Animation Fandom in North America and East Asia from 1906–2010 By
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Animating Transcultural Communities: Animation Fandom in North America and East Asia from 1906–2010 By Sandra Annett A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English, Film, and Theatre University of Manitoba Winnipeg © 2011 Sandra Annett Abstract This dissertation examines the role that animation plays in the formation of transcultural fan communities. A ―transcultural fan community‖ is defined as a group in which members from many national, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds find a sense of connection across difference, engaging with each other through a mutual interest in animation while negotiating the frictions that result from their differing social and historical contexts. The transcultural model acts as an intervention into polarized academic discourses on media globalization which frame animation as either structural neo-imperial domination or as a wellspring of active, resistant readings. Rather than focusing on top-down oppression or bottom-up resistance, this dissertation demonstrates that it is in the intersections and conflicts between different uses of texts that transcultural fan communities are born. The methodologies of this dissertations are drawn from film/media studies, cultural studies, and ethnography. The first two parts employ textual close reading and historical research to show how film animation in the early twentieth century (mainly works by the Fleischer Brothers, Ōfuji Noburō, Walt Disney, and Seo Mitsuyo) and television animation in the late twentieth century (such as The Jetsons, Astro Boy and Cowboy Bebop) depicted and generated nationally and ethnically diverse audiences. Exactly how such diversity was handled varied according to the specific animation producers, distributors, and consumers involved. And yet, all of these cases exemplify models of textual engagement and modes of globalization that have a continuing influence today. Building on the basis of twentieth-century animation, the third part of the dissertation illustrates the risks and potentials that attend media globalization in the Internet era of the early twenty-first century. The web media texts There She Is!! (2003) and Hetalia: Axis Powers (2006) are analyzed alongside results from a survey of animation fans conducted online and at fan events in Canada, the United States, and Japan between July 2009 and September 2010. This dissertation thus demonstrates the different ways of living together in the world generated by the global crossings and clashes of social life and mediated imaginaries today. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank first and foremost my three advisors on this project, Dr. Gene Walz, Dr. Diana Brydon, and Dr. William Lee, for their feedback and advice, and for conversations that may not always have been about ―work‖ but were always about learning. Many thanks also to Dr. Thomas Lamarre for acting as an external reader on my thesis committee and Dr. Ueno Toshiya for hosting me at Wako University, Tokyo during my research in the summer of 2010. To my thesis ―beta readers‖ Andrea Horbinski, Patricia Lapointe and Nadine LeGier (on the Introduction), a big thanks for your time and your sharp eyes. My gratitude also goes out to those who commented on articles containing material from my thesis and gave me the chance to present work in progress. This list includes Jennifer Altehenger, Huang Xuelei, and Lena Henningsen of Heidelberg University‘s research cluster ―Asia and Europe in a Global Context,‖ and Drs. Frenchy Lunning and Marc Hairston, who invited me to the Minnesota College of Art and Design‘s ―Schoolgirls and Mobilesuits‖ conventions in 2009 and 2010. In addition, I would like to thank Suzuki Kana, Dr. William Lee (again), and Koizumi Eriko for their invaluable corrections on my Japanese-language questionnaire form and recruiting scripts. Any linguistic infelicities remaining in the finished texts are my own. I would also like to acknowledge the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the University of Manitoba, and the Province of Manitoba for funding my research in Canada and abroad. Finally, my deepest gratitude to the fans who took the time to do my survey and to speak with me about all things animation-related. Your participation has literally meant the world to me. Thank you very much, どうもありがとうございました。 iii Table of Contents Abstract …………….………………………………………………………………....ii Acknowledgments ...………………………..………………………………………..iii Table of Contents ………………….……………………………………...………….iv List of Figures, Tables, and Appendices ……………………………………………..v List of Copyrighted Material for which Permission was Obtained ………………….vi A Note on Translation .