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A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandoms

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A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandoms University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2019-04-05 Beyond Subcultural Community: A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandoms Robles Bastida, Nazario Robles Bastida, N. (2019). Beyond subcultural community: A sociological analysis of Japanese animation fans and fandoms (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110147 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Beyond Subcultural Community: A Sociological Analysis of Japanese Animation Fans and Fandoms by Nazario Robles Bastida A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SOCIOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2019 © Nazario Robles Bastida 2019 i Abstract The study of media fandom has emphasized the subcultural nature of fans’ practices and relationships. The work of Henry Jenkins (2013) was especially influential in this regard. Proposing that media fans constituted both a subculture and an interpretive community, Jenkins reified fandoms as bounded, subcultural groups composed of nomadic readers. The current dissertation constitutes a powerful critique of this traditional approach to the study of media fandom. Through ethnographic research on Japanese animation fans in Mexico and Canada and a theoretical framework informed by the oeuvre of Pierre Bourdieu, I propose that Japanese animation fandom is not a bounded group, but rather a field of consumption, that is, a space of consumer positions articulated around particular tastes relating to Japanese animation and its associated texts and characters. While some of these positions correspond to local and trans-local communities, individual media consumers occupy others. From this perspective, in a similar manner to Bourdieu’s “field of cultural production”, Japanese animation fandom is much more complex and fluid than implied by the fandom-as-community paradigm. To approach this complexity, this dissertation explores knowledges, practices, localities and objects that are appropriated and deployed by Japanese animation fans in order to be closer to their favorite narratives and characters. In doing so, fans’ tastes and consumption practices become the core of a new approach to the study of media fandom. ii Acknowledgements Writing this dissertation has been a long, challenging and interesting journey that I could have not undertaken on my own. First and foremost, I would like to thank my co-supervisors, Dr. Scott McLean and Dr. Kevin Young. Their insights and expertise greatly contributed to this project. Without their patience, support and critical comments, this dissertation probably would not exist. I feel lucky to have had both of them as mentors and friends while writing this work. I would also like to thank the other two members of my supervisory committee: Dr. Liza McCoy and Dr. Bart Beaty. They always offered valuable comments regarding my research and help me to gain new perspectives regarding my subject of study. I am also thankful to the external examiners for my defense, Dr. Michael Atkinson and Dr. Ben Whaley. Their questions and comments were challenging and helped me to think in my project in different lights. I would also like to thank the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary for all their support during my program. Their funding, work opportunities and support were essential to finish this dissertation. This project would also not be possible without the support of my sponsors: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT), Fomento de Investigación y Cultura Superior, A.C. (FICSAC) and Secretaría de Educación Pública del Gobierno de México (SEP). To the participants in my research. Thank you so much for your help, for donating your time to me and for answering my question. Hopefully, this project would be of interest to you. I truly enjoyed talking with you all. Finally, all my love to my family and friends. Thanks to all my great friends in Mexico and to the amazing ones I have made here. A special tip of the hat for Laurent Wall and Luis Welbanks. Thanks so much for all the geeky conversations and the many beers shared. I would not have made it this far without your friendship. Thanks to my beautiful family, to my brothers, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles, family in law and to all the little ones. I love you all. The biggest of thanks to my parents, for their unconditional love, support and teachings. You are always with me. And thank you to my wife for all her love and support. I love you with all my heart, Bere. iii Table of Contents Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………. ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………………………... iii Chapter One. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 1 Towards a Fluid Depiction of Fandom …………………………………………………... 2 Taste, Distinction and Consumption ……………………………………………………... 5 From “Subcultures” to “Field of Consumption” ………………………………………… 7 The Study of Japanese Animation Fandom ……………………………………………... 13 Chapter Two. Redefining Subculture Introduction ……….………..…………………………………………………………... 18 The Evolution of the Notion of Subculture …………………………………………….. 18 Beyond the Notion of “subculture” …………………………………………………….. 24 Subcultural Formations and Taste Cultures …………………………………………….. 29 Audiences as Taste Cultures ……………………………………………………………. 34 Audiences and the Legacy of Stuart Hall ……………………………………………….. 37 Taste Cultures and Practical Enactments of Collective Identities ……………………… 41 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………… 47 Chapter Three. Methods Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….......... 49 Alternatives to Ethnographic Research for the Study of Audiences and Fandoms …….. 49 Critical Ethnography as an Alternative for the Study of Audiences and Fandom ……… 53 Ethnographic Research on Japanese Animation Fans ………………………………….. 58 The Process of Ethnographic Research ………………………………………………… 61 Interviews as Part of the Ethnographic Research on Japanese Animation Fans ……….. 68 Data Analysis and Gaining Subcultural Knowledge …………………………………… 74 The Liminality of Trans-local Ethnographic Research ………………………………… 81 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………… 83 iv Chapter 4. Findings I: Fandom as a Field of Cultural Consumption Introduction ………………………………………………..…………………………… 85 Japanese Animation Fans: Constructing Anime as a Legitimate Object of Consumption ………………………………………………………………...…………. 85 Anime Fans as Media Consumers of Complex Narratives …………………………….. 90 Beyond “Textual Poaching:” Japanese Animation Fans and Narrative Consumption …………………………………………………………………………… 93 Beyond “Media Cults:” Anime Fans and “Chara-Moe” ……………………………….. 97 Transmedia Characters: Anime fans and Character Consumption …………………….. 102 Fandom as a Field of Consumption: The Case of Neon Genesis Evangelion …………. 106 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 111 Chapter 5. Findings II: Japanese Animation Fans and their Subcultural Practices Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 114 Japanese Animation Fandom: From Consumption to Esoteric Hierarchies of Taste … 115 Anime Fandom as Taste Culture(s) …………………………………………………… 119 Japanese Animation Fandom and Subcultural Capital ………………………………… 123 The Historicity of Subcultural Capital ………………………………………………… 128 Historicity, Authenticity and Taste Cultures: The Case of Japanese Animation Fansubs ………………………………………………………………………………... 132 An Always Changing Fandom ………………………………………………………… 135 Character Consumption as a Catalyst of Subcultural Practice ………………………… 139 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 144 Chapter 6. Findings III: Japanese Animation Fandom, Subcultural Happenings and Community Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 146 From a Knowledge Community to a Local Happening ……………………………….. 147 The Anime Convention: Community, Boundary Work and Identity Formation ……… 151 From Community to Individual Consumption: Public Versus Private Fans …………… 157 The Case of Yaoi Fans: Anime Conventions as Sites of Struggle ……………………. 162 v Fan Identifications: The Anime Convention as a Space of Fandom(s) ……………….. 167 Anime Conventions as Local Terrains of Belonging …………………………………. 171 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 178 Chapter 7. Findings IV: Material Identity Introduction …………………………………………………………………………… 180 The Many Faces of Fan Consumption ………………………………………………… 181 Consumption as a Profit in Distinction ………………………………………………… 185 Japanese Animation Merchants as Subcultural Entrepreneurs ………………………… 190 Anime Conventions as Spaces of Consumption ………………………………………. 195 Anime Conventions and Illegal Consumption ………………………………………… 199 The Consumption of Communal Identities ……………………………………………. 202 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 207 Chapter 8: Conclusions ……………………………………………………………………….. 210 Japanese Animation and its Taste Culture(s) …………………………………………. 211 Japanese Animation Fandom: Between Resistance and Subjection ………………….. 214 Beyond Fandom-as-Community ……………………………………………………… 220 Ethnographic Research and Media Fandom ………………………………………….. 221 Towards a new approach to media fandom …………………………………………… 222 References …………………………………………………………………………………….
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