-peer network among anime fans (and among all worldwide
online downloaders of media content as well) is known as ―BitTorrent.‖ The formation
of such open-ended distribution networks to circulate digitized copies of anime and
manga texts means that fan translators relinquish a great deal of control over their own
―creations‖ in comparison to the early days of anime fandom, when fan-subtitled anime
had to be copied on VHS tapes. Producing a single physical copy of an anime show on a
VHS tape limited its distribution, and individual fans often had to circulate tapes through
the postal service in order to access anime.4
3
Often English-language fan groups translate manga from Chinese versions, not just Japanese ones. China
not only has a thriving culture of officially licensed manga works – which are needed in order to access
―raw‖ scans – it is often easier to find individuals capable of translating from Chinese to English, rather
than from Japanese to English. Some fans distinguish between Chinese and Japanese-language manga by
insisting that only Japanese-language manga should be called a ―raw‖ copy, since manga in Chinese is
already translated and adapted from the Japanese language.
4
Sean Leonard. ―Progress Against the Law: Anime and Fandom, with the key to the globalization of
culture,‖ International Journal of Cultural Studies 8, no. 3 (2005): 290. Subject #17a, Interview, 10 Oct
143
Fans' opportunities to consume fan-translated digital anime and manga texts, as
well as the ability to create them, has risen considerably since the year 2000 primarily
because of increased access to the bandwidth needed to transmit and download such large
digital files. Significantly, in the past few years it has become even easier to access fan
translations thanks to the advent of ―streaming video‖ sites such as youtube or aggregate
fan translation sites, like ―Onemanga.com,‖ which collect many different manga scans
created by fan groups and allow site visitors to read thousands of translated comics
simply by clicking a mouse to navigate the pages. This transition to housing fan
translations on websites, where they can be read or watched on the site itself, enables fans
who do not own their own computer – particularly in the case of teenage fans who often
use their parents‘ or school‘s computers – to access fan-translated texts without having to
spend their time downloading them.
However, the increased accessibility and circulation of these representations
among the fan community is accompanied by a significant loss of control over fans‘
distribution of these works. In her study of fan translation practices, media scholar HyeKyung Lee has noted an interesting tension between groups attempting to maintain
control over their own translations – by insisting that they should be ―credited‖ as the
translators within the digital object itself – in light of ―their free use of copyrighted
materials.‖5 According to Lee, such tension reveals that fan translators‘ ―identity seems
to move between that of fans who borrow copyrighted manga for personal use and that of
cultural producers who are emotionally and artistically attached to their products and
2008. Please note that this pre-digitized history of fan translation practices is covered in greater depth in
chapters 2 and 3 and, therefore, is only referenced here.
5
Hye-Kyung Lee, ―Between Fan Culture and Copyright Infringement: Manga Scanlation,‖ Media, Culture
& Society 31 (2009): 1018.
144
conscious of their audiences.‖ In fact, I argue there is an even greater tension here; fans,
both fan translators and consumers of fan translations, assert a sense of ownership over
these digitized translations in ways which seem to conflict with the desire of official
cultural licensors to mainstream these cultural forms in the U.S. and build as large an
audience as possible. Some fans even claim that fan translations are superior to the
licensed (or ―legal‖) versions, a claim which puts fan culture and commercial culture in
direct competition for the audience‘s attention. By making such claims, fans resist the
Americanization of a Japanese commercial culture and project a specialized cultural
status upon anime and manga that they believe they are protecting by violating copyright
and intellectual property laws.
In this chapter, I draw upon interviews with self-identified fans who actively
consumed or created fan translations at the time they were interviewed, or had previously
participated in either practice on a regular basis. In addition, I also analyze mainstream
press interviews conducted with official U.S. licensors and translators. Examining the
perspectives and experiences of both official and unofficial ―cultural mediators,‖ I show
how such fan practices have forced official licensors to adapt the strategies by which they
produce and distribute anime and manga for the North American marketplace. I want to
acknowledge the ways alternative practices of cultural production allow fans to position
themselves as both transcultural gate-keepers as well as the watch-dogs of official
cultural adapters. Even fans who do not actively create translations of anime and manga
works use their consumption of those works as a form of knowledge production, enabling
them to speak with authority about how anime and manga should be translated for
English-language audiences.
145
I also want to consider whether fan practices which violate the law should be
understood along with sets of practices often described as ―participatory culture‖ Henry
Jenkins, or ―remix culture‖ by Lawrence Lessig. The act of creating digital reproductions
of anime and manga texts seems to exceed the boundaries of Lessig‘s concept of ―remix
culture,‖ where individuals ―quote‖ media texts – such as songs, films, television clips,
etc. – in order to produce an entirely new interpretation or creative use of the original
media text.6 Lessig likens the act of remixing to quoting a written text and strongly
believes that this ―right to quote…is a critical expression of creative freedom that in a
broad range of contexts, no free society should restrict.‖7 Does adding a translation to a
digital copy of a Japanese comic or anime show make it a new ―creative work‖? By
asking these questions and taking fan translation seriously as a productive transcultural
practice, I follow Michael Cronin‘s call for a scholarly practice of ―critical translation
studies,‖ and in doing so theorize how these unofficial acts of translation intervene in or
even help produce a larger global media project.8
In order to complement and expand the limited contemporary research on fan
translation practices, I examine both the fan translators‘ practices and understanding of
their own ―authorship‖ of these digital texts, as well as how subjects use their
consumption of these practices in order to constitute their identities as fans. I argue that
the circulation and consumption of fan translations creates a collective fan culture that
should not be understood as merely founded in acts of piracy, but also in acts of critical
6
Lawrence Lessig, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (New York: Penguin
Press, 2008).
7
Lessig, 56.
8
Michael Cronin, Translation and Globalization (London: Routledge Press, 2003), 2, 34.
146
translation and identity-formation. This work, therefore, adds an important consideration
of the role of both sanctioned and unsanctioned translation practices to the study of U.S.
anime and manga fandom. My contribution is to not only contextualize a variety of
―translation acts‖ that determine how Americans receive popular international cultures,
but also to show how anime and manga fans intercede and produce transcultural flows
through such acts. This work, therefore, complicates scholarly discourses of
globalization by revealing how fans engage and refashion global culture through their
collective practices.
Consuming Culture as Productive Culture: The Role
of Fan Translations in Anime and Manga Fandom
In the past ten years, fans of anime and manga have developed a variety of online
networks that allow them, as a group, to actively circumvent the various material,
financial and content limitations placed upon official anime and manga gatekeepers in the
U.S. Official licensors have learned to be sensitive to the already existing fanbases for
Japanese animation and comic books, as well as to the possibility of marketing these
representations to broader audiences. In particular, official licensors have been facing
declining profits in the wake of dwindling mainstream retail media outlets for anime and
shrinking shelf space in chain bookstores for manga.9 Although anime DVD collectors
have turned to online distributors – such as ―Amazon.com‖ and ―Rightstuf.com‖ – as a
result of the closure of many retail outlets, American teens are now coming of age in a
time where it is often simpler to access fan translations of anime shows and manga titles,
9
―A Second Bad Year in a Row for Manga: Sales Down 20% in 2009,‖ ICv2.com, 16 April 2010
<http://www.icv2 com/ articles/news/17292.html> (19 Sep 2010).
147
rather than acquire legally sanctioned copies. The ever-increasing ease with which fans
can both create and access such fan translations has enabled them to produce an
alternative pathway by which culture flows – independent of material and legal
limitations – from Japan to the U.S.
U.S. English-language anime and manga fandom is almost impossible to extricate
from the active online communities created with the intent to share and distribute both
unlicensed and licensed anime and manga texts among fans for free. Many of these
communities fall under what Lawrence Lessig describes as ―internet sharing economies‖
where ―people contribute to the common good as a by-product of doing what they would
otherwise want to do.‖10 In these communities fans often upload files for other fans –
sometimes upon request, sometimes because they want to ―advertise‖ favorite works to
other fans – or simply provide information about websites fans can visit in order to
download specific anime or manga titles which have been translated by fan groups. As a
whole these trading communities operate as ―sharing economies‖ in that digital files are
passed without financial compensation between community members, but also because
the community operates on the basis of sharing information.11 Lessig emphasizes that
sharing economies are based upon a certain amount of self-interest, in that the communal
production of a sharing economy is powered by individuals who volunteer their time,
energy, and even a variety of their own resources, to benefit both themselves and others.
Fans who produce fan translations devote not only their skills and time, they also
often allocate some of their financial resources to purchase the product in Japanese in
10
11
Lessig, 155.
Lessig‘s ―paradigm case‖ of an online sharing community is Wikipedia, a site that seeks to make
information available to a worldwide community for free.
148
order to digitally alter it (particularly in the case of manga translators who often buy the
manga book in Japanese in order to create a digital scan of it). Then they frequently buy
web-hosting space enabling them to upload translated digital files for other fans to access.
Some groups create their own websites because they desire to build a community of
support surrounding their activities. Such groups often encourage other fans to visit the
site in order to first download fan translations and then stay to participate in the
community by leaving comments on a message board or in a forum. It is common for
such forums to have many active threads, allowing fans to share not only their
appreciation for anime and manga works, but also to discuss their daily lives. In addition,
these forums institute practices of non-economic exchange since some groups may
demand fan ―participation‖ in such forums in exchange for releasing access to the fan
translations they produce. Therefore, it is not just the individuals who produce fan
translations who enable this sharing economy – a part of what is being exchanged are the
tools necessary to create a fan community that is built upon multiple membership roles.
The practice of fan translation should not be understood as a single act of
linguistic translation – it is also often about ―translating‖ material objects into digital
forms. Not only do fan groups produce translations of the Japanese script, in the case of
scanlations they also turn a manga book into a digital scan. In order to produce a single
fan-translated text – either one episode of an anime program or one chapter of a manga
title – a fan translation group must draw on group members‘ varying skill sets. These
skills range from experience in new media technologies – necessary in order to digitally
edit the work to include a translated English language script – to Japanese language
education in order to produce a translated script. On their individual websites, most
149
scanlation groups have ―recruitment pages‖ where they list the ―positions‖ fans fill in
order to help produce the final product, i.e. the ―fansub‖ or ―scanlation.‖ One such site
lists seven different positions within the group, including a ―scanner,‖ who creates a
digital scan of a material copy of a Japanese manga book, a ―translator,‖ who creates an
English language translation of the text, and an "editor/cleaner/typsetter," which is
actually a set of practices involving the "cleaning" of the raw scans (i.e. removing
Japanese text and then "restoring the scans to a better quality") and then the insertion of
the English text into the scans, which is "typesetting."12 The website also lists a
―proofreader,‖ who is supposed to ―correct grammatical / vocabulary mistakes, fix up
awkward sentences, rephrase and shorten sentences if needed,‖ and finally a ―quality
checker,‖ also known as a ―qcer‖ in fandom circles, who checks the final product for
mistakes.13 Often, each individual who participates in the creation of a fan translated text
is listed on the ―credit‖ page next to their position, and this page is added to the
scanlation file and is intended to circulate along with the fan translated work.
Throughout these levels of production, circulation and consumption, fans are
creating multiple roles that allow individuals to participate in this ―sharing economy.‖
As noted previously in chapter 3, many subjects who did not consider themselves to be
―active‖ in online fandom groups or communities nevertheless reported active or regular
consumption of fan translations. These subjects seemed to distinguish between online
community participation and consumption practices. However, the way subjects
conceptualized the significance of consuming fan translations upon their experience as a
12
13
―Recruitment,‖ Transcendence, <http://ourtranscendence.com/Recruitment.shtml> (1 March 2010).
Fan translators who work on manga have developed a production practice which parallels U.S. manga
publishers, as most manga books officially published in English credit the names of the translator, adapter
and letterer (which in fan terminology would be the translator, proofreader, and typesetter).
150
fan belies that distinction. Most subjects who participated in this study first discovered
anime and manga as young adolescents, and while that original exposure happened
through ―official‖ distribution channels – such as watching anime on cable television or
borrowing manga from libraries – as they matured these fans would go on to discover an
active online fan culture based upon the unofficial translation, circulation and distribution
of anime and manga texts. For one subject, discovering fan translations online would be
a transformative experience, since she had very limited access to officially licensed
versions of these representations within her small town environment. It was not merely
increased access to texts, but the fact that the circulation of these works was accompanied
by many fan communities, that seemed so remarkable to her.14
While this subject sought greater connection to anime and manga fan culture
through online investigation, and found it through her discovery of fan translations, even
those who sought embodied communal spaces in which to perform their fandom were
also touched by the prevalence of digital file sharing. University anime clubs often
screen fansubs of unlicensed shows that have been burned onto DVD disks, and at the
university anime club screenings I attended I observed that the club kept an entire
―library‖ of fan-burned DVDs from which club members could borrow (and, therefore,
these clubs condoned media piracy as a kind of ―fair use‖). The club I visited also made
it a practice to pull anime titles that were later licensed from the fan library, thereby
distinguishing between works that would become commercially available in the states
(and implying that those should be bought by fans) and works which were not claimed by
official U.S. licensors and would be allowed to circulate amongst club members.
14
Subject #12a, Interview, 9 Sep 2008.
151
This anime club implemented what Hye-Kyung Lee has described as one of the
ethical codes of scanlation groups she studied. Lee notes that ―many participants tend to
regard [stopping the distribution of licensed works] as an important criterion that
distinguishes scanlation from illegal file sharing,‖ such as illegal music sharing.15
However, Lee‘s research focus is upon the practices and code of ethics instituted by
certain fan translation groups, which means that she does not fully examine the ways in
which the ―audience‖ actually circulates, consumes and uses these digital files. The fact
that it is quite common in 2011 for popular licensed series to continue to be translated,
circulated and consumed by fans has become a controversial issue within fandom that has
not been resolved. In order to better understand this divide, I examine how my subjects
distinguish between creating and circulating fan translations of licensed and unlicensed
titles in order to complicate what ―codes‖ fans are relying upon to understand their
practices.
Fans express a variety of complex attitudes about the role of fan translations in
anime and manga communities, and their actions should not be simplified as only a form
of digital piracy. By interviewing fans I discovered that escaping the financial cost of
purchasing officially licensed versions of anime and manga texts was only one potential
motive. Subjects who enrolled in this study as fans, and were aged 18 years and older,
were asked in a questionnaire what they thought about the practices of ―scanlation‖ or
―fansubbing,‖ and whether or not they thought it was acceptable to create or distribute
online fan translations of anime or manga texts that were 1) unlicensed for distribution in
their country and 2) licensed for distribution in their country. Subjects articulated a range
15
Lee, 1017. According to Lee, other codes include 1) the ―not-for-profit principle,‖ 2) buying the original
work in Japanese, and 3) fan translators being ―credited‖ for their work, 1016-1018.
152
of supporting justifications for fan translation practices, including a commonly-held
belief that fan translations have had a positive or productive effect upon the flow of
Japanese popular culture not only to the U.S. but globally. In addition, many expressed
the belief that it is often the activity of fans that laid the groundwork for official U.S.
licensing practices by exposing audiences to many anime and manga titles before such
works were viewed as potentially profitable. Yet, unlike certain theories forwarded by
manga and anime bloggers and critics who believe that fans – young fans in particular –
are actually ignorant of the fact that these practices are illegal and that they only need to
be educated about their behavior in order to curtail illegal downloading practices, I found
the exact opposite was true of the fans I interviewed.16 Subjects were well aware that
they were violating certain laws but often expressed the belief that there was a productive
value in their practices.
Within fandom, fan translators are perceived as creating added value to the works
they produce by making them available for free for English-language audiences. One
subject noted that ―although [such fan translation practices] are illegal,‖ he felt ―that
scanlations are a way for people overseas to learn about new manga and therefore learn
about Japanese culture since we don‘t have the luxury of seeing advertisements,
16
In ―Copyright 101,‖ blogger Katherine Dacey criticizes an online blogger for reviewing a fan translation
aggregate site and for not recognizing he or she was reviewing a site with illegal content. She comments
that ―socially conscious manga bloggers…need to take the time to educate others. Yes, it can seem like
you‘re talking to a brick wall when dealing with the more truculent members of the manga community, but
keep the message simple: scanlations violate the spirit and the letter of copyright law.‖ She assumes that
―the more truculent‖ fans do not understand their own actions. Katherine Dacey, ―Copyright 101,‖ The
Manga Critic, 20 March 2010 <http://mangacritic.com/?p=3861> (23 March 2010). Similarly, new media
blogger Michael Leddy has written that ―so-called digital natives are often in the dark, or at least in dimlylit rooms, when it comes to digital technology. Many so-called digital natives are in truth digital naïfs. The
natives‘ naïveté is considerable.‖ Michael Leddy, Orange Crate Art, 22 March 2010
<http://mleddy.blogspot.com/2010/03/digital-naifs.html> (23 March 2010).
153
figurines, or doujinshi [fan made comics] like there is in Japan.‖17 By using the word
―luxury‖ to describe an individual‘s proximity to anime and manga‘s culture of origin,
this subject asserts that the language and spatial barriers that U.S. anime and manga fans
experience can be overcome or mitigated by fans‘ use of digital technologies to produce
unofficial translations. As a result of the selective nature of official licensing choices, fan
translators perceive themselves as working in the vein of alternative transcultural
mediators by making works available that are not viewed as potentially profitable or
adaptable for the U.S. market by media corporations. One subject in his late twenties
explained that while ―on the one hand [scanlation] is technically stealing, on the other
hand the cost of licensing makes buying lots of manga very cost prohibitive, and some
series would never see the light of day in English any other way.‖18 The ―prohibitive
cost[s]‖ the subject referenced are the financial resources required for U.S. adapters to
license, translate, and then produce material copies of Japanese manga or anime texts. As
a result of those costs, companies must be selective in what they choose to license and
often pick titles that are believed to appeal to the largest possible audience. The titles that
might never ―see the light of day‖ in English if it were not for fan translators would be
titles official licensors might deem too ―niche,‖ or perhaps titles that would not appeal to
the contemporary readership.19 In other words, fan translators are perceived as doing a
17
Subject #9a, Interview, 1 Aug 2008.
18
Subject #1a, Interview, 28 Feb 2008.
19
Manga titles published before the 1990‘s are usually not looked at as viable properties for U.S. publishers
unless created by a well-known or famous artist, such as Osamu Tezuka, and those titles are often conferred
the status of ―classic.‖ By 2010, the most common types of manga to be licensed in the U.S. are works
aimed at teenage boys or teenage girls. Takeshi Matsui, ―The Diffusion of Foreign Cultural Products: The
Case Analysis of Japanese Comics (Manga) Market in the U.S.,‖ Princeton University: Center for Arts and
Cultural Studies: Working Papers Spring 2009 <http://www.princeton.edu/~artspol/workpap/WP37Matsui.pdf> (19 Sep 2010).
154
kind of cultural ―rescue‖ work since they allow English language fans access to
representations that they otherwise might never see.
Importantly, many subjects distinguished between consuming fan translations of
unlicensed and licensed titles and often expressed very specific ―codes‖ by which such
translations were acceptable for fans to consume. Some subjects who believed it is okay
to consume fan translations for unlicensed works would draw the line at doing the same
for licensed works. In such cases, subjects offered a consumer-positive perspective, with
one stating that fans should ―support the author [by buying] if it gets licensed,‖20 while
another insisted that once an anime title was licensed for U.S. distribution there were
―relatively simple and certainly more legal means of acquisition…available‖ as opposed
to illegal downloading.21 Only one subject adamantly rejected fan translation practices
altogether, noting that he ―believed in paying authors for their work,‖ whether or not their
work was licensed in English or only published in Japanese.22 Very few subjects voiced
such a complete rejection of these fan practices, and most felt that creating translations of
unlicensed series had its place in fandom, although their justifications varied quite a bit.
While subjects often claimed that fan translations practices were a ―grey area,‖ in
truth their understanding of how fan translations violated copyright laws was often hazy.
When defending the practice of translating unlicensed series, one subject said he
―believe[d] it is only an offense when copy-write laws are broken [sic].‖23 In other
words, the practice was acceptable so long as U.S. companies are not currently or
20
Subject #2a, Interview, 5 March 2008.
21
Subject #4a, Interview, 15 March 2008.
22
Subject #16a, Interview, 29 Sep 2008.
23
Subject #13a, Interview, 11 Sep 2008.
155
planning to release the work in the U.S. In this case, the subject is completely unaware of
the international protections against copyright infringement. Since 1988, the Berne
Convention / International Treaty has protected the rights of creators across national
boundaries. According to the Stanford Law School‘s Fair Use Project:
Copyright protection rules are fairly similar worldwide, due to several
international copyright treaties, the most important of which is the Berne
Convention. Under this treaty, all member countries – and there are more than
100, including virtually all industrialized nations – must afford copyright
protection to authors who are nationals of any member country. This protection
must last for at least the life of the author plus 50 years, and must be automatic
without the need for the author to take any legal steps to preserve the copyright.24
Similarly, another subject showed some confusion about the difference between ―creative
works‖ and ―information,‖ when he commented that while translating already-licensed
properties was a ―grey area in the community,‖ he deemed it an acceptable practice
because he ―subscribe[d] to the ‗information wants to be free‘ ethos.‖25 Often subjects
idealized a certain notion of the free circulation of ―information‖ not only past national
borders, but perhaps more significantly, past the language barrier.
A number of subjects took a pragmatic perspective, particularly in relation to the
language barrier. After all, one fan claimed, ―people who read these [scanlations] are
doing so because they don‘t know Japanese and would never buy the Japanese originals
anyway. Nothing is lost,‖26 while another responded that ―unless you go to Japan or
learn Japanese how are you going to understand the text?‖27 As discussed in chapter 2,
24
―B. Copyright Protection: What it is, how it Works,‖ Copyright & Fair Use: Stanford University
Libraries <http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use Overview/chapter0/0-b.html#3> (23 March
2010).
25
Subject #18a, Interview, 20 Nov 2008.
26
Subject #1a.
27
Subject #2a.
156
quite a few subjects had learned or were learning Japanese, which enabled them to
consume anime and manga without relying upon other adapters or translators, whether or
not those adapters were working in an official or unofficial capacity.28 However, some
assumed that the language barrier was an insurmountable obstacle, and, therefore,
unofficial acts of translation were deemed justifiable since they ―freed‖ the text for
English-language speakers.
One subject who also had participated in fan translation groups for years
explained that if there ―is no English version available‖ fan translations are ―fair-use,‖
although this justification forwards a misunderstanding of the concept.29 According to
the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use website, ―a fair use is any copying of copyrighted
material done for a limited and ‗transformative‘ purpose such as to comment upon,
criticize or parody a copyrighted work.‖30 Once again, we should be considering
whether or not Lessig‘s concept of the ―remix,‖ which he argues should be protected by
law since individuals are producing a new creative work by ―citing‖ other media texts,
would also incorporate fan translations within its boundaries. While there may be
creative additions (or added value) to the original representation (in part because the
translation fans create to accompany to original text is an interpretation of the work), fans
are not ―transforming‖ or ―quoting‖ the original work. They are producing a version of
the object in its entirety, which some fans justify if ―there is no English version
available.‖ The justification that English-language speakers should have completely
28
As argued in chapter 2, subjects‘ class status is one of the most significant factors in how they experience
their identity as a fan. Subjects with access to higher education were more likely to learn Japanese and
travel to Japan at some point before they graduated from a four year university.
29
30
Subject #17a.
―A. What is fair use?‖ Copyright & Fair Use: Stanford University Libraries <http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html/> (23 March 2010).
157
―free access‖ to Japanese media in response to the language barrier they experience is
also imagined as something that would please the original creator of the work. One
subject ―like[s] to think the author / artist would want their work to be enjoyed by as
many people as possible.‖31 This subject idealizes the concept of the ―artist,‖ (who is
imagined to be above such petty things as payment for their artistic creations) and avoids
the issue that Japanese creators are not being compensated for their work when fans copy
and distribute their own translations, nor have the creators given their permission for their
works to be copied and translated.
