Fandom: Friend or Foe of Industry?

[Home]

[Lectures]

Outline

• Reading Manga
  • Why Read Manga?
  • Reading and Reception
  • Reading and Production
• Fandom
  • Amateur Productions
  • Hard Core
  • Contested Terrain

  Why Read Manga?

• Pleasure (of course!)
• Non-taxing form of relaxation
• Escapism
  • Release valve theory
  • Rejection of social norms
• Active search for alternatives
  • Rebellion
  • Exploration
• Identity formation
• Community formation

  The Act of Reading

• Reading as a passive activity
  • Submit to authorial intent and structure of text
  • Unobstructed, unilateral communication
• Reading as the production of meaning
  • Reconstructing a system of signs
  • Different conditions for different readers
  • Unintended or unexpected meanings

  Fan Production & Reproduction

• Fan letters and art
• Web sites and rings
• Role and costume play
• "Research" circles
• Amateur comics (originals and parodies)
• Comic markets

  Amateur Manga Circuits

• Begins with Comic Market from 1975 in response to increasing conservatism of manga industry
• Komiket grows until by 1990s
  • 2-day markets held twice a year
  • Up to 300,000 visitors, many working class girls & women
  • 15-20,000 manga circles
  • Spending in the ¥ billions
• Inspired other conventions such as Super Comic City and Wings, run by event companies

  Dôjin Publications

  Yaoi

• Yaoi = Yama nashi/ochi nashi/imi nashi
• Yaoi = Yamete oshiri ga itai
• Shônen Ai
  • Appeared in commercial manga for girls from 1970s
  • Became major motif in amateur manga of 80s & 90s
• Parodies of boys comics
  • Parody v. originals
  • Pleasure and politics of parody
• Comparisons with American Slash fiction

  Costume Play

  Hard Core

• Trivial Pursuit
  • Lowbrow culture?
  • Class distinctions
  • Degrees of investment
  • Amateurism: good or bad? To whom?
• Aberrant Consumption
  • Lolita Complex
  • "Otaku" serial killer Miyazaki Tsutomu
• Who sets the standards?

  Policing the Fans

• Early 1990s:
  • Police raids on certain manga shops in Tokyo known for distributing dôjinshi
  • Interrogation of manga circle members
  • Threats regarding licenses of print shops
• Komiket 1993:
  • Distribution of guidelines regarding appropriate content for dôjinshi
  • Attempted enforcement of age restrictions on purchase of sexually explicit materials

  Contested Terrain

• Corporatization of the manga subculture
  • Impact of profit motive on creativity
  • Stricter censorship
  • Copyrights?
  • Cooptation of new trends
• Generational divide
  • Infantalization of Japanese culture?
  • Contribution to alienation and isolation?
  • Blurring of reality and fantasy?

  Takarazuka

• What gives the fans pleasure in the Takarazuka performances?
• How might Takarazuka represent a form of rebellion or critique?
• How might Takarazuka represent a form of conservatism or even oppression?
• Do the fans, performers and teachers see the Takarazuka theater in the same way? Why or why not?