Pocket Monsters and Pirate Treasure: Fantasy and Social Platforms in the 21St Century
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2015 Pocket Monsters And Pirate Treasure: Fantasy And Social Platforms In The 21St Century Jacob Waalk University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Waalk, Jacob, "Pocket Monsters And Pirate Treasure: Fantasy And Social Platforms In The 21St Century" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 363. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/363 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. POCKET MONSTERS AND PIRATE TREASURE: FANTASY AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY Jacob Waalk A Thesis presented in partials fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in the Department of Anthropology The University of Mississippi By JACOB WAALK May 2016 Copyright Jacob Waalk 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT POCKET MONSTERS AND PIRATE TREASURE: FANTASY AND SOCIAL PLATFORMS IN THE 21 ST CENTURY is an anthropology project examining media, fantasy, ideology, and social groups in order to build a better foundation for the ways in which economic and social changes influence social networking, popular media, and values by using the anime-manga subculture as an example. The thesis draws from three major theorists: Thomas LaMarre, Anne Allison, and Ian Condry as well as major anthropological theorists such as Pierre Bourdieu. As an ethnography, the project was split into two sections: one consisting of interviews with eight anime-manga subculture participants drawn primarily from the University of Mississippi Anime Club, and the second constructed from participant observation in a variety of activities important for constructing the community, such as conventions and group watching of animated series. I conclude that through the synthesis of different strains of contemporary ideas—along with my own contribution of theory in the form of a redefinition of Levi-Strauss’s concept of bricolage— a better way of understanding both resistance in the consumption of popular media and the formation of group cultures in social networks. Larger conclusions on this regard are posed as ongoing studies and challenges to the field of media studies and anthropology, and as targets of further research. ii DEDICATIONS I would like to dedicate this thesis the many friends I formed through the Ole Miss Anime club. Though I hardly knew it starting out, their friendship would help me grow a lot as a person. Here’s to Sean, Josh, and Lydia especially. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my appreciation to my entire committee for their time and patience in this project. I would like to thank Dr. Kate Centellas for her initial support for crafting a thesis on a local subculture, and for serving as my chair even on a topic outside her specialty. I am grateful to Dr. Marcos Mendoza for his ability to get on my wavelength in a way that he always knew how to phrase a criticism or help me to work out a thought while guiding me to useful sources. Finally, I thank Dr. Noell Wilson, who took time from her sabbatical to work on this project with me and to whom I turned to for advice on Japanese culture and history. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................................................ i ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATIONS ..................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ vi 1) POSTMODERNISM, ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF FANDOM ........................................................................ 1 2) FANS SPEAK .................................................................................................................. 34 3) JAPANESE POP CULTURE AND SOCIAL THEORY ................................................ 63 4) ANIM-MANGA FANDOMS AS SUBCULTURES AND PRACTICE ......................... 99 5) DRAWING CONCLUSIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH .......................................... 126 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................... 133 APPENDIX I ...................................................................................................................... 137 VITA .................................................................................................................................... 141 v List of Figures and Illustrations Figure 1: GUITAR SCHEMATIC ......................................................................................5 Figure 2: SCREENSHOT FROM KILL LA KILL ANIME ................................................7 Figure 3: ONE PIECE ANIME / ONE PIECE MANGA ......................................................5 Figure 4: CLAYMORE MANGA ........................................................................................ 16 Figure 5: CLAYMORE MANGA ........................................................................................16 Figure 6: METROPOLIS ANIME SCREENSHOT ..........................................................69 Figure 7: POKEMON FRANCHISE MASCOT, PIKACHU .............................................75 Figure 8: SAITAMA PREFECTURE MASCOT “KOBATON” .....................................80 Figure 9: LOLITA FASHION BLOG PHOTO ................................................................93 Figure 10: TOO YOUNG TO DIE, NARA YOSHITOMO ................................................95 Figure 11: ANIME WEEKEND ATLANTA COSPLAYER .........................................107 Figure 12: TOKYO GHOUL:RE TSUKOMMU EXAMPLE ...........................................123 Figure 13: OLE MISS ANIME CLUB MEME ..............................................................126 Figure 14: AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER SCREENSHOT ...................................132 Figure 15: A.K.A., MURAKAMI TAKASHI ................................................................141 Figure 16: STARTING OVER, MR. ...............................................................................141 Figure 17: ASTRO BOY MANGA ....................................................................................144 vi CHAPTER I: POSTMODERNISM, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF FANDOM 1. Introduction The key ambitions of this project, given its limited scope both temporally and spatially, are 1) to synthesize a working model for interpreting anime-manga subcultures, unifying several contemporary theorists and contextualizing this approach in contemporary anthropology and 2) to test the idea that social, technological, and economic changes reorient popular media and alter perceptions of identity, space, and interpersonal relationships by using ethnographic data collected through the University of Mississippi anime club, primarily from August of 2013 until April of 2015. Therefore the ethnography seeks to get at ways fan subcultures enable social solidarity and serve as raw material for expressing or forming specific ideological concerns around identity, space, and play. I have crafted a more unified and comprehensive theoretical approach to analyzing the anime-manga subculture so as to open up ways of asking whether this type of community and consumption is capable of articulating a positive politics of resistance to more destructive or alienating tendencies of the contemporary techno-capitalistic world. The anime-manga subculture is an interesting example, and suggests ways that people create moral capitalisms around play, and seek out horizontal social networks based on common interests and a common meta-textual language of discussion. The three key theorists this thesis draws from are Thomas LaMarre, Anne Allison, and Ian Condry ( The Anime Machine 2009; Millennial Monsters 2006; The Soul of Anime 2013). The three cover different ground in a mutually inclusive manner, roughly divisible to three sets of 1 interrelated theoretical concerns: consumption, production, and material object as espoused by Anne Allison, Ian Condry, and Thomas LaMarre respectively. Media studies and the study of transnational, globalized pop culture are still nascent, and I position Japanese pop culture as a focal point for this field of research and for understanding the role of digital media. However, the newness of these fields of research means that there has been a rush to build theoretical approaches and interpretative frameworks—this project draws three of the most prominent, who are separated by only seven years’ time. All three theories contain important contributions, and each highlights an important aspect, yet on their own each theory seems somewhat lacking, or rather, the field lacked a broadly integrative approach to looking at media. In a new field, it is important to establish ways to generate broader links between different theoretical concerns, because this creates more comprehensive background for research within pop culture