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Mediating on the Voiceless Words of the Invisible Other: Young Female Anime Fan Artists

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Mediating on the Voiceless Words of the Invisible Other: Young Female Anime Fan Artists 212 Anding Chen 213 Lacy, S. (1995). Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle: Bay Press. Mediating on the Voiceless Words Levinas, E. (1985). Ethics and Infinity. Pittsburgh: Duquesne of the Invisible Other: University Press. Young Female Anime Fan Artists­ Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and Infinity. Pittsburgh: Duquesne Narratives of Gender Images University Press. Rorty, R. (1982). Consequences of Pragmatism: £ssays, 1972-1980. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Jin-shiow Chen Van Laar, T., & Diepeveen, L. (1998). Active Sights; Art as Social [rrteractiorr View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co. Yardley, J. (2002, September 5). "Hoping to Inspire Talk, Artist The Onset of a Journey Ignites Debate," The New York Times, p. A16. My interest in youth anime/manga I Oapanese animation and comics) culture in Taiwan began three years ago when my niece, Kitty, then 15 years old, showed me some photos of her cosplay' performances and manga drawings (doujinshi') by her good friends. The beautiful pictures fascinated me but in all honesty, I was stunned that my own mece and her good friends were participating in 'those exotic activities'. As far as I knew, my niece and her friends were good students-smart, creative and diligent in pursuing fine art as their majors in high school. I was disturbed by this incongruity and could only pretend politely to ask her about her involvement with "Cornic Market/ CornicWorld "', "Cosplay", and "Doujinshi Sales". Kitty explained a bit but grew impatient when I did not understand. She suggested that I attend a CornicWorid convention to find it was really like. I was apprehensive with concern. Kitty sensed my fear and said, "Don't worry. These anime fans won't eat you. They are not like what the mass media present as cama.I savages, OT violent, anti-social gangsters" (Kitty, Personal communication, May, 24, 2000). After three years of exploring this subculture,l have seen a group of youngsters active and energetic in artistic expression, striving for recognition among their peers. I met many fans and amateur artists 5 214 Voiceless Words Chen 215 in the Comic World conventions who were willing to share their researcher, r have felt compelled to listen to these young female anime/ experience and knowledge of aninlt;jmanga art with me, an outsidet manga fans and artists to let their story be told. Here two young female This subculture was completely committed to arume/ manga art and aDime/ manga fan artists share how they feel about gender issues as open to anyone who shared similar interests. r realized that r had been readers and creators of manga art who participate actively in misled by elitist values and mass media to perceive arume/ manga fans ComicWorld conventions. as socially pathological, deviant, disreputable, and to a certain extent, dangerous "others". A cultural hierarchy underlies society and tends to marginalize and malign ideas and beliefs that are diHerent from thOSe Narrator 1: Tsukasa in mainstream culture Uenson, 1992; Lewis, 1992). In Comic Markets/ ComicWorld conventions, [ was surprised to Tsukasa is 18 years old. She graduated from a senior high school observe that the majority of anime/manga fans and amateur artists and was accepted to a private university. She started to read mangas were young women in their mid-teens and mid-twenties. Kinsella (2000) when she was 9 or 10 but it was not until she reached age 14 that she considered that anime/ manga fan culture was more a girls' culture became serious about drawing manga characters. In the process of than a boys'. This is not only because girls are in the majority but also learning to draw manga, Tsukasa read a variety of manga inc1udmg because girls' manga and feminine expressions are the leading genres shonen manga (boys' manga), shojyo manga (girls' manga), sci-fi and in the subculture. Uttle academic attention has been given to these raoi ', (boy-love manga) and yuri' (girl-love manga). Tsukasa confessed young female fans and artists and their subculture. The mass media that she even read manga pornographies for personal curiosity. She has jumped to expose this "secret land", lamenting how exotic, decadent found that many female characters in the genre are well drawn and and sensuous the culture is, spotlighting only thoes most f1amboyan~ beautifully presented. Apparently, the figure drawing techniques and bold and seductive female cosplayers and fanatics. These young female ski11s still hold a great charm to attract Tsukasa's attention. anime/ manga fans and artists have been painted into sexualized images RecentlyTsukasa seemed to