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Ariane Beldi

Visualizing Asia Conference - Home - 0 views

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    About the Conference The Visualizing Cultures project and the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University are pleased to announce an academic conference focused on the relationship between visual imagery and social change in modern Asia entitled, "Visualizing Global Asia at the Turn of the 20th Century." This will be one of the first academic conferences devoted to "image-driven scholarship" and teaching about Asia in the modern world. We have selected scholars of history, art history, history of photography, and history of technology specializing in China, Korea, Japan, United States, Europe and the Philippines to discuss how to integrate visual and textual media in research and teaching, using to the fullest the opportunities presented by the new technologies and the use of the internet as a publishing platform.
Ariane Beldi

White Rose Studentships (2009-2010) - 0 views

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    Although manga and animes aren't mentioned in the outline of this research project, it is certainly comprehended in the field being investigated, which is Japanese cinema. After all, animation is such an important element of Japanese audiovisual entertainment that it might be worth to propose topics about it.
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    Widescreen aesthetics and technologies have been analysed almost exclusively in relation to American cinema practices. The proposed studentship will redress this imbalance by offering an in-depth analysis of the adoption, development, use and interpretation of widescreen cinema by Japanese studios and significant filmmakers. The 'mixed' nature of this area of Japanese film production will be apparent in comparisons drawn between Hollywood and Japanese productions and technologies, and the emergence of a culturally-specific response to the representational qualities of the widescreen frame.
Nele Noppe

Of Otakus and Fansubs - 0 views

  • hindrances in a digital world that copyright laws pose for creative works that, while technically infringing, should perhaps be valued and allowed.6 Certain features of digital technologies and the internet,7 according to Lessig, can permit greater restrictions on remix than were allowed in the past.8
  • hindrances in a digital world that copyright laws pose for creative works that, while technically infringing, should perhaps be valued and allowed.6 Certain features of digital technologies and the internet,7 according to Lessig, can permit greater restrictions on remix than were allowed in the past.8
  • Lessig and other legal scholars such as Mehra have pointed to dojinshi in Japan as an example of how permitting more “remix” can contribute to a vibrant cultural industry.
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  • some artists make a living off producing dojinshi.
  • In the west, fans of anime, the term for Japanese animation, behave much like fans of Star Wars and Star Trek: they “remix” the characters and ideas from the stories they watch.
  • Trekkies or Star Wars fans do the same activities as otaku, but one practice sets anime fans apart from other avid fans: fansubs.
  • Manga also has its own form of fansubs called scanlations
  • Fansubs and scanlations don’t quite match the “traditional” forms of remix that Lessig and others mention. They do not create a “new” work in the same sense as dojinshi, fan films, or AMVs because their aim is to remain faithful to the original work.
  • Fansubs as a cultural product sit at an interesting boundary—between the dojinshi-like fan culture that authors such as Lessig want to encourage and the massive online file trading so vilified by the recording and motion picture industries.
  • examines the anime industry’s unique relationship with fansubbers in the context of the suggestion that it represents a new policy model for online copyright.
  • Section 7 concludes by stating that it is too soon to claim the anime industry as a victory for alternative business models incorporating what most would think of as widespread copyright infringement.
  • Otaku create fansubs because they love anime—in fact, most love all things Japanese.
  • Fansubs predate BitTorrent, broadband, the dotcom boom and bust, and even the World Wide Web.
  • Fansubbers distributed or traded the finished videocassette tapes to others, but because of the time and cost involved of mailing out a physical medium, distribution was limited.
  • At one time fansubs were virtually the only way that fans could watch (and understand) anime.
  • But as with the music industry, the benefits of digital technology and the internet brought problems.46 Fansubbers started to take advantage of faster computers that allowed them to subtitle anime without the need for expensive, specialized equipment.47 This made it easier for more people to fansub because of the lower cost barriers to becoming a fansubber. The internet also meant that fans could meet from around the world, thus making it more likely that fansub groups would form. Today, groups now make digital video files instead of videocassettes.
  • Fansubbed videocassettes offered a poor quality picture and sound that encouraged fans to buy the licensed product when it came out and also limited the number of copies that could be made from a single original cassette (or from 2nd and 3rd generation cassettes).49 Digisubs offer a quality comparable to official (DVD) releases and the ability to make limitless copies.
  • Fansubbers then “release” their fansubs to fans. Distribution happens through all of the regular internet channels, including p2p services (Kazaa, eMule, etc), BitTorrent, IRC, and newsgroups.
  • Lessig essentially asks the question, “Do our laws stifle creativity and sharing to the point where it harms society?”78 Some point to fansubs and anime as part of the answer to this question—when a company allows some illegal activity it actually benefits.
  • Unfortunately for fansubbers, copyright law does not condone their activities.80 International copyright treaties such as the Berne Convention, state that its signatories (such as the United States and Japan) should grant authors the exclusive right to translation.
  • copyright law construes translations as “derivative works”.82 Derivative works are any work “based upon one or more preexisting works.
  • The Japanese legal system may also, as a practical matter, discourage litigation towards fansub groups within Japan,
  • Within Japan, fansubs could potentially be within the law because the Japanese take a more relaxed attitude towards some aspects of copyright law and include private use and non-profit exceptions into their law.
  • For infringements outside of Japan, it is no small wonder that Japanese companies do not bother with the expense of enforcing a right against a group whose infringement affects a distant market with a different legal system.
  • In his article regarding selective copyright enforcement and fansubs, Kirkpatrick argues for a fair use defense under U.S. law for fansub activities based on the cross-cultural value of translations, the non-commercial nature of fansub groups, and the potential market enhancement for the original work.
  • The fact remains that fansubs may create a preferable product for otaku—thus decreasing any market enhancement arguments.
  • One wonders what could be easier than a few clicks of the mouse and a few hours (or less) wait for a file to download, for free. Many video files deliver comparable picture quality and fandubs do exist.
  • Regardless of any potential defense, the law sufficiently tilts towards copyright holders so that they can easily use the threat of suit as enforcement.
  • The sheer cost of defending a copyright suit makes for a powerful incentive for fansubbers to settle, especially since fansubbers make no money from their activities and are unlikely to have any assets.
Ariane Beldi