When asked about the practice of translating licensed titles, subjects articulated a
more complicated set of justifications and often positioned themselves as having certain
rights of ―access‖ to Japanese popular culture. The ―code of ethics‖ of scanlators
mentioned previously, which assumes that fan groups stop translating titles which have
been licensed, became for many a loose guideline rather than a hard and fast rule. It is
quite common for this code to be overruled by fan demand for titles popular in both Japan
and the U.S. – as in the case of Naruto, Bleach and One Piece – which often have
multiple fan groups producing independent translations of new chapters of these works
on a weekly basis.32 In the period between February 1st and March 1st, 2010, nine
different fan groups released recent chapters of the manga Bleach, and often no fewer
than three and sometimes as many as seven versions of a single chapter would be
31
32
Subject #9a, Interview, 1 Aug 2008.
All three works are part of Japanese weekly manga magazine culture – in other words, new chapters of
each title are released on a weekly basis in Japan through a magazine called Shonen Jump. Collections of
these chapters (i.e. the ―manga book‖) routinely chart high on manga bestselling lists in both the U.S. and
Japan.
158
released in a week.33 One subject conceptualized fans who undertake the translation of
licensed series as offering a kind of ―consumer‖ service to individuals within fandom.
She explained that, ―I appreciate the people who undertake this practice. It allows me to
access the most current episodes / chapters available without American censoring.‖34 She
understood fans as being better positioned to provide a service that she wanted, rather
than official adapters. Not only are fan translators believed to not ―censor‖ these
representations, they are relied upon to provide translations of chapters in a much timelier
manner than official manga adapters (in the second section of this chapter, I will further
examine fan attitudes toward official U.S. adapters‘ ―censoring‖ practices and their
―timeliness‖). Another subject wrote that even though fan translations are of
―questionable legality,‖ they are an ―opportunity for many people who can‘t spare [funds]
to buy the books at the stores. Even [though] scanlations are supposed to be taken down
when official translations are released, I don‘t see too much harm.‖35
Some subjects applied the notion of ―sampling‖ to fans‘ consumption of digital
fan translations of anime and manga texts, thereby explicitly connecting unofficial fan
practices to the support of official practices. Generally, sampling is imagined to be a
limited exposure to a manga or anime title that, according to one subject, ―is only
acceptable if the user has the intention of purchasing and supporting titles. That is to say,
as a means of sampling using scanlations and never intending to buy and support the
33
Search word: ―Bleach,‖ Bakaupdates. <http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=35> (24 March
2010). It is likely the each group‘s translation of the manga chapter was not that different from one
another. However, some fansub groups distinguish between acts of ―speed subbing‖ (when media content
from Japan is translated into English within twenty-four hours of its release) and groups that emphasize
―quality‖ of their adaptation / translation acts over speed.
34
Subject #7a, Interview, 27 March 2008.
35
Subject #5a, Interview, 18 March 2008.
159
industry is unacceptable.‖36 A number of other subjects described fan translations as an
―advertisement‖ or ―preview‖ – as in fan translations were perceived to be a ―free
advertisement of a show‖37 or as a ―means to preview manga that‖ they would then buy.38
Subjects who used these terms understood that fan translations are illegal but still
consider their existence beneficial to the official industry since they are imagined to help
to create potential consumers.
Others rejected the concept of sampling in favor of comparing these practices to
illegal music downloading. For some subjects, this comparison allowed them to
articulate concerns about consuming ―free translations‖; one fan explained ―I find it [to
be] a lot like downloading music so I‘m kind of against the practice. I don‘t approve if
the manga will later be released in English anyway.‖39 Yet when expanding upon the
comparison to illegal music downloading, this subject once again posited a range of
potential ―codes‖ by which it was acceptable to download unlicensed titles because
―these will not be available in America in a format I could read. This is comparable to
downloading rare bonus tracks only released in other countries.‖ On the other hand,
downloading licensed series ―is like downloading music that is available locally to me
and seems to be harmful to the business.‖ Once again, fans often distinguish between
―harmful‖ and ―productive‖ acts of piracy in their discourse.
When asked about the possibility that access to fan translations might keep fans
from actually purchasing licensed versions of anime shows or manga titles, one teenage
36
Subject #4a.
37
Subject #7a.
38
Subject #9a.
39
Subject #8a, Interview, 24 April 2008.
160
fan insisted that it was ―completely false‖ that fan translations are ―killing the industry‖
(a common phrase used by official licensors, as well as fans who adamantly oppose the
practice, to describe the effect of fan translations on the U.S. market for anime and
manga). The subject gave the example of a shojo anime (based on a manga property,
both versions of which have been licensed for the U.S. market), The Ouran High School
Host Club, arguing that its popularity as a fansub made it an ―attractive‖ property for
licensing.40 Another subject agreed with this line of thinking, stressing that the
translation of unlicensed anime or manga properties was important ―because it may
eventually lead to it being licensed and published outside of Japan if popularity is
high.‖41 These fans believed that their engagement with fansubs was a productive act –
they were producing a shared fan culture through the consumption of fansubs; this culture
was assumed to make audiences more receptive to buying officially licensed adaptations.
The belief that piracy can be a productive act is inextricably linked to the way in
which subjects constitute their identities as fans of anime and manga. To download fan
translations is not just to ―selfishly‖ consume but to help produce a collective interpretive
space surrounding certain works; through participation in such spaces fans often practice
―re-mixing‖ by producing derivative artistic works (i.e. fanart, fanfiction, fan comics,
etc.) and thereby add value to Japanese anime and manga franchises (these practices are
discussed in depth in chapter 3). One young fan claimed that fan translations had in fact
helped create the U.S. audience for anime and manga, and scanlations have ―only
40
Subject #10a, Interview, 25 Aug 2008.
41
Subject #19a, Interview, 3 Dec 2008.
161
increased manga‘s popularity and sales.‖42 Another conceptualized the practice of
consuming fan translations as a form of education since it ―shows people that there are
other manga out there. Also if a person likes an artist they can read other titles [by that
artist] even if they can‘t read Japanese.‖43 To be exposed to a Japanese anime or manga
in this way helps create a shared ―language‖ or shared experience through which fans
engage each other. In that sense, downloading may be less about encouraging a
consumer practice through ―sampling‖ and then buying, and more about creating a shared
set of references and vocabularies, which is one of the foundations for constituting a fan
community.
―Sampling,‖ in the end, may simply be a justification for consuming anime and
manga without having to pay for the experience. One fan expanded the so-called ―grey
area‖ of fan translation practices, commenting that consuming a licensed series is
―technically… stealing, but if I‘m not going to buy a series because it‘s expensive
anyway I don‘t feel bad about reading a scanlation.‖44 Although some felt uneasy with
the practice they also felt they ―need[ed] liscensed manga online because I can‘t afford to
buy large [numbers] of manga‖ volumes.45 These explanations have the ring of selffulfilling prophecy – if fans feel they are unable to afford to buy a legal copy of a series,
it becomes acceptable to download it since now ―nothing is lost‖ (as one subject, quoted
earlier in this chapter, said of his downloading of unlicensed titles) since they never
intended to purchase the work anyway. The scanlator‘s ―code of ethics,‖ which demands
42
Subject #10a.
43
Subject #20a.
44
Subject #1a.
45
Subject #12a.
162
ceasing the distribution of fan-translated titles once licensed versions are made available,
is also a problematic stance, since one subject pointed out, ―many people still have the
files and won‘t buy the manga.46 In fact, fans often circulate those digital files amongst
themselves, even though the original provider of the files refuses to participate in their
continued distribution.
While I have argued that fans are not naïve or ignorant about the legality of their
practices, it should be noted that the varying ―codes‖ adopted by individual fans, or by
which fan groups regulate online communities, ensures that fans often do not feel
personally accountable for their downloading practices. One subject who noted that
ceasing to distribute digital files after certain titles were licensed was not an effective
strategy to curb piracy because individuals could save or obtain digital copies so easily.
She explained that the implementation of such rules ―has not stopped me since I don‘t
research the licensing of manga before I read [online fan translations].‖47 This means
that the subject did not feel responsible for finding out if she was consuming fan
translations of licensed or unlicensed series (practices which fans as a whole clearly
distinguish as different). Fan translations offer such a steady alternative flow of adapted
Japanese culture that fans simply do not need to stay in touch with official licensors‘
activities; the works fan groups produce make it possible for them to keep up with their
favorite shows and manga series without entering into a relationship with the producers
as a traditional ―consumer‖ of anime and manga.
Not all fans who participate in these spaces of alternative cultural flows
necessarily agree that these translation practices should undermine the traditional
46
Subject #5a.
47
Subject #5a.
163
relationship between the audience as a consumer and the official licensors as producers.
In response to troubling trends they saw in fandom, one fan translator offered a manifesto
of ―responsible‖ fan translation practices.48 In ―The Scanlation Debate,‖ the author,
―Tsurara,‖ scolds other fans for not supporting the manga industry by buying books, and
for not being willing to respond and consider various criticisms of fan translation
practices.
Our fandom has always operated in the gray areas of internet-age morality. The
industry is, for the most part, learning to co-exist with fandom and take advantage
of it. We created the overseas manga industry after all!!....But it's our
responsibility within fandom to do our best to operate within reasonable
boundaries. We need to pull our titles when licensed or requested by the artists.
We need to promote purchase of both legitimate [E]nglish-language and the
original Japanese releases. We need to be open to criticism from those who don't
necessarily agree with what it is we do.
Although arguing for a change in certain fan behaviors, this fan translator also makes
claims about the value of translation practices in his or her emphasis on the fact that ―we‖
(i.e. the fans) ―created the overseas manga industry‖ through these activities. While some
fans acknowledge that they seek out fan translations because they do not plan to purchase
the official anime and manga release, they also believe that they are ―proselytizing‖ on
behalf of the anime and manga industry. 49 In that sense, fans appoint themselves the role
of cultural gate-keepers who believe their efforts are in fact creating audiences who make
the official licensing of many titles economically practical, if not profitable, for U.S.
publishers and media adapters.
48
49
Tsurara, ―The Scanlation Debate,‖ Doki Doki <http://www.aragami.org/scans.php> (16 February 2010).
Sean Leonard employs the term ―proselytizing‖ to describe the practices of fans who create and circulate
fan translations, but it is important to note that fans also consciously perceive themselves as advocates for
anime and manga through these practices. Leonard, 281-305.
164
In the case of Tsurara and the fan group he or she belongs to, they have chosen to
translate and distribute a certain genre of manga known as ―yaoi,‖ which feature samesex male romances written for female audiences. Tsurara also points to the fact that
another yaoi fangroup, working on the cusp of the first wave of large-scale licensing and
distribution of manga in the U.S., had subsequently had over half of the titles they had
translated licensed by U.S. companies. Tsurara offered this sequence of events as a
positive outcome and the result of fan translators making other fans aware of these titles
through their efforts. While many fans do delight when their favorite title is licensed by a
U.S. company (allowing them an opportunity to purchase the work legally), it is not
uncommon for some to decry any official licensing since they feel a company might not
handle the adaptation of the work as well as they believe fan translators have. Yet,
whether fans celebrate or mourn the official licensing of their favorite titles, their
opinions are informed by their experience of access to large-scale alternative flows of
digital culture created for fans by fans.
Tsurara concludes the manifesto noting that, ―[i]n the end, responsible scanlation
does more good than bad. And while it is, at its core, an illegal and disrespectful act – so
is doujinshi [fan made comics], cosplay, fanfiction and fansubbing. Without any of them,
we wouldn't have "fandom" as we know it.‖50 Importantly, this individual theorizes that
fan translations, which are not protected by ―fair use,‖ should be understood along with
other fanworks, such as fanfiction and fan comics, which are. Rebecca Tushnet argues
that fanfiction should fall under fair use because it ―involves the productive addition of
creative labor to a copyright holder‘s characters, it is noncommercial, and it does not act
50
Tsurara, ―The Scanlation Debate.‖
165
as an economic substitute.‖51 Both Lessig and Tushnet would likely not argue that fan
translations should be protected and nor am I. Instead, I am arguing that fan translations
are a form of ―productive piracy‖ that must be understood in more complex terms than
―illegal downloading.‖ While fan translations are similar to fanfiction in that they add
―creative labor‖ to the original work, they also often act as ―an economic substitute.‖ In
the next section of this chapter, I examine the inherent theoretical contradiction in U.S.
fans‘ support of alternative flows of cultural production, which seek to make ―culture
free‖ but actually benefit from the labor system of an entire foreign entertainment
industry.
Fans‘ strong views about the role of fan translations in fandom, and their
advocacy or criticism of these collective practices, reveals that their choice to participate
in or abstain from consuming fan translations had become a constitutive characteristic of
their identities as fans. Engaging with spaces of alternative fan-formed cultural flows
encourages fans to reflect upon the role of translation in how they receive Japanese anime
and manga representations, as well as to consider the various barriers that exist to both
official and alternative transnational cultural flows. It also often makes them aware that
translating or adapting work from another language is a time-consuming and difficult
process – whether one is an ―unofficial‖ or ―official‖ producer of such objects – and,
therefore, encourages them to value translation itself as a productive practice. I argue
that when fans claim that fan translations are ―a grey area,‖ they are stressing that their
engagement with the original representation adds cultural value for the benefit of other
English-language speakers. While many fans understand that digital piracy is a form of
51
Rebecca Tushnet, ―Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law.‖ Loyola of Los
Angeles Entertainment Law Journal (1997): 654.
166
theft, they also perceive these practices as transculturally productive in ways other forms
of digital piracy are not.
How Fan Translation Practices are Transforming
Official Japanese Cultural Flows
[Publishers] recognize that [scanlations] came out of a group of really dedicated
fans…there‘s a sense among a lot of publishers that you don‘t want to dampen
their enthusiasm, but at the same time, you‘re taking material that these people
don‘t have the rights to, putting it up online, which means that hundreds of
thousands, if not millions, of people have access to it, no one‘s given the rights,
the creators have no say in how their work is handled and its directly competitive
with the publishing industry.52
-Kurt Hassler
In an interview given in early 2010, the CEO of Yen Press, a manga publishing division
of Hachette Book Group, Kurt Hassler acknowledges that ―every publisher is looking for
a much more aggressive stance on [scanlations]…because it isn‘t something that the
industry can afford to turn a blind eye to anymore.‖ Hassler‘s statements point to a
complete reordering of cultural flows thanks to fans‘ use of new media practices, in
which the ―alternative‖ flow often visibly eclipses officially sanctioned flows. When you
―type in just about any manga that you might go looking for,‖ Hassler explains, ―the first
[web] sites that are going to come up are not the people who have the legal rights to these
properties,‖ but ones allowing fans to read those titles online for free. The existence of
easily accessed online fan translations puts flows of alternative culture in plain view (at
least within the hierarchy of internet search engines). Hassler believes that ―a lot of
people don‘t realize that these books are available in print.‖ Although I have already
argued that fans are probably not as ―naïve‖ or ignorant as some make them out to be,
52
Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis, ―Kurt in Earnest,‖ Anime News Network, 4 March 2010
<http://www.animenewsnetwork. com/anncast/2010-03-04> (15 April 2010).
167
Hassler‘s point about search engines not distinguishing between sanctioned culture and
unsanctioned culture speaks to a reordering of cultural production via the ―valueless‖
mechanisms of online information networks and the (value-additive) work of fans.
In this section I examine the complex relationship between Japanese popular
culture fans in the U.S. and official U.S. licensors and adapters of anime and manga.
Although the cultural forms of anime and manga continue to gain stronger footings in the
North American publishing and media industries,53 subjects‘ engagement with online
fandom has encouraged a shared cultural mindset that one must be a ―pirate,‖ i.e. engage
in acts of digital piracy, in order to demonstrate one‘s fan identity. Fans often reject the
notion that official anime and manga licensors should be the ones to act as the cultural
gatekeepers between the U.S. and Japan, and the prevalence of online fan translations
enable a feeling of immediacy in fans‘ consumption Japanese culture. Although some
anime fans within the community advocate for others to only consume legal versions of
anime shows and manga books, as a whole this culture does not assume that one must
―buy‖ these objects in order to produce one‘s fan identity. In fact, fans criticize the
localization strategies by which U.S. licensors ―Americanize‖ anime and manga texts –
such as changing Japanese cultural references to U.S.-centric ones – as ―inauthentic.‖ In
doing so these individuals reject the authority of others to decide how anime and manga
should be adapted for them, and look to each other as sources for translated Japanese
popular culture.
53
Examples of the specific form of ―domestication‖ of anime and manga in the U.S.: 1) their shelving in
stores like Best Buy and Barnes & Noble as categories distinct from American or other foreign media, and
2) in the spring of 2009 the New York Times started charting manga bestsellers, giving the medium a
separate sales chart from American graphic novels.
168
In one of the few academic studies on fan translation practices, Hye-Kyung Lee
offers one possible theory explaining why fan translation culture flourishes, noting that
―despite elements of copyright infringement, scanlation‘s distinct motives and ethics,
which have to some degree are also recognized by the industry, have allowed it to
function at a point closer to fan culture than illegal file sharing.‖ She argues that the
Japanese manga industry, in particular, adopts a symbiotic relationship with
―participatory fans‖ in allowing ―doujinshi‖ (or amateur or fan-made comic books)
market to flourish.54 By distinguishing ―illegal file sharing‖ from ―fan culture,‖ Lee
appears to be idealizing fan translation practices since for many fans these unofficial
translations have become a substitute for buying or legally obtaining copies – whether
digital or material – of the licensed work. However, her point that global Japanese anime
and manga fandom is strongly influenced by participatory nature of the manga industry in
Japan is an important one. I would complicate Lee‘s argument by thinking about how
fans create alternative flows which often act as direct ―competition‖ for the products
released by official producers of anime and manga in the U.S. I examine how fans
construct and participate in these flows to position themselves at times competitively
against official producers of anime and manga, but also how the formation of these
alternative flows have had a significant impact on the ways in which official licensors
adapt and distribute Japanese popular culture in the United States in the past ten years.
Before licensors could understand that Japanese animation might be marketable in
the United States, the audience first had to make them aware that they not only existed
but were a viable consumer group. It was originally the screening of fan-translated anime
(i.e. ―fansubs‖) at anime conventions in the early 1990‘s that helped U.S. licensors obtain
54
Lee, 1019.
169
information about what anime titles had an already existing American audience.55 The
belief that fans themselves ―created‖ the anime and manga industry in the U.S. is
supported to a degree by Sean Leonard‘s account of how bootlegged anime has circulated
among anime fans since the late 1970‘s. In contrast, to a ―closed commons,‖ in which a
few fans controlled the circulation of anime during the 1980‘s, Leonard argues that anime
fans in the early 1990‘s created an ―open proselytization commons‖ by making fansubs
easily available to other fans. According to Leonard, fans were first made aware of
certain titles through the screening of them at anime conventions, and after these
conventions fans would actually create anime clubs in order to be able to request copies
of the fansubs shown at the conventions.56 By licensing titles that were popular at anime
fan conventions, U.S. companies were relying upon fan translation and reception
practices as almost a form of free market research (or forms of ―free labor‖). This early
relationship between fans and licensors could be perceived as symbiotic – fans were
expressing a consumer need for animation and media companies were attempting to meet
that need by adapting the specific titles that interested fans.
Since the mid-1990‘s, with the expansion of access to affordable home computers
and digital editing software, thousands of groups have been producing fan translations.
That means that it is more difficult for licensors to use the existence of fan translations
for a particular series as ―evidence‖ that an anime series has enough of a fanbase, or
built-in audience, to support the licensing and release of that series in the U.S. Fan labor,
therefore, no longer necessarily benefits the official adapters as it did in the earlier days
of anime fandom. In an interview given at the end of 2009, Shawn Kleckner, the CEO of
55
Leonard, 292.
56
Leonard, 293.
170
an American anime licensing company, notes that his company no longer licensed shows
merely because fans might advocate for its release.57 He describes a variety of issues that
inform his decisions to license shows, which include a consideration of ―niche appeal‖
(i.e. appeal to ―hard core‖ fans) for titles, but he also stresses that their decisions are
constrained by the cost of licensing a show from Japanese media companies. When
choosing to license a show, Kleckner emphasizes that his company first must calculate
whether they believe they can make up the costs of licensing and production by selling
that particular anime title to a relatively small U.S. audience. The profit margin on anime
releases can be so slim that anime licensing companies would currently look at the
existence of fan translations as a possible impediment to selling their product and no
longer as a sign of a potential audience market.
Yet, for many fans, anime club or convention screenings of fansubs remain an
important informational resource – many subjects noted that they continue to seek
exposure to new, often unlicensed, shows through these spaces. One subject even
explained that his university anime club‘s screening of unlicensed shows was one of the
club‘s biggest draws for him. By attending the club he felt as if he were being exposed to
certain representations that were otherwise unavailable to him through the American
marketplace.58 When interviewed in the spring of 2008, the subject spoke about his
recent discovery of an anime titled Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (or Goodbye, Mr.
Despair), a black comedy about a suicidal high school teacher and his students, though
the screening of fansubs at club meetings. He claimed that the show would never be
57
Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis, ―Right Stuffed!‖ Anime News Network, 10 Dec 2009
<http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ anncast/2009-12-10> (19 March 2010).
58
Subject #3a, Interview, 3 March 2008.
171
licensed for the U.S. market since the subject matter was ―too sensitive‖ for American
audiences. In fact, the show was later licensed for American distribution in the spring of
2010, but it is worth considering the effect of the two year gap between the time period
when the subject was first exposed to the show at his anime club and when the show‘s
licensing was announced. Even though the ―license‖ has been announced, the show itself
will not available for purchase in the U.S. for a number of months and it will have been
years since the show was translated by fans in its entirety.
By picking niche titles like Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei to screen at anime clubs,
members are asserting their taste as unfettered by the constraints of U.S. licensors –
unfettered in either expressing their preference in entertainment or in their ability to
produce and consume their own adaptations of these shows in a timely manner. By using
fansubs in order to support their sense of collective fan identity, fans can stress that they
do not have to rely upon U.S. licensors to decide what is ―appropriate viewing‖ for the
American fans. Although the subject would be proven wrong when he claimed this
show would never be licensed because of its potentially controversial subject matter, he
was probably correct in assuming such a premise would likely not find a wide audience
in the U.S., as the company that licensed the title also announced that they would not be
―dubbing‖ it into English. In practice, certain U.S. anime adapters often produce subtitleonly releases with the expectation that the anime title will have a much more limited
distribution than dubbed titles and generally will be bought only by a ―hard core‖ fanbase. Such subtitle-only releases are much more affordable to produce than titles with
English-language dubbing and depend upon dedicated fans to purchase them (perhaps
those same fans who were exposed to such shows through fan translations online or at
172
anime clubs).59 Significantly, without an English dub language track, anime titles often
lose two very specific avenues for distribution and revenue – cable television and major
media retail outlets, such as Best Buy.
By dispensing with dubs, anime companies are able to ―bridge the (time) gap‖ as
it were, since they produce subtitled anime shows as quickly as possible. Shawne
Klecker, whose company Nozomi produces subtitle-only anime releases, notes that the
sooner he releases an anime show in the U.S. after it has aired in Japan, the better he can
cater to anime fans‘ desire to consume the latest in Japanese anime. However, the very
existence of such a gap opens a space for fans themselves to step in to become their own
cultural producers if there is enough interest in a particular anime or manga title. If fans
can rely upon each other to act as the ―distributors‖ of Japanese anime and comics, they
no longer have to rely upon official licensors. One subject explained that her criteria that
she followed when downloading licensed series were as follows: first, that ―the
scanlation is significantly far ahead of licensed translation,‖ and second, ―the licensed
translation is localizing / censoring to a large degree.‖60 While I will return to the issue
of fans critiquing official U.S. adaptation and translations practices (or ―localizing‖), for
many fans translations are perfectly acceptable substitutes if there is time-lag between the
time a work is released in Japan versus in the U.S.
