When I peak at the bestselling manga of all times list on wikipedia, I am surprised many classics seen as pioneering or even revolutionizing the entire manga industry don't make a big dent sales wise such as Ashita No Joe-forget that some of the titles and we associate as the most important classics and mangakas as the most important artists who made the greatest impact in anime history are not in the list at all such as Captain Harlock and Shotaro Ishinomori (esp this one!)!

I have to ask why is this? The only legendary author and specific work that whose sales actually matched the their supposed reputation is Tezuka (who had a two whopping works in the top 15 list with both of them selling over 100 million copies, one of them Blackjack even outselling Bleach and his other work Astroboy narrowly missing the 10th place spot to Bleach!) and Doraemon (which in addition to selling over 100 million copies is also the only Kodomoko demograph work in the list). If we count unfinished works, Golgo 13.

I mean forget the 100 million copies seller, considering how much Ikeda and Ashita No Joe are believed to have been the equivalent of DBZ and Sailor Moon of their time period the 70s, I'm so surprised they only sold over 10 million despite dominating the manga industry during their publication. And of course I'm not counting how much of the pioneer legends such as Go Nagai never had a single work make it to Wikipedia's list. Hell I'm pretty surprised Clamp's only listed work is Tsubasa Reservoir Chornicles (one of their most recent ones) since I remember back in the 90s about how big Clamp's reputation was!

Can anyone explain why the supposed legends famed and revered in in the otaku subculture such as Cyborg 009 and Ikeda do not match their hype in sales esp they claims of how they dominated the industry during their time?

And how come Tezuka the only author with multiple works selling hundreds of millions and Golgo 13 along with Doraemon the only old classics (not counting Tezuka's stuff) that individually made it to the top 15 list from before the pre-Dragon Ball era? I was so surprised that what dominates the top 15 bestseller of all time list were are mosty stuff from the 80s and followed by 90s major hitters and a few 2000s era works.

What is the reason for this? I'm especially surprised with Golgo 13 was the only long running series before from the 70s and earlier to reach over 100 million sold. Is the rep of the classic innovators such as Go Nagai and Hana No Ko Lunlun really very overrated in its impact? How come Tezuka along with Doraemon and Golgo 13 the only pre-Dragon Ball classics thats famous outside of Japan to actually match their supposed impact and fame in sales?

Preferably works which focus on Nichijokei and its relation to gender identity of males. I know Patrick Galbraith mentions it in passing in the struggle for imagination, but I would like a paper which focuses on how exactly it influences gender identity.

Nichijokei may limit the available papers so I’ll extend it to any Bishoujo works too.

Lets discuss volume 6

Looking for anything in the vein of how fans' view and construct relationships with fictional characters. It doesn't have to be specifically directed towards Otaku and anime and/or manga characters, although that will be preferred.

Looks like its for three days of the con - 4th, 5th, and 6th, all from 10-2 in the same room

JAMS@AX Conference

I am looking for new anime to see and manga to read (no slice of life)

#anime #manga

Hi! I’m a high school student who is in need of people to take my survey for my AP Research class. I would love to get different responses to my survey. My survey consists of anime and manga, and as the title says, I will be analyzing the viewer experience! You will be watching, reading and comparing manga and anime to see which version you prefer. I would like to note that I please ask you to not take the quiz IF you have not at least seen OR read “One Piece”, “Dragon Ball” or “My Hero Academia” (the survey will note what arcs will have spoilers). Thank you so much for reading! The survey is here: https://forms.gle/vDXx8NcgM9944DM18

I wrote an analysis about the anime for my blog, I won't share the link because it is in Portuguese (Brazil) and is on the onion network (deepweb).

Here is my contribution, and if anyone reads it and wants to add something or correct it, feel free.
get the popcorn

Hello, welcome very much, I initially developed this text as a series of articles aiming to create a podcast (audio), but my time and space led me to the more conventional, writing. Which has a very good side, as through writing, I can better organize ideas and be more detailed. Well, to begin, it's important to warn that this project contains many spoilers, not only from the anime but even from your life, so I recommend watching the anime first, then reading this... and then watching the anime again. You'll appreciate it more. In addition to the anime itself, I will also talk about how it inspired me and why I adopted this name.

Although I have already mentioned this in another book. And for those who don't know, I have always taken to writing; the book is called "The Notebook of Lain." Here, in this present treatise, we will have greater consistency in the course of the discussions about the adopted name itself. To start, I found it interesting to begin with what we have as material about the anime, its metadata. Okay? Follow along with me!

​

https://medium.com/@lainsamui/philosophy-and-alchemy-in-serial-experiments-lain-838a5d96fa43

The text wouldn't fit here on reddit, so I put it on Medium.

