Readings - Japanese Popular Culture (Wed, 9am-12pm)

[Anonymous]

I was thinking about what you said lvalladares regarding robots in the US vs Japan. When I was in 5th-6th grade, Furbies were huge at my school. Everyone had one and thought they were cute until they owned one. Then they became kinda creepy. You could change the personality of it depending on how you treated it, and many people would almost mentally abuse their furby to see how they would react. And these were middle school kids! Which makes me wonder what adults would do if they had robots they could choose to mentally abuse or shower with love. What choice would they make? And how would those choices be different in a place like Japan where they tend to not look straight to real-life violence?

[Anonymous]

Viewing the clip of Astro Boy in class, I was reminded of other superheroes such as Superman, Spiderman and Batman. I think most places in the world people have an urge for justices and superpower to battle wickedness for common good.

[Anonymous]

After discussing Japanese pop culture in class today I wondered if the popularity of Cosplay in Japan is a direct result of the restraints on individualism in their society? Does the moe’ subculture provide a contained environment for individuals to act out the impulses to be violent (in video games), individualistic/unique (in the “Cosplay” outfits)?

[Anonymous]

As a government/economics teacher, I mainly looked at the 1947 Constitution and how article 9 and 24 can be examined as a document in changing the post-war Japanese society and culture dealing with its military and the changing roles of women, etc. Then, showing clips of anime series that depict such changes that were taking place in Japan will definitely grab students' attention.
edited by akwon on 7/31/2014

[Anonymous]

Question, does the fact that women are seen in heroic roles and often write and illustrate the stories in anime books compensate for the sexualized portrayal of females? I would think more women would speak out against this sexualized portral considering the rights granted Article 24 and their political power with the vote. Comparing the role and influence of women in Japanese and American society after being given the right to vote could make for and interesting lesson on gender equality.

[Anonymous]

Professor McKnight was awesome! The information she provided on Manga was a revelation to me. I have several HS students that are very artistic and extremely interested in Animé and Manga, so now I am able to better understand and connect with their interest. In turn, I can use their interest and support them when they have to do character analyses; having them really dive into the character's persona and explain their motives. If they are asked to look at an assignment in this manner I seriously doubt they would complain.

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed hearing today about Hara Setsuko, the inspiration for “Millennium Actress”. She seems to be the Japanese equivalent of Greta Garbo (or is that the other way around?). She will forever be frozen in memory of Japanese cinephiles as “Timeless, quintessential”, and forever pure and virginal. What a way to be remembered! To walk away at the height of her career and leave fans eternally wanting more. In the process she becomes part of not only film mythology, but also the collective “past” of all moviegoers, and personal memories of all who watch her movies—a true pop culture icon!

[Anonymous]

The Anime club meets in my room twice a week and they watch videos for an hour. The are a collection of kids who might be described as outsiders... kids that do not really have other niches in our school's regular list of cliques. I was wondering if this is typical of other people's experiences at their schools. And then I was wondering why that was. What is the appeal of Anime to some students that may not feel that they belong at our high school. What messages do they connect with from the Anime...is it escaping into the roles... is it the brighter future being offered... is it the intellectual stimulation. I coach baseball and my players do not watch Anime. I used to do ASB and those kids were not into Anime. At my school it is a fringe group and I have never really sat down to ask myself why.

[Anonymous]

I grew up with Astro Boy, Speed Racer, and Gigantor. I can still sing the theme songs! Now, my students are experimenting with writing stories on their cell phone, once again borrowing from popular Japanese culture. I really appreciated Professor McKnight's presentation. It provided me with a number of places to start my students' journey for next year.

My own introduction to Manga culture came through a student, who served as the "expert" guest teacher in class. Each student in the class had to develop a lesson on something they were passionate about. When students take center stage, other students tend to become better listeners.

[Anonymous]

When discussing the term "otaku" this morning with Professor McKnight all I could think of was The Big Bang Theory. LOL! That's the connection I made and it gave me a better perspective of how others view these super-fans. In the reading it talks about how otakus are not very well accepted because they are not like the "cool kids." I just think they ARE cool for doing things out of labors of love and not simply for fitting in.

