Title: "Cross-cultural comics create cohesion" (maybe, maybe something else...)
Abstract: Recently, in the past decade or so (really, since "Akira" came out back in the late 80s), interest in manga and anime has increased in the United States. While they, like comics and cartoons, carry the stigma of a child's fantasy interest in the United States, they are considered normal every-day readings in Japan. Additionally, people of all age ranges read manga in Japan, and anyone is able and willing to watch anime. If normal books can be read by all, why can't books with pictures? Both can be mature. In fact, with animated literature, they can be, no pun intended, much more graphic in nature. As both feature words, clearly the diction used is not what's preventing a larger adaptation to the medium.
My goal is to try and determine why people in the US refuse to view cartoons, comics, anime, and manga in a more serious tone, and as tools that can carry an assortment of meaning. Additionally, I wish to show that these media can be used to adult ways in a quality comparable to, if not more so than, standard literature.
Side note - What's hard about this topic for me is to actually pick a solid argument vs. just documenting the "phenomenon." While the above takes a stance on the adult and mature possibilities/nature of the animated media, it still feels like it's missing something, or perhaps it's that it takes too much of a focus on the US and not enough on Japan, despite manga and anime stemming from the country.
Methodology: This, too, can be tricky. My best hope would be to show various differences between the mediums, both animated and non. Through this, I can show the different meanings that can be derived from each, as well as highlight the different ways that a message can be portrayed.
One o fthe things I would like to do with this is to start by showing stereotypical versions of each medium (Lit: perhaps some Shakespeare, War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice, or 1984; comics: anything Spider-man, Batman, Superman, or maybe the recent Invincible; cartoons: Flintstones, Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, Batman The Animated Series; manga: Death Note?, maybe some original versions of animes; and anime: anything Miyazaki, Akira, Grave of the Fireflies, Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Yu Gi Oh). However, by displaying each, I wish to show the different ways that emotions are evoked from each, or at least that each one can be either serious or not.
I would also like to show the work that goes into and process of creating manga, anime, cartoons, comics and the like. Though how I can tie this in, I'm not really sure...
Problems: one of the problems I see with this is that I feel like I need to do some actual interviews in order to get base opinoins on the various mediums, otherwise I just assume what most people in the US feel about animated literature.
Media presentation and justification: Really, I suppose I can use just about any method we've seen thus far, from today's glorified PowerPoint/Flash hybrid that is Sophia (though don't get me wrong, it does look like an interesting tool) to a video game highlighting the work that goes into the animated mediums (I figure I could probably use a Grand Theft Auto PC mod to create a world where you need to accomplish missions in order to make the comic/manga/etc.) or I could even include an option for the reader to try and create their own few frames of art to show that it's not as easy as it looks.
I think something interesting would be to have viewers be able to contribute to this project somehow, perhaps by saying their opinion on the medium. If it's somehow possible, I think it may be interesting that perhaps the project opens with a question or questions asking their opinions on the media, then from their the project would guide them to another point that does something or other, eventually leading to something else that tries and proves something. Clearly this last part was rambling.
One thing I'd like to avoid is a rather standard documentary on the different animated media. However, brief interviews with various professors on the campus (from East Asian studies to Cinematic Arts to Fine Arts) could provide added insight and background. In fact, having occasional pop-ups or hyperlinks to activate the interviews could prove interesting and enhance the overall experience, perhaps it could even be a pop-up interview that would overlap another video showing something else, such as a time-lapsed (or not) drawing, or a scene from an anime, pictures from manga, comics, etc.
Final comment: I know I can/should make something good of this, but I feel like I'm missing some key piece, or perhaps my thoughts are askew/aloof at this hour in the morning/night.
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3 comments:
Your reservations are apt - perhaps I pushed you to find a statement that will be almost impossible to defend within the context of Japan Studies. (Comparitive Literature, maybe or Sociology - you are right about the difficulty in backing up your assertion about "our" attitudes.) So, since you're still in the formative period, it might be worthwhile to brainstorm abit to find something that will allow you to "show the process."
Maybe you could try discover why or how manga (and associated forms) arose so organically in the east rather than the west by looking at the evolution of narrative media in each culture. Could you make the case (I don't know) that Japanese narrative is more closely related to the scroll, while western media was more influenced by the press and development of the paged, linear, book. Miyasaki illustrates the development of his work with ancient scrolls, showing, what appears to be a direct relationship. I'm not forgetting the scrolls underlying Western literature, but a pictorial (animated!) comparison, might illuminate cultural differences leading to the discrepancies you posit. I have an extraordinary book (in Japanesse) that Miyasaki wrote about scrolls and influence on animation. Your statement might work more along the lines of: "I am tracing the development/origins of graphic narrative in Japanese culture (comparing it to the development of narrative forms in other cultures) in order to account for it's prominence and acceptance." This way you are focusing on the positive (why it is accepted) as opposed to a negative (trying to prove it isn't accepted). Your role isn't to sell anime and manga to text weary Americans, you're uncovering why and how it developed.
Flash is good - another thought is that wall in the lobby of the IML. Take a look at it and see whether it might be a great platform to demonstrate how a scroll gave rise to other forms of graphic lit.
just a few thoughts:
what if you compared manga to western graphic novels, how they are similar, how they are different (btw were graphic novels influenced by manga or is it an evolution of comics?)
or, i'm not sure if this is true for all cases, but I think manga is released as serials in magazines? then collected and sold as books later on? if that's the case you could compare manga as a serial to maybe dickens' of the west and the narrative serial
In your proposal, you said you were concerned that the project might be too U.S. based, but this can be easily remedied. For every reason you say why manga doesn't work in the U.S. just compare it to why it does in Japan. I mean, in order to make your point you are going to have to show what factors makes it successful in Japan, so don't let that deter you.
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