Cartoon Brew: animation news and trends
"Each day, Cartoon Brew brings the latest news and trends in animation to over 20,000 different artists, entertainment execs and cartoon aficionados. Animation authorities Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi ... cover a wide range of topics, including contemporary and classic animation from around the globe, CGI, advertising, design, anime and industry/business news."
(Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi)
Fig.1 Joshua Catalano (2011). "Demoreel 2011".
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Impact of Japanese Comics and Animation in Asia
"Taiwanese comics are the most Japanese of all Asian comics. Many Taiwanese comic artists copy the Japanese style faithfully and one can hardly find any Taiwanese elements in their works. However, there are Taiwanese artists who have attempted to create something original based on their mastery of Japanese techniques. The most successful example is perhaps Zheng Wen who has skillfully combined Japanese (particularly Ikegami Ryoichi and Kojima Geseki's) and Western comic styles with Chinese painting and calligraphic skills in his comics, such as Stories of Assassins (cike liechuan, 1985) and Stories of Eastern Zhou Heroes (dong Zhou yingxiong chuan, 1990). Taiwanese animators have only produced a few commercial animated films and television cartoons, but they are very active in making on-line animation. The most successful Taiwanese on-line animation is perhaps Ah Kuei, a satirical and humorous short piece, in which character design and visual presentation are influenced by Japanese animated works, such as Crayon Shinchan and Chibimaruko-chan. Ah Kuei will be made into a television cartoon series, live-action drama serial and animated film. Recently, Taiwanese on-line animators have begun to experiment animated serials and movies. A three-hour on-line animated film, Love 1/2E, has been serialized. Its story is similar to Tokyo Love Story and Beautiful Life and its drawing is very Japanese. Besides, influenced by the Japanese, Taiwanese animators pay attention to the important role of 'voice actors or actresses.' (seiyu). This is an area that most other Asian nations have overlooked."
(Ng Wai-ming, Hong Kong)
Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry: July / August 2002 p.2
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Transnational Anime Fandoms and Amateur Cultural Production
"The goal of this study is to construct a series of ethnographic case studies of the activities of English-language fandoms of Japan-origin media, particularly anime (animation) and related media such as electronic games, trading cards, and manga (comics). Building on Ito's prior research on children's engagement with new media in Tokyo, this study adds a transnational dimension, focusing on how English-language fans translate, subtitle, share, and remix Japan-origin media. The project aims for a broad ethnographic description of the diverse range of fan activities that comprise anime fandom, focused on the US and English-language online sites. These sites and activities include anime clubs, anime and game conventions, fan subtitling groups, online 'shrine' sites dedicated to particular characters or series, anime news and discussion sites, file sharing sites, internet relay chat, anime music videos, fan art, and fan fiction.
Anime fandoms and transnational otaku groups represent a unique case study in youth activism and remix cultures, providing examples of creativity and social mobilization as ignited by passion for particular forms of cult media. Anime fans have constructed a grass roots movement to make Japan-origin media available to an English-speaking public. Further, they construct derivative works of fan art, video, and fiction that represent emergent forms of communication and creativity keyed to the digital age. These networks of amateur cultural production exhibit unique forms of learning, sharing, and reputation systems that can inform our understanding of how digital media can facilitate lateral and peer-to-peer knowledge communities."
(Mimi Ito, Brendan Callum, Renee Saito, Annie Manion, Rachel Cody, Ryan Shaw, Jennifer Urban)
[Illustration created by 'usagijen' of 'DNAngel Riku' published by scrumptious.animeblogger.net]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The Cultural Economy of Ludic Superflatness
"Murakami's subsequent conceptualisation of superflatness links the flat picture planes of traditional Japanese paintings and present-day manga and anime, to the perceived lack of historical distinction between high and low cultures at this locale. At the same time, he believes that post-war conditions in Japan acted as key determinants for the subsequent use and symbolic function of pictorial superflatness in Japanese cultural production. Specific to his concerns are the infantilising effects of Japan's Constitution that has kept it a pacifist country. Superflat may indeed be read as one index of post-war kawaii (cute) culture. Anne Allison traces the rise and fetishisation of cute goods and consumptive pleasures in the 1970s and 80s. She argues that: 'Cuteness became not only a commodity but also equated with consumption itself - the pursuit of something that dislodges the heaviness and constraints of (productive) life. In consuming cuteness, one has the yearning to be comforted and soothed: a yearning that many researchers and designers of play in Japan trace to a nostalgia for experiences in a child's past' (Allison, A. 'Portable Monsters and Commodity Cuteness: Pokemon as Japan's New Global Power,' in Postcolonial Studies, vol. 6, no. 3 (2003), pp. 381-395.)."
(Dean Chan, Australia)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Otakulture: The Passionate Obsessive + Otaku Subjectivity + + Pop-culture Fandom
"'Otaku' a term originally coined in Japan which translates to "obsessive fan" is a global subcultural phenomenon. Otakulture aims to explore how Otaku have become a transnational subculture bound by a common love for the consumption of pop-cultural artifacts. Inhabited by pixellated characters, robot projections, and fluffy stuffed toys, computer game mods, animation and sound installations, Otakulture examines how Otaku subjectivity and self-identity is being absorbed, modified, and translated into different social communities, language groups, and artistic communities outside of Asia, highlighting how the visual language of manga and anime culture are increasingly being appropriated and subverted by Australian artists."
(Thea Baumann, www.electrofringe.net)
CONTRIBUTOR
The Constellations ProjectSHARE