Frequently, it can often take years between the time a Japanese work is released
and when that work is licensed, translated, produced and distributed in the U.S. One
59
The costs of dubbing a single season of anime show can be exorbitant – individuals like Kleckner have
cited the cost as 6,000-10,000 dollars per episode. This cost is significant because choosing to dub a show
means that it can be difficult for the U.S. licensor to recoup the costs of producing the show for U.S.
audiences. If it is harder to recoup production costs that means U.S. licensors will have a hard time
continuing to license and dub shows, working against the mainstreaming of anime in the U.S.
60
Subject #7a.
173
subject seemed to accept that such practices of ―filling the gap‖ existed but felt that it was
only allowable up to a certain point: ―I don‘t think it‘s okay if scanlations are done after
it‘s published, but many scanlations are done as they are released in Japan, so I think
distribution of these is not done to purposefully provide an alternative ‗free‘ copy on the
internet.‖61 If fan translations are not merely to provide fans with ―free‖ content, they
may offer a kind of participatory audience experience thanks to their role in enabling a
sense of immediacy in the collective reception of anime and manga.
Since I interviewed fan subjects in 2008, major U.S. adapters of Japanese anime –
such as Viz Media and Funimation – have started to develop ―simulcasts,‖ or
simultaneous airings of popular anime shows in both Japan and the U.S. In the U.S. these
―airings‖ actually take place online and are subtitled in English rather than dubbed; these
media companies are attempting to sustain fan attention by reproducing the immediacy of
the fansub experience, but through officially sanctioned channels. While in future
research projects I would like to examine how the existence of these ―simulacasts‖ might
influence fan practices and perceptions about their activities, it is quite significant that
official U.S. adapters of Japanese content recognize the importance consuming fansubs
has had upon fans‘ expectations of the timeliness and accessibility of transcultural flows.
When I interviewed fans in 2008, they articulated a kind of consumer-oriented
logic in spite of the fact they are using that logic to reject not only the ―passive‖ role of a
consumer, but also the pathways by which officially sanctioned consumer culture would
have them experience entertainment. One subject explained that she ―loved‖ the practice
of fan translations since ―it makes it easier to read what I want to when it comes out
61
Subject #19a.
174
rather than having to wait for the American release.‖62 Another subject felt that ―often
the wait for it [manga] to be translated is too long,‖ and with fan translations ―you don‘t
have to wait for a whole book‖ to be translated.63 More than just wanting the product
quickly, it is important to note that fans often like to participate in the serialized nature of
comic book culture in Japan. English language fans enjoy being able to discuss the latest
chapter of Naruto or One Piece as it is released by a weekly manga magazine in Japan,
instead of having to wait for the American manga book collection (or graphic novel)
years later. In other words, fan translations enable fans to participate in a completely
different reception experience that encourages the reading of manga as an ―everyday‖
(i.e. weekly) practice. Rather than encouraging fans to understand their actions as limited
―to buy‖ or ―not to buy,‖ fan translations offer a much more complex collective
engagement with Japanese popular culture.
Thriving fan translation culture enables fans to reject the ―to buy‖ / ―not to buy‖
dichotomy, which has forced U.S. anime and manga localizers to adapt their own
practices in order to contend with the free digital circulation of many licensed works.
The CEO of Yen Press, Kurt Hassler, discusses the role of scanlations have had upon the
U.S. manga market in an interview he gave to Anime News Network in early 2010.64
Referencing the decline of manga sales in the U.S., he notes that it was ―a much tougher
environment in 2010 than 2006.‖65 He attributes the decline to the ―saturation‖ of the
62
Subject #14a, Interview, 17 September 2008.
63
Subject #15a, Interview, 9 September 2008.
64
Bertschy and Sevakis, ―Kurt in Earnest.‖
65
ICv2. ICv2 reports that North American manga sales were down 20% in 2009, citing ―shojo‖ fans aging
out of manga buying habits, the existence of scanlations and the economic downturn in the U.S. as all
175
market and comments that the ―single biggest issue publishers need to address at the
moment‖ is the role of scanlations in shrinking that market. Interviewer Zac Bertschy
points out that scanlations were not seen as a problem by publishers just a few years ago,
because it was assumed ―no one likes reading books on their computer screen,‖ but
remarks that they were now believed to have caused as much ―damage‖ to manga sales as
fansubs had to the anime market years earlier. Bertschy‘s comments point to young
Americans coming to rely more heavily upon new media for entertainment and being less
tied to traditional distribution channels, such as television and radio. Only one subject
remarked on the fact they disliked reading manga online, noting ―I would rather buy [the
manga book] and read it back to front than scroll on a page,‖ thereby rejecting the digital
reading experience in favor of the materiality of the book.66 Other subjects who did read
fan-translated manga online expressed no such sentiment, indicating that they had quickly
adapted to this new practice of reading comics in digital formats on their computer
screen.
Over the past decade, fans‘ engagement with a variety of new media technologies
have strongly influenced not only the way in which U.S. licensors localize another
culture, but also the very forms in which they make that culture available to audiences.
In her 2005 study, Laurie Cubbison explores how the DVD-format allowed both fans and
official adapters the ability to negotiate their preferences in anime adaption to produce a
final product that met the needs of both groups.67 Explaining that ―debates over the
potential reasons for the decline in manga sales. Manga reached a high of $210 Million in sales in 2007,
but sales have been dropping every year since.
66
67
Subject #8a.
Laurie Cubbison, ―Anime Fans, DVDs, and the Authentic Text,‖ The Velvet Light Trap 56 (Fall 2005):
45-57.
176
presentation of anime on DVD have pushed DVD distributors to make greater use of the
format‘s capabilities in order to satisfy a demanding market,‖ Cubbison shows how fans
have previously intervened in one licensors‘ localization strategies.68 In particular, she
cites the example of an anime girls‘ show called Cardcaptor Sakura, which was
ruthlessly edited into an entirely new show called Cardcaptors in an attempt to appeal to
a young American male audience. Cubbision notes that entire episodes were eliminated,
while other shows were edited to ―elevate‖ a male supporting character to become a lead,
thereby ―devalue[ing]‖ the female protagonist.69 The licensing company eventually
released subtitle-only unedited releases of the show in response to fan protests and
advocacy. According to Cubbison, this experience taught anime licensors that the DVD
medium – thanks to its ability to offer multiple voice tracks – allowed individual
consumers the ability to decide for themselves how they wished to watch anime (either in
Japanese with subtitles or with the English language dubbing turned on). Although these
events took place only a few years ago, Cubbison‘s example of how the DVD medium /
format allowed fans to demand and receive certain viewing capabilities reveals how new
media technologies have further encouraged fans to demand new options already built
into the media objects they purchase.
The treatment of Japanese popular culture – not only in how content is adapted
but even in the material form it takes – is a significant aspect of how these works are
understood by U.S. audiences. In her article, ―Books, Not Comics: Publishing Fields,
Globalization, and Japanese Manga in the United States,‖ Casey Brienza highlights the
2002 decision of manga publisher Tokyopop to go against previous manga adaptation
68
Cubbision, 46.
69
Cubbision, 53.
177
practices and started publishing in ―right to left‖ format, or ―unflipped.‖70 This ―‗100%
Authentic Manga‘ marketing campaign, aiming to please Japanese licensors that wanted
less editing, bookstores that wanted more stock, and readers that wanted a faster release
schedule,‖ not only preserved the Japanese reading orientation, it also enhanced the sense
of the ―authenticity‖ of the book by leaving sound effects untranslated and the Japanese
names intact.71 Brienza argues that Tokyopop had, in fact, chosen a trim size and price
point that was not, in fact, ―authentic,‖ as neither choice had any ―particular precedent in
any other sector of the trade publishing industry, either in Japan…or in North America.‖
However, in doing so, the company made ―manga‖ a distinctively recognizable book
form ―to all actors in the book field, from casual readers to industry professionals.‖ The
success of manga in the bookstore would be a vital aspect of its domestication in the U.S.
publishing market, as it moved from the specialty comic bookstore as a ―floppy,‖ or
―pamphlet,‖ into mainstream culture as a ―book.‖
Brienza‘s research shows that the majority of other U.S. manga publishers
followed in Tokyopop‘s footsteps to produce an entire category of books known as
―manga,‖ that were distinct from American graphic novels in their material form.72
Although Brienza highlights the decisions of the U.S. licensor in making manga a
recognizable form in the U.S., like Cubbison she also attributes manga readers with
70
Casey Brienza, ―Books, Not Comics: Publishing Fields, Globalization, and Japanese Manga in the United
States,‖ Publishing Research Quarterly 25, no 2 (2010): 101-117.
71
72
Brienza, 111.
Brienza argues that while U.S. published manga preserves a feeling of ―Japaneseness‖ on the level of
―content,‖ that ―when ‗manga‘ stops signifying Japan and starts to signify comics published in a certain
trim size, irrespective of country of origin….it stops being a product that invokes a global consciousness
and starts to be a product invoking the purely local…one,‖ 115. I disagree on the basis of my subjects‘
engagement with manga as a consciously understood Japanese popular culture, but Brienza‘s arguments
point to the significance of the domestication of manga on the material level, i.e. turning manga into a
―book‖ that is distributed and sold in the U.S. marketplace.
178
agency in making certain adaptation choices much more successful than others they
perceived as ―unauthentic.‖ Publishers walk a fine line between making manga distinctly
―Japanese‖ in order to please an already existing fan base, while at the same time seeking
to make it accessible to broad range of American readers. Similarly, anime fans have
demanded that DVD technology be used to preserve, as much as possible, anime works
as they were first experienced by Japanese audiences. Fans‘ rejection of the editing of a
girls‘ anime – the female-oriented Cardcaptor Sakura became the gender-neutral
Cardcaptors – to appeal to other audiences is also a rejection of localization as a form of
transcultural interpretation. Michael Cronin has argued that in discourses surrounding
translation and globalization that the words ―localization‖ and ―translation‖ have been
used, particularly in the IT sphere, as ―new polarities,‖ where translation implies artistry
and the imprecision that accompanies art, while ―localization…implies a wholly new
process which engages effortlessly with the ‗local‘, thereby eliminating any unpleasant
imperial aftertaste left by agnostic conceptions of translation as conquest.‖73 In the case
of Japanese popular culture in the U.S., we are looking at how unofficial and official
producers understand the culture of another economic world power whose culture is
nonetheless is also often perceived as ―exotic‖ to American audiences (see chapter 2 for
further discussion).
Cronin‘s critique of the discourses surrounding acts of cultural translation
undertaken by corporations is useful for helping me examine the conflict between U.S.
media companies and individuals over how foreign cultural works are adapted for U.S.
73
Cronin, 63.
179
audiences. 74 Recently, the anime commentary site, ―Anime Vice,‖ invited a frequent fan
commenter to post an editorial about why he endorses the consumption of scanlations as
a way to express his rejection of the adaptation choices made by a U.S. manga publishing
company. This individual fan critiques very specific ―localization‖ choices made by
publisher Viz Media to a manga known as Detective Conan in Japanese but renamed
Case Closed for the U.S. marketplace. In the editorial, ―Scanlations: A Pirate‘s Life for
Me,‖ the fan explains why he felt so strongly about not purchasing books from a
company that made such changes to the text.
I do justify scanlations. It's not something I prefer to do, but there are some cases
when it's the only way to read the story properly. Such as in my case with the
murder mystery manga, Detective Conan. I face the VIZ Media publisher that
refuses to publish the series in the country without dramatic edits that alter story
and events. Every reoccurring character in the manga had their Japanese names
replaced with European style names….When VIZ made those changes they were
basically telling me and the entire online audience that they didn't want us as
readers. We are not the target audience that they wanted to publish
for…Scanlation is the only way I can get the real story in English.75
The fan‘s refusal to ―support‖ the series as adapted by Viz is based in the belief that the
publisher had diluted the original story through their edits. In addition, the fan is also
resentful that such changes were made thinking only of potential new readers, not the
fans who already exist and have certain expectations about how the work should be
adapted to preserve ―the real story.‖
While the author of the editorial notes that they were willing to buy other manga
series that had not been ―Americanized,‖ a number of other fans criticize this stance in
74
Following Cronin‘s critique of the language employed to analyze globalizing processes, I purposefully
use ―adaptation‖ here as a word that encompasses both aspects of localization and translation without
creating a dichotomy between those concepts.
75
Guest_Author, ―Scanlations: A Pirate‘s Life for Me,‖ Anime Vice, 3 March 2010
<http://www.animevice.com/news /scanlations-the-pirates-life-for-me/3904/> (15 March 2010).
180
the comments and argued that this particular fan was using the company‘s decision to
adapt the text in certain ways as an excuse not to pay for the manga title. They point out
that his ability to ―boycott‖ but still consume the work was made possible through the
creation and circulation of online fan translations. In the comments one fan responds,
If you don't want to buy something, don't buy it. That's perfectly fair, and sends
the proper message to all parties via established market feedback. But fans are
not entitled to content. Yes, we all love it, and yes, we'd like more of it, and yes,
sometimes what we're handed isn't what was promised, or it's not
'authentic'….There is no right to manga and anime. And theft is theft.76
This fan took a hard-line position that saw economic choice – to buy or not to buy – as
the only acceptable model for fans to express their preferences in how texts are officially
adapted into English for them. For this individual there is no ―grey‖ area where
scanlations could be used to off-set or protest the choices of official anime and manga
adapters.
Others who commented offer a variety of positions a fan could take when they did
not care for a U.S. licensors‘ adaption choices, including reading scanlations but then
supporting the official versions once they were released, buying Japanese versions of the
manga if one does not want to support the U.S. releases, or even learning Japanese to be
able to read manga without having to rely upon scanlations or official translators. A
number of individuals commenting on the editorial articulate a notion of how fans can
use scanlations responsibly. While many participating in the comment thread explain
that while they do understand scanlation is an ―illegal‖ practice, they do not try to
morally ―justify‖ their existence, and emphasize even if they read scanlations they try
whenever they can to purchase the licensed versions in order to support not only the
76
Rocketbomber, Comment on ―A Pirate‘s Life for Me.‖
181
original creators, but the very industry by which manga and anime are licensed for the
U.S. marketplace.
Although this particular group of fans once again imagines a symbiotic
relationship between themselves and official cultural producers, a number of subjects I
interviewed often perceived their relationship to official adapters as antagonistic and
assumed that their interests as fans would conflict with the interests of the licensors.
Many, including the fan who refused to support Viz Media releases of their favorite
manga series, assert their ability to seek out alternatives when they disagree with the
adaptation choices made by official licensors. Subjects seemed willing to intervene in the
traditional relationship between consumer and producer on multiple levels and generally
reject models of consumption whose terms have been dictated to a certain degree by the
―official‖ adapters or the material, or economic limitations of the marketplace.
One subject, ―Molly,‖ who had also been a practicing fan translator for over five
years, rejected almost completely such limitations placed upon adaptations of Japanese
works for the U.S. market.77 Molly specifically objected to the U.S. price point for
manga as well official translation practices, and in general she seemed to be rejecting the
way in which a select group of people could mediate transnational culture for her. She
explained to me that ―if you think the price [of manga] is wrong you have to learn
Japanese. I can buy a new tankobon [Japanese manga book] for 350 Yen [around
$3.50USD]. But that same thing in English runs anywhere from 10 to 20 USD!‖ While
it is true that manga in Japan is generally half the cost of manga in the U.S., this fan did
not allow for the various factors that influence U.S. standards for manga publications.
This viewpoint equates Japanese and American media cultures in spite of the fact that
77
Subject 17a.
182
these two comic book industries have very different histories that inform the
contemporary production of these works. 78
It is not entirely uncommon for fans to express a belief they should have access to
Japanese popular culture as though no geographical, linguistic, economic, and historical
barriers exist which determine how culture officially flows from Japan to the U.S. In
part, these attitudes are founded in subjects‘ relationship to new media, which allows fans
to circumvent traditional barriers to cultural flows without having to rely upon media
corporations‘ intervention. Molly thought of her and others‘ work as a form of
―competition‖ with official versions of anime and manga works. This notion of
competitiveness was less about economics and more about a battle over the practices by
which Japanese culture is adapted for U.S. audiences. She felt that her translations
practices were
a fair use of the manga – we don‘t sell our translations, so we aren‘t really
violating licensing rights. It also helps to keep translation healthy – without
scanslation people wouldn‘t know how badly the pros do it. We provide an
alternative, a free market need, choices. How many different translations of
regular books are there? For classics, [The Tale of] Genji has 5. 5! People can
choose the one they think is best. But with new media, you don‘t get a choice.
Of course, when fans take the reins of new media – as this subject had been doing for
years – they give themselves ―choice.‖ Additionally, the notion of applying the concept
of a ―free market‖ to a space where officially licensed commercial culture and fan culture
compete with each other hints that this imagined marketplace is not comprised of
competitive economic entities but competitive cultural ones. Fans and corporations are
battling over no less than the question of who owns culture.
78
For example, factors which influence the U.S. price point of manga include the following: U.S.
publishers‘ cost of licensing and translating manga properties, smaller print runs of manga books in the
U.S. than in Japan, and the average price point for graphic novels within each culture.
183
―Molly‖ further expanded upon the significance of ―competition‖ between these
two groups when she noted that ―the [U.S.] manga companies don‘t compete with each
other either.‖ While U.S. manga companies obviously complete for a limited number of
consumer dollars, this fan was pointing out that different companies do not produce
translations of the same work and only one company will have the rights to a magna
property at any one time. In this way, fan translators are believed to create a shared
understanding of ―quality‖ in translations among the U.S. manga readership. Fans gain
experience with a variety of translations practices through engagement with online
fandom and, therefore, can make informed choices about what practices they prefer. This
subject also expressed a kind of ―do it yourself‖ / DIY ethic through which fan translators
can step in to fill a cultural void if they perceive official cultural adaptations to be lacking
in quality.79 She claimed that professional translations are often of ―poor quality, and
they do a worse lettering job than the average scanslator – I‘ve seen forgotten bubbles,
bad redraws and the omake [extras or ―outtakes‖] and frontpiece missing….But in
scanslation, if you think a translation job is bad, you do your own.‖ Similarly, another
subject who knew Japanese but had not participated in fan translation activities, noted
that his experience of official English language translations made him ―want to go into
translation to improve the overall quality of translated works.‖80 Whether or not fans can
easily enter into the sphere of official cultural adapters, their experience of closeness to
the ―materials‖ (i.e. translated anime and manga texts) makes them believe that such a
leap is possible for them.
79
This is almost a grassroots expression of Sean Leonard‘s use of the concept of the ―cultural sink,‖ where
he theorizes Americans sought out Japanese animation because there was a dearth of animation in the U.S.
aimed at an adult audience, 282-283.
80
Subject #9a.
184
This fan translator, who has been a fan of anime and manga for almost ten years,
also did not acknowledge that the adaptation practices of U.S. licensors had changed over
time. The studies of Laurie Cubbison on the evolution of DVD anime releases and Casey
Brienza on the migration of manga from comic book shops to the book store both reveal
that cultural adaptation practices of anime and manga have developed in response to fan
activism (among other issues). The example of Viz‘s Case Closed – a manga first
adapted for the U.S. market in 2004 – represents a transitional time period in the manga
industry when the manga trim size and right-to-left reading orientation had only recently
been standardized to read as more ―authentic‖ (according to Brienza), but U.S. publishers
had not yet developed the same kind of standardization when it came to adapting the
content of manga. Even in 2011, use of honorifics, cultural notes and references can vary
not only from publisher to publisher but from manga title to title (with works aimed at
younger audiences more likely to be ―Americanized‖ than works aimed at adults).
Brienza argues that U.S. publishers go to great lengths to preserve ―authentic‖ content,
such as Japanese names, honorifics and cultural references. When manga becomes just
―another category of books,‖ she finds that ―actors throughout the field lose their ability
to detect‖ when the so-called ―cultural odor‖ of manga is eliminated.81 My research on
how U.S. fans actually receive anime and manga representations reveals quite the
opposite.
While fan translators may be the most highly attuned to how manga content is
adapted for U.S. audiences, subjects as a whole were able to discuss their translation
preferences very specifically. It was common for them to note they preferred ―translation
81
Koichi Iwabuchi‘s concept of ―cultural odor‖ – which Brienza refers to here – is addressed in greater
depth in chapters 2 and 5.
185
notes‖ to explain cultural references,82 or that they enjoyed it when ―honorifics were
kept‖ by publishers, or when they ―kept native words that don‘t translate directly and just
have a translators‘ note about it.‖83 Similarly another subject wrote that ―I prefer them
[to] use special words, like saying katana instead of sword and having the translator place
a[n explanatory] note.‖84 Many were aware when certain cultural details were localized
(such as when culturally specific Japanese foods were changed to ―American‖ ones) and
felt that such practices were unnecessary, or even a bit insulting to the reader‘s
intelligence.85 Although a few fans noted they had no particular preferences when it
came to translation practices86 or felt ―satisfied with what is offered,‖87 it was more
common for fans to be critical and some even cited fan translations as the source of
reference for manga adaptation practices. For example, one subject explained that, ―I
don‘t like it when the translators change names based on their meaning (or for no
reason)‖ and cited the example of Viz‘s Death Note: ―the scanlation I read used ‗Raito‘
for a while then [it was] changed to ‗Light‘‖ for the American release.88
Some fans even expressed preferences in how sound effects were translated since
this too has become a publisher-specific choice in the U.S. A subject explained that his
preference was for sound effects to not be translated into English in certain titles because
82
Subject #9a.
83
Subject #1a.
84
Subject #3a.
85
Subject #1a.
86
Subject #2a.
87
Subject #4a.
88
Subject #5a.
186
they ―ended up with atrocious sounds effects covering the entire page.‖89 This subject is
reacting to the fact that in Japanese manga sound effects are generally written in the
katakana syllabary (one component of the Japanese writing system usually used for
foreign words and to represent sounds) and treated like artistic flourishes, not merely
―words.‖ To edit the sound effect is in essence an edit to the art of the manga itself
(please see FIGURE #1 for an example of how one U.S. manga publisher edits Japanese
sound effects into English). By rejecting the ―translation‖ of sound effects, this subject
was in fact rejecting a practice of English-language adaptation that localized certain
aspects of the visual experience of reading manga. While a desire for ―authenticity‖
certainly fuels certain subjects‘ critiques of U.S. publishers‘ adaptation strategies, this
may also be seen as a desire for U.S. publishers to maintain manga‘s visual artistic
language. On a case by case basis, the way a sound effect, name, honorific or Japanese
cultural reference is adapted for U.S. readers may seem like a minor detail, but to fans
these individual ―details‖ inform the reading experience of manga as a whole. Fans often
feel they are battling with U.S. publishers over the integrity of the work and when they
feel publishers do not listen to their perspective, they will turn to each other to provide
versions of Japanese works that adhere to their adaptation preferences.
If some subjects perceive themselves battling official licensors over the content of
Japanese culture, some also often desire to carefully guard the collective fan culture they
have developed. A part of this is a desire to separate the economic concerns of official
cultural flows from the free labor of fans, who translate anime and manga out of a sense
of appreciation for the work. Returning to Molly, the fan translator who had critiqued the
work of professional translators, she also felt that the ―same companies that prosecute
89
Subject #7a.
187
scanslators use their sites and forums to get free marketing research!‖90 My
understanding is that no U.S. based fan translator or group has been ―prosecuted‖
although some translation groups have acknowledged they have been directly contacted
by a publishing company with a ―cease and desist order‖ requesting that they take down
their digital copies of anime and manga texts. Molly had actually belonged to a fan
translation group that had received a cease and desist order from one of the Japanese
publishers, not a U.S. licensor, and that group decided to acquiesce to the company‘s
demands and stop circulating those manga titles.91 That experience was a bitter memory
for Molly and she associated it with what she called the ―takeover‖ of a fan site –
―Toriyama‘s World‖ – by a major U.S. manga publisher. According to the original
creator of the site, ―AK of Troy,‖ this ―takeover‖ was, in fact, limited to the site featuring
a web advertisement banner for the publisher.92 Molly clearly believed that fan practices
should operate in a completely separate sphere from official practices, and she often
perceived official licensors as infringing upon fan freedoms when they not only moved to
protect their intellectual copyright of certain works, but attempted to engage fan-built
spaces to sell their products.93
A fellow graduate student researching in the field of digital culture has asked me a
number of times why official adapters have not been able to take advantage of fans‘ free
90
Subject #17a.