lose her enthusiasm in manga/ anim;;, and have been labeled as dangerous "others". Obviously, they did no and had switched her fondness to a group of Japanese pop singers better than their grandmothers and great grandmothers to change their named "V6". Now she would identify herself as a V6 fan more than a fate of being subordinate and objectified. They continue to remain manga/anim" fan. Utilizing V6 singers as the main characters of her invisible. manga doujinshis and storylines, Tsukasa was about to create a V6 Last year, [ talked to a few girls who are anime/ manga fan artists. doujin.,;ite on the web, where V6 doujins (those who adore V6 as their The two girls mentioned that they were glad that an academic scholar idols) were able to post their "fannish" art work-manga doujinshis would listen to them and try to understand their intenests and point of and novels. Among these six singers, Tsukasa most adored Ken Miyake view. One of these girls explained, '1t is always a great feeling to be and Hiroshi N agano. These SIngers. are young, thm, tender and good respected for who you are and for what you like" (Personal looking with feminme dispositions, very different from American communication, Nov. 11,2(02). As a female scholar and art education stereotypes of strong, energetic, athletic, muscular, masculine, Chen 217 216 Voiceless Words handsome guys. In fact, therr feminine dispositions are similar to those Picture 3 Picture 4 of "bishonen" (beautiful boys) in the manga fantasy worlds. like many V6 fans, Tsukasa depicted Ken Miyake in manga styles (see pictures #1 , #2, #3 & #4) and base her novel characters on them in developing the stories. Tsukasa said she disliked V6 fans who liked to place themselves into the plots of therr novels as if they were dating the V6 singers. She said: For some reasons these fans tend to satisfy therr own desires of being beloved by V6. That is it, fulfilling therr own vanity and dreams. A lot of female fans like to make their own novels that way. I think that type of plotting is disgusting, in a certain aspect, and not enough to intrigue readers to explore deeper into the souls of the characters, the stories, and eventually the writer who develops the stories. In my own case, I prefer to develop stories totally from V6 singers, that is, a completely made-up story about these singers with no interface between the fantasy and the real To be able to do so, Tsukasa explained that she had to study these worlds. (Tsukasa, personal communi.cation, July, 6, 2(03) singers' songs, performances, news reports, and other materials to get thorough information about each member's personality, tastes, habits, Picture 1 Picture 2 philosophy, and values. In this aspect, Tsukasa believed that she was different from many other female fans who were crazy about V6 singers for their appearances only and tended to be indulged in novels with shallow romantic stories. Tsukasa found herself different from other girls in many aspects; for instance, she said: Many girls start to care about therr own looks, appearances, and body shape when reaching the age of 12 or 13. They begin to dream of falling in love. So they spend time learning to wear make­ up or to dress up in order to make themselves prettier to attract boys. I am obviously naive in this respect. My mother had been pushing me to be on a diet to loose a little weight, so I could be more like a girl. It was not until recently that I tried a diet to lose 218 Voiceless Words Chen 219 about ten pounds and began to care more about the way I dressed. breasts playa male character? I think it would better if I were a boy, Even so, I am not sure I will start a love romance that soon. then I would be free to play whatever male characters r like." Tsukasa continued to complaln that sometimes when she wore tighter shirts, lndeed, Tsukasa lost a lot of weight and looked very different many guys would gaze at her breasts. She felt irritated but could never from when I met a year and half ago. She used to be a tomboy but had understand why these guys were so interested in looking at her breasts. become more feminine and prettier. It seemed that she was comfortable Tsukasa admitted that if she were a boy, she would not get ~into such an with this, holding an optimistic view of the freedom in her life to come unpleasant situation. in college.Even so, Tsukasa emphasized that she was not used to Tsukasa mentioned many times in the interview that her wearing dresses or skirts but preferred shirts and jeans. And, she said personality, thinking and working behaviors were more like a male's. she would continue to play male characters in the cosplay activities as I asked if she was influenced by Japanese mangas. She said it did not before. Tsukasa recalled her most recent cosplay experience as follows: affect her that much because she read shonen and shojyo mangas--­ many different types.
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