Engaging with Anime and Manga: A Phenomenological Study : Proceeding International Conference on Transformation in Communication (ICOTIC) November 2016 (original) (raw)

Social Construction of Indonesian Adolescents on Japanese Popular Culture: Anime

Anime has become the entertainment of teenagers, since the increase in the covid-19 virus,teenagers who love anime have begun to increase intensively. Here a problem arises whereteenagers prefer anime to local cartoons. This study aims to find out when teenagers startedgetting to know anime and why they liked it so much. By using the phenomenological method,the researcher tries to see the phenomena that occur and puts them into writing byinterviewing young anime lovers to collect data. This results in the results that teenagers knowanime from television shows and really like anime because of its more interesting visual style,deep voice cast and tense storyline and they can communicate well with people who are notanime lovers. However, they will be more comfortable and open when communicating withfellow anime lovers

Anime as Japanese Intercultural Communication: A Study of the Weeaboo Community of Indonesian Generation Z and Y

Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations

Acculturation today does not only occur due to direct physical interaction between two different cultural groups, but rather, it is due more to online interaction. Cultural interaction also raises the imitation of the visual aspects of popular commodities, such as films being cultural products. This study aims to explore subcultures and identity communication built and maintained in the weeaboo fandom community outside of Japan. It also analyzes the daily experiences of individuals in interacting within the community and outside of it. This study uses a qualitative phenomenological approach through detailed observation, in-depth interviews, and analysis of community interactions on social media. Because weeaboo’s scope is anime fans in various countries other than Japan, the sources and participants of this study were drawn mainly from Indonesia. The results showed that the weeaboo subculture arose between millennials and generation Z anime lovers. These cohorts began to recognize a...

‘Growing as a person’: experiences at anime, comics, and games fan events in Malaysia

Journal of Youth Studies, 2016

Gatherings organized by Japanese popular culture fans have been held since the early 2000s in Malaysia. Fan activities such as costume play (cosplay) of characters in popular culture and production of secondary products such as artwork and fanzines have captured the attention of Malaysian youth. The gatherings and conventions organized by fans are categorized as anime, comics, and games (ACG) events among the people involved. Since little attention has been given to this growing fan culture in Malaysia, a qualitative study was designed to explore ACG event participation. This article discusses aspects of autonomy, relatedness, and competence, which are considered basic psychological needs to enhance motivation for development in life. Each need is integrated and fosters the development of individuals. These three aspects were found while analyzing data from in-depth interviews of nine Malaysians who have been involved in ACG events for more than five years. The ACG events have the potential to become grounds for development when a person participates in an activity of one's own will, feels comfortable identifying with the imagined fan community which was implicit in descriptions of peers through use of the Japanese word ‘otaku’, and socializes and receives constant positive feedback through the activity.

Transported to Another World: The Psychology of Anime Fans

2021

Anime/manga (Japanese animation and comics) have been increasing in popularity worldwide for decades. But despite being a global phenomenon, there’s been surprisingly little psychological research formally studying its devoted fanbase. In this book we aim to do just that with an overview of nearly a decade of research by fan psychologists. Otaku and cosplayers, genre preferences, hentai, parasocial connections, motivation, personality, fanship and fandom, stigma, and well-being – this book looks at all of these topics through a psychological lens. Many of these findings are being presented for the first time, without the jargon and messy statistical analyses, but in plain language so it’s accessible to all readers – fans and curious observers alike!

Tsai, Y.-S. (2016) A case study on the characteristics of manga fan communities, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 7(4), 417-430.

This article presents the results of a research project that explored young British readers’ engagement with manga in literary, aesthetic, social and cultural dimensions. Sixteen school pupils from two secondary schools participated in a number of inter- views to provide feedback on selected manga and their own participation in manga fandom. The results show that four distinct features characterise this particular cultural group, including exclusivity, competitiveness, defensiveness and transculturalism. This article aims to discuss these features by exploring the political roots of popular culture, the constant negotiation of power both outwardly and inwardly in fandom, and the fan’s desire to engage with an exotic culture through the text. It is noteworthy that the declaration of one’s identity as a manga fan shows a deep level of passion with which fans demonstrate confidence in their expertise and a determination to defend a taste that is considered illegitimate and degraded by institutional authorities.