……………………………………………………………...vii Introduction ……………………………………..…………………………………….1 1) Methodologies and Structure .…………………………………………….8 2) Terms and Definitions ……...…………………………………………...28 Part 1: Animation and the Miraculous Cinema ……………..……………………….56 Chapter 1. Cartoon Internationale ……………………..…………………….68 Chapter 2. World War Cute ……………………..…………………………. 97 Part 2: After These Messages: Television Animation in the Age of ―Posts‖…....…130 Chapter 3. Perceptions of TV Audiences I: Couch Potatoes .……..……….146 Chapter 4. Perceptions of TV Audiences II: Channel Surfers .…..………...183 Part 3: Online Conversations Across Difference …………..………………………217 Chapter 5. ―Love at First Site‖ ……………………………………………242 Chapter 6. World Conflict/World Conference ……………………………271 Conclusion ………………………………….…………..…………………………..311 Appendices …………………………………………..……………………………..331 Works Cited ………………………………………..………………………………357 iv List of Figures, Tables, and Appendices Figures and Tables: Chapter One: Fig. 1.1: 35 mm filmstrips of ―Moving Picture‖ ………………………..…..…….....71 Fig. 1.2: Still from ―Fantasmagorie‖ ………………………………………...............72 Fig. 1.3: Still from ―A Language All My Own‖ ………………………………….....87 Fig. 1.4: Still from ―Defeat of the Tengu‖ ……...……………………………..…….92 Chapter Two: Fig. 2.1: Advertising poster for ―Momotarō‘s Sea Eagles‖ ………………………..124 Table 2.1: Distribution of references to nations and political leaders in American World War II propaganda animation by year ……………………………...………102 Chapter Five: Fig. 5.1: Publicity image for ―Dreams of a Dog‖ ……..…………………………...247 Fig. 5.2: Still from ―There she is!!‖ ………………………………………………..255 Table 5.1: Languages used in Opening Posts (OPs) on the SamBakZa.net bulletin board as of Nov. 12, 2010 ...………………………………………………………..262 Chapter Six: Fig. 6.1: Photograph of Hetalia fans in Ikebukuro, July 10, 2010 ……………..….272 Fig. 6.2: Image of the 2channeru character ―Nidaa‖ ……………………………....300 Fig. 6.3: Example of Hetalia fan art …………………………………..…………...308 Table 6.1: List of selected Hetalia merchandise ……………………………..…….293 Appendices: Appendix 1: English-language questionnaire form ……………………………......331 Appendix 2: Japanese-language questionnaire form ……………………………....338 Appendix 3: Selected questionnaire data …..……………………………..………..346 Included in Appendix 3: Table 1: Distribution of animation fans by currently-inhabited geographical region ……………………………………..………………………………………..347 Table 2: Distribution of animation fans by self-identified ethnicity …………….....348 Table 3: Distribution of animation fans by age …………………....………..……..350 Table 4: Distribution of animation fans by gender and sexual orientation ......…….351 Table 5: Media technology usage among animation fans ………………………….352 Table 6: Animation acquisition (purchase, rental, etc.) among fans ………….…...353 Table 7: Respondent‘s assessments of their level of dedication to animation fandom ……………………………………………………………………………..354 Table 8: Top 15 Japanese-made film and TV animation rankings ………………...355 Table 9: Top 15 Western-made film and TV animation rankings …………………356 v List of Copyrighted Material for which Permission was Obtained Chapter 1: Fig. 1.3: Still from ―A Language All My Own‖ …………………………………….87 Permission obtained from: King Features Syndicate, Inc./Fleischer Studios, March 7, 2011 Chapter 5: Fig. 5.2: Still from ―There She Is‖ …………………………………………………255 Permission obtained from: Amalloc of the SamBakZa animation group (www.sambakza.net), April 29, 2010 Chapter 6: Fig. 6.3: Example of Hetalia fan art ……………………………………………….308 Permission obtained from: Sherry Lai (http://ctcsherry.livejournal.com), Dec. 8, 2010 vi A Note on Translation In presenting Japanese, Korean, and Chinese-language names, I have elected to list family names first and given names second, as is the practice in those languages (e.g. AZUMA Hiroki, KIM In-Tae, CHUA Beng Huat). The exceptions are cases where authors have published works written in English and given their own name in Western order. In these cases, I have followed the authors‘ preferences and placed the family name second (e.g. Koichi IWABUCHI, Joon-Yang KIM, Kelly HU). Japanese names and terms are romanized using the revised Hepburn system for the syllabic n and long vowels (e.g. Ōfuji Noburō instead of Oofuji Noburou), with exceptions made where official transliterations require otherwise (e.g. Asahi Shimbun newspaper rather than Asahi Shinbun; Kenichi Ohmae rather than Ken‘ichi Ōmae). All translations of Japanese article and book titles are my own unless otherwise indicated in the Works Cited list. vii Introduction The work you are now reading began, as so many do, with the confluence of a passion and a pitch. I have been a fan of animation, and in particular of the Japanese style