Students’ perceptions about using anime and manga as an audiovisual tool to practice Japanese as a foreign language

"Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) has increased its fans around the world since anime and manga are considered some of the most relevant components in Japanese pop culture. In fact, there exists a necessity for Japanese learners and teachers to find a way to practice and improve their learning process of this foreign language in Mexico. Different researchers have contributed to analyze Anime and Manga importance in aspects such as motivation or skill improvements when teaching JFL. Therefore, the purpose for this research is to analyze the students' perceptions of a public university in central Mexico towards the use of anime and manga as an audiovisual tool to learn JFL. This study used the data from answered questionnaires provided by seven Japanese as a Foreign Language learners in this public university. The results obtained from the questionnaire prove that anime and manga are suitable learning materials to practice JFL inside and outside the classroom "

Fellow Language Learners as Producers of Knowledge and Understandings: A Case of a Tertiary Japanese Linguistics Course

This paper reports students’ experiences of a coursework task in a Japanese linguistics course that embraces certain aspects of collaborative learning—aspects that are not practised widely in Japanese language learning situations. These involve the students looking at themselves as well as their fellow students as producers of knowledge and understandings rather than simply developing learners of a foreign language. The task asked students to examine language use in a TV drama script in light of sociolinguistic norms described in the Japanese linguistics literature. The task had two phases and was designed so that it was not possible to complete the second phase without using a peer’s findings from the first phase. Using their peers’ findings as a “previous study” gave students an opportunity to take a critical interest in the work of their peers as a crucial step in achieving their own academic outcomes. This paper discusses students’ experiences of this task in relation to particular benefits of the collaborative mode of learning that have been reported in the literature, such as positive interdependence, widening one’s point of view, and developing awareness that knowledge is a social construct that can be challenged. It also discusses the assessment design of the learning task, which allowed students to be assessed on their individual learning outcomes while requiring their peers’ support in completing their work

The Ethics of Affect

Based on ongoing fieldwork in the Akihabara neighborhood of Tokyo, specifically a targeted subproject from 2014 to 2015, this book explores how and to what effect lines are drawn by producers, players and critics of bishōjo games. Focusing on interactions with manga/anime-style characters, these adult computer games often feature explicit sex acts. Noting that the bishōjo, or “cute girl characters,” in these games can appear quite young, legal actions have been taken in a number of countries to categorize and prohibit the content as child abuse material. In response to the risk of manga/anime images encouraging underage sexualization, lawmakers are moved to regulate them in the same way as photographs or film; triggered by images, the line between fiction and reality is erased, or redrawn to collapse forms together. While Japanese politicians continue to debate a similar course, sustained engagement with bishōjo game producers, players and critics sheds light on alternative movement. Manga/anime-style characters trigger an affective response in interactions with their creators and users, who draw and negotiate lines between fiction and reality. Interacting with characters and one another, bishōjo gamers draw lines between what is fictional and what is “real,” even as the characters are real in their own right and relations with them are extended beyond games; some even see the characters as significant others and refer to them using intimate terms of commitment such as “my wife.” This book argues for understanding the everyday practice of insisting on lines, or drawing a line between humans and nonhumans and orienting oneself toward the drawn lines of the latter, as demonstrating an emergent form of ethics. Occurring individually and socially in both private and public spaces, the response to fictional characters not only discourages harming human beings, but also supports life in more-than-human worlds. For many in contemporary Japan and beyond, interactions and relations with fictional and real others are nothing short of lifelines

Transnational Cultural Traffic In Northeast Asia: The "Presence" of Japan in Korea's Popular Music Culture

Korea's nationalistic antagonism towards Japan and "things Japanese" has mostly been a response to the colonial annexation by Japan (1910-1945). Despite their close economic relationship since 1965, their conflicting historic and political relationships and deep-seated prejudice against each other have continued. The Korean government's official ban on the direct import of Japanese cultural products existed until 1997, but various kinds of Japanese cultural products, including popular music, found their way into Korea through various legal and illegal routes and influenced contemporary Korean popular culture. Since 1998, under Korea's Open-Door Policy, legally available Japanese popular cultural products became widely consumed, especially among young Koreans fascinated by Japan's quintessentially postmodern popular culture, despite lingering resentments towards Japan. Because of the sensitive relationship between the two countries, however, the extensive transnational cultural interaction between Korea and Japan--including popular musical interaction, one of the most important aspects--has been intentionally downplayed by Korean scholars and by the popular Korean press. My dissertation theorizes what I call the "presence" of Japan, through its popular music, in contemporary Korea. I identify three major shifts in the presence of Japan in Korea from the 1980s to 2006: the "illegal" presence (1980s-1997), the "transitional" presence (1998-2004), and the "newly sanctioned" presence (since 2004). It is my contention that popular music plays a crucial role in shaping Korean perceptions about Japan, and those perceptions define a central focus of my dissertation. The research I present in the dissertation is organized around four areas of investigation: the kinds of "presence" Japan has had in the contemporary popular music scene in Korea since the 1980s, the kinds of forces that have been instrumental in shaping Korean's consumption of Japanese popular music, the adjustments in Korea's cultural politics in response to transnational cultural flow from Japan before and since 1998, and Korean reception and responses to the Japanese "presence" in Korea - its meanings and implications. I address these issues within the political and economic context of Japan-Korea relations, whose impact on musical practice and musical taste is complex and dynamic, demanding a multi-disciplinary analysis

Consuming Japan : the consumption of Japanese cultural products in Thailand

制度:新 ; 報告番号:甲3221号 ; 学位の種類:博士(学術) ; 授与年月日:2011/1/24 ; 早大学位記番号:新551

The Otaku Lifestyle: Examining Soundtracks in the Anime Canon

Title from PDF of title page, viewed June 19, 2019Thesis advisor: S. Andrew GranadeVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 120-126)Thesis (M.M.)--Conservatory of Music and Dance. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2019Japanese animation, or anime, has been popular around the globe for the last sixty years. Anime has its own fan culture in the United States known as otaku, or the obsessive lifestyle surrounding manga and anime, which has resulted in American production companies creating their own “anime.” Japanese filmmakers do not regard anime simply as a cartoon, but instead realize it as genre of film, such as action or comedy. However, Japanese anime is not only dynamic and influential because of its storylines, characters, and themes, but also for its purposeful choices in music. Since the first anime Astro Boy and through films such as Akira, Japanese animation companies combine their history from the past century with modern or “westernized” music. Unlike cartoon films produced by Disney or Pixar, Japanese anime do not use music to mimic the actions on-screen; instead, music heightens and deepens the plot and emotions. This concept is practiced in live-action feature films, and although anime consists of hand-drawn and computer-generated cartoons, Japanese directors and animators create a “film” experience with their dramatic choice of music. This thesis examines three anime—Death Note, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Cowboy Bebop—for their respective choices in music. Each of these series uses a different genre of music, such as sacred classical music, Western classical music, jazz, hip-hop, and J-pop, to evoke emotion and enhance the drama. Westernization and the U.S. Occupation of Japan influenced each of the genres, with each composer in their respective anime combining Western and Japanese musical characteristics. Only by exploring the music of anime can we really understand its role in anime’s artistic power and the reasons for the lasting impact of the otaku lifestyle in the Western world.Introduction -- Music and culture -- Anime -- Death note -- Neon Genesis Evangelion -- Cowboy Bebop -- Conclusionviii, 127 page

Spartan Daily, November 20, 2019

Volume 153, Issue 37https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartan_daily_2019/1080/thumbnail.jp