The voices of adult anime/‘manga’ fans in Australia: Motivations, consumption patterns and intentions to learn the Japanese language

East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 2019

This article extends previous quantitative work done regarding the attitudes that self-identified fans of Japanese popular culture (JPC) have to learning the Japanese language. Following standard qualitative methods, four focus group interviews were conducted in which seven informants were asked a series of questions concerned with their initial contact with JPC, their views about JPC, their consumption habits, and interest in and experiences of learning the Japanese language. While a definitive conclusion is elusive, results point to rather complex associations between the selfidentified fans of JPC, in particular anime and 'manga', and how they consume these two media and learning the Japanese language. We foreground the three modes of learning-formal, non-formal and informal-to locate possible sites where fans are able to learn Japanese and about Japan in a broader sense. We offer a preliminary conceptualization of a trajectory that a fan of JPC might take when considering to learn Japanese.

Manga and Anime: a gateway to the Japanese culture

Manga and Anime are two pop cultural products which have recognized a tremendous boost in their fame over the last few years. The boost in question is due to a number of dynamic factors among which are the Internet and the transnational flow of cultural products among nations. Contrary to the popular belief, Manga and Anime do not serve as mere entertainment media texts. Rather, they transcend that task to represent and embody the Japanese culture and feature it to its global non-Japanese followers in the most enchanting and mesmerizing way. This study aims to prove that Manga and Anime can indeed be a doorway to the Japanese culture.

Fan Studies: Researching Popular Audiences - Editor's Introduction

This volume brings together a variety of critical perspectives in the rapidly growing field of fan studies. We have engaged with multiple disciplines and theorists in order to explore the various methods of fan production and research. Whether fans engage in the real-world, online, or define themselves by their lack of engagement, the ability of fans to participate and share their enthusiasms with one another is one of the most striking and intriguing features of the fandom phenomena. Fan communities have directed their remarkable fervour towards charitable causes, bringing television shows and book characters back from the dead, and honing their creative skills before pursuing fandom-worthy material of their own. We explore fandom as a social space and constructed identity, fuelled by talented creators and enthusiastic consumers, and building on the global connectedness born from the digital age.

Japanese Anime Fandoms in the UAE: An Exploratory Study on Media Accessibility, Habits and Cultural Perceptions

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, 2021

The satellite TV revolution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the early 1990s precipitated the proliferation of foreign media broadcasts. Japanese anime dubbed into Arabic became the most-watched content in Emirati households, a trend that continues to date because the Japanese entertainment and digital media industry offers youngsters easy access to and diverse options for anime. This paper provides an overview and analysis of the growing popularity of anime fandoms in the UAE to ascertain the level of commitment, involvement and the moral perceptions of Emirati fans vis-à-vis Japanese pop culture. A focus group discussion was conducted in a leading UAE university among the otaku or aficionados of Japanese anime (males and females). The participant responses offered comprehensive insights into the fandom trends of the region and articulated interesting opinions on Japanese pop culture and digital media accessibility. Notably, the findings of this study suggested that the enthusi...

Anime, Consume, and Participation: Iranian Instagram Users Participation in Anime Fandom Activities

Anime is a popular media in Iran nowadays, and some anime Instagram fan pages have over 400 hundred followers. Iranian anime audiences use the Instagram platform to gain news about anime, access anime broadcast and download resources and share and audit unofficial fans' content creations. Due to the lack of news websites' coverage about anime and lack of anime news websites in Persian, Iranian anime fan-pages admins volunteer to translate anime news, usually from English and share the contents on an Instagram platform for the rest of the audiences. Applying Henry Jenkins' participatory culture and convergence culture concepts, we prepared a questionnaire. We asked 387 anime audiences who were Instagram users about how often they watch anime, how often they read and watch anime fan-pages content, how often they participate in fandom chats and discussions. We saw an evident association for watching anime and reading and watching anime fan-pages content, while we saw a moderate association for watching anime and participating in fandom chats and discussions.