MIT Visualizing Cultures - 0 views

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    "Visualizing Cultures was launched at MIT in 2002 to explore the potential of the Web for developing innovative image-driven scholarship and learning. The VC mission is to use new technology and hitherto inaccessible visual materials to reconstruct the past as people of the time visualized the world (or imagined it to be). Topical units to date focus on Japan in the modern world and early-modern China. The thrust of these explorations extends beyond Asia per se, however, to address "culture" in much broader ways-cultures of modernization, war and peace, consumerism, images of "Self" and "Others," and so on."
Nele Noppe

Cartoon physics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

  • Anime physics can be considered a subset of cartoon physics.
  • important distinction to make is that while the rules of Western cartoon physics are used as a source of comedy, several of the following are used in perfectly serious situations with the intent of conveying genuine drama or action.
  • many of these laws only apply to the shōnen genre.
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  • Dramatic moments tend to distort time, either by slowing it down (usually long enough to call out the name of an attacker or the name of the "special move" used in the attack, or for bystanders to comment on the situation), or by looping three times. Similarly, transformations (especially those animated with stock footage) also seem to stop time until completed, allowing them to be used to counter attacks, or not allowing the person to be attacked while performing them. Death is not instantaneous to significant characters. Permanent death is also a rare occurrence. Humans are capable of instantaneously freezing into solid ice or transforming into stone when surprised and/or embarrassed. In lesser cases, a person's forehead will instantly turn blue. When a character is in an extremely pensive mood, the entire area around him/her will disappear into a featureless black void, while he/she remains illuminated by a misty light coming from an unknown but vertically located source. Intense emotion can be manifest in audible artifacts as well as physical/visual ones. For example, intense grief or concern imparts a slow repeat echo to the human voice in dramatic situations, even when appropriately placed reflective surfaces are not present. However, the amount of echo thus imparted is inversely proportional to the number of words, with anguished cries of another person's name usually receiving the most echo.
  • In a series where characters change size, the opponents must be of the same size to battle. The hero(es) cannot use their mech or their larger form to squish the monster, nor can the monster grow and squish the hero(es). This is also found in Tokusatsu series, especially Super Sentai, but not in Kaiju films, where monsters such as Godzilla often stomp humans at will. Sorrowful crying with much feeling can force tears to gush out like waterfalls. Usually used only during humorous situations, while in dramatic situations, the tear flow is more realistic. Angry scolding to another character causes the scolder to enlarge and grow sharp fangs while the person being scolded will shrink. Attacks strong enough to shred entire planets will not destroy anyone's clothes or hair. Conversely, certain explosions can destroy a female character's clothing without significantly harming her body—in some cases, without her initially noticing this. Any fire-based attack on a character will not completely burn his/her clothes but will leave black stains instead.
  • A single cut can be made swiftly, cleanly. This is possible with any object, particularly with hands, paper, swords, and even air. A sword, especially a katana, can cleanly cut through anything, even including large objects (such as ships) and hair, but not through other swords. There is a slight loophole in this law - if an expert fighter (even if using hand-to-hand techniques) wishes to end a duel with an obviously lesser opponent in an appropriately dramatic way, he can execute an appropriately dramatic attack that destroys his opponent's weapon-often without their knowledge; after completing a seemingly successful attack, they will notice the expert is unharmed and look at their weapon quizzically, at which point it will either fall into two cleanly cut pieces (in a dramatic battle) or shatter like glass (in a comedic battle). Wooden katanas (bokken) can cut just as well as the real thing (and are almost never destroyed by the aforementioned loophole), if not better. Faster than light travel is possible with many characters, particularly those engaged in martial art battles; and so a vehicle is not required. Trains and other unlikely forms of transportation can fly, through either technology or magic. And the bigger it is, the faster it moves. Any female can, if angered by someone, pull out a wooden rice mallet, of any proportions, from hammerspace and hit the offender with it to let go of some aggressions. It should be noted that, no matter how large the mallet is, or how flat the offender gets after the pounding, he/she will always revert to original shape without having to experience any lasting health deterioration from the whole ordeal. A good example of this is in the anime Pokémon: when Misty explained her hatred of bugs, she whacked Caterpie with a rice mallet.