91
―Snoopy Interview,‖ Inside Scanlation, <http://www.insidescanlation.com/interviews/snoopy.html> (20
April 2010).
92
―AK of Troy Interview,‖ Inside Scanlation <http://www.insidescanlation.com/interviews/ak-oftroy.html> (20 April 2010).
93
One wonders why fans might believe that a fan website was in need of more protection than a fan
convention (which often has advertisements, sponsorship, programming, and merchandise from official
licensors featured).
188
labor by incorporating those fan translators into their production strategies. The
assumption prompting the question is that fans‘ work – operating under the banner of
―free culture‖ – could be easily co-opted by corporate media entities. In truth, fan labor
is incredibly difficult to monetize due to the fact that fans themselves guard this culture
very carefully against what is usually perceived as the corrupting influence of economic
exchange for labors of love. Such a possibility of monetizing fan labor was recently
raised by the C.E.O. of U.S. manga publisher Tokyopop, Stuart Levy, who floated the
idea of ―teaming up‖ with a scanlation site in order to make it more affordable to bring
niche titles to the U.S. market in December of 2009. 94 Fans were outraged at the idea of
―charging for scanlations‖ and also of media corporations receiving direct economic
benefits from fan translators‘ free labor.
Fans responding to Levy‘s idea distinguished between the use of fan translators‘
product for profit and individual fan translators ―going pro‖ (i.e. joining the industry).95
In this instance, fans clearly see fan labor as expressly for the benefit of other fans, and
reject wholesale the possibility that fan translation practices could help the official
industry by making translation practices more affordable. Yet a few fans commenting
did feel that as long as fan translators were ―properly compensated‖ that this was a
potential avenue to make official releases more affordable. As a whole, however, such an
idea devalues the practice of translation since it assumes (probably correctly) that many
94
Deb Aoki, ―TokyoPop Insider Pt. 1: Stu Levy Talks Manga Scanlations,‖ About.com, 11 Dec 2009
<http://manga.about.com/ b/2009/12/11/tokyopop-insider-pt-1-stu-levy-talks-manga-scanlations.htm> (20
April 2010).
95
Comment on ―Tokyopop CEO Considers Using Fan Translators,‖ Anime News Network, 2 Dec 2009
<http://www. animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-02/tokyopop-ceo-considers-using-fan-translators>
(20 April 2010).
189
fan translators ―would [be] willing to do it for a fraction‖ of what official translators are
paid, and as one fan translator noted, ―I do it anyway as a hobby.‖
If official U.S. licensors speculate about how they can make fan labor profitable
for themselves, they have also found themselves on the receiving end of fans who have
turned the publishers‘ labor into ―free culture.‖ Another commenter on the Tokyopop
story, who scoffed at the idea of fan translation practices being co-opted by official
licensors, imagines that ―if I was a fan translator I wouldn't let them use my work for
free. I'd sabotage it so they looked like morons.‖ This fan‘s notion of ―sabotage‖ speaks
to the perceived power of fans within this culture to sway or undermine certain official
practices. Kurt Hassler, in particular, has expressed frustration about the activity of some
fans who scan the North American versions of manga titles and place them online (as
opposed to buying Japanese manga books, scanning and then translating such works
themselves).96 This practice, clearly akin to music piracy in North America, goes beyond
debates within fandom about whether or not it is acceptable to distribute ―licensed‖
versus ―unlicensed‖ anime and manga translations online. In this instance, certain fans
actually violate the fansubbers or scanlators‘ ―code of ethics‖ since they are freely
distributing the labor of official American adapters. Although this practice may seem to
violate certain ethical codes fan translators have set out, this could be perceived as a
logical expansion of practices and attitudes already ingrained within fandom culture. If
fans are able to ―free‖ Japanese culture from traditional economic chains and flows by
making it digitally available at no cost online – albeit with added ―value‖ (or labor)
through the contribution of English language translations – then it is not surprising that
they would also start to perceive other local consumer cultures as ―free‖ as well.
96
Bertschy and Sevakis, ―Kurt in Earnest.‖
190
When the U.S. Congress asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to
―quantify the size and scope of piracy, including the impacts of Web piracy to the film
and music industries‖ in the spring of 2009, the GAO found that reports of loss of sales
(or their estimated losses) by U.S. entertainment industries could not be substantiated. 97
In fact, while the GAO cautioned that piracy may have a negative effect upon
maintaining intellectual property values in the U.S., it was also likely that ―[c]onsumers
may use pirated goods to 'sample' music, movies, software, or electronic games before
purchasing legitimate copies…[which] may lead to increased sales of legitimate goods."
While the GAO is hardly endorsing digital piracy, their findings support my conclusions
that my subjects do not merely undertake a single form of ―piracy‖ as one monolithic
practice. By participating in alternative flows of culture, either as producers, consumers
or distributors, fans learn how to engage cultural forms (specifically anime and manga),
transcultural flows (via translation acts and online digital distribution networks), and new
media technologies (in order to reproduce, translate and circulate these works). In other
words, these productive fan roles are sustained by, but not limited to, acts of digital
piracy. In truth, these fan practices – which prize immediacy, transparency, and
―authenticity‖ – have become transformative models for the distribution of Japanese
anime and manga in the United States.
Conclusion
In 2008, one subject I interviewed predicted that if ―companies were to go the
iTunes route and distribute cheap digital manga this practice [of scanlation] might be
97
Greg Sandoval, ―Feds Raise Questions About Big Media‘s Piracy Claims,‖ CNET News, 12 April 2010
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20002304-261.html> (15 April 2010).
191
curbed.‖98 The ―iTunes model‖ – first introduced in 2001 – has allowed a corporation
like Apple to co-opt the new media practices of music ―file sharers‖ (as they are often
called) and offer a legally sanctioned substitute that give consumers many of the same
benefits that illegal file sharing has. Since there is no physical space to the iTunes
―store,‖ Apple can offer a much wider selection of music for digital download at reduced
cost (and since consumers are not being a sold a ―material‖ CD this model also reduces
manufacturing and distribution costs). Both anime and manga licensors in the U.S. are
now experimenting with the digital distribution of anime and manga, with some manga
publishers like DMP developing a kind of digital ―rental‖ program where consumers pay
to read manga online (usually about half the cost of buying a physical copy of a manga
book). Some anime companies like Funimation are experimenting with providing U.S.
audiences with free online ―simulcasts‖ of Japanese animated shows.
To provide Japanese media content to the U.S. quickly, American licensors enter
into agreements with Japanese companies in order to gain digital distribution rights for
anime shows, as well as prepare English-language subtitles of the Japanese script in
advance of the show‘s ―simulcast.‖ Starting in 2010, the latest episodes of a select
number of Japanese anime shows – such as One Piece and Naruto – could be found with
subtitles on Hulu.com, alongside popular American shows such as 30 Rock and Lost.
Similarly, manga publishers have become willing to ―serialize‖ certain titles online,
either for free or for a small fee. The advent of Apple‘s iPad has also seen the U.S.
comics industry speculating about the possibility that it could become the comic book or
98
Subject 1a.
192
manga equivalent of the iPod, with one manga publisher noting that it could be the
―device that will allow users to carry a library of manga around with them everywhere."99
While there are some concerns within the industry that these new models of
digital distribution may not yet be profitable, it is important to note that U.S. licensors are
attempting to reproduce certain aspects of alternative cultural flows first created and
sustained by fans. By providing U.S. fans with simultaneous Japanese releases, official
producers are now working to bridge the time, space, and language gap between Japanese
culture and American audiences that first attracted U.S. fans to a variety of piracy
practices. Similar to the way in which U.S. licensors adapted to the possibilities of new
technologies, such as the DVD format, and the material conditions of the marketplace by
turning manga into the ―book,‖ these official cultural adapters continue to negotiate their
practices in response to fan advocacy and practices. Rather than ―co-opting‖ fandom
practices, U.S. licensors have attempted to reproduce certain virtual environments in
which fans can continue to experience and even create collective reception experiences.
While, of course, this is in the service of ―selling‖ something to a particular niche
audience, the activities of fans have literally had a transformative effect upon how
Japanese popular culture is adapted, sold, and distributed for Americans as a whole.
The relationship between anime and manga fans and official licensors is a
constant negotiation, sometime an outright battle, over how Japanese culture is translated,
distributed, and circulated in the U.S. The digital landscape is a cultural battle ground
where fans may be consciously economically ―sabotaging‖ (to borrow the concept as
invoked earlier by a fan) official flows of Japanese anime and manga into the U.S.
99
Deb Aoki, ―Manga Publishers, Comics Creators React to the Apple iPad,‖ About.com, 1 Feb 2010
<http:// manga.about.com/b/2010/02/01/manga-publishers-comics-creators-react-to-the-apple-ipad.htm>
(15 April 2010).
193
through their piracy practices. However, fans‘ hostility to many of the norms and
practices of official cultural flows from Japan to the U.S. is not merely an economic
question of what sales might have been lost, but also a question of what the socialcultural effect has been of fans‘ inserting themselves into the flows through which this
international culture is ultimately experienced in the U.S. Through their translation and
digital distribution practices of creative works from Japan, fans place themselves in the
role of transcultural producers thereby wresting control of culture away from media
corporations. Media corporations respond in turn by selectively adapting their
distribution models of anime and manga in an attempt to reframe audience members as
paying consumers.
This chapter reveals how U.S. fans‘ active engagement with transnational flows
transforms their relationship to not only the text themselves, but to both U.S. and
Japanese corporate producers as well. I show the importance of collective practices of
translation undertaken by individuals acting outside the institutional framework of
multinational corporations or governments. While acts of translation are examined as a
constitutive element of how fans intervene in global cultural flows, I also analyze the
significance of fans simultaneously developing alternative pathways to distribute and
circulate the manga and anime adaptations they create. By taking on the role of
transcultural mediators for one another, subjects assert that their fan identity is produced
in part by sustaining alternative flows of Japanese popular culture. This work then
speaks to the broader potential of grassroots actions to inform and transform cultural
processes of globalization.
194
FIGURE #1. This image from the manga Bleach reveals how certain U.S. publishers
adapt sound effects into English and incorporate them into the art of each panel. Note:
Panels are read from right-to-left.
Source: Tite Kubo, Bleach: Volume 1 (San Francisco: Viz Media, LLC, 2004), 44.
Reproduced with permission from the publisher.
195
FIGURE #2. An instructional page similar to this one appears in the back of U.S.published manga which read right-to-left.
Source: Tite Kubo, Bleach: Volume 1 (San Francisco: Viz Media, LLC, 2004), back
cover page. Reproduced with permission from the publisher.
196
CHAPTER FIVE:
THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF JAPANESE COMICS IN U.S. PUBLIC
LIBRAIES (2000-2010)
Introduction: Global Culture, Authenticity and Agency
In 2002, journalist Douglas McGray coined the term ―Japan‘s Gross National
Cool‖ in an article in Foreign Policy, positing the possibility of Japan further expanding
its cultural influence – as opposed to a primarily economic one – visibly across the globe
through the flow of its consumer cultures.1 Comparing the spread of Japanese popular
culture to the way in which popular American culture is often hybridized according to the
needs and desires of local cultures, McGray wrote that ―sometimes…the Japan that
travels is authentic. Sometimes, like cream cheese-and-salmon sushi, it is not. But
cultural accuracy is not the point. What matters is the whiff of Japanese cool.‖ With his
use of the word ―whiff,‖ McGray conceptualizes the consumption of a foreign popular
culture as a literal inhalation of culture into the body. That same year, Koichi Iwabuchi
forwarded a similar metaphor, which he described as ―cultural odor,‖ in his analysis of
East Asian consumers‘ encounter with Japanese popular culture in his book Recentering
Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism.2 Iwabuchi defines
―cultural odor‖ as the ―way in which cultural features of a country of origin and images
or ideas of its national, in most cases stereotyped, way of life are associated positively
1
2
Douglas McGray, ―Japan‘s Gross National Cool,‖ Foreign Policy (May / June 2002): 45-54.
Koichi Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism (Durham:
Duke University Press, 2002).
197
with a particular product in the consumption process.‖3 While Iwabuchi acknowledges
that ―cultural odor‖ is often ―related to exoticism,‖ as in the image of the Japanese
samurai or geisha, he is generally concerned with the ways in which cultural
representations, such as Japanese comics and animation, are ―de-odorized‖ through their
adaptation for local markets and often become no more culturally marked (or ―fragrant‖)
than ―consumer technologies‖ such as ―VCRs, karaoke, and the Walkman.‖
McGray and Iwabuchi‘s use of olfactory metaphors would seem to indicate that
visibility itself is no longer a useful criterion for understanding the significance of
Japanese popular culture within various local contexts around the globe. Instead, cultural
critics are being encouraged to show how that culture is eagerly ―digested,‖ or taken into
the physical body of the consumer, without concern for these audience groups‘ conscious
understanding of their consumption practices. After all, the act of smelling an odor (or
failing to detect an odor) might be considered an involuntary reflex (or lack of one), since
it is assumed that whether or not the individual has a strong sense of ―smell,‖ that the
very existence of odor can be attributed to the producers of the object in question. (In
other words, under this model cultural producers and adapters are assumed to have the
power to determine how Japanese popular culture is received by audiences). This type of
thinking tends to encourages scholars to evaluate the authenticity of Japanese popular
culture as it travels outside the boundaries of its nation and language of origin. Instead of
trying to measure the ―authenticity‖ of Japanese popular culture adapted for the U.S.
market, I find it more useful to examine how audiences actually encounter these works in
specific contexts and how those individuals and groups conceptualize the significance of
that encounter.
3
Iwabuchi, 27.
198
By exploring audiences‘ encounters with Japanese culture in specific sites, I build
and expand on chapter 3, where I explored the struggle between official U.S. producers
and unofficial fan producers of English-language versions of Japanese anime and manga
works to control the methods and adaptation strategies by which Japanese popular culture
is made available to American audiences. In many ways, these fan-producer interactions
proved to be an ideological battle over who would control the very existence Japanese
anime and manga would have not only in the English language but also around the world.
In contrast, here I show how individuals – both audience members and local cultural
gatekeepers – have consciously worked collaboratively to make Japanese popular culture
part of the media landscape of everyday American life. When I track how Japanese
culture is ―domesticated‖ in public libraries, I am not exploring how it is ―de-odorized‖
(or drained of authenticity), but how its material presence actually becomes a cultural
space of nexus, or connection, between the local and the global through the audience‘s
engagement with Japanese cultural forms within very specific U.S. public spheres. I,
therefore, track not only how audiences engage U.S. adaptations of cultural forms that
originate from Japan, but how many readers and viewers construct their own identities
and sense of self within local social spheres and cultural institutions.
Although I have critiqued the way in which McGray and Iwabuchi conceptualize
cultural transmission using a bodily – or non-reflective – metaphor, both critics do
acknowledge that the very notion that an ―authentic‖ Japanese culture exists is ultimately
problematic. Significantly, McGray reminds his readers that Japan‘s popular culture
itself has adapted to outside influences for over a hundred years, and the nation‘s history
as a whole ―is filled with examples of foreign inspiration and cultural fusion, from its
199
kanji character system to its ramen noodles.‖4 Iwabuchi is also careful to consider the
ways in which American economic and cultural power is globally deployed in order to
create official and highly profitable flows of Japanese popular culture – what he describes
as the ―Americanization of Japanization‖ (please see chapter 2 for further discussion of
this concept).5 Iwabuchi‘s macro approach to understanding the complicated nature of
adapting and distributing contemporary media for multiple regions is a useful account of
the interaction between the historical, economic, and material conditions that make it
possible for media corporations to bring Japanese popular culture to many different
regions all around the world. However, his approach is also de-agentive and overlooks
the way in which Japanese popular culture is experienced ―on-site.‖
In this chapter, I offer a counter-narrative to Iwabuchi‘s formulation of Japanese
culture as a corporately controlled global culture by accounting for interactions between
audiences, cultural gatekeepers who work within embodied sites of consumption, and the
material objects themselves. I track the very situated-ness of how one form of Japanese
popular culture, Japanese comics or manga, has found traction in U.S. public libraries
and public schools thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, and teenage readers. In the
introduction to Libraries as Agencies of Culture, Thomas August writes ―to understand
the role of the library in American life requires that we understand agency itself in terms
of appropriation. To read a book is to borrow from established forms of cultural
authority and to refashion that authority within personal and communal contexts of
4
Admittedly, McGray also distinguishes between Japan‘s popular culture and its ―traditional‖ culture;
while the former is imagined to be adaptable, the latter is believed to be carefully protected from outside, or
foreign, influence.
5
Iwabuchi, 38.
200
meaning and practice.‖6 I am inspired by August‘s understanding of agency as produced
by individuals‘ activity within and through the material, cultural, and social site of the
U.S. library. While I have previously examined fan practices in great depth – ranging
from the production of online fan works and fan translations to embodied community
events, such as anime clubs and conventions – in this chapter I examine the role of
specific types of cultural agents, particularly public and school librarians and teachers,
and their strategies to work in tandem with audience groups to incorporate Japanese
manga and anime into youth-oriented public spheres.
In order to examine the library as a site where manga is not only made accessible
to the community, but also how that culture is literally ―institutionalized‖ through the
formation of book collections, I interviewed public or high school librarians who worked
with manga or graphic novels in some capacity.7 From 2008 to 2009 I conducted six
interviews with librarians working in different regions of the country.8 In addition, I
collected data from an online survey I launched in the spring of 2010, which was
completed by twenty active librarians located all over the United States. Survey
participants worked within diverse communities, including small towns of 10,000 people
or less, small cities of around 40,000 people, to much larger urban centers with libraries
serving populations from 150,000 to 800,000 people and possibly more. I also
interviewed two high school librarians and one Language Arts (or ―English‖) teacher.
While this data is preliminary and should be understood to be anecdotal in nature rather
6
Thomas August, ―Introduction,‖ in Libraries as Agencies of Culture eds. Thomas August and Wayne
Wiegand (University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), 14-15.
7
8
August, 17.
In-person interviews include a number of librarians working in smaller cities in the Midwest, one librarian
from a suburb located in Northern California, and one working in a suburb of a large Northeastern city.
201
than representative, their experiences also allow me to speculate on the role manga (and
sequential art more generally) might play in other significant institutional sites in teen
readers‘ lives. By interviewing individuals who not only decide what books to buy for
young adult library collections, but also communicate and interact with those young
readers on a regular basis, I was able to track the way in which manga reception practices
of young Americans have become integrated into these community institutions.
Collecting the ―Manga Book‖
While the past decade has seen first the doubling and then precipitous drop of
U.S. manga sales, the format maintained a 35% share of all graphic novels sold in North
American in 2009. 9 In spite of manga‘s economic ―bust‖ (with 2007‘s all-time sales
high of 210 million dollars dropping to 140 million dollars just two years later), it still
remains a distinct category of books within chain bookstores and U.S. public libraries.
Both the New York Times Graphic Books Bestseller List, as well as bookstores like
Borders and Barnes & Noble, confer upon manga a specialized category that not only
distinguishes the format from other classes of books, such as fiction or non-fiction, but
from works that might be considered from the same ―family‖ as manga, such as North
American and European graphic novels. Although the continued fallout from the 2008
recession has shrunk the total number of books released by U.S. manga publishers, with
only 1115 manga released in 2009 after a high of 1513 volumes in 2007, these books
maintain a significant material presence within U.S. commercial and community book
9
―A Second Bad Year in a Row for Manga: Sales Down 20% in 2009,‖ ICv2.com, 16 April 2010
<http://www.icv2 com/ articles/news/17292.html> (19 Sep 2010). I discuss some of the reasons attributed
to the economic decline of the U.S. manga and anime industries in chapter 4.
202
culture.10 Manga adapted for the U.S. market, by virtue of their visual nature, primarily
youthful address, and international orientation, maintain a distinct cultural identity in the
U.S. that is quite different from the context in which they are received in Japan, where
comics are an omnipresent part of everyday life for a much wider variety of age groups
and readerships.
Although manga and U.S. graphic novels both pair text and sequential art11 to tell
a story, it is quite telling that manga is given its own category and shelf space in most
U.S. chain bookstores. That they are shelved next to, but still separately, from graphic
novels, reflects the need of the consumer-reader to easily distinguish manga books from
other graphic novels, while simultaneously conferring a special cultural identity onto the
books themselves. In her study of how manga migrated from the comic book field to the
bookstore field in the U.S., Casey Brienza argues that when ―manga‖ became a clearly
recognized book form, thanks to their distinct and very recognizable trim size – 5 x 7.5
inches – and their right-to-left orientation, they ―stop being a product that invokes a
global consciousness, and start to be a product invoking a purely local – gendered-biased
– one.‖12 Although I disagree with Brienza that once manga becomes institutionalized in
certain key sites in the U.S. it stops ―invoking‖ Japanese culture, I agree with her about
its gendered dimensions. In chapter 3 I discussed how female fans engage, or ―read,‖
10
ICv2.com.
11
For my purposes I find cartoonist Will Eisner‘s definition of ―sequential Art‖ quite useful. He writes that
―the format of the comic book presents a montage of word and image, and the reader is required to exercise
both visual and verbal interpretive skills. The regimens of art (e.g. Perspective, symmetry, brush stroke)
and regimens of literature (e.g. grammar, plot, syntax) become superimposed upon each other….In its most
economic state, comics employ a series of repetitive images and recognizable symbols. When they are
used again and again to convey similar ideas, they become a language – a literary form if you will. And it
is this disciplined application that creates the ‗grammar‘ of Sequential Art.‖ Will Eisner, Comics and
Sequential Art (Poorhouse Press, 1985), 8.
12
Casey Brienza, ―Books, Not Comics: Publishing Fields, Globalization, and Japanese Manga in the United
States,‖ Publishing Research Quarterly 25, no 2 (2010): 111, 115.
203
manga and anime works very differently than male fans seem to (and I hope to conduct
future research which could support Brienza‘s specific point that reading manga has
taken on very specific gendered connotations as a result of female fan engagement with
the form).
It is important to address the question of how manga is deployed as a ―global‖
product within U.S. book culture. Manga is of international origin, but is certainly
adapted to suit the needs of consumers and booksellers through its translation into
English and its specialized format. As a category of books, manga confound easy
identification as either entirely domesticated (or ―Americanized‖) or completely foreign.
Thanks to manga books‘ multi-dimensional cultural identity, as they speak to the national
and the international within U.S. book culture, and reading them also allows individuals
to take on some of that transnational dimensionality in their social identities as well. In
his book, The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control,
Ted Striphas reminds us that throughout the 20th century, ―nascent consumer capitalism
helped to mitigate sociological differences and class distinctions by linking social
mobility, however imperfectly, to the consumption of books and other mass produced
goods‖ in the United States.13 Striphas cites Janice Radway‘s study of ―Book-of-theMonth-Club‖ readers to consider the social signifiers that are generated through reading
practices.14 Following Stripas, I question what meaning does reading the ―manga book‖
hold to its audience, or is generated at local sites where such reading practices take place.
13
Ted Striphas, The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control (Columbia
University Press: 2009), 57.
14
Janice Radway, A Feeling for Books: The Book-of-the-Month Club, Literary Taste, and Middle-Class
Desire (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
204
By examining the ways in which these books are situated within U.S. public and
high school libraries, I found a productive relationship between readers‘ social identities,
cultural institutions and collective reception practices. Through participant observation
of public library events oriented toward teen patrons and librarian interviews, I witnessed
a community culture based around anime and manga that, while related to the grassroots
fan anime and manga organizations I have discussed in previous chapters, was distinct
from that culture because of its institutionalized backing from both libraries and librarians
(although teen fans often moved through both spaces with relative ease).
