May 28, 2019
Dear Members of the Individualized Study Committee,
In recent years, Japanese media such as anime, manga, and games have exploded in popularity and influence; however, the subculture of the otaku—the obsessive fans and creators behind much of this media—is still far from the mainstream. Otaku practices can be seen as subversive and non-normative, as with moe, affective responses to fictional characters that often involve romantic and sexual attraction to those characters (Galbraith, 2009). Yet the influence of anime and related media keeps growing worldwide: in 2017, manga publisher Viz Media reached a 23 percent market share in the United States comics market, topping both DC and Marvel (Magulick, 2017). And in 2016, the anime market was valued at two trillion yen, or approximately eighteen billion dollars (Masuda et al., 2018). Otaku are a crucial piece of this puzzle. This calls for an increasing need to examine the systems of fans and creators behind this media. I am especially fascinated with fan expressions, like moe, that society (whether Japanese or Western) deems unacceptable, which can lead to a politicization of otaku media and culture (McLelland, 2017). [1]
Although I have been a nerd for a long time (my previous fandom was My Little Pony), I truly became absorbed in anime and otaku culture in my senior year of high school. As I became attached to the characters and settings of anime, they provided a balm for the stresses of life. One series, Madoka Magica, affected me deeply as I watched a character desperately trying to fight fate in order to save the one she loves. I kept yearning for the emotional experience of watching anime, started participating in the fandom, and began to investigate the medium and the culture. I became enthralled with the fandom and fan-driven nature of otaku media. I was inspired by the passion on display: the passion of fans and creators to create beautiful and moving art in a medium where anything is possible. Then, while staying overnight at Goucher College, I borrowed several books about anime from the school’s library. One text, Ian Condry’s The Soul of Anime (2013), describes the phenomenon of moe. I read with amazement and incredulity at Condry’s translations of the writer Honda Tōru, who believes that relationships with fictional characters are the next step in the evolution of humanity. I, too, was moved by characters and narratives. I, too, occasionally wanted to escape into the worlds of anime, but Honda’s perspective was so extreme, so outrageous, that my curiosity immediately went into overdrive. My head spinning, I was pulled headlong into thinking and theorizing about anime fandom. That night reinforced my existing desires to understand fan culture. Since then, I have continued to research and theorize, and that passion has grown into an all-consuming fire.
By integrating the areas of cultural anthropology, sociology, media studies, and Asian studies, my degree plan, “Anime and Manga Studies,” will give me the skills necessary to begin moving towards understanding the many complexities of anime, manga, and otaku culture. My INDS degree will enable me to take an explicitly interdisciplinary approach, as the perspectives from these disciplines will inform my understanding as I create multi-causal explanations (Miller & Boix Mansilla, 2004) of the politicization of otaku culture. I will investigate this politicization through research, and my INDS capstone thesis will be a powerful way to integrate knowledge from these disciplines into a piece of scholarship. I recognize that I will not be able to answer all of my questions about anime as an undergraduate, and as such, I plan to continue my studies through a Fulbright scholarship, a graduate degree, and possibly a career in academia.
I would like to thank my INDS advisor, Carrie Sauter, as well as my INDS professors, Professor Brown, Professor McAlpine, and Dr. Varlack, for their advice and guidance as I develop my degree plan. I am also extremely grateful to my degree mentors—Hoogenboom-sensei, Dr. Oakes, and Dr. Welcome—for their generosity and willingness to help shape my degree. Finally, I would like to thank you, the Individualized Study Committee, for dedicating your time to helping UMBC students like me grow and prosper.
Sincerely,
Paul Ocone
[1] For example, dōjinshi, or manga fanzines, can be societally unacceptable in Japan and the West by often including pornographic content. Despite this, they are a major media form in otaku culture and speak to the scale and intensity of fan activity: Comiket, the largest dōjinshi market/convention, regularly draws over half a million attendees (Pink, 2007).