The newest issue of Mechademia has now been published, with the special theme of Media Mix, guest edited by Marc Steinberg! The articles all look really fascinating, and I am excited to see what kind of new insights they bring to media mix theory. (I actually have a paper in this issue, but I'm excited to see what the the other articles are like.)

I was also checking back at the Mechademia website as I periodically do, and I learned that themes for future issues (that is, issues past the ones for which CFPs have closed) have quietly been announced! There are no actual CFPs as of yet, but...

Vol. 18.1: Death and Other Endings

Vol. 18.2: Studio Ghibli

Vol. 19.1: Aesthetics, guest ed. Stevie Suan

Vol. 19.2: Graphic Narratives, guest ed. Deborah Shamoon

Vol. 20.1: Game Studies

Vol. 20.2: Erotic Bodies – Hentai, BL, and Beyond, guest ed. Tom Baudinette

Very excited to see what these issues will eventually become!

Introduction.

Recently read Neil Cohn's chapter in Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives.

They outline that certain images carry different types of meanings that follow visual grammar. (Think panel = word and page = sentence.) Then they argue that, generally, manga is an example of "Japanese Visual Language," a series of images that follow Japanese-specific conventions.

They go on further to argue that people can learn visual languages by reading and imitating them.

Why it matters.

Intuitively, this helps explain why I might prefer manga over comics. But looking at the data there isn't a strong difference between the two, at least how Cohn (and others) quantify these differences. It is possible that the differences may be more pronounced if different series are analyzed, e.g. only shonen manga, etc.

What do you think?

Should anime and manga studies try to apply quantitative research?

Taking for granted that there is a "visual language," does fluency in Japanese Visual Language equal interest and enjoyment? (See processing fluency theory.)

If so, is it better to choose to read/watch a large group of series that are similar to each other to develop fluency? Versus reading/watching a bunch of obscure, avant-garde series.

Sources

https://www.visuallanguagelab.com/

Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives by Toni Johnson-Woods

Hey everyone,

I'm currently looking for someone interested in taking over this subreddit. I keep forgetting to do it. I've been relatively inactive on this subreddit for quite some time now, so it doesn't make sense for me to still stay as a mod.

I started this subreddit because it was a way for me to start collecting stuff for the sake of a general appreciation I had for the medium-genre. While I still enjoy it and read here and there, it's not at the same frequency as I used to.

I know it's an incredibly quiet subreddit, and perhaps it doesn't need a change of hands, but I think it's more deserving to be run by someone more actively looking into these topics than myself.

A playlist for the "Desired Identities" Symposium at the Musée du quai Branly. Lectures include various scholars on media, culture, gender and technology. Topics including anime, virtual idols, virtual reality, and crossdressing. Highly recommend this.

Does anyone remember reading an amazing long essay/article (non-academic; in English with screencaps of relevant scenes) about the Western imperialism cultural origins of anime? It referenced toy trucks or American Jeeps and the mass manufacture of that, all the way down to Eurocentrism of faces, names and places in anime. It was written by a Eurasian woman, and fsr my brain is thinking her/their name might be Emily. I would love to read this again. I can't find it on google, which leads me to think the website or the article has been taken down. But I'm hoping to find a cached version at least. Please comment if you know what I'm talking about.

​

Update: Happy to say I've found the article: https://www.theverge.com/2016/5/9/11612530/ghost-in-the-shell-anime-asian-representation-hollywood

Hello everyone! I don’t know if this is a dumb question but I don’t know much about this and I have tried to do my research but I can’t really find when at I am looking for. I have a minor in film and I have been thinking of getting my masters in film studies but I would like to specialize or at least focus on anime/ Japanese media, but I don’t know when know if they have masters for that. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Hello everyone!

I'd be interested in knowing whether someone knows how to get access to post 2018 second arc volumes of Mechademia. My institution apparently can't get access to it despite trying; the muse project website doesn't let me pay for them and the Michigan Press website says they are "out of stock" (how can an e-book be out of stock?) and doesn't respond to emails. I'm at my wits end!

Hello,

I recently started reading Neil's Cohn, "The Visual Language of Comics." While the book is not directly about cultural sensibilities, I did start to pick up on some.

For instance, I noticed that when anime gets translated to a western audience, it mean to appeal to older people. For example, an anime for a younger audience in Japan ends up being for 18+ people in America.

Another thing I noticed is that Japan makes the shows for a niche. For instance, Shonen is a target exclusively towards boys. Meanwhile, in the West, a movie like Spiderman is meant to appeal to boys, girls, adults, etc. I have seen many times in the West that while a show is for children, they still add elements meant to appeal to adults.

I wanted to know more about these differences not only with age, demographics but many more differences.

Hi fellow people! I am hoping to start writing about the cultural inspirations behind FMA, and while I am doing my own research, if you know any other articles that relate to it, I will be glad to receive and read it.

So if y'all would be so kind to send me any reading suggestions regarding FMA for me to check out, I'll thank you all.