ARTH 80P Midterm

General Guidelines

• Papers due February 8.
• No late papers without a verified medical excuse or advance permission.
• Write your name, the name of your t.a., and the question number on the front of your paper.
• Four to five pages in length, typed, double-spaced, standard margins, and proofread for both spelling and grammatical mistakes.
• Citations for arguments, facts and direct quotations drawn from the readings can be given in the following informal format: (author's family name, page number). Either MLA or APA style is also always welcomed. If you use outside sources, provide full bibliographic information.
• See rubric for structural suggestions.

1. Industry and Fandom I (Takarazuka)

Compare and contrast the views on the attraction of the Takarazuka theater voiced by the fans, performers, parents and teachers/directors as portrayed in the video "Dream Girls," which is on reserve for reviewing at the McHenry Library media center. Why might these groups see the theater in similar or different ways: do they have similar or different problems or issues they need to resolve, do they have similar or different interests to promote or protect, and do they have similar or different means and/or levels of access to the theater?

2. Industry and Fandom II (The Web)

A. Finding the Materials

Go to the Animation Turnpike web page (www.anipike.com). Find the Kodansha Publishers English language page under Anime/Manga Industry, Japan (www.kodanclub.com). Then find a fan page or two for the Kodansha titles "Akira," "Ah! My Goddess," or "Ghost in the Shell" under the Anime/Manga Series section of the turnpike. If, with the permission of your t.a., you choose a different corporate/fan site juxtaposition, be sure to supply full web page addresses for both.

B. Analysis

Compare and contrast the corporate web site with the fan web site or sites. Based on its texts, visuals, and structure, what seems to be the main goal or goals of each web site? How does a visitor to the web site interact with it? How sophisticated is web site in terms of content, graphics and gimmicks? What might this indicate regarding the funding for the development of this site? What can you learn, and what can you not learn, from the site? Are there links between a given site and other web sites, including ones you are analyzing? What kind of relationship(s) might these links (or absence thereof) indicate? Overall, how does the authorship of a web page affect your evaluation of a given web page?

3. Subcultures and Identity

Patrick Macias describes "my life as a cult film" in a series of meditations on his love of the monsters and gangsters of Japanese film, which "in the U.S.A. is inherently alternative film." (Macias, 50) Analyze his texts in terms of one or more of the following concepts: subculture, identity formation, community formation, and/or reading as consumption/production. Resources to help you with contextualization include Mark Schilling's discussion of the Japanese film industry today, Frederik Schodt's discussion of fans both in Japan and in the U.S., and the lectures.

4. Fantasy and Censorship in Popular Culture

Frederik Schodt and Shigematsu Setsu both, in their own distinct ways, take on the question of whether manga popular culture can be dangerous to society, with implications for the need or lack thereof for censorship. Do you agree or disagree with either or both of these authors? You can choose to deal with only Schodt or Shigematsu, but you must accurately present and analyze the major points of the author in question.