  • Death can be suspended until it is appropriate, suspenseful, or ironic. During the end part of some battles, characters may opt to charge at one another with their sword, meaning to chop the other in half. At the point of contact, all that will be seen is a bright white slash going across the screen, but it will remain unclear who is hurt. The two characters will then stay, kneeling on the floor, facing away from each other, until the evil character falls into pieces, having been killed minutes earlier. For added dramatic effect, the good character will clutch the area that they were hit or cough up blood, after the two have performed their attacks and are facing away from each other, making it appear as though they lost. A few moments later, the evil character will fall to the ground, defeated. Also note, death is never, under ANY circumstance, certain, a character can be impaled, literally from navel to nose and come back later, unscathed. Every human body contains 16 gallons of blood under high pressure-a familiar term used is 'to make it rain blood'. This will not occur if whatever inflicts the wound is left in it, which allows the attacker to withdraw it, turn, wipe it clean and put it away-blood may begin spraying from the wound like a firehose after any one of these actions. Alternatively, the mortally wounded character may pull it out himself and use it to execute a final attack. Non-impaling wounds, such as being crushed or falling from a great height, usually do not cause these geysers of blood, but nosebleeds will often fountain impressively immediately upon a character's recognition of appropriate portions of an attractive female body. This is apparently true conversely, as sexual innuendo in the form of a guitar causes significant nosebleeds in the female cast of FLCL. Loud noises, such as screams of anguish and explosions, can be heard from space. All sounds can be transmitted in space, e.g. transmitted differently then with air-compression waves. Band-aids heal anything and everything, especially when applied with care. Any pain inflicted in a humorous fashion will almost never cause any lasting damage.
  • Whenever a female character falls down while running in any non-humorous scene, she will almost certainly sprain her ankle in such a way that movement becomes impossible. Furthermore, if the character is the leading female character, she will be found or be in the company of the male lead and he will carry her on his back, sparking a deeper romantic interest. Should two characters of the opposite sex fall within proximity of each other, the male's face will end up planted in the female's crotch or chest. Skirts will helpfully flip up to provide maximum humiliation to both parties, and shirts will open to reveal maximum cleavage. Towels will fly off both parties for this same reason. In the rare occasion that the female is wearing pants, the male will instead be on top of the female while groping the female's breast(s). In a similar sexual vein, a pre-adolescent girl will blossom out with full breasts and hips, sometimes growing instantly out of her clothing (common in erotic manga.) Characters, mostly men, can run perfectly and quickly, with their arms trailing behind them or sticking straight out from their sides. This is often done in a comical fashion, and possibly fleeing from an angered female character.
  • The hero always wins with two exceptions a. the other guy cheated b. the other guy is a master at fighting or something b1. Amendment: no matter how strong the other guy is, the hero will be able to beat him or her with an intense compacted training session, usually in the span of one day(unless handwaving time compression technology is available, enabling the hero to accomplish weeks or months of training in that same period of time). b2. Amendment: the other guy can win, but the hero will then proceed to train while dead in a variety of ultimate techniques, and will then return from the dead. All but the last technique trained in will cause damage, but will not defeat the other guy. The hero will then use the final technique. This technique often is said to result in death for the user, but almost always fails to do so. b3. Amendment: the other guy will eventually like the hero and instantly switch sides, often including a tear jerking, episode long flashback that involves crying, childhood memories, and random other events involving the other guy, often in the middle of a battle with time standing still (Often in tandem with first example). In most manga series the main characters (most times a boy) will always be secretly coveted by a girl, which later blooms into a relationship. In some occasions, some characters' injuries heal much quicker. (i.e. One Piece) No matter the relative strengths or abilities, a male character always takes a maximum amount of damage when punched by an angry female character in a comedic manner (often with the male being knocked bodily to the ground or across a room)
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    Animephysics can be considered a subset of cartoon physics.
Ariane Beldi

