Adapting Anime: Transnational Media Between Japan and the United States
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ADAPTING ANIME: TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES Brian Ruh Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University May 2012 Acceptance page Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee ____________________________________ Barbara Klinger, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Gregory Waller, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Yeidy Rivero, Ph.D. ____________________________________ Scott O’Bryan, Ph.D. April 9, 2012 ii Acknowledgements I am very grateful to my Ph.D. committee – Barbara Klinger, Gregory Waller, Yeidy Rivero, and Scott O’Bryan – for supporting me (and putting up with me) for these last few years. My parents, Richard and Christine, and parents in law, Dan and Barbara Skinner, have been positive influences throughout this entire process, and I’m sure they’re all glad to see me finish. However, the person who may have borne the most stress through the entire process has been my loving wife Sarah. I’m so thankful to have her. I also need to acknowledge my two beautiful daughters Charlotte and Abby, the sources of both great joy and great delays in the writing process. And finally, hello to Jason Isaacs. iii Abstract Brian Ruh ADAPTING ANIME: TRANSNATIONAL MEDIA BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES This dissertation examines Japanese animation, or anime, as an example of how a contemporary media product crosses national and cultural borders and becomes globalized. Bringing together the theories of Hiroki Azuma and Susan J. Napier, it develops a theory called the "database fantasyscape" as a way of discussing such transnational flows. In short, the “database” refers to how contemporary media products are assembled from a matrix of constituent elements into combinations that are simultaneously unique and familiar, while the “fantasyscape” element expands on Arjun Appadurai’s concept of global flows in order to posit a way in which desire travels transnationally. The dissertation discusses how anime came to the United States and the role this had in anime's development in Japan by examining Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy ), the first half-hour television animation produced in Japan. It examines how anime has been adapted and distributed in overseas markets like the US by analyzing successful media franchises like Robotech and Voltron , as well as unsuccessful ones like Warriors of the Wind . It analyzes the complex and often fraught relationship between anime fans and producers / distributors and discusses the role played by fansubs (subtitled copies created by fans and often illegally distributed). Bringing in Matt Hills’s concepts of cult texts, the dissertation discusses how in certain respects anime can be seen as cult and what this means with regard to transnational reception. Finally, it examines the relationship between anime and physical space, both in a temporally-limited fan-oriented iv space like an anime convention as well as within the city of Tokyo, with anime-ic perspectives providing ways of perceiving and processing the city. _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ v Table of Contents Acceptance page ................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iv Introduction – Laying the Groundwork for Anime Studies ................................................ 1 Anime in a Global Framework ..................................................................................... 11 The Database Fantasyscape .......................................................................................... 19 Project Outline .............................................................................................................. 32 Chapter One – America’s Anime, Japan’s Anime: Locating Anime in Global Circulation ........................................................................................................................................... 36 The Beginnings of TV Anime – Tetsuwan Atomu becomes Astro Boy ........................ 41 Tetsuwan Atomu in Japan.............................................................................................. 45 Astro Boy in the United States...................................