This ―institutionalization‖ of the manga book in U.S. libraries occurred along with
U.S. graphic novels – a development which became significant enough to merit
discussion in library and education trade journals by the late 1990‘s. The groundwork to
introduce graphic novels into young adult and juvenile library collections had been laid
with the rise of certain kinds of young adult literature forms and publishing practices over
the past sixty years. Eliza T. Dresang and M. Bowie Kortla point out that school library
collections for young adults have changed drastically since the 1960‘s, due to the
emphasis on a new form of ―realism‖ in young adult literature that ―began to reflect the
often-harsh realities of the lives of many young people.‖15 To put it broadly, cultural and
social change were often reflected in the literature of the time, and as a result, Dresang
and Kortla explain that many librarians ―were often in the vanguard of transforming their
library collections to better meet the needs of their students by accurately reflecting the
larger society in which the students lived.‖
15
Eliza T. Dresang and M. Bowie Kotrla, ―School Libraries and the Transformation of Readers and
Reading,‖ in Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature, eds. Shelby Wolf, Karen
Coats, Patricia Enciso and Christine Jenkins (New York: Routledge, 2011), 126.
205
A part of reflecting young people‘s actual experience of the world – both in public
and school libraries – is also an incorporation of the experience of digital environments
into a library‘s young adult collection. Dressag formulates certain ―digital age
principals‖ – which she finds are present in texts with ―changing forms and formats,
changing perspectives and changing boundaries‖ – and argues they have transformed
how young readers process information, and, therefore, how they read. An example of
how ―digital age principals‖ have influenced young adult readers is evidenced in librarian
Robin Brenner‘s contention that it is much easier for younger readers to pick up a comic
book or graphic novel for the first time than it is for more mature readers. ―Teenagers
can instinctively read graphic novels, even if they‘ve never read one before,‖ Brenner
writes, explaining that ―kids and teens learn from an early age to parse combinations of
images and text in a variety of ways, and so reading a graphic novel feels new but within
their scope of understanding.‖16
By the early 21st century, American librarians and educators were clearly starting
to recognize and remark upon the possibilities of using unconventional reading material
to interest otherwise reluctant young readers in books, with articles like ―Who is Reading
Manga?‖ and ―Bringing Graphic Novels into a School‘s Curriculum‖ appearing in
education and library trade journals.17 While in the second section of this chapter I will
address librarians‘ strategic use of new media to attract and engage teen patrons, it is first
important to understand the broader context in which comic books are understood and
16
Robin Brenner, ―Comics and Graphic Novels,‖ in Handbook of Research on Children’s and Young Adult
Literature, eds. Shelby Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso and Christine Jenkins (New York: Routledge,
2011), 258.
17
Melissa Bergin, ―Who is Reading Manga?‖ Young Adult Library Services (Summer 2005): 25-26.
Katherine T. Bucher and M. Lee Manning, ―Bringing Graphic Novels into a School‘s Curriculum,‖ The
Clearing House 78, no 2 (Nov / Dec 2004): 67-72.
206
received in U.S. culture. To outline this context, I examine significant cultural shifts in
how the U.S. comic book form and its content have changed since the 1930‘s.
Recent interest in using comics in educational settings works to overturn over six
decades of conventional wisdom about the nature of American comic books as entirely
lacking cultural or educational value. Sequential art narratives, or the ―comic book,‖ has
generally been a devalued cultural form in the United States, with teachers, librarians and
cultural critics often dismissing these works as unworthy of critical attention, while
comic book aesthetics have often been taken up in playful or deconstructive ways by
artists (particularly artists working within the 1950‘s and 1960‘s Pop Art movement).18
For decades, though, actual comics have been dismissed as formulaic stories aimed at a
juvenile audiences – or immature male adults – thanks to the efforts of cultural reformers
to ―clean up‖ representations of sex, violence and depravity between the covers of these
pamphlets during the immediate post-World War II period.
Budding criminal psychologist Frederick Wertham became the spokesperson and
catalyst for this ―reform‖ movement with his 1948 Collier’s article ―Horror in the
Nursery,‖ where he argued that a clear causal relationship existed between adolescents
reading comic books and resulting behaviors understood by society at large to be
―deviant‖ in some way. In the article Wertham concludes that ―comic book reading was
a distinct influencing factor in the case of every single delinquent or disturbed child we
18
I am simplifying the Pop Art movement, which had its origins in the post-World War II era of American
materialism. Mass culture of the time and its ―vivid, pictorial vocabulary [were] adapted to processes of
industrial or mechanical reproduction‖ by artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Bjelajac, 369. American art
historian David Bjelajac points out that for many American artists pop art was a critique of abstract
expressionism as ―quaintly out of touch in their persistent evasion of mass culture‘s vulgar taint,‖ 368.
However, Lichtenstein also purposefully deconstructed the comic book through his choice to reproduce
only ―a single action frame,‖ essentially eliminating the possibility of reading a traditional narrative that
would have been available in the original source material, which was an actual comic book, 369. David
Bjelajac, American Art: A Cultural History (Laurence King, 2000).
207
studied,‖ and comic books were ―in intent and effect, demoralizing the morals of
youth.‖19 Throughout the 1950‘s he would continue to publish on the danger that comic
books – or more specifically the ―deviant,‖ violent and sexual situations they represented
– posed to America‘s youth in many widely read publications (including Ladies’ Home
Journal and the Los Angeles Times), finally releasing his best known repudiation of the
comic book form, Seduction of the Innocent, in 1954. Although not the first time comics
were investigated by the U.S. government, new Congressional hearings were held almost
immediately following the publication of Wertham‘s book. According to historian David
Hajdu the difference between these hearings and previous ones was that these hearings
produced almost instantaneous changes in the content of U.S. comic books. Wertham‘s
book struck a chord with the American public, and with the public criticism and outcry
over representations of sex, crime and ―deviance‖ in comic books, a number of publishers
discontinued many of their own comic book titles, particularly their so-called ―crime‖
comics.20
With mounting public pressure to ―clean up‖ their act, the comic book publishers
followed in the footsteps of the heads of the film studios, and developed what was known
as the ―Comics Code‖ and a governing body to oversee the implementation of the code.21
The Comics Code instituted certain standards that comic books had to comply with in
order to receive a ―Code seal‖ bestowed by the Comics Code Authority or risk loss of
distribution and sales. Historian Matthew Pustz writes that ―the entire medium was, in
19
David Hajdu, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America (New
York: Picador: 2009), 101.
20
21
Hajdu, 274, 279, 287.
Matthew Pustz, Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers (University of Mississippi: 2000), 35,
41-42.
208
effect, devalued, as publishers de facto admitted that comic books were indeed harmful,
creating disreputable associations that persist to this day.‖22 In order to self-censor,
comic book companies felt it necessary to limit themselves to publishing specific genres
and actively curtailed the breadth of subject matter in their books. While in the past
―mainstream comics have included a wide variety of genres: war, horror, romance,
Westerns, comedy, science fiction, mystery, and crime stories,‖ Pustz notes that ―today
most mainstream comics feature fantastic adventure stories, usually staring superheroes,‖
indicating that the effects of the 1950‘s comic book scare upon the industry can be seen
to this day.23
Over the past three decades certain creators have been working within the North
American comic book industry to redeem the sequential art narrative as a form capable of
conveying both artistry and social significance. Since the 1930‘s, comic books in the
United States have generally been produced as stapled pamphlets of around thirty-two
pages or more, and by the mid-1930‘s were distributed to newsstands and treated to a
large extent like other periodicals, such as magazines and pulps.24 While collections of
comic strips were not uncommon, rarely were comic books collected and reproduced in a
traditional book format. One of the first creators to consciously attempt to adapt the
comic book into a book format was famed cartoonist Will Eisner, who first published A
Contract With God in 1978, ―a collection of stories about a poor crowded Jewish Bronx
neighborhood and coined the term ‗graphic novel‘ to describe a complex story told in
22
Pustz, 42.
23
Pustz, 10.
24
Bradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America (Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2003), 3-4.
209
comic book format in 64 to 179 pages.‖25 In the 1980‘s creators like Alan Moore
consciously started to think of their comic books as serialized parts of a larger whole that
would later be published in one volume to create a graphic novel. A number of creators
were also using the form to tackle issues of great social and historical significance, such
as Art Spigelman, whose Maus I and II chronicled his father‘s holocaust experience and
his strained relationship with his father.
By the year 2000, only a select few graphic novels had become incorporated into
what might be understood the 20th century ―literature‖ canon, exemplified by the many
literature prizes bestowed upon both volumes of Maus.26 One English teacher I
interviewed explained that Maus has become one of the core literature books assigned to
all middle school students in her school district and named it as one of the ―touchstone‖
books all high school students are expected to have already read.27 This growing
mainstream cultural acceptance of certain ―graphic novels‖ as literature is epitomized in
Time magazine naming Alison Bechedel‘s Fun Home – another biographical work with
many literary allusions and references – its best ―book‖ of the year in 2006 and not the
best ―graphic novel‖ of the year.28 It seems likely that works like Maus and Fun Home
are cushioned from accusations of ―lowbrow literature‖ not only because they are
biographical, but because they deal with ―serious‖ subject matters (the subject of Maus is
25
Bucher and Manning, 67. It is important to note that I‘m simplifying the history of the ―graphic novel‖
in order to show that Japanese comics are introduced into a pre-existing U.S. cultural context, with certain
attitudes and perceptions about ―sequential art.‖ While Bucher and Manning may be incorrect about who
actually first coined the term ―graphic novel,‖ critics generally seem to agree that Will Eisner‘s A Contract
with God is one of the first significant examples of a work that was consciously created to be a graphic
novel (and not simply a ―comic book‖).
26
Malcolm Jones, ―High Art,‖ Newsweek, 30 August 2004, 51-52.
27
Subject #5d, Interview, 5 March 2009.
28
―‗Book of the Year‘ – A Graphic Novel!‖ Booklist 103, no. 14 (15 March 2007): 40.
210
the holocaust, while Bechdel explores the impact of her father‘s suicide upon herself and
her family, in addition to exploring issues of sexual identity).
The redemption of certain graphic novels should make us question how ―popular‖
sequential art works, which have less obvious ties to literature, have been treated in
institutions devoted to literacy and education. The introduction of manga as a graphic
novel format also complicates the question of how popular, but visibly transnational
material fits within this cultural hierarchy (or if it does at all). Interestingly, one librarian
survey participant noted that their library‘s collection of manga and anime is ―part of our
cultural mission to make available the best and most popular examples of various
artforms‖ revealing that by the year 2010 cultural gatekeepers could perceive manga
books as fulfilling the role of popular entertainment in the U.S., while also maintaining a
certain status as works ―art.‖29 (In other words, popularity and artistic value are not
necessarily mutually exclusive qualities for some librarians). While many librarians
generally see manga as a means to an end (i.e. a way to attract teen readers to the library),
as a whole it is remarkable, given the history of comics in the U.S., to see cultural agents
such as librarians embrace manga as having cultural value – not in spite of their
popularity but because of it.
By interviewing librarians and surveying the trade literature they referenced, I
found that many librarians and teachers have integrated graphic novels and manga into
their library collections and curriculums in an attempt to forge strong bonds between
actual (comic) books, educational institutions and potential readers. The library trade
journal oriented toward librarians and teachers who work with young adults – titled Voice
of Youth Advocates or VOYA – first added a ―Graphically Speaking‖ column in 1994,
29
Survey #19.
211
featuring graphic novel and manga reviews which appeared in three issues a year. Later
in 2003, the ―Graphically Speaking‖ column was added to every issue, indicating that
mainstream library institutions were recognizing the ongoing integration of graphic
novels into many library collections which served a youth readership.30 Among study
participants, VOYA was also an often-cited resource that helped them decide which
manga and graphic novels to order for their library‘s collection.31 In a more directed
move, librarians Katherine Bucher and M. Lee Manning further argued for the
establishment of ―graphic novels‖ within educational institutions, declaring that ―because
young adults should be encouraged to read what interests them, graphic novels belong in
every school library. They also should, when appropriate, be incorporated into the school
curriculum.‖32 However, Bucher and Manning acknowledge that teen readers are much
more likely to be familiar with graphic novels than the librarians who are making actual
ordering decisions on their behalf. ―As with any other formats or genres of literature,‖ it
is important that ―educators need to know about graphic novels and how to select quality
examples for young adults – items that readers appreciate, as well as items that will
contribute to adolescents‘ education.‖33
Bucher and Manning‘s call for librarian education would be furthered by librarian
and graphic novel enthusiast Robin Brenner, who published Understanding Manga and
Anime through Libraries Unlimited in 2007, in order to give a librarian ―novice the
background information necessary to feel confident in selecting, working with and
30
Kat Kan, ―Graphically Speaking,‖ Voice of Youth Advocates 30 March 2010 <http://www.voya.com/
2010/03/30/graphically-speaking/> (April 7 2011).
31
Subject #4d, Interview, 12 February 2009. Survey #11. Survey #13. Survey #17.
32
Bucher and Manning, 67-68.
33
Bucher and Manning, 68.
212
advocating for manga and anime collections.‖34 In 2004, Brenner was already attempting
to create guides for other librarians with her essay ―Graphic Novels: Where to Start?‖
(written for the Kentucky library system). She notes that librarians looking for direction
in ordering graphic novels had no less three regular columns featured in library or
education trade journals – citing Booklist, School Library Journal and VOYA – to help
guide them in ordering graphic novels.35 Brenner‘s 2004 guide to ordering graphic
novels for libraries focuses almost exclusively on American graphic novels and gives one
single line to manga as an ―extremely popular subformat for teens.‖ As of 2010,
however, most libraries‘ teen sequential art collections are primarily comprised of manga
as reported by study participants, representing remarkable growth. Of the twenty survey
respondents, twelve librarians cited manga collections that were larger than their graphic
novel collection with only four librarians reporting a smaller manga collection than a
U.S. graphic novel collection
How exactly did manga gain such prominence within these collections in less than
a decade? Casey Brienza‘s research on the manga book migrating from the comic book
field to the book field reveals that once manga has become a standardized ―book‖ format
in the U.S. its price point dropped from approximately fifteen or twenty dollars down to
ten dollars.36 This stabilization of the manga book format across all major U.S. manga
publishers made them much more attractive to U.S. chain bookstores‘ book buyers.
These are powerful figures in U.S. book culture because they are the ones who often
34
Robin Brenner, Understanding Manga and Anime (Libraries Unlimited, 2007).
35
Robin Brenner, ―Graphic Novels: Where to Start?‖ Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives.
April / June 2004 <http://www.kdla.ky.gov/onlinepubs/selectionotes/aprjune2004/gn_wheretostart.htm> (1
Aug 2010).
36
Brienza, 111-112.
213
make decisions about what books are actually ordered for stores. Of course, the same
properties that attracted book buyers to manga would also attract librarians; one librarian
went so far as to call manga practically ―disposable,‖ not because he felt they were trashy
in their content or cheaply made, but because they were inexpensively bought and
replaced once worn out from repeated readings.37
This still begs the question of how manga was able to overcome its status as a
―subformat‖ of U.S. graphic novels to become the centerpiece of many U.S. libraries‘
sequential art collections. One high school librarian noted that when she first started
working in her current position in 2002, her school library did not really have many
graphic novels in the collection, although in the intervening years manga become
―popular‖ amongst the student body.38 In fact, because students would often make
requests for favorite manga titles the librarian mentioned that trusted ―review sources‖
(citing VOYA specifically) had become a significant resource that helped guide her
purchasing decisions. While they try to listen to student suggestions, she noted that
school librarians relied upon ―professional reviewers‖ to give an accurate account of a
book‘s quality. However, ―quality‖ for this librarian does not necessarily mean that
specific manga titles had to aspire to reach the same kind of cultural gravitas as a work
like Maus has. Instead, by turning to ―professional reviewers‖ who would be well-versed
in graphic novels and manga, she felt librarians were relying upon individuals who have a
basis of comparison to determine the ―quality‖ of a wide variety of stories that might only
be linked by their pairing of sequential art and text to tell a story.
37
Subject #1d, Interview, 5 August 2008.
38
Subject #4d.
214
Many teen librarians struggle with the issue of maintaining a collection with items
deemed to have literary value (or ―quality‖) while simultaneously meeting the reader
demands for popular fiction. Writing for the School Library Journal, Kristine Chen
describes her unease when her middle school ―media center‖ (aka 21st century school
library) was compared to a Barnes & Noble.39 She had always thought of a school library
as a ―place that‘s filled with classics and Newbery Medal-winners, as well as fiction and
nonfiction that supports the curriculum.‖ However, the popularity of the Twilight novel
series would change her opinion about the library space and the role of the books she
ordered for that space. While previously she had tried to balance her ordering budget
between popular fiction and ―quality‖ works, she felt that it was a problem when certain
award-winning novels circulated less frequently, or when she had to tell interested
readers that a popular book was ―unavailable‖ because she had chosen to order fewer
copies of the work. Her experience of not stocking enough copies of a popular work
changed Chen‘s ordering decisions, and although she still bought award-winning young
novles, she came to see the value of ordering multiple copies of a book that could be read
by entire groups of young adults at once.
Speaking from her decades of experience as a young adult librarian and scholar of
young adult literature, Mary K. Chelton notes that when she started working as a librarian
in the early 1960‘s ―the goal of YA [Young Adult] services was (and still is) to facilitate
the transition to adulthood and adult interests while serving the needs of the present.‖40
Often choosing to add graphic novels or manga to a library collection is a way of
39
40
Kristine Chen, ―Give Them What They Want,‖ School Library Journal October 2010: 29.
Mary K. Chelton, ―Perspectives on Practice: Young Adult Collections are More than Just Young Adult
Literature,‖ Young Adult Library Services Winter 2006: 10.
215
―serving the needs of the present‖ (i.e. the young adult patron) while attempting to forge
bonds between the library and reader that are intended to pave the way for other types of
reading (reading practices perhaps imagined by some librarians to be ―more real‖ than
graphic novel or manga consumption). When I asked my high school librarian
participant if she had made a conscious decision to add graphic novels to her school‘s
collection, she replied that ―you can‘t be a librarian,‖ without knowing about these
―trends‖ in teen reading practices. In other words, because there is demand among teen
readers, librarians are actually meeting the already existing needs of readers by building
manga and graphic novel collections in their libraries. The institutionalization of manga
in U.S. libraries, therefore, reflects a kind of ground level swell since it is often teen
patrons‘ interest in manga and graphic novels that helped fuel librarian‘s engagement
with the form and not the other way around. However, it also clearly reflects a
pedagogical strategy by librarians to instruct young adult patrons in library and reading
practices that they believe will help facilitate other types of reading in the future.
Rollie Welch, writing as the head of Young Adult Services at the Cleveland
Public Library, wrote about his experience of successfully integrating teen manga
collections at twenty-eight branch libraries in the Cleveland area in a 2005 issue of Young
Adult Library Services. His article was part of a special issue of YALS which focused
entirely upon graphic novels and manga in libraries and educational settings, indicating
how central sequential art was becoming to any youth-oriented library endeavor.41
Welch himself noted that before beginning his ―experiment,‖ he did not know much
about manga but tried to learn a great deal about the format when his teen patrons would
41
Julianne Brown and Rollie Welch, ―Y Archive? The Rapid Rise of Graphic Novels and Their Place in
the Cleveland Public Library,‖ Young Adult Library Services Summer 2005: 23.
216
request that the library purchase certain manga titles. In fact, he extended to those teen
patrons the title of ―educator,‖ since they gave him ―lessons‖ about not only the diversity
of manga narratives available in English, but also the strong interest teens generally had
in reading such works. Of course, the ultimate goal in adding sequential art works to the
library was to ―increase circulation of young adult materials‖ (and is part of the ―the
routine aspects of any YA librarian [position],‖ as Welch notes).42
When Welch first started adding manga to the collection the response was
immediate – the first twenty-two titles to be added to the library system were met
immediately with fifteen holds by teen patrons. This occurrence, which surprised and
delighted Welch, is just one example of how swiftly and persistently manga books
circulate in most libraries according to the majority of survey participants. One teen
librarian explained that unlike many young adult novels, the ―drop off‖ in the number of
times a manga book circulates a year tends to hold steady, and they can often circulate
three times as much as a young adult novel throughout the duration of their time in the
collection.43 She noted that ―a top teen graphic novel will circulate over one hundred
times, for example, while a top teen novel will circulate about sixty times, and drops off
much faster to a level of around forty‖ times a year. Welch described his library‘s manga
collection as ―fluid,‖ indicating that most manga books spend the majority of their time
circulating, rather than sitting on a shelf, and ―the books are immediately checked out
upon return, and teens take out over a dozen titles at time.‖44 Librarians generally agree
that graphic novels and manga are the most circulated type of items in the entire library
42
Brown and Welch, 22.
43
Subject #6d, Interview, June 2009.
44
Brown and Welch, 23.
217
system.45 One librarian cited that of the 847 graphic novels in their library‘s collection
(which include manga books among that number) ―at least 20% of this collection is
checked out at any one time.‖46 Another felt that ―the graphic novels and mangas at our
library are one of our highest circulating collections. Manga is especially hugely popular
with the teens I serve.‖47
High circulation numbers are evidence of reader interest in manga, of course, but
they also became a form of validation that allows many librarians to continue buying
these books over potential objections to their content or even their (perceived lack of)
cultural value. Welch noted that his choice to try to boost the circulation numbers of his
young adult collection by ordering manga was at first met with skepticism by his
colleagues who questioned the books‘ ―literary value,‖ and expressed distaste for having
books ―with those types of pictures on the covers‖ in circulation. Even when presenting
the positive results of his expansion of the library‘s manga holdings (i.e. high circulation
numbers), Welch was met with the question of ―Why are they all so pornographic?‖
revealing his colleagues‘ fundamental misunderstanding of manga licensed for the U.S.,
which are generally teen-oriented. In his study on manga publishing trends in the U.S.,
Takeshi Matsui has actually shown that an overwhelming majority of manga published in
North America is given an age rating of teen, with U.S. manga companies often
distinguishing between works deemed appropriate for younger teen versus older teen
45
Survey #1. Survey #2. Survey #8. Survey #10. Survey #11. Subject #4d.
46
Survey #11.
47
Survey #1. In addition, in its 2010 profile of a Queens public library, the New York Times estimates that
40% of the library‘s manga collection is circulating at any one time. Anne Barnard, ―At Queens Libraries,
a Passion for Japanese Comics Endures,‖ New York Times 16 May 2010.
218
readers.48 Welch‘s colleagues‘ attitude toward manga – fostered by their mistaken
impression of Japan‘s diverse manga culture as primarily dominated by sexually explicit
works – concerned Welch because it seemed to de-value not only sequential art but
young adult literature as a whole.49 In the end, Welch reports that the clear evidentiary
results of high circulation numbers are often enough to convince other librarians to give
these works a chance, even though they may continue to hold biases against the form
itself.50
Of course, some form of quality control in manga and graphic novel collections
remains a concern for librarians and educators. Earlier I quoted Bucher and Manning as
firmly declaring that ―graphic novels belong in every school library.‖ However, they also
offer a ―precaution‖ that one should ―[preview] graphic novels before using them and
recommending them to adolescents.‖51 Bucher and Manning clearly see the librarian as
the authority on what belongs in a library‘s collection, but many librarians I interviewed
acknowledged that their teen patrons were the experts whose guidance they relied upon
when ordering manga for their library‘s collection. One teen librarian I interviewed
48
Takeshi Matsui, ―The Diffusion of Foreign Cultural Products: The Case Analysis of Japanese Comics
(Manga) Market in the U.S.,‖ Princeton University: Center for Arts and Cultural Studies: Working Papers
Spring 2009 <http://www.princeton.edu/~artspol/workpap/WP37-Matsui.pdf> (19 Sep 2010).
49
Brown and Welch, 22-23.