Japan Impact - Accueil - 0 views

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    This is a new convention taking place 14-15 March 2009 at the Federal Insitute of Technology of Lausanne (French-speaking part of Switzerland) and organized by the student organization called PolyJapan. Contrary to other more commercial conventions, this one is only aimed at promoting Japanese modern culture. If you are in the region, don't hesitate to pay them a visit!
Nele Noppe

Allons Gai: Be-Boy magazine in French « A Face Made for Radio: Helen McCarthy... - 0 views

  • The Anime Encyclopedia points out that porn usually leads mainstream genres in the adoption of new delivery technologies. Japan usually leads Europe and America in just the same way.
Nele Noppe

Call for papers: The Artificial Life of Film: Dolls, Puppets, Automata, and Cyborgs in... - 0 views

  •  Proposed Panel for SCMS Conference, Los Angeles, March 17-21  The Artificial Life of Film: Dolls, Puppets, Automata, and Cyborgs in Cinema  Organizer Names:  Deborah Levitt, Assistant Professor, Culture and Media Studies,  Eugene Lang College, The New School  Allison de Fren, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow,  Ammerman Center for  Arts & Technology, Connecticut College  Summary: From the early films of Georges Méliès, Fritz Lang, and the  Surrealist movement to Blade Runner, Being John Malkovich, Ghost in  the Shell, and Lars and the Real Girl, the cinema has had an enduring  fascination with artificial humans due to their unique ability to  picture the tensions between motion and stasis, animation and  inanimation, humanity and artificiality, the real and the virtual,  and the vital and the mechanical. Artificial bodies have also made  diverse appearances in film theory, from the "spiritual automaton"of  Gilles Deleuze to Roland Barthes' meditations on a cinematic  automaton in Camera Lucida to the broad field of reflections on  cyborgs and/in cinema. This panel seeks to interrogate any or all of  these conjugations of cinema and artificial lives — material and  philosophical, live action or animated, in fiction or documentary. We  are interested in the kinds of performativities engendered by these  ambivalent bodies: their uncanniness, their ontological  destabilizations, their epistemological games of masking and  unmasking. Papers might also consider how artificiality is mobilized  within particular genres or what kinds of meanings accumulate around  artificial bodies in relation to gender or race. We are interested in  how these figures help to construct a new genealogy of audiovisual  culture, one that could illuminate cinema's digital or animatic  present and future, as well as connections to various moments in the  historical long durée of dolls, puppets, and automata.  Please send an abstract of up to 300 words, five key references, and  a brief bio to levittd@newschool.edu and adefren@conncoll.edu by  August 10th.
Nele Noppe

Osamu Tezuka in Occupied Japan - 0 views

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    By Takeshi Tanikawa, presented at Culture, Literature, Science and Technology: Research Using Prange Collection Resources, A Symposium Sponsored by the Gordon W. Prange Collection, September 21, 2006
Nele Noppe

Mobilizing the Imagination in Everyday Play: The Case of Japanese Media Mixes Mizuko Ito - 0 views

  • A notion of participation leads to a conceptualization of the imagination as collectively rather than individually experienced and produced.
  • While the boosters, debunkers, and the panicked may seem to be operating under completely different frames of reference, what they share is the tendency to fetishize technology as a force with its own internal logic standing outside of history, society and culture. The problem with all of these stances is that they fail to recognize that technologies are in fact embodiments, stabilizations, and concretizations of existing social structure and cultural meanings, growing out of an unfolding history as part of a necessarily altered and contested future.
  • I propose three conceptual constructs that define trends in new media form, production, and genres of participation: Convergence of old and new media forms; authoring through personalization and remix, and hypersociality as a genre of participation.
Ariane Beldi

JS17_penney.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 1 views

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    Diverse depictions of the WWII German army exist in Japanese popular culture. This essay will explore the origins of the Japanese fandom devoted to German military technology and also the way that authors have (re)produced stereotypes related to German culture and traditions in their portrayals of wartime Germany. Finally, using examples by authors Tezuka Osamu and Aramaki Yoshio, this essay will identify the representation of both Japanese and German war crimes in Japanese manga and popular fiction as a significant discursive trend that calls into question assumptions about anti-war thought in contemporary Japan.
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