JAPN313: manga, anime & Modern japan
Course description: "This course uses Japanese Manga cartoons and Anime, animated movies, as modern mirrors that reflect the Japanese experience of rapid economic and social transformation over the past 150 years. Starting with the examination of ancient Japanese style of visual expression, we will trace how Manga and Anime sketch out a parallel world that is linked both historically and culturally to the imagined community of the Japanese nation-state."
MLOs addressed in this course:
- MLO 2: Japanese culture
JAPN313 was a course that I enjoyed immensely; particularly because it was one of the only courses that I could say that I was graded to watch anime and read manga in. This course not only focused on anime & manga from different time periods, but it also focused on some of the important directors and mangakas of this era and the past. When most people think about something that is uniquely Japanese, manga and anime are always usually mentioned within the conversation. In this course, we not only explored manga and anime as a form of leisurely entertainment, but also as one of the defining parts of Japanese culture. One of our main end of the semester projects focused on taking certain anime and manga that we had read in the class and writing a paper based on it's cultural influences. My paper and presentation focused on how diverse cultural identities and socio-religious contexts influence the creation of the manga and animated works in Japan. I specifically talked about yokai culture and robotic culture and it's influence on the manga and anime we've seen in the past and today.
In the future, I would like to delve more into why certain types of anime are more popular in the United States and other countries. I would also like to see if there are any ways that we could branch out to more communities and make anime an even stronger industry than it is today. I already greatly enjoyed watching anime and reading manga in my spare time before this class, but after it, I'm far more interested in working for an anime company and helping to develop their brand overseas.
JAPN313 - Final Paper Presenation (Google Slides) | (PDF)
JAPN313 - Final Paper (Word Document)
MLOs addressed in this course:
- MLO 2: Japanese culture
JAPN313 was a course that I enjoyed immensely; particularly because it was one of the only courses that I could say that I was graded to watch anime and read manga in. This course not only focused on anime & manga from different time periods, but it also focused on some of the important directors and mangakas of this era and the past. When most people think about something that is uniquely Japanese, manga and anime are always usually mentioned within the conversation. In this course, we not only explored manga and anime as a form of leisurely entertainment, but also as one of the defining parts of Japanese culture. One of our main end of the semester projects focused on taking certain anime and manga that we had read in the class and writing a paper based on it's cultural influences. My paper and presentation focused on how diverse cultural identities and socio-religious contexts influence the creation of the manga and animated works in Japan. I specifically talked about yokai culture and robotic culture and it's influence on the manga and anime we've seen in the past and today.
In the future, I would like to delve more into why certain types of anime are more popular in the United States and other countries. I would also like to see if there are any ways that we could branch out to more communities and make anime an even stronger industry than it is today. I already greatly enjoyed watching anime and reading manga in my spare time before this class, but after it, I'm far more interested in working for an anime company and helping to develop their brand overseas.
JAPN313 - Final Paper Presenation (Google Slides) | (PDF)
JAPN313 - Final Paper (Word Document)