50
It is not uncommon for young adult novels in libraries to be ―challenged,‖ which the American Library
Association defines as ―an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or
group.‖ ―Challenges to Library Materials,‖ American Library Association <http://www.ala.org/ala/
issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/index.cfm> (19 April 2011). Robin Brenner also notes
that graphic novels and manga are more likely to be challenged on the basis of content because ―comics
are, by their very nature, visual. In a culture where videogames, television, and films are rated for
appropriateness, it should come as no surprise that consumers are concerned with the images presented in
comics as more problematic than the same events as prose.‖ Brenner, ―Graphic Novels and Comics,‖ 263.
In addition, because manga are visibly ―foreign‖ in their right-to-left reading orientation they may attract
more attention from concerned parents than other graphic novels.
51
Bucher and Manning, 69.
219
pragmatically commented that manga is ―guaranteed‖ to circulate frequently, ―whether
[or not] you know it‘s good.‖52 This librarian was not dismissing manga as badly
constructed entertainment, as he further elaborated that ―without talking directly to the
public it‘s hard to figure out what they will like and what they don‘t like. Talking to the
teens at [library outreach] programs, they‘ll very quickly let me know what‘s a stupid
purchase.‖ In other words, he was less concerned about the form‘s broader cultural status
than about whether or not his ordering decisions meet the needs of his teen patrons.
Although librarians must work within predetermined budgets and other
restrictions upon their book ordering practices, it is clear that many librarians look at the
formation of a manga collection as a collaborative endeavor that is undertaken in
consultation with this particular audience group. One librarian explained that the graphic
novel section of her library ―speaks to an age group that often feels overlooked by local
government agencies. Not only does the collection circulate well, it also breeds goodwill
in a population that might otherwise feel the library is irrelevant.‖53 This particular
librarian‘s perspective highlights the act of creating a collection of manga and graphic
novels as a way a public library can give validation to the form itself as worthy of
collection, to the adolescent fans of that form, and even to the library itself as a useful
institution in the eyes of adolescents.
It is also worth noting that the way manga is actually shelved within libraries has
become a clear material indicator of how the library as a cultural institution works to
draw teen readers into the library space itself. While teen collections are generally
divided into fiction and non-fiction categories, manga is a visually-oriented cultural form
52
Subject #1d.
53
Subject #7d, Interview, 11 August 2009.
220
that gives new dimensions to those collections. From my own observation of manga
shelving in local Midwestern libraries, as well as my analysis of data collected from
survey participants who work in libraries all over the country, I have found that there is
currently no uniform way of shelving manga in public libraries. In 2004 the curators of
the Dewey Decimal Classification system (or DDC) attempted to offer guidance for
libraries struggling to classify this rapidly growing category of books known as ―graphic
novels,‖ explaining they have ―tentatively decided to keep graphic novels in 741.5 and its
subdivisions, where we have been classing them with cartoons, caricatures, and
comics.‖54 Since graphic novels ―combine graphic arts and literature… [and] share so
many characteristics with comic books and collections of comic strips,‖ they do not,
therefore, belong in the 800‘s with literature or text-based works. These ―tentative‖
recommendations by the editors of the DDC have actually resulted in most libraries
creating their own individualized strategies in order to highlight their graphic novel
collection to target the attention of specific patron groups.
Of the twenty survey respondents, only two librarians reported that manga and
graphic novels were catalogued under the 741 number in their library, as recommended
by the DDC. Three other respondents indicated that manga were classified similarly to
graphic novels in their library and were not separated into their own collection (which
most likely means that they are shelved in non-fiction under the 741 number). Under the
Dewey Decimal system manga are treated as ―graphic novels‖ but still separated out by
their country of origin, which results in material from Asia cataloged as
741.5952/Author, while American graphic novels bear the number 741.593/Author.
54
Julianne Bell, ―Graphic Novels in DDC: Discussion Paper,‖ OCLC 2004 <http://www.oclc.org/dewey/
discussion/ papers/graphicnovels.htm> (1 Aug 2010).
221
While this can seem like the very small distinction, it is worth noting that in practice, and
for large collections in particular, American graphic novels and manga are clearly
distinguished from each other on the shelves since manga books as a whole will follow
U.S. graphic novels. While this seems like a minor point, for librarians who are
constantly considering what other materials patrons are exposed to in their search for a
particular item or type of item, enforcing a distinction between works based on their
country of origin can be a major downside to using the 741 number to classify manga and
graphic novels.55 In addition, it is quite significant that libraries that follow that DDC
system intermix manga titles that are addressed to very different age groups, since works
understood to be oriented toward teen readers and works intended for adults readers
would be organized by the author‘s last name under the 741.5952 number.56
The majority of librarians reported that their library rejected this system in favor
of developing their own. Of the twenty survey respondents, thirteen librarians wrote that
manga (often along with graphic novels) had their own collection site within the library
where they worked. Significantly, even if some part of the manga was given its own
collection space, there were a number of variations in terms of how that ―special‖
collection space was organized within the library. A number of collections were divided
among three age groups – with individual items labeled as juvenile, teen or adult – and
placed into sections of the library that catered to each patron group. One librarian wrote
that the ―reasoning,‖ behind dividing the collection was ―ease of use and appropriateness
for each age level,‖ also ensuring that younger patrons were not inadvertently exposed to
55
Subject #6d.
56
Subject #1d.
222
material with mature content.57 In other words, for many librarians it was simply
common sense to separate graphic novels and manga the same way that fiction is
organized for these age groups.
When I asked one librarian, who had divided her collection into ―age-appropriate‖
sections of juvenile, young adult and adult, why she had adapted this particular method
she explained,
I firmly believe that all libraries (at least public libraries) must have those three
general age collections [i.e. juvenile, young adult / teen, adult]. We divide all our
collections that way and graphic novels are all written for different ages and
maturity levels. There is no reason to have them all in one section (say Teen,
which is what a lot of libraries still have) and it‘s misleading, because it reinforces
the stereotypes that comics are only for young readers. And especially that manga
is only for teens.58
She further noted that ―as we all know, graphic novels can tell any kind of story, and
there are a lot of GN [graphic novel] series that I would want to have in my library but
not in the teen section…It‘s a question of appeal as much as a question of content.‖ This
sub-dividing of the collection according to age group seems to be favored by many
librarians, as it highlights not only graphic novels and manga as ―special items‖ but also
versatile ones, since they can be placed in such different areas of the library. (It also
keeps younger readers physically separated from works with ―mature‖ content). One
librarian explained that their manga was even divided into ―browsing collections, just as
fiction, mystery, magazines and biographies were.‖59 The idea that manga could be so
diverse that it could necessitate genre distinctions within the collection itself – i.e.
mystery, biographies, etc. – is an interesting way to apply contemporary standards of
57
Survey #8.
58
Subject #6d.
59
Survey #13.
223
literature classification to a library‘s manga collection. This labeling decision, however,
was an unusual one, as another librarian specifically rejected that approach, explaining
that it would be ―too confusing‖ for both librarians and patrons to have to differentiate
between different genres among manga works.60
While many librarians reported that the entire manga collection had its own
―special section,‖ many such separated manga collections tended to be placed in areas
highly trafficked by teen patrons.61 Interestingly, one librarian reported that their manga
was ―catalogued as young adult fiction and interfiled with YA novels. The hope is to
encourage readers to read beyond manga.‖62 This reveals that librarians are quite
concerned with manga‘s placement in the library, since they often perceive it to be a
potential gateway to other kinds of adolescent reading practices. Occasionally, manga or
graphic novels aimed at adult audiences appeared to be an afterthought, with most
attention given to the young adult manga and graphic novel collection. One respondent
noted that ―the vast majority of manga is in our teen area, because they are the most
enthusiastic consumers of our manga collection.‖63 In cases where the teen collection
was the focus of the collection, adult-oriented graphic novels and manga would be placed
in adult nonfiction since as one librarian explained ―we don‘t yet have an adult GN
collection, due to lack of critical mass and space.‖64 Another noted that they simply
60
Subject #6d.
61
Survey #16.
62
Survey #15.
63
Survey #7.
64
Survey #6.
224
―don‘t have space at the moment‖ to separate out the adult graphic novel and manga
collection from non-fiction.65
The lack of uniformity in how U.S. libraries approach the shelving and cataloging
of manga collections is quite telling. Manga is a relatively new book format in the U.S.
and libraries appear to be developing individualized solutions to the question of how to
present these works to their patrons in ways which highlight not only the format itself but
the space of the library as well. However, this institutionalization of manga in U.S.
library culture reveals gaps, or unevenness, in the process by which Japanese comics are
―domesticated‖ for U.S. audiences. Manga‘s transnational origin, as well as their visual
nature, complicate librarians‘ attempt to place them in the library space. By posing a
challenge to the Dewey Decimal System, these works have also been used by librarians
to open up avenues of library-to-reader connection, particularly when they are placed in
special areas of the library to attract patrons‘ interest. To understand the significance of
manga reading practices in the U.S. it is important to see the complex ways in which
these books are deployed at local levels and how they fit – and sometimes do not easily
fit – into the broader context of young adult library collections and literature.
As a whole, manga collections in U.S. libraries are oriented toward teen readers
and, therefore, time and attention given toward building that collection as a visible one is
also about incorporating that particular reading group into the library community.
Building a manga collection may be a source of pride among teen librarians, but in
interviews and surveys they also stressed how teen patrons flocked to the collection, as
one librarian claimed that their library has ―the largest manga collection in our state,
[which] has given us the 3rd highest teen circ stats in the state, even though we are a small
65
Survey #1.
225
library.‖66 While circulation statistics may appear to be an impersonal way of
understanding the impact of manga upon the patron community, those numbers help
librarians assess the significance of making such works available to actual readers.
As librarians find clear evidence manga draws teen readers to the library, they
begin to employ manga as a stepping stone to engaging those readers on a variety of
social levels. One librarian explained that thanks to the popularity of manga they tried
―to incorporate at least some manga and graphic novels into all my book talks at local
schools and institutions.‖67 For many librarians these books succeed as an ―experiment‖
not merely if they encourage teens to read, but also if they encourage teens to visit the
library on a regular basis. Once teens make it through the door of the library, the next
step many teen librarians take is to offer ―outreach‖ programs that prioritize consumption
of manga and anime as a basis for building community bonds among teens. In the next
section, I examine how librarians oversee a variety of manga and anime related activities
and events at public libraries in order to turn individualized practices of consumption into
a socializing outlet that allows teens to incorporate their interest in anime and manga into
an institutionally-supported community space.
Manga and Youth Outreach
According to librarians who work closely with their younger patrons, manga
attracts an ethnically, racially and socially diverse readership among teens. One librarian,
working in a Northeastern city with a population around 60,000, explained that the anime
66
Survey #9.
67
Survey #1.
226
club was ―a pretty diverse group. We have a variety of skin tones, so to speak, and
ethnicities represented. The group does kind of reflect the town.‖68 In addition, she
explained, a number of teens who ―self-identify as GLBT‖ also participated in anime and
manga outreach programs. Similarly, in 2010 Anne Barnard profiled a Queens public
library in the New York Times, noting that the manga readers at the library
come from all over the ethnic patchwork of this neighborhood of modest-to-fancy
brick houses and square green lawns: East Asian, South Asian, Caribbean,
African-American, Jewish. (Only one speaks Japanese at home.) But at the
library, they identify as otaku — Japanese slang for manga aficionados — and
their divisions run purely along manga lines.69
―Manga divisions‖ in this case simply means what kind of manga teens happen to prefer
to read, and Barnard highlights the slang word ―otaku‖ to categorize all manga readers,
no matter what their ethnic, racial, or cultural background happens to be.
The word ―otaku‖ has become insider lingo English language fans of Japanese
popular culture – specifically, fans of anime and manga – use to describe themselves.
The word ―otaku‖ has a broader meaning in Japanese, referring to someone who is
obsessive about any particular hobby and has fairly negative connotations when applied
to anime and manga fans. However, as previously noted in chapter 3, English language
fans have adapted the phrase as a point of positive identification. Although fans often use
virtual spaces to foster their sense of themselves as otaku, public libraries‘ anime and
manga programming also allows younger fans a physical space to perform that identity as
an individualized member of a larger collective and, therefore, to see themselves as
belonging to a local community of fans.
68
Subject #6d.
69
Barnard.
227
In this section I examine the ways in which teenage fans and librarians work
together to help ―institutionalize‖ very specific reading and socialization practices of
manga and anime fans within the community space of the public library. Christian
Zabriskie, the Queens librarian who is profiled along with his library in Barnard‘s article,
stresses that manga has become a subcultural form that allows teens to develop a ―secret,
hidden knowledge that gives them a power and an empowerment,‖ and yet also
encourages teens to enter the ―safe‖ space of the public library. ―Rather than seeking out
things that may be harmful,‖ such as ―other teenage rituals like graffiti,‖ Zabriskie
stresses that ―having your secret coding be foreign literature that you read in the library is
pretty great.‖ The notion that the library is a ―safe‖ space has multiple connotations –
while spending time in a public library may keep teens physically safe after school, there
is also a sense that teen fans are given a space in which they are safe to express their
interest in anime and manga among like-minded individuals. For example, one subject I
interviewed was very conscientious about not exposing her interest in anime and manga
at her middle school (for fear she would only be known as the ―anime girl‖ and possibly
teased for her interests), and yet became an active volunteer in her public library‘s Teen
Advisory Group, and helped plan the library‘s annual anime and manga festival with a
teen librarian.70
Zabriskie‘s perspective on the role of manga in a public library is shared by many
teen librarians who participated in this study – the goal is not simply to get teens to read
any book, but to encourage them to use the library‘s public space to express themselves
in institutionally supported ways. Many librarians who participated in the survey felt that
70
Subject #11a, Interview, 25 August 2008. This subject‘s experiences are discussed in greater depth in
chapter 3. Significantly, her engagement with her public library‘s Teen Advisory Group would transform
how she performed her identity in other social circles, including at her high school.
228
manga and graphic novels are ―bridge[s] to people who feel traditional libraries don‘t
have a place for them.‖71 While some felt that ―any materials that attract teens [to the
library] are a good thing,‖ a few seemed a little uneasy that manga readers were
―singularly interested in that format,‖ or manga readers that ―don‘t hang out in the library
and don‘t check out other types of books.‖72 What happens when the kids come in and
―check out nothing but a stack of manga‖ as one librarian participant put it?73 While
Barnard writes that ―manga has been embraced by librarians who say their job is not to
judge what people read, but to give them what they want, engage them and later, perhaps,
suggest other genres,‖ there is no doubt that that librarians express anxiety that teens
should transition to more ―traditional‖ types of reading.
If bringing people to the library is one benchmark of success, it was clear among
many librarian participants it was the lowest one and that the next step was to foster the
library‘s relationship to those readers. One librarian survey respondent highlighted the
dilemma of manga not always acting as a stepping stone to other types of reading, since
some ―teens especially come in [to the library] to check out the manga that never come in
for anything else.‖ However, those same teens often return to attend the library‘s anime
club, thus utilizing the library in multiple ways.74 Manga, of course, is not the only the
media libraries use to attempt to attract diverse patron groups. It might be considered one
element of a somewhat broader effort that includes a variety of new media, such as
offering internet access to patrons and video game programming. One teen librarian
71
Survey #13.
72
Survey #17. Survey #8. Survey #20.
73
Survey #7.
74
Survey #9.
229
explained that by offering not only anime and manga programming, but ―gaming‖ related
youth programming, the library is ―not pushing literature on these kids [but] making this
a community place. One of the public library‘s main goals is to be a community center /
community hub to make these teens feel like they are valued here and we have more to
offer than just books.‖75 In the instance of gaming, he explained that it has ―really caught
on in libraries. It‘s kind of a fad right now to tell you the truth…whatever‘s getting
people in the door, first of all attracts attention.‖ Similar to the way ―internet was big at
the beginning,‖ by offering gaming the public library is ―seeing a lot of teens that we
normally don‘t get to see. These are generally people that might be readers but they
[might] be more quiet about it.‖ I discovered that anime and manga programming in
public libraries functions similarly to video game programming, but also results in added
transnational dimensions by encouraging the institutionalization of teen engagement with
Japanese popular culture.
Of the twenty librarians who participated in the survey, fifteen responded that
their library currently had anime and manga-related programming at their library. Most
reported that such library programming was aimed at teens (which one librarian
specifically described as individuals in grades six-twelve, or twelve-eighteen year olds),
while a few programs were geared to more juvenile audiences (age twelve and below).76
Almost no one reported anime and manga related programming aimed at adult patrons,
although one librarian noted that the teen anime programming was so successful at three
local branches of the library that adults had expressed interest in having the library
75
Subject #1d.
76
Survey #9.
230
sponsor programming for them.77 Another two respondents noted that their anime and
manga programming had been eliminated due to budget cuts, but they had previously
offered anime programming for teen audiences making for a total of seventeen
respondents whose library offered some of kind of activity related to anime or manga at
one time or another.78 Although two librarians simply responded ―no‖ to the question of
whether they had anime or manga related programming, the third remaining respondent
noted that he or she was very interested in instituting anime and manga programming at
their library sometime in the future.79 This survey data clearly indicates that there is a
strong expression of interest in Japanese popular cultures in various types of library
communities.
Instituting a manga and anime club offered librarians an opportunity to get to
know actual library readers by using anime and manga materials as a basis for
connection. A number of respondents mentioned that they had weekly, bi-weekly or
monthly anime club meetings, which one librarian declared the ―most successful
program‖ at the library, with approximately fifty members meeting twice a week.80 One
librarian explained that their ―anime manga club brings in a lot of teens who I had never
seen before in the library before the club started.‖81 This particular club seemed to offer
typical programming activities that were broadly reported by survey respondents. The
librarian explained that ―we watch a couple of episodes of various anime series, and have
77
Survey #8.
78
Survey #4. Survey #18
79
Survey #2.
80
Survey #9.
81
Survey #1.
231
a small collection of manga titles donated by club members for other members to check
out.‖ While watching anime is generally the norm at the clubs, the very nature of having
members create a collective library for the benefit of each other speaks to already existing
communal reading practices happening frequently outside the space of the library (i.e.
teens trading manga back and forth) but regularizes and monitors the practice, probably
making it more enticing for teens to share manga books amongst each other. It also
allows teens the opportunity to curate their own collection of books, albeit under the
supervision of a librarian, and allows the librarian to recognize their agency and
expertise.
By creating anime and manga ―clubs,‖ librarians give teens a sense of
membership or camaraderie, and encourage a welcoming and free public space ―to
discuss things related to anime and the anime culture.‖82 Although some librarians
boasted greater attendance numbers (the highest attendance numbers ranged from twentyfive to fifty teens at anime and manga related events), it is important to note that smaller
programming events would create an intimate space allowing teens to express themselves
as fans among like-minded individuals. Some librarians, working with limited resources
or funds, often organized slightly less frequent (but still very well-attended) anime
events. For three years (2007, 2008, 2009) I observed an annual anime festival held at a
public library serving a population of 60,000. During this afternoon long event the
librarian screens three anime titles, which are selected by a ―Teen Advisory Group‖ (or
TAG). Often during the screening participants spend their time in groups drawing in
anime and manga related styles, using art supplies the librarian has supplied. Some teens
attend the event in anime or manga inspired costumes they have created themselves (a
82
Survey #7.
232
practice known as ―cosplay‖ or ―costume play,‖) and there are usually displays of the
artwork teens draw during the festival, and prizes are awarded at the end of the day for
best artwork and best costume. By recognizing these various artistic endeavors, the
festival helps bring a sense of communal creative production to the day.
While screening anime was a common activity planned for teen patrons at
anime clubs, it was interesting to note the diversity of activities understood to be part of
the ―anime and manga outreach‖ that librarians reported. Significantly, in addition to
watching Japanese anime, many librarians responded that they also planned different
participatory activities that often included some form of artistic or individual expression
of teens‘ interest in anime and manga. A number of librarians noted that they had held a
―manga art show,‖ ―an anime art competition,‖ a ―cosplay competition,‖ and even a ―a
photo contest of pictures from…the local anime / manga convention.‖83 A number of
librarians noted that they had programming related to ―making comics‖ or even special
―drawing workshops.‖84 Obviously these activities encouraged a performative or creative
engagement with the actual texts, but they also created a legitimized social atmosphere
through which creativity and self-expression were channeled and encouraged (as opposed
to teens who might try to sneak time in class to draw in an anime/manga style, but then
might be caught and reprimanded by their teacher).
As noted in chapter 3, when I observed such anime programming at public
libraries it was quite common for teen participants to gather together at tables to draw
during the duration of the programming event while anime played continuously in the
background. While some teens might attend anime programming because they were
83
Survey #15. Survey #17.
84
Survey #3. Survey #13.
233
interested in being exposed to new anime shows, one librarian felt that a number of teens
who attended his anime programming events had already watched the shows being
screened.85 He believed that teens actually used the event as an opportunity to meet
friends who they might not otherwise get to see very often. Generally, because the public
library services multiple school districts, it can often bring together teen fans from
different parts of town who might only know each other in the context of anime and
manga-related fandom. As such, the public library helps facilitate the production of local
fandom networks.
Teens not only comprised the audience at these events, they also often helped
librarians organize the events by becoming members of public libraries‘ ―Teen Advisory
Group.‖ Two of the teen librarians I interviewed each had their own teen advisory group
and were able to explain to me how such groups functioned. Both individuals worked in
small cities whose libraries served populations of approximately 60,000 people (although
the first librarian worked in a ―college town‖ in the Midwest, while the second worked in
a town bordering one the largest cities in the Northeast region of the U.S.). The first
librarian, ―John,‖ met with his ―Teen Advisory Group‖ around once a month, and these
teen members had ―graduated‖ from a volunteer program undertaken when they were
older elementary school students (grades four through six). Current participants in the
TAG were in either in middle or high school (grades seven through twelve) and were
given the option to continue their involvement after they concluded their earlier volunteer
program. John noted that many teenagers‘ volunteering hours tend to diminish in high
school because of sports or band activities, but that TAG remains a ―very social thing for
85
Subject #1d.
234
them‖ because it allows them to interact with and maintain contact with teens who often
attend different schools.
As described by John, the members of TAG take on a kind of informant role in
that they are often the ones who suggest what anime to screen at the library‘s annual
anime festival. At meetings, teen members often debate which titles should be shown at
the anime festival and give John feedback about the titles he thinks he will be able to
obtain permission from U.S. anime licensors to screen. He described the teens as ―pretty
savvy,‖ and he noted that they chose to show the popular shonen (boys‘) anime Bleach,
because it would draw a lot of different kinds of kids to the anime festival. John
perceived a variety of different types of viewers who attended the anime festival – some
may be more dedicated and watch anime online, while others ―just watch‖ anime when it
airs on the Cartoon Network and do not seek out anime beyond what is shown on cable
television. When I asked why teens would attend an anime screening of a show they
already knew quite well, he explained that it was ―fun to watch a show they‘ve all seen
together before….it‘s mostly just the socialness‘ [that attracts the teen audience].‖ In
spite of that, he did note there was still ―some discovery‖ for teens because he tried to
feature at least one anime title at the festival they were unlikely to have seen before. No
matter what particular titles were screened, this librarian clearly saw his teen advisors as
collaborators in the planning and execution of his library‘s anime and manga festival.
Similarly, another teen librarian I interviewed, ―Elizabeth,‖ also met with a Teen
Advisory Group on a monthly basis, in addition to holding a monthly anime and manga
club meeting.86 While she consulted with her group about planning all the public library
teen programming (―essentially they‘re the group that helps me plan everything, from
86
Subject #6d.
235
special events to summer reading [programs]‖), the members of the anime club also
helped plan programming involved in anime and manga activities. Her anime and manga
group was comprised of ―younger teens, mainly because our [local] high school…has a
very active manga / anime club of their own, with over 50 teen members, and therefore
most of them prefer that club. So the bulk of the members are middle schoolers or just
starting out in high school.‖ Often librarians referenced middle-school students, or teens
under the driving age, as comprising most of the membership of their anime and mangarelated events, probably because such an event created a social outlet that they otherwise
lacked in their lives (and which seemed to be less necessary once they become
independently ―mobile,‖ so to speak).
