[HOME] Instructor: Noriko Aso
Office: Merrill 108 / Hours: Thursday 1-3
459-5371, office hours only; naso@cats.ucsc.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Tatsuya Matsumura (tatsuya@cats.ucsc.edu) and Akiko Sugaya (akiaaron@hotmail.com)
Course Description:
This class offers an introduction to the mass production, distribution and consumption of Japanese pop cultural texts and artifacts, with a particular focus on the visual art of comic books, animation, and film. We will adopt an interdisciplinary approach&emdash;drawing from the fields of history, art history, anthropology, sociology, and literature&emdash;in our examination of the ways in views on childhood, gender roles, sexuality, national identity, and the future have been expressed in and shaped by Japanese popular culture.
Course Requirements:
1. Attendance and participation are mandatory for lectures and discussion sections (10%)
2. One reading response journal to be kept throughout the quarter (30%)
… You will turn in your journal at the beginning of each discussion section with 1-2 pages (either typed or untyped but they must be easily read) dealing with the readings assigned for that week. At the end of the reading response, you must include a question that deals the readings.
… Try to put the readings in relationship to each other.
… Due to the volume of papers to be read each week, grading for the response papers will be plus, check, or minus only.
3. One 4-5 page mid-term essay (30% ) that provides a close reading of specific pop culture texts or artifacts in terms of the course themes. Guidelines will be provided in class.
4. One 5-7 page take-home final exam essay. You will choose from a number of assigned topics and base your response on course lectures, discussions and readings (30%). If you want comments on your final essay, please make a note on your essay and provide a stamped-self-addressed envelope.
NOTE: DO NOT turn in journal entries or papers by e-mail, except under special circumstances that you have discussed with me and your t.a. beforehand.
Required Books:
Frederik Schodt, Dreamland Japan
TAKAHASHI Rumiko, Ranma 1/2 v.15
WATASE Yu, Fushigi yûgi, v. 1
… Required books will be offered through Comicopolis. If you take in your syllabus to the store, you will receive a 25% discount on items, subject to the discretion of the store owners.
Reading packet to be purchased from Slug Books in the 7-Eleven mini-mall at the base of campus, 469-7584.
… Various books for background and further analysis, as well as small number of primary materials, are also available at McHenry Library. Numerous films and animated features are also available at the Media Center in McHenry. Explore! Enjoy!
Course Schedule:
Week One: F 1/4
Introduction:What is Popular Culture?
Readings:
John Storey, "What is Popular Culture?" in Reading Packet ("RP")
Week Two: M-F 1/7, 9, 11
Industry and Artists in Film, Manga and Anime
Readings:
Mark Schillling, selections from Contemporary Japanese Film (RP)
Schodt, Dreamland Japan, Chapter 1 ("Enter the Id"), 3 ("The Manga Magazine Scene") and Chapter 5 ("Osamu Tezuka")
Movie/Video: "Kimba" and "Lion King"
Week Three: M-F 1/14, 16, 18
The Fans: Reading and Writing
Readings:
Schodt, Dreamland Japan, Chapter 2 ("Modern Manga at the End of the Millenium" ) and Chapter 7 ("Manga in the English-speaking World")
Movie/Video: "Terebi Champion" and "Dream Girls"
Week Four: W-F 1/23, 25
M HOLIDAY
Keeping Things Interesting: Subcultures
Readings:
Patrick Macias, "Film" from japan edge (RP)
SHIGEMATSU Setsu, "Dimensions of Desire: Sex, Fantasy, and Fetish in Japanese Comics" in Themes and Issues in Asian Cartooning (RP)
Week Five: M-F 1/28, 30, 2/1
Childhood and Character-Building
Readings:
Maria Barbo, selections from The Official Pokemon Handbook (RP)
Selections from Henshin kaijin ooru zukan (RP)
Selections from Dynaman (RP)
Tom Gill, "Transformational Magic" in The World of Japanese Pop Culture (RP)
Movie/Video: "Pokemon"
Week Six: M-F 2/4, 6, 8
MIDTERM PAPER DUE FRIDAY FEB 8
Becoming: Male
Readings:
YOSHIDA Tatsuo, selection from Speed Racer (RP)
OTOMO Katsuhiro, selection from Akira (RP)
Movie/Video: "Dragonball" and "Dragonball Z"
Week Seven: M-F 2/11,13,15
Becoming: Female
Readings:
Sharon Kinsella, "Cuties in Japan" in Women, Media & Consumption in Japan (RP)
WATASE Yu, Fushigi yûgi, v. 1
Movie/Video: "Sailor Moon" and "They Were Eleven"
Week Eight: W-F 2/20,22
M HOLIDAY
Blurring Boundaries
Readings:
IKEDA Riyoko, selection from The Rose of Versailles (RP)
Takahashi Rumiko, Ranma 1/2, v. 15
Movie/Video: "Beru bara," "Utena" and "Urusei yatsura"
Week Nine: M-F 2/25, 27, 3/1
Nature and Technology
Readings:
Susan Napier, "Ghosts and Machines" in Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke (RP)
MIYAZAKI Hayao, selection from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (RP)
KISHIRO Yukito, selections from Battle Angel Alita (RP)
Movie/Video: "Ghost in the Shell" or "Lain"
Week Ten: M-F 3/4, 6, 8
National Identities Under Construction
Readings:
Frederik Schodt, "Spirit of Japan" in Manga! Manga! (RP)
Mary Yoko Brannen, "Bwana Mickey" in Re-Made in Japan (RP)
Leo Ching, "Imaginings in the Empires of the Sun: Japanese Mass Culture in Asia" in Contemporary Japanese Popular Culture (RP)
Movie/Video: "Iron Chef"
Week Eleven: M-W 3/11, 13
Course Review
Movie: TBA
Take Home Final Exam due at 4 PM on Monday March 18. Turn the exam in either at my office or my mailbox in Merrill Faculty Services. If you want comments, make a note on your essay and provide a SASE.
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