Undermining the gendered genre: Kabuki in manga

Mutual Images Journal ◽

10.32926/2021.10.ant.under ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 109-134

Author(s):

Olga Antononoka

Keyword(s):

Potential Interaction ◽

Popular Media ◽

Japanese Culture ◽

Specific Mechanism ◽

Participatory Media ◽

Critical Potential ◽

Traditional Arts ◽

Media Form ◽

Target Readership

According to Jaqueline Berndt, Thomas LaMarre, and other critics, manga is a highly participatory media form. Narratives with vibrant characters and creative inconsistences in the plotline encourage the reader to recontextualise the text, create new contents and unfold activities which go beyond reading (such as fan art and CosPlay). Recent popularity of manga about Japanese traditional arts – for example, Kabuki – further expanded the potential interaction with manga and other popular media to include (re)discovering traditional Japanese culture. Examples, such as Kabukumon by Tanaka Akio and David Miyahara (Morning 2008-2011), or Kunisaki Izumo no jijō by Hirakawa Aya (Weekly Shōnen Sunday 2010-2014) and a variety of other manga, anime and light novels exemplify this tendency. Consequently, influential franchises, such as Naruto and One Piece boast adaptations as Super Kabuki stage-plays. Furthermore, Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto observes how thematic and stylistic overreaching in contemporary manga further distort the notions of the gendered genre that lays at the foundation of the manga industry. In this case, Kabuki theatre as a theme employs a variety of gender fluid characters and situations. For this purpose, Kabuki manga utilise cross-genre narrative and stylistic tropes, from overtly parodying borrowed tropes, to homage, and covert inclusions. On the example of Kabuki-manga I will explore a larger trend in manga to employ elements of female genres in male narratives, thus expanding the target readership. My paper explores specific mechanism that facilitates reading manga cross-genre, I also inquire what novel critical potential thematic and stylistic exchange between audiences may entail.

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Anime in Academia: Representative Object, Media Form, and Japanese Studies

Arts ◽

10.3390/arts7040056 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 56 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jaqueline Berndt

Keyword(s):

National Culture ◽

Academic Research ◽

Vital Role ◽

Popular Media ◽

Media Ecology ◽

Methodological Issues ◽

Research And Teaching ◽

Japanese Studies ◽

Media Form

The transcultural consumption of Japan-derived popular media has prompted a significant amount of academic research and teaching. Instead of addressing globalization or localization as such, this article investigates the interplay of anime research and the institution of Japanese studies outside of Japan, addressing recurrent methodological issues, in particular, related to representation and mediation, intellectual critique and affective engagement, subculture and national culture. The inclination towards objects and representation in socio-cultural as well as cinema-oriented Japanese-studies accounts of anime is first introduced and, after considering discursive implications of the name anime, contrasted with media-studies approaches that put an emphasis on relations, modalities, and forms. In order to illustrate the vital role of forms, including genre, similarities between TV anime and Nordic Noir TV drama series are sketched out. Eventually, the article argues that the study of anime is accommodated best by going beyond traditional polarizations between text and context, media specificity and media ecology, area and discipline.

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Popular media and its ability to (re)form perceptions about Africa and Blackness: Black Panther

Afrika Tanulmányok / Hungarian Journal of African Studies ◽

10.15170/at.2020.14.6.4. ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (6.) ◽

pp. 76-87

Author(s):

Eszter Golubics

Keyword(s):

Public Opinion ◽

Black People ◽

Popular Media ◽

Media Form ◽

Black Panther

This reflection essay, with the help of studying Black Panther, describes how popular media form or potentially reform our perceptions about Africa and Blackness. The introduction creates a base for understanding the movie’s place in public opinion and how critics have reviewed it; and raises the issues that are to be addressed. Reflecting upon Asante & Pind’s paper, the analysis starts with Africa’s (Wakanda) portrayal and how it reinforces certain stigmas and stereotypical thinking, but at the same time how the afrofuturistic setting offers to change our presumptions and helps to create a possibly better future for Black people by imagining an Africa, unaffected by Western colonialism. The characters are also flashed out, putting more emphasis on the main heroes: T’Challa and Killmonger. I examine their personalities, actions and where they come from, elaborating on the problematic aspects of the message these convey by feeding us the same reoccurring Hollywood storylines behind black character masks. Ultimately, I ask the question: Does Black Panther deserve to be called a milestone for Black people in cinema or is it just another form of white exploitation?

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Introduction

The Computer-Animated Film ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474427883.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Christopher Holliday

Keyword(s):

Genre Theory ◽

Popular Media ◽

Market Response ◽

Main Body ◽

Film Genre ◽

Global Circulation ◽

Animated Films ◽

Animated Film ◽

Central Argument ◽

Media Form

The introduction argues for the significance of the computer-animated film by placing this popular media form within its historical, cultural and critical contexts. It charts the rejuvenation of U.S. animation during the 1990s and the broader market response to Toy Story (1995), as well as identifying the global circulation of computer-animated films by establishing the expansion of the international computer graphics community and rise in CG facilities, divisions and subsidiaries beyond Hollywood. The introduction also unfolds its central argument regarding film genre, expounding the evaluative possibilities made available by genre theory to the close examination of the computer-animated film. The main body of writing surveys the critical contexts that have accounted for the computer-animated film’s scholarly place across a multitude of disciplines. Genre is then innovatively positioned as an enabling tool that brings into relief the terms under which computer-animated films can be held distinct from other forms and styles of animation.

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