According to Elizabeth, at anime and manga events the group will come together,
first ―attack all the snacks‖ (she supplies popular Japanese snack foods, such as ―Pocky,‖
emphasizing the event as a full cultural experience), and then hold a discussion about
recent viewing or reading experiences. This discussion is followed by the screening of
anime titles and before they leave the members will decide as a group which anime to
watch at the next meeting. When there is upcoming programming related to anime and
manga, Elizabeth ―solicit[s] advice about planning,‖ an example being an ―Anime
Summer Festival…[which will be] part of our Summer Reading Program.‖ She
commented that ―I‘m counting on [the anime club members] to help plan [the Festival] as
a day-long event.‖ In addition, the librarian also seeks the advice of group members in
terms of what anime or manga the library might want to buy to add to its collection.
Importantly, at such events viewing anime is incorporated into discourse practices both
236
before and after the screening. This encourages anime club members to communicate
and share their experiences of certain anime and manga titles with each other.
Thus, the librarians I interviewed saw anime and manga-related teen
programming as an important space that enabled teens to socialize with each other and
participate in a specialized community forum that they otherwise might lack in their daily
life. The anime and manga club is also a space in which a certain kind of community is
built that can often transcend traditional factors which might generally divide teens
socially. Both John and Elizabeth reported that teen attendees at library-sponsored anime
events may come from very different ethnic, racial and class backgrounds, but John still
perceived a sense of ―camaraderie‖ among the group as a whole.87 Significantly, because
the public library services different parts of a small city, individuals from public and
private schools often socialize together (an opportunity that is created by simple fact the
teens meet in the public space of the library). Class differences seem to be the most
significant barrier that the library space can help overcome because, unlike fan
conventions where fans must pay for admission, the public library offers its programming
as a free service to the local community.
While both librarians seemed to feel, as Elizabeth articulated, that ―one thing
that‘s always true of dealing with teens is that they are very hard to get to show up for
programs,‖ she also felt that those teens that did show up were ―very loyal – they come to
most meetings, and they tend to bring friends they think might be interested.‖ John felt
that his anime programming gave a social space to what he described as ―fringe‖ kids.
Describing attendees of his annual anime festival, he explained that he saw ―lots of ‗goth‘
type kids who get into a lot of trouble.‖ Some were described as in ―alternative
87
Subject #1d.
237
[education] programs,‖ or ―developmentally behind‖ or simply-put, not the ―super
popular kids.‖ On other hand, he said he also saw ―super-outgoing kids‖ as well, citing
the way certain teens came to the anime festival in a costume, which he felt ―takes a lot
of courage.‖
Speaking more generally, Elizabeth related similar perceptions about her club
members, noting that while some of the group might appear to be ―stereotypical teens,‖
as a whole ―they tend not to be the obviously popular kids,‖ and felt that ―most are more
outsiders.‖ However, if those kids might be perceived as ―outsiders‖ by others, or even
perceive themselves in such a way, it was clear that the library‘s anime / manga club
allowed them to express their identities more freely, both through literal discourse but
also in their dress. Elizabeth thought that ―anime/manga fandom in general allows a
freedom for fans to embrace acting out a bit more than they would in their ‗civilian life‘ –
that‘s a big part of the appeal for fans of all ages….You get to dress up, you get to play
around with gender, and you get to be a geek about the same thing as a bunch of other
people.‖ John similarly explained that there is ―really something heartening about
realizing you‘re not the only teen out there who really loves anime. Or manga.‖
By using the word ―civilian life‖ Elizabeth contrasts how teens experience their
(assumed mundane) life outside the anime and manga group to the shared performative
fan culture that the library pace engenders. I argue that attending regularly scheduled,
institutionally-supported anime and manga events is a way for teens to integrate their
involvement with fan cultures into their everyday lives. By attending these events, teen
fans are no longer ―outsiders,‖ since they use the standards of anime and manga fandom –
which includes participatory reception practices, ―costume play,‖ as well as passionate
238
speech about Japanese popular culture – as the ―norm‖ of the group. There is no doubt
that the library lends them a welcoming and legitimizing space to become themselves, or
at least the part of the self that identifies as a fan of anime and manga. This also may be
an aspect of their identities that they feel they are unable to express in their everyday
home and school life (or at least unable to express at home and school at this juncture in
their lives). Although the library is a public community – made possible by government
funding – it actually enables teenagers to express themselves in ways they might feel
unable to do so in the private space of the home. My research reveals that more than just
a providing a ―safe‖ space, librarians‘ incorporation of anime and manga programming
actually goes further by validating and endorsing teens‘ fan identities and interests in the
context of an explicitly community oriented project.
Manga, Graphic Novels, and Sequential
Art Literacy in the Classroom
In this final section of the chapter, I return to a broader consideration of how
comic books, or sequential art works, are being utilized as materials for encouraging
multi-literacies in some U.S. public school classrooms. I am not attempting to obscure
the significance of how the manga form has specifically created new young adult
readerships in the past decade, but to show how manga fits into a broader contemporary
context in which certain voices in education argue for integrating concentrations in new
literacies into U.S. public school curriculums. I first turn a critical eye on literacy studies
which argue for the introduction of comic books into curriculums and then examine the
actual experiences of one study informant – a high school English teacher – when she
239
integrated a unit on comic book creation into her language arts class. Her experiences,
although they cannot be construed as representative, help illuminate what the
implementation of new literacy practices into the classroom actually looks like, as well as
the inherent challenges and benefits in using multimedia, such as comic books, in the
classroom setting.
In the past two decades, a number of media and literacy scholars have offered
interventionist scholarship detailing how educators should conceptualize literacy more
broadly, making a case for the study of ―multimedia‖ or ―new media‖ along with written
texts in the classroom.88 While frequently the authors of these works specifically
reference the ―expanding technologies of television, film, video and computer,‖ it is clear
that their general concern is in having students ―cultivate systematic methods of inquiry,
models of critique, and analytical ways of reading visual images and messages embedded
in both print and electronic texts.‖89 The general goal in using multimedia in the
classroom is to help students to learn forms of critical literacy that they can then apply to
the popular culture they experience on a daily basis. As noted earlier in this chapter, as
manga and graphic novels have become more entrenched in both libraries and chain
bookstores over the past ten years they have become more prominent in the daily lives of
American teenagers, and, therefore, could be seen as pivotal texts that may bridge
traditional forms of literacy and new literacies.
Along with this growing popularity of manga and graphic novels among teen
readers, a subset of new literacy scholarship has arisen that very specifically targets
88
Please see Ladislaus M. Semali, Literacy in Multimeda America: Integrating Media Education Across
the Curriculum (New York: Routledge, 2000), or Renee Hobbs, Reading the Media: Media Literacy in
High School English (New York: Teacher‘s College Press, Columbia University: 2006).
89
Semali, 3, ix.
240
manga and graphic novels as important multimedia that should be utilized in the
classroom. In their article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Adam
Schwartz and Elaine Rubinstein-Àvila describe this movement to use comics in the
classroom as part of the ―New Literacy Studies,‖ through which ―scholars hope to
encourage a shift from educators‘ traditional perceptions of literacy as an autonomous set
of skills to be mastered to a view of literacies as a range of social practices affected by
social factors, such as socioeconomic class, race or gender and linked to broader social
goals‖ (emphasis mine).90 In fact, Schwartz and Rubinstein short-change the role of
teachers in fostering the study of new literacies in the classroom, opening their article
with the lament, ―It‘s regrettable, but teachers and parents often undermine the ability to
make meaning from the myriad of popular culture texts to which young people are
exposed,‖ specifically referencing ―comics, television and video games.‖91 They decry
certain teachers who are ―banning manga from classrooms,‖ while going on to praise
―literary researchers‖ who ―validate but also expand upon the ways youths engage with
and use popular culture as a tool for literary development and critical inquiry,‖ citing the
work of James Paul Gee among others.
In making a case for the potential use of manga in the classroom setting, Schwarz
and Rubinstein- Àvila fail to recognize that many educators – often alongside or in
tandem with new media ―scholars‖ – have been part of the push to engage sequential art
forms in multiple ways in the classroom setting. One high school English teacher I
interviewed explained that teachers usually have to develop their own individualized
90
Adam Schwartz and Elaine Rubinstein-Àvila, ―Understanding the Manga Hype: Uncovering the
Multimodality of Comic-Book Literacies,‖ Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 50, no 1 (September
2006): 42.
91
Schwartz and Rubinstein-Àvila, 40.
241
curriculum when introducing new media literacy practices into their own classrooms.92
Renee Hobbs outlines a prominent exception to teachers working in isolation in her work
Reading the Media: Media Literacy in High School English. She tracks the results when
the entire 11th grade English curriculum at Concord High School was re-designed as a
―Media/Communication‖ course (thereby including a range of media texts, such as
advertising, journalism, television, and film into the curriculum). However, this move –
undertaken in 1999 – was experimental at the time. The trade literature, discussed in
greater depth below, most frequently offers models relevant to individual teachers (with
articles such as ―How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature:
One Teacher‘s Perspective,‖ ―Expanding Literacies Through Graphic Novels,‖ and
―Using Student-Generated Comics Books in the Classroom‖ all appearing in literacyrelated academic journals in the past decade) rather than prescribing the complete
restructuring of English arts curriculums as Hobbs and Semali do in their work.93
The individualistic nature of such approaches offers teachers models to
incorporate graphic novels into their classroom without having to rely upon the unusual
case of an entire school‘s yearly curriculum being reworked. Of course, this also means
that it falls to the individual teacher to make an effort to construct new units on sequential
art while still meeting the requirements of the general curriculum (which could prove
challenging on a number of levels). As noted earlier, while occasionally certain wellknown graphic novel works have been incorporated into high school and middle school
92
93
Subject #4d. Subject #5d.
Rocco Versaci, ―How Comic Books Can Change the Way Our Students See Literature: One
Teacher's Perspective,‖ English Journal 91, 2 (Nov 2001): 61-67. Gretchen Schwarz, ―Expanding
Literacies through Graphic Novels,‖ English Journal 95, 6 (2006): 58-64. Timothy G. Morrison, Gregory
Bryan, and George W. Chilcoat, ―Using Student-Generated Comics in the Classroom,‖ Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy 45, 8 (May 2002): 758-767.
242
language arts curriculums (one informant cited Maus as a keystone text taught to all
students in the county‘s middle schools), to create whole units on comic book literacy
necessitates that instructors design their own curriculum (perhaps using the already
existing trade literature, referenced above, as a guide).
Similarly to librarians who wanted to capitalize on their teen patrons‘ interest in
reading manga and graphic novels, educators are often inspired to incorporate such works
into the classroom setting in response to their students reading habits. In her 2005 VOYA
article, ―Who is reading manga?,‖ high school librarian Melissa Bergin commented that
―[w]hile many teachers may look down at graphic novels, I‘m not sure we can dismiss
something that has our students reading so critically and enthusiastically.‖94 Importantly,
manga also attracts the attention of educators because it often defies the logic that comics
are ―easy‖ to read since they have almost universally been printed in the ―authentic‖
right-to-left format in the U.S. since late 2003. Bergin notes that even students who
might be identified as belonging in ―special education‖ classes ―are feeling successful
reading manga, even if they have to read it backward.‖95 I interviewed one comic book
shop owner who believed the fact that manga is ―backwards is part of the lure‖ for
teenagers, explaining that the parents who have come into the shop looking for manga for
their children often feel ―confused,‖ since manga is ―so foreign to them in every way they
don‘t have a way to connect to it.‖96 Of course, since parents don‘t understand, that only
makes it ―cooler‖ to the teen reader. (Please see FIGURE #2 for an example of how one
94
Bergin, 26.
95
Bergin, 25.
96
Subject #2d, Interview, 14 January 2009.
243
U.S.-published manga volume includes instructions in how to read the flow of text and
visual information that is oriented in the Japanese style, i.e. ―right-to-left.‖).
While one would think reading a book ―backwards‖ would only add challenges to
already reluctant readers, my interviews with high school English language instructors
and librarians reveals that those who read manga were often passionate about the form,
sometimes even to the exclusion of other types of reading. One high school English
teacher explained to me that students who read manga generally did not ―go outside the
genre. They were manga and only manga.‖97 Her grammar here is fascinating – the
actual book form becomes a kind of short hand for the high school student‘s identity,
perhaps hinting how constitutive teen reading habits may be (or may be perceived to be
by their instructors). Instead of discouraging her students from reading manga, she
allowed them to include it in their required reading assignment (a total of 1,000 pages of
reading is required during a trimester). Of course, since manga is a quick read for many
teens (one manga, usually around 200 pages in length, might take a teenager around half
an hour to read), a single manga book is calculated for half of its total page count toward
their total reading requirement. In this way, students may also be making the push to
officially include manga into their classrooms forcing teachers to confront, as Bergin had
to, the role this reading practice has in students‘ everyday lives.
In his 2001 English Journal article, ―How Comic Books Can Change the Way our
Students See Literature: One Teacher‘s Perspective,‖ Rocco Versaci points to the use of
graphic novels in the classroom as a way to generally trouble student‘s relationship to
―literature,‖ or the so-called ―canon.‖ He believes that ―by placing a comic book – the
basic form of which they no doubt recognize – into the context of a classroom, teachers
97
Subject #5d.
244
can catch students off guard in a positive way, and this disorientation has, in my
experience, led students to become more engaged by a given work.‖98 Writing in 2001
Versaci is basing his theoretical notion of ―disorientation‖ on the assumption that by the
time students reach high school they have already abandoned comics as a ―juvenile‖
pursuit, and so will be pleasantly surprised to discover stories which speak to important
social themes or issues deemed relevant to their life experience. But as I have
demonstrated earlier in this chapter, throughout the past decade teens have become much
more familiar with graphic novels and manga, and it may often be the students who make
their teachers aware of these cultural forms. However, Versaci‘s basic point holds that
teaching students to analyze ―comics‖ the way they would a traditional literary form –
such as a short story, novel or poem – can encourage thme to form a new and productive
relationship with ―literature.‖
Former English teacher Gretchen Schwarz contributes her own perspective on
using graphic novels in the classroom in her article, ―Expanding Literacies through
Graphic Novels,‖ also published in the English Journal. While Versaci was primarily
interested in using graphic novels to trouble student‘s conception of what is ―literature,‖
Schwarz outlines the ways in which studying graphic novels can help students study the
nature of ―literary conventions, character development, dialogue, satire and language
structures as well as develop writing and research skills.‖99 Schwarz also emphasizes the
fact that ―scholars and teachers realize that in a media-dominated society, one traditional
literacy – reading and writing of print – is no longer sufficient. Today‘s young people
98
Versaci, 62.
99
Schwarz, 58.
245
also have to read films, tv shows, magazines and Web sites.‖100 She also singles out the
graphic novel from other forms of media which also combine ―the visual and the verbal,‖
since the graphic novel ―holds still and allows special attention to be given to its unique
visual and word arrangement.‖ Schwarz then offers instructions in how to use graphic
novels as literature in classroom by outlining the most basic information about comics,
including how teachers can familiarize themselves with American comic book history,
and how they can help students learn to read ―visual elements,‖ such as ―color, shading,
panel layout, perspective and even lettering style‖ for narrative information.
While introducing comic books in the classroom is an important step (on one
level it simply familiarizes students with the sequential art form), a group of three
educators, Timothy G. Morrison, Gregory Bryan and George W. Chilcoat, also argue that
students can benefit from the creation of their own comics in their 2002 article, ―Using
Student-Generated Comic Books in the Classroom,‖ published in the Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Their argument not only emphasizes the use of popular
culture as ―legitimizing many of their [the student‘s] after school pursuits,‖ but also sees
benefits in students participating in the creation of comic books. Instituting such
activities in a classroom provides ―an opportunity for students to be creative in the
presentation of their writing. Constructing and sharing books is an essential ingredient in
a holistic approach to language arts instruction.‖101 After making their argument, they
then outline all the varied elements that make up the construction of a comic book
narrative, including page layout, story development, dialogue balloons, drawing (which
includes characters, ―penciling, inking coloring‖ and even ―camera angle‖ or point-of100
Schwarz, 59.
101
Morrison, Bryan, and Chilcoat, 759.
246
view shots), and finally, narration. They conclude the article offering an example of how
such ideas can be implemented in a real classroom, recounting an instance when one
class created their comic books with ―a social studies example with Martin Lurther King,
Jr. as its focus.‖102
I was lucky enough to interview a teacher who had implemented a kind of ―pilot
program‖ through which students created their own comics based on already existing
short stories. In the three week unit (the same amount of time suggested by Morrison, et
al.), 10th grade students of different literacy levels worked in groups to choose a short
story to adapt into a comic book (the short stories were provided by the teacher). The
very process of turning a written text into a visual one meant that students had to ―dissect
the short story form, break it down and decide what they wanted to keep.‖103 Once
students had formulated the key moments from the narrative they wanted to translate into
a visual representation, they took photos of those moments around the school and
implemented a variety of technologies – including software programs like Photoshop and
ComicLife – to render those images in a comic book art style.
The teacher stressed that by learning to adapt an already existing story, students
―had to stage it [the narrative] out and think it out,‖ and she compared this to a film
director‘s creative process since they even storyboarded their comic book‘s narrative.
She noted that ―they had to make choices that were very clear‖ to express the content of
the short story, and ―to then be able to put [that story] into ComicLife.‖ This particular
teacher felt that the unit was incredibly successful, since the goal of having students
―deconstruct stories and pairing that deconstruction with a visual medium,‖ and thereby
102
Morrison, Bryan, and Chilcoat, 766.
103
Subject #5d.
247
improve their literacy skills, was met. The practice of turning a short story into a comic
book ―instructed students about plot, story, climax and how all those elements come
together to tell a story.‖
According to this teacher, one of the key literacy skills that this unit helped foster
in students was the ability to visualize a story told through text. ―When kids are good
readers they can see the story in their head,‖ the teacher explained to me. ―When kids
aren‘t good readers, they can‘t see the picture [or] can‘t visualize the story.‖ I would also
argue that the unit fostered a host of literacies, because it encouraged students to sharpen
their skills in both deconstructing written texts and also in translating written text into
images. In the process of creating a visual representation of their chosen narrative they
utilized media technologies that allowed them to manipulate images (through photoshop)
and then reconstruct that narrative by ordering the images and creating a page layout with
them (through use of the computer program ComicLife). This helped them understand
the process of creating a narrative as well.
After they created their own comics all student groups shared their creations with
one another and had a contest in which they all voted for ―best story, photography, [and]
best artistic adaption.‖ At this point, the teacher stepped down as the official grader of
student work, placing ―the whole thing…in their hands,‖ which she felt allowed them to
assert ownership over their work as creators. This also speaks to one significant
challenge of instituting such new literacy units into the classroom – how are such works
to be graded? Significantly, Schwarz ends her article on using graphic novels in the
classroom by noting three significant challenges facing teachers using such
―unconventional‖ materials, the first being that ―anything new often faces resistance‖
248
from administrators and parents, the second that such materials are not ―on the state or
national tests‖ and, finally, that teachers must take it upon themselves become educated
not only in graphic novels, but also in concepts such as ―media literacy or critical
literacy.‖104
While the unit clearly was considered successful by the teacher since it
strengthened traditional literacy skills, I asked if she believed that students making their
own comics made them more interested in the form as a whole. She affirmed that they
were, ―because they know now what goes into creating a comic because they‘ve created
one themselves,‖ and that it even made some students interested in directing films, since
the experience of ―story-boarding‖ a narrative is a skill that both comic book creators and
directors use to create their works. Although this pilot-program was considered a success
by the teacher, she switched positions in the school the year after she implemented it and,
therefore, was not in a position to run the unit a second time in the classroom. During the
interview the subject showed me a box of material she had collected when conducting
research on how to create and implement a unit on comic book creation at the high school
level. The box was kept at the school for the benefit of other teachers who might want to
duplicate the comic book creation pilot-program this teacher had created. At the time of
the interview, only one other teacher had expressed interest in her materials, but had not
actually taught his own unit on comic book creation. As this one example demonstrates,
the lack of institutionalized support is perhaps the greatest obstacle to implementing units
on new media literacy into local public school curriculums.
To incorporate graphic novels into the middle-school or high-school curriculum is
not merely an attempt to use popular culture to grab students‘ attention. As revealed in
104
Schwarz, 63.
249
the education and literacy scholarship, and in the example of the pilot-program I have
analyzed here, teachers are consciously considering the role of new media in how young
people understand and conceptualize the world around them. It is significant that the
comic book creation program does not just address the comic book form itself, but also
the ways in which students learn to ―read‖ a variety of media they encounter in their
everyday lives. From breaking apart the narrative structure of a short story, to learning
how to frame the world through the photographic image, and then transforming that
photograph into ―comic book art,‖ the creation of a single comic book story requires
students become fluent in a host of new literacy and traditional literacy practices. It also
asks students to learn how to adapt one set of literacy skills – skills either learned at home
while consuming a variety of media, or skills learned in the English classroom – and
apply them to other arenas in their lives.
Conclusion
This chapter began with a broad discussion of how Japanese popular culture is
adapted (rather than ―domesticated‖) for the U.S. and then offered the case study of how
manga has become institutionalized as a youth culture in U.S. public libraries. While
manga and U.S. graphic novels are clearly related in their placement and reception in
U.S. libraries, I found that they are not treated by their readers or local cultural mediators,
such as librarians, as interchangeable with American graphic novels. Manga‘s
transnational origin complicates their institutionalization in the public library, and
investigating key features of the manga form – manga pair text with images and also are
250
published in the U.S. to maintain the Japanese right-to-left reading orientation – can also
deepen our understanding of adolescent literacy practices. Importantly, manga‘s very
visible status as a Japanese popular culture is also smartly deployed by young adult
librarians in the successful capture of teen readers into the library community through
anime and manga related events and programs.
The final section of the chapter revealed that young Americans are often experts
at ―reading‖ a variety of new media forms (including comics, video games, and a plethora
of virtual communications). Some teachers and literacy scholars are currently attempting
to make use of teens‘ facility with multimedia consumption by asking students to further
explore those skills in the classroom. By incorporating aspects of those new literacies
into their lesson plans, teachers draw upon their students‘ experiences of everyday life.
In addition, the institutionalization and circulation of transnational materials, such as
manga, at the local public library has had the effect of institutionalizing anime and manga
fandom through youth outreach programming. The success of both manga collections
and teen outreach programs at public libraries speaks to new dimensions in teens‘ literacy
practices and the ways in which transnational cultural consumption is made possible
through local institutions. With both the institutionalization of manga in libraries and the
potential institutionalization of sequential art literacy and creation in classrooms, an
entire generation of Americans is becoming much more adept at navigating the sequential
art form. Not only does this create a generation of comic book readers, but also sets the
groundwork for the creation of new comic book creators, educated and inspired by the
comic book cultures of both Japan and the U.S.
251
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION
In the spring of 2011, the U.S. and European manga company Tokyopop
announced it was shuttering its North American offices and U.S. publishing division.
Tokyopop is credited with forever changing the status of manga in America in 2002,
when the company originated a new U.S.-specific manga book form by introducing a 5 x
7.5 inch trim size, a $9.99 price point, and the ―unflipped‖ (what Tokyopop would
declare as the ―100% Authentic‖) right-to-left reading orientation.1 By the end of 2003,
Tokyopop‘s innovative publishing choices became the standard followed by other major
manga publishers in the U.S., and the surprise announcement that they would simply
cease to exist as a U.S. manga publisher seemed to some observers to herald the end of
manga‘s dominance in the U.S. comic book market. Was the end of Tokyopop proof that
the ―manga revolution‖ is ―apparently over,‖ as graphic novel critic Douglas Wolk
proclaimed?2
Throughout this dissertation I have occasionally acknowledged the recent decline
of both manga and anime sales in the U.S., but the sudden announcement of Tokyopop‘s
closure happening just as I was finishing this dissertation made me question why the
thriving fan cultures I observed as a researcher were no longer reflected in the overall
financial health of the manga and anime industries in the U.S. For me, this discrepancy is
not merely about an ―alternative‖ fan culture‘s apparent dominance over traditional
1
Casey Brienza, ―Books, Not Comics: Publishing Fields, Globalization, and Japanese Manga in the United
States,‖ Publishing Research Quarterly 25, no 2 (2010): 111.
