Group items tagged

"'BL' (Boys' Love), a genre of male homosexual narratives (consisting of manga, novels, animations, games, films, and so forth) written by and for women, has recently been acknowledged, by Japanese and non-Japanese scholars alike, as a significant component of Japanese popular culture. The aesthetic and style of Japanese BL have also been assumed, deployed and transformed by female fans transnationally. The current thrust of transnational BL practices raises a number of important issues relating to socio/cultural constructs of BL localization and globalization. Scholarly endeavors in relation to BL can be enriched by further research concerning the activities of transnational BL fans, fan communities, fandom, and the production of fan fiction. Most previous BL fan studies have remained circumscribed to Japan and North America. Therefore, in order to further develop transnational BL fan studies, we are seeking contributors who are engaged in the exploration of non-Japanese and non-North American contexts (e.g. Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and others). Transnational BL fan studies may also be incorporated into the broader socio/political critical frameworks offered by studies in economics, gender/sexuality, race/class, and other areas. "

For those who are studying fandom and Boy's Love, this might be an opportunity to share your researches!

Japan may appear defensive on the economic and political fronts. Has the world lost interest in an aging Japan whose economy will fall to third largest? There is, however, a side of Japan that is the object of ever stronger and deeper affection around the globe: Japanese popular culture, particularly anime (Japanese animation) and manga.

True. In America, this seems to be growing. I see less and less of comic books and more manga novels, although manga is part of the Japanese culture. Not only that, but it seems manga is more.. I'm not sure what you can call it, but it has a different feel to it than a comic book, for obvious reasons. It's like comparing a cartoon to an anime. Although their qualitys are alike, they come from different culture and people, etc. Plus, most animes seem a bit more serious than cartoons, but that may be just the particullar shows I'm watching.. ~Z

Hikaru Sasahara, president of Digital Manga Publishing (Berserk), revealed, this week, to Anime News Network, a new venture his company is planning, by which fans will be able to provide their scanlations online, and these would then be distributed legally with the permission of the original copyright holders.

It is in French only, but an interesting article about the evolution of the manga market in France. It also highlights the progressive gaining of a foothold in Europe by Japanese publishers, especially through Viz Media Europe.

This is the blog of the Workers' Educational Association anime evening class. The first class is currently running in Central London from Tuesday 27 October to Tuesday 15 December 2009. Helen McCarthy is leading the class and will moderate the blog. The weekly handouts with notes, reading lists, viewing lists and links will be posted here on their own pages - see the right hand sidebar. There is also an expanded reading list - class members are welcome to add their own suggestions for further reading about anime, either on the reading list page or in their own posts.

"Welcome readers who found this site in Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives."

This is a site from one of the author of the book "Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives", available from Amazon.com!

Not directly related to manga or animes, but I'm sure that they could be topics addressed in such conference.

Die neue Initiative namens Anime Copyright Allianz stellt eine Kooperation von Fans, Conentanbietern und Medienakteure dar, die gemeinsam die Respektierung des Urheberrechts in der deutschsprachigen Manga- und Animeszene fördern will.

This is a German website about promoting the respect of copyrigths in the field of animes and mangas. I know that this is an issue of debates, but I think it is worthwhile to read what people on both sides have to say.

"Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Organization for Transformative Works. TWC publishes articles about transformative works, broadly conceived; articles about media studies; and articles about the fan community. We invite papers in all areas, including fan fiction, fan vids, film, TV, anime, comic books, fan community, video games, and machinima. We encourage a variety of critical approaches, including feminism, gender studies, queer theory, postcolonial theory, audience theory, reader-response theory, literary criticism, film studies, and posthumanism. We also encourage authors to consider writing personal essays integrated with scholarship; hyperlinked articles; or other forms that test the limits of the genre of academic writing."

This online journal is opened to work on anime and manga fandom, so I thought this would be of interest to this group!

Indian Auteur is an independently run e-magazine, website, forum and blog started in Feb 2009.