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

[Anonymous]

The comics that are mentioned can related with high school students as I already see a number of them reading the Japanese reverse comics (not sure what the name is). I also see them playing Yu-gi-Oh and Pokemon cards, so any way we can connect what they already know to their learning will be helpful. I wonder if I can make a simple artistic card game for basic remedial math students.

Arno Madathian

[Anonymous]

I think individualism can be expressed in different ways and cosplay is definitely one of them. Even when our students dress in certain ways, they are expressing their type (skater, goth, etc.).

Arno Madathian

[Anonymous]

The recent news about Hello Kitty reminded me of some of the discussions we had with Professor McKnight regarding Japanese popular culture. I read an interview, excerpted below, with Scott McCloud and some points he made stood out for me. One: that Hello Kitty's "strangeness" is part of her appeal. In one way or another, we are all strange to each other. We're all heroes on a quest and we are confronted with each other's "strangeness." How do we handle this "strangeness"? Are we scared of it? Or do we accept it and make peace with it? Students can learn from Japanese popular culture and Hello Kitty specifically to embrace the strangeness of others.

And two: Japanese comic artists are skilled in eliciting interest from audiences based on the simplicity of their designs, particularly of the face. McCloud notes: "[font='Open Sans', Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif]And you’ll see this in Japanese comics, actually, the level of detail may increase when the character is seen as the other, or alien, and it may be decreased when the character is meant to be identified with by the reader." Why would McCloud note this about Japanese artists? Why are they recognized for it? How did they develop this exceptional skill? This would be fodder for an interesting discussion for the students. [/font]

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[font='Open Sans', Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif]Interview of Scott McCloud by Jessica Goldstein from ThinkProgress [/font]
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People have been comparing this Hello Kitty news to the whole “David Chase says Tony Soprano didn’t die” news, in that it raises this issue of authorial intent: who gets to decide what the story is, the storyteller or the audience? Is there a point at which the author concedes control to the audience?[font='Open Sans', Calibri, 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Sans', Arial, sans-serif]It’s interesting because this spills over into the world of fan fiction and that sort of thing, where the idea of what’s canon and what’s not— not only what’s open to interpretation, but open to new creative works, that’s become more timely, as people are feeling increasingly empowered, especially in our remix culture, to be a secondary author of works that already have that initial manifestation. There’s something hilariously futile in the whole concept of them saying, you’re doing it wrong! Your imagination is wrong! I think that’s kind of awesome, because in a way, its futility makes Hello Kitty even stranger, and the strangeness was, after all, part the appeal.[/font]

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Can you elaborate a bit on what you talk about in your book: why icons are so appealing and why people relate more to simpler images than complicated ones?
That will weaken the effect slightly. But I don’t think it reduces it more than by a small percentage. I think it’s still our primary understanding of ourselves that we have a few facial features, we know vaguely what they’re doing, but we don’t really picture ourselves going out into the world. We know we have this interface—we know we can smile at a person and it sends a signal—but we’re not forever aware of every detail or crease or blemish. All of these things, that’s what others see. And you’ll see this in Japanese comics, actually, the level of detail may increase when the character is seen as the other, or alien, and it may be decreased when the character is meant to be identified with by the reader.[/font]

[Anonymous]

Dr. McKnight's passion for her subject is apparent and infectious. It was wonderful to hear the historical background and context for anime. I went back to my students with questions and I had a student create and send the attached Power Point.
There are so many elements that can be teased out for discussion in the history class.

[Anonymous]

Dr. McKnight's discussion of the auteur and the personal being the film at first seemed self-indulgent. However, over the course of the presentation I started to think and journal about how the personal is also the universal and how it can be a uniting force. We can express our humanity in an attempt to be more humane. Another take at soul-less technology and what is lost?

[cgao]

Readings:

• Interview with Kawase Naomi, director of The Mourning Forest: on line at http://www.yidff.jp/docbox/16/box16-1-1-e.html
• More readings attached.

Videos:

• Opening credit sequence from Millennium Actress—a film that pays homage to a mysterious actress, when two super-­fans make a film about her and cinema’s golden age. http://youtu.be/wNQrrE2p_XE
• This is a second sequence from Millennium Actress. It shows a scrapbook opening, and turning into “the past." http://youtu.be/0J3NdcxQCKc
• This is the first episode of the Astro Boy TV series—broadcast on NBC in 1963. http://youtu.be/MYaxPMGc0uI
• This is the opening sequence of Kawase Naomi's film The Mourning Forest (2007). She became renonwed at the Cannes Film Festival in the late 1990s, and continues to be held in high regard at this festival - and thus globally. http://youtu.be/PpQGLCabLKo

Optional Blog:

• Ichiro-ya is a kimono store in Osaka that has a great blog in English. http://kyouki.hatenablog.com/entry/2014/07/21/231455. Their main site is here. This is a great resource to have in conjunction with the current LACMA exhibition on modern kimono.

Example Tour: (to be previewed in lecture)

• On-line tour guide of Akihabara. Sample online at http://tokyorealtime.com/

edited by cgao on 7/30/2014
edited by cgao on 7/30/2014

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