2
Douglas Wolk, ―Manga Revolution Apparently Over: Tokyopop to Shut Down,‖ Time: Techland April 18
2011 <http://techland.time.com/2011/04/18/manga-revolution-apparently-over-tokyopop-to-shut-down/>
(May 1 2011).
252
practices of consumer culture, but a question of whether or not anime and manga had
sufficiently taken root as transnational popular cultures within U.S. mainstream media
cultures. Importantly, I construct the central argument of this dissertation as a twinned
one by questioning how both official and unofficial flows of Japanese popular culture to
the U.S. have informed how certain young Americans have articulated their social and
national identities. I chose not to treat unofficial and official flows as separate streams,
and instead interrogated how the practices of anime and manga fans and official
transcultural mediators influence, and even inspire, each other.
While the groundwork for my subjects‘ discovery and interest in Japanese popular
culture originated with their youthful exposure to anime shows localized for the U.S.
market and aired on U.S. cable stations, I found that this officially-sanctioned cultural
flow was only the first catalyst that sparked these individuals‘ interest in Japanese
popular culture. The practices that followed – such as going online to visit fan websites,
consuming anime and manga communally with friends, and attending to anime clubs and
conventions – would then become the multilayered framework that helped these
individuals understand themselves as fans through their participation in a variety of local,
regional, national and virtual fan communities. Importantly, engaging each other through
virtual and embodied social networks, as well as accessing and then creatively engaging
these works without the intervention of official cultural intermediaries, would also
become constitutive elements of how subjects came to practice and perform their fan
identities.
In addition, in the preceding chapter I also addressed the significance of the
institutionalization of the manga book in U.S. public libraries and the potential
253
institutionalization of this sequential art culture in high school English curriculums (and
speculated that both the former and the latter could help foster an entire generation of
American comic book creators inspired by both U.S. and Japanese comic book cultures).
By interviewing librarian subjects I also discovered that manga and anime materials had
become a central part of 21st century libraries‘ strategic use of new media to capture the
attention and interest of teen patrons. Almost all librarian participants reported the
successful incorporation of not only manga book collections in their libraries, but also
manga and anime programming oriented toward teen fans. However, even within this
space of an ―official‖ (literally, since libraries are government-sponsored) flow of
Japanese popular culture, anime programming encourages unofficial forms of fan
production through librarian acceptance, and even encouragement, of teen patron
costume play and drawing at anime and manga programming events. The origin of
robust official flows of Japanese popular culture to the U.S. are implicated in, and often
first stimulated by, many of the unofficial flows that informed the vibrant fan cultures I
witnessed in public libraries, anime conventions, online communities and message
boards.3 In the past ten years, each type of cultural transmission nourished the other, so
that it became difficult to extricate the two when I investigated how subjects actually
experienced and constructed their fandom identities.
The language I use to describe how these flows of Japanese culture actually
circulate in the U.S. is part of the theoretical contribution of this work to globalization
and translation studies. I purposely troubled the notion of ―domestication‖ of Japanese
3
And as noted throughout the dissertation, the research of Sean Leonard reveals how certain official flows
of anime from Japan immediately followed fan screenings of pirated materials at fan conventions and
anime clubs in the early 1990‘s. Sean Leonard, ―Progress Against the Law: Anime and Fandom, with the
key to the globalization of culture,‖ International Journal of Cultural Studies 8, no. 3 (2005): 281-305.
254
manga in chapter 5, as well as the potential dichotomy between understandings of
―localization‖ versus ―translation‖ in chapter 4. While I do refer to practices of
translation, localization and domestication as undertaken by specific individuals and
companies throughout the dissertation, in each instance I also develop definitions that
seemed to better reflect the complex and often participatory nature of these processes of
cultural transmission. I forward the concept that manga is ―institutionalized‖ in U.S.
public libraries, rather than domesticated, while I found ―adaptation‖ a more flexible
concept than translation or localization to discuss the ways in which Japanese anime and
manga works are transformed for their circulation among English-language audiences
online and in the U.S. marketplace. However, I could not completely forgo the concepts
of translation, localization and domestication and I also use that language strategically
throughout the dissertation (one example of my strategic deployment of these terms is my
use of the phrase ―fan translations‖ to describe sets of fan practices through which groups
of fans unofficially adapt anime and manga works).
I also found that specific practices of translation became crucial to understanding
how these cultures actually flowed from Japan to specific U.S. sites and English-language
audiences more generally. By interceding in the flows of popular culture from Japan to
the rest of the world, the fans I interviewed were not merely targets of the processes of
cultural globalization but active participants in those processes. Translation scholar
Michael Cronin argues that ―[i]n viewing humans as citizens rather than consumers, any
critical theory of globalization must look to restoring agency to people, and not simply
view global trends and flows as abstract and overwhelming.‖4 In addition, he finds the
study of translation uniquely situated to help ―restore agency‖ to translators – arguably
4
Michael Cronin, Translation and Globalization (London: Routledge Press, 2003), 4.
255
key figures in global processes that are overlooked in favor of a consideration of the
activity of nations and corporations – because of their role as ―mediators.‖ One major
contribution of my research is to develop accounts of how anime and manga fans work
together to become transcultural mediators for each other, often bypassing the role of
media corporations to do such cultural work on their behalf. I also account for the varied
motivations of the individuals participating in these unofficial pathways, not only as
translators but also as audience members.
However, I am also careful to remember that I analyzing practices of U.S.-located
(usually U.S.-born) individuals who benefit greatly from certain privileges of U.S.
dominance in global processes – both cultural and economic – in addition to many of
those subjects‘ class and racial privileges (as the majority of fan subjects I interviewed
identified as white and had access to higher education after graduating high school).
Frederic Jameson reminds us that ―[t]there is a fundamental dissymmetry in the
relationship between the United States and every other country in the world, not only in
third-world countries, but even Japan and those of Western Europe.‖5 Writing in the late1990s, Jameson partly supports the Japan-U.S. portion of this claim by noting that
―Japanese moves to incorporate the U.S. entertainment industry – [such as] Sony‘s
acquisition of Columbia Pictures and Matsushita‘s buyout of MCA both failed.‖6 Japan‘s
―immense wealth and technological and industrial production‖ failed to complete these
economic maneuvers, according to Jameson, in the face of the U.S.‘s ability to culturally
―secure the globalization process.‖ Jameson‘s work on the cultural processes of
5
Frederic Jameson, ―Notes on Globalization as a Philosophical Issue,‖ in The Cultures of Globalization,
eds. Frederic Jameson and Masao Miyoshi (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998), 58.
6
Jameson, 67.
256
globalization – understood to be undertaken by multinational corporations bolstered by
their U.S. cultural and economic foundation – is a reminder that the individuals I study
are working in and through economic and cultural world systems that include certain
structures of dominance.
How to reconcile the moral and ideological implications of arguing for ―agency‖
of these ―unofficial‖ cultural translators (a la Cronin) with the understanding that they are
already favored by U.S.-dominance in processes of both cultural and economic
globalization? Rather than ignore these implications I attempt to understand them in the
context of my fan subjects‘ maturation from their time as members of a young Pokémon
generation, to their adolescent participation in socially-informed anime audiences, and
finally, to their discovery of new avenues to explore their interest in Japanese culture in
the arena of higher education. Subjects‘ experience of themselves as either socially
empowered or inhibited by their engagement with Japanese popular culture was
completely dependent upon how free they felt at any particular time period in their lives
to not only express this interest, but also perform that interest as constitutive of their
social identities. Subjects‘ ability to express identities informed by their collective
consumption of Japanese popular culture – an ability I see as a form of agency – is no
doubt nurtured by their class status. However, my findings that many of these individuals
eventually strive to participate officially in global processes – often as cross-cultural
mediators, and sometimes literally as mediators in their desire to be translators – indicates
that the end result of exercising this kind of agency encourages cultural exchanges, rather
than reconstitutes simple forms of U.S. cultural dominance over ―the foreign.‖ In this
257
way, the importance of bringing on-the-ground ethnographic research to bear on and
contribute to theorizations of globalization is made clear.
Previously, in the second chapter of this dissertation, I critiqued Henry Jenkins‘
notion of U.S. anime and manga fans as ―pop cosmopolitans,‖ or ―someone whose
embrace of global popular media represents an escape route out of the parochialism of
[their] local community.‖ The basis of my critique is that this is an incomplete
theorization of fan identity that does not account for how anime and manga fans evolved
in their engagement with Japan as an imaginary space that later often became a later
multifaceted experience of the nation, its culture, language, and history.7 While Jenkins
states that anime fans‘ ―patterns of consumption generate a hunger for knowledge, a point
of entry into a larger consideration of cultural geography and political economy,‖ I
believe that he only articulates the first stages of many of my subjects‘ journeys to
internationalize their lives.8 Importantly, rather than gloss over the potential orientalism
inherent in certain fan practices and attitudes in a quest to valorize fan subjects as seeking
the ―transnational,‖ I have been careful to address the evolving processes by which fans
relate to the ―Japanese-ness‖ of the representations they consume. It is not that I
ultimately disagree with Jenkins‘ conclusions; rather I expand upon and complicate his
theories by exploring the social and ideological significance of fan subjects using their
interest in Japanese popular culture to situate their identities in a number of local social
contexts, including their school and home lives, as well as at public libraries and afterschool clubs.
7
Henry Jenkins, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Media Consumers in a Digital Age (New York: NYU Press,
2006), 152.
8
Jenkins, 170.
258
The issue of fans‘ youthful exoticization of Japan through consumption of
Japanese popular media is not the only significant ideological conflict I address in my
study of fan practices and identity performance. Another important contribution of this
work is to question the ideological contradiction in fans‘ theorization that through
practices of both piracy and translation they are ―freeing‖ popular cultures which are the
principal consumer products of a foreign entertainment industry. The psychological and
economic distance fans feel to the original producers and distributors of these works
stands in stark contrast to their protective policing of anime and manga texts as
unsanctioned translators and suppliers of them. In addition, their independent translation
practices also deal significant financial blows to companies facilitating official flows of
these cultures to the U.S. The shutdown of the U.S. publishing branch of Tokyopop,
along with a number of other U.S. anime and manga companies certainly reveals that
official cultural flows can be threatened by the ―productive piracy‖ practices of fans.9
However, I also show the ways in which official U.S. licensors of anime and manga adapt
to the practices of fans, indicating that both fans and media companies influence the ways
in which these media cultures come to be distributed and received in the English
language. Therefore, I offer a model of dialogic relation between official and unofficial
practices, which explores the interdependence between each sector without favoring one
over the other.
When discussing the role of creating, circulating, and consuming unauthorized fan
translations in constituting fan identities in chapter 4, I noted that the majority of fan
9
Among my subject group, I found piracy practices to be widespread (such practices were reported to be
almost, but not quite, universal). However, piracy is only one reason, albeit, a significant one, that could
undermine the health of official flows of Japanese culture to the U.S. As noted in chapter 4, other likely
causes have been attributed to the recent U.S. recession, as well as shrinking retail shelf-space for anime
and manga products.
259
subjects I interviewed did not feel that one needed to purchase official anime and manga
releases in order to perform their fan identity or actively participate in fandom. In fact,
throughout the dissertation I showed that performing oneself as a fan of Japanese popular
culture is social formation driven by collective reception and production practices that
often have nothing to do with traditional practices of consumption. More often than not,
fans become both the producers and gate-keepers of a shared culture that while based on
appreciation for Japanese popular cultures, is not limited to only appreciating those
cultures in the role of an audience member (even as a particularly emotionally invested
audience member, i.e. as the ―fan audience‖). By participating in specific reception
venues – such as the college anime club or online interpretive communities – as well as in
the unofficial translation and circulation of these works, fans feel empowered not only to
reimagine and rework texts, but also to share these creative interpretations with one
another. Fans are not only producing digitally adapted versions of anime and manga
texts, they are also authoring an entire fan culture of creative works which textually
borrow, manipulate and reinterpret elements of anime and manga works. Therefore, as
this research reveals, our theorization of fandom can be enriched by detailing and
understanding fandom as both forms of authorship and readership, and practices of
creation and reception.
This research also contributes to the contemporary study of literacy by exploring
how youthful participation in Japanese popular culture fandom actually encourages a
variety of new media reading practices. Significantly, subjects experience both Englishsubtitled anime (their preferred method of watching anime) and the manga form (which
reads right-to-left) as an intermixing of both text and image that is particular to these two
260
cultural forms. In addition, when creating a variety of fan works, such as fanfiction or
fanart, subjects learn to deconstruct visual imagery and sequential art narratives in order
to refashion elements of those texts to tell their own stories. To understand how these
forms of literacy are situated and implicated in subjects‘ fandom practices I have
produced what Kevin M. Leander has described as a ―connective ethnography of
online/offline literacy networks‖ (emphasis mine).10 I agree with Leander that ―one of
the best ways…to take Internet practices out of the exotic and assert their
everydayness…is research these practices as lived experiences in the everyday lives of
youth.‖11 This concept of a ―connective‖ network helped me track the specific ways in
which engagement with virtual fandom was integrated into subjects‘ daily lives, as well
as outline how fans engaged these online spaces to further fashion their fan experiences
in local spaces.
Thus, in foregrounding an ethnographic approach to the study of fandom practices
I can now suggest that we can better understand fandom as a process that changes across
life stages and is constituted across embodied and virtual networks. Participation in
fandom culture encourages fans to refashion and reimagine the media they consume, as
well as their own identities, as a result of these creative interventions. The transnational
dimensions of the media fans consume, and also embrace as a welcome form of cultural
―difference,‖ continues to influence their life trajectory as they mature and choose to
position themselves across transnational cultures and spaces. In both fandom studies and
globalization studies Japanese popular culture is often treated as a special case because of
10
Kevin M. Leander, ―Toward a Connective Ethnography of Online/Offline Literacy Networks,‖
Handbook of Research on New Literacies eds. Julie Coiro, Michele Knobel, Colin Lankshear, Donald J.
Leu. (New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008), 33-65.
11
Leander, 34.
261
the way it captures the attention of youthful ―orientalists‖ in ways other transnational
popular cultures might not. However, even if the case of Japanese popular culture
formations in the U.S. is unusual, it also illuminates the potential of grassroots practices
to transform the meanings given to global flows of culture in local sites.
262
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271
APPENDIX A: FAN SUBJECT QUESTIONNAIRE
Interview Questionnaire #1: For Fans Subjects
Topic: The Circulation of Japanese Popular Culture in the United States
This is a confidential questionnaire about your interest in Japanese animation and/or
manga (comic books). If you are willing to complete this questionnaire, please make sure
to read and sign the Informed Consent form first.
In the questionnaire, you are free to skip any questions that you would prefer not to
answer or end the interview at any point. In your responses, please express yourself freely
– we are interested in your thoughts about Japanese popular culture in the United States.
Section 1: Background Information
1. How old are you? ______________________________________
2. Are you male or female? ______________________________________
3. What is your level of education? (For example, completed high school, attending
community college, attending four year college, completed college, attending graduate
school, completed graduate school) _______________________________________
4. a. What is your primary spoken language? ____________________
b. What other languages have you studied and / or are currently studying?
__________________________________________________
c. How would you rate your fluency in languages you have studied and / or are
currently studying? _______________________________________________________
5. What is your race or ethnicity?
_________________________________________
6. a. Where were you born? _________________________________________
b. What is your current country of residence?
_______________________
272
Section 2: Reading Habits
7. a. Do you read manga in English on a regular basis? _________________
b. If you answered no to question 7a. do you read manga in a language other than
English and, if so, what language? _______________________________________
c. How old were you when you started to read manga? _________
d. How many manga books do you read in a week? __________
e. How many manga books do you read in a month? ___________
8. a. Do you buy manga? ___________________
b. If you answered yes to question 8.a., how many books do you buy in a month?
_____________
c. Where do you buy manga?
i. I buy books from (check all that apply):
a local comic book store _____
a local book store ______
a used book store ______
an on-line retailer (like amazon.com) ______
on-line auction sites (like ebay.com) _______
other (please explain): __________________
d. From which source, checked in question 8.c.i., do you buy the majority of the
manga you own? ______________________
9. a. Do you check out manga from your local library? ____________________
b. If yes, how often do you go to the library to check out manga? _________
c. How many manga books do you check out in a week? ________________
10. a. Do you read manga online? _____________
b. If you do read manga online, how many volumes do you read online in the course
of a week? ____________________
c. What websites or online communities do you visit to read manga online?
____________________________________________________________
11. a. What main manga titles, published in English, do you buy, check out from
the library, or borrow from a friend?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
b. What main manga titles do you follow online?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
273
c. If you read manga online, are your buying habits affected? If so, please describe
how.____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
12. a. Do you have any opinions about the English-language translations of the Japanese
manga you read? _____________________________________________
b. Please explain (perhaps using examples) translation choices you prefer or like to
see in the manga you read. __________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
c. Please explain (perhaps using examples) translation choices you do not like to see
in the manga you read. _____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
13. a. List the manga types (or ―genres‖) that interest you: ________________________
________________________________________________________________________
b. List the manga types (or ―genres‖) that do not interest you: __________________
________________________________________________________________________
14. a. Do you read, or have you previously read, American comics? If you do, please
note how old you were when you started to read them. ____________________________
b. Please list the main titles of American comics you read or have read.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
c. Do you still read American comics? Why or why not? ____________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
d. If you no longer read U.S. comics, how old were you when you stopped reading
them? __________________________________________________________________
Section Three: Viewing Habits
15. a. Do you watch anime on a regular basis? _________________________________
b. Which did you learn about first, anime or manga? ________________________
c. How old were you when you started to watch anime? _______________________
274
d. Which medium -- manga or anime -- are you most interested in now? Manga,
anime, or are you interested in both the same amount? _____________________
e. How do you watch anime? (Check all that apply)
i. I buy anime DVDs/videos ________
ii. I rent anime DVDs/videos ________
iii. I download or watch anime fansubs online _______
iv. I watch anime at an anime club screening _______
v. I borrow DVDs/videos from friends ________
vi. Other (please explain) ____________
f. From which source, checked in question 15.e., do you see the majority of the anime
you watch? _______________________________________________
16. a. What are the main anime titles you buy on DVD/Video?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
b. What are the main anime titles you rent?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
c. What are the main anime titles you download or watch on the internet? _______
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
17. a. How do you prefer to watch Japanese anime?
i. Dubbed in English (with an English voice track turned on) ________
ii. In Japanese with English-language subtitles ______________
iii. Other (please explain): ______________________________
b. What factors influence your choice to watch Japanese animation in either the
dubbed (English voice track) or subbed (Japanese voice track with English subtitles)
format?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Section Four: Fan Practices Online
18. a. Do you participate in any online manga and anime discussion groups or websites?
__________________________________________________________________
275
b. Please name as many as websites or online discussion groups you participate in
or check on a regular basis.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
c. Please describe what kinds of activities you do on these websites, either as an
individual or as a member of a group. _____________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
d. Do you every look at, read or watch fanworks online? (such as fanart, fanfiction,
or fanvideos?) What particular kinds of ―fanworks,‖ do you seek out online on a regular
basis?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
e. Do you ever create ―fanworks‖ (fanart, fanfiction, or fanvideos) yourself? If so,
what do you create? Why do you think you create these works?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
f. If you do you create ―fanworks,‖ do you share them online? If yes, explain how
you share these works online. _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
19. a. What do you think about the practice of ―scanlation‖ (i.e. the fan practice of
scanning Japanese manga books, translating them, editing these translations into the
digitized scans, and distributing the edited scans on the internet)? If you do not know
about the practice of ―scanlation‖ please indicate that.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
b. Do you think it is okay for fans to distribute scanlations of unlicensed (i.e. titles
which are not going to be released by a publisher in your country ) manga on the
internet? Why or why not?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
276
c. Do you think it is okay for fans to distribute scanlations of licensed (i.e. works
which are going to be published in your country ) manga on the internet? Why or why
not? ____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
20. a. What do you think about the practice of fansubbing? (fans editing digital files of
anime shows by adding English language subtitles and distributing them online).
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
b. Do you think it is okay for fans to distribute fansubs of unlicensed (i.e. titles which
are not going to be released by a media company in your country) shows on the internet?
Why or why not? _________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
c. Do you think it is okay for fans to distribute fansubs of licensed (i.e. titles which are
going to be released by a media company in your country) shows on the internet? Why
or Why not? _____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Section Five: Fandom Activities
21. a. What kinds of manga and anime activities do you participate in outside of the
internet? Check all that may apply and please add any activities that are not listed.
Anime or Manga conventions ___________
Anime Screenings_____________________
Reading Groups ______________________
Other (please describe)_______________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
b. If you did not check any events in 21.a., do you think you will ever attend events
held for fans of anime or manga? Why or why not? ______________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
277
c. If you checked any events in 21.a., please describe where these activities have
taken place and how you participated in these events (for example, did you attend a fan
panel at a convention, have you ever ―cosplayed‖?).
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
d. Why do you attend these events? What aspects of these events do you enjoy the
most? Are there aspects of these events that you do not like or do not enjoy?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
22. a. Do you consider yourself a fan of any other types of media or culture? (For
example, a particular sport or television show). Please describe any other fandom
interests you may have. ____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Section Six: Japanese Culture
23. a. Has watching anime and reading manga made you more interested in Japanese
culture or Asian cultures? Why or why not? ___________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
b. If you answered yes to question 23.a., please describe what actions you have taken
to learn more about Japanese culture (for example, have you started to learn Japanese
or taken a Japanese cooking class?, etc.) ____________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
c. Do currently you have plans to travel to Japan or have you already visited Japan?
Please describe any trips you have taken or plan to take to Japan. __________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
24. a. Besides anime or manga, please list any other forms of Japanese culture you like to
consume (for example, do you like to listen to Japanese music, play Japanese video
games, watch Japanese television dramas or live action films?)
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
278
Section Seven: Conclusion
25. Is there anything else you feel is important about your interest in anime or manga or
your experience as a fan of Japanese popular culture? Feel free to explain any aspects of
your experiences you feel are important but have not otherwise been addressed in this
questionnaire. ____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
279
APPENDIX B: ONLINE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR LIBRARIAN SUBJECTS
This is a confidential questionnaire about your interest in Japanese animation and/or
manga (comic books).
In this questionnaire you are free to skip any questions that you would prefer not to
answer. In your responses, please express yourself freely – we are interested in your
thoughts about Japanese popular culture in the United States. It will take approximately
30 to 40 minutes to fill out this questionnaire.
1. What is your current position / job title at the library where you work?
2. Please describe your primary job responsibilities at the library.
3. How long have you worked at your current library?
4. How long have you worked in the library field?
5. Please describe the community your library serves (please give any demographic
information you may have about community, population numbers, etc.).
6. Does your library have a graphic novel, manga or anime collection? If so please
list the number of items for each category of material.
Graphic novels.
Manga.
Anime DVDs / Tapes.
7. If your library does have an graphic novel, manga and anime collection, please
describe the role this collection plays in the library as a whole.
8. How are manga cataloged in the library collection and what is the reasoning
behind these cataloging decisions?
9. If known, please describe how manga is acquired for your library.
10. If known, please describe what criteria determine how manga titles are chosen for
the library's catalog.
11. Does your library's manga collection cater primarily to children (age 6-12), and
young adult patrons (age 13-17), or does it also include works aimed at adult
readers (age 18 and older) as well?
12. In your experience does manga attract readers to the library that wouldn't
otherwise visit? Please describe why or why not.
280
13. Does the library offer programming or community outreach events related to
anime and manga for children (age 6-12), young adults (age 13-17), or adults (18
and older)? If so, please describe the events that have taken place the library or
that are currently being planned.
14. For middle or high school librarians, does the school have any manga or anime
related events, clubs or programming? If so, what kinds of activities do students
do in the club?