[Anonymous]

Wanted to explore the concept of play in Japanese culture. There seems to be an attachment to play. We in America have adopted a lot of this. Having raised two boys through Pokémon and Game Boys and Playstation and myriad other associated media, I am asking myself why the Japanese are so good at developing these ways of playing. What is it about their society... one that I have always been led to believe was so hard-working and structured... that leads them to develop these ideas. And what is it about these things, that many might view as being childish, that enables them to stick around into adulthood. Is it that the Japanese school system is so hard? Is it a romantic vision of childhood? Many cultures have different views of childhood... that have developed over time... I guess I would like to learn more about Japanese childhood and then compare it to Korean and Chinese versions. And what would Confucius say about all of them?

[Anonymous]

My daughter was obsessed with the Rosario+Vampire Anime series and today's background information really enlightened me as to why. This collection of books focuses on a boy who mistakenly is enrolled in a High School for monsters. His main goals are to fit in and not be discovered as being human. Interestingly, the book is designed to be read right to left. Is that something that is common in American publications of Anime books?

[Anonymous]

My students absolutely love anime and mangas. I have had students ask me if they can read mangas as part of their AR reading, and luckily enough for them (and me since my goal is just to have them enjoy reading) many of the mangas are in fact AR. I have had students donate mangas to my class library last year because they already read them, but I haven't sat down to read them yet to see if they are appropriate for my class library. After today's lesson, I find that I am more interested in the ideas of mangas as a reading tool for class and will definietly sit down and read the one I have sitting somewhere in my classroom.

I was thinking about how I could use mangas and anime in my class lessons. I have used comic strip lessons before to have them outline the main conflicts, plot, etc of novels and could instead have them create a manga. Also, does anyone know of any novels that have been made into mangas? I think students would find those interesting to read. I tried searching online but apparently I am not searching for the right key words. I could even use a compare/contrast lesson (8th grade writing standard) to compare the manga to the original version.

[Anonymous]

[font=Tahoma]During lunch, Tere, Kevin (forgive me if I spell your names wrong) and I shared some comment about Japanese popular culture. We talked about how powerful the Fan Culture is. It can create a huge market, change the arrangement of the city, accompany people for a long time. For example, I thought Hello kitty lovers would always be little girls who are fascinated in pink color. However, it turns out Hello Kitty fans can be found everywhere at different age levels. It reminds me of a Chinese idiom, "[/font][font=宋体]爱美之心[/font][font=Tahoma], [/font][font=宋体]人皆有之[/font][font=Tahoma]"(ai-mei-zhi-xin, ren-jie-you-zhi, [/font][font=Arial]Everyone has the heart of adoring beautiful things.)[/font]

[Anonymous]

Very true chgao - Hello Kitty is something that a lot of people (young, old, female, male) have found something in worth loving. I love how it was discussed as a symbol of all things not related to military (if I understood correctly). Many of my students love Hello Kitty products, and I have always thought of her as very cute, but I also have a strong love for kitties in general. I did look up and find that Hello Kitty does have a series of cartoon shows that aired with her recreating fairy tales - so nothing violent or traumatic, and always with a happy ending. I thought it was very cute since the shows obviously are aimed for a younger crowd. If you have Hulu, you can actually watch the Hello Kitty Furty Tale Theatre, or if you teach younger students and want to show them fairy tales in Hello Kitty format

Also, the idea of fan fiction & fan culture is also a very American thing. I don't know if any of you watch certain TV Shows that have these cult like followings, but there are A LOT of show that do. And while many of them are teenagers, it also tends to be older females and males. For example, I love Supernatural on The CW and have been watching the show since it first piloted. There are thousands and thousands of fans that have websites devoted to their love of this show, including merchandise, fan made items, fan fictions, etc. Also, True Blood and The Walking Dead are two other shows with HUGE followings of people that would probably go to a con just for those shows. I think that is a big reason why so many people love Comic Con. A lot of these shows are focused there, and people can be immersed into the fan culture for those days without feeling like the world is judging them for their love of a TV show and the fictional characters. I know my students had fan cultures set around One Direction (just like many of my generation did years ago with N*Sync and Backstreet Boys). I think fan fictions spread far and wide, and encompass so many different genres. People are always looking for an outlet to their creativeness, stress in life or work, and their normal lives. I think fan fictions give us that out. Perhaps that is why there are adult men who love Hello Kitty. It allows them the outlet they can't find anywhere else.
edited by kstiles on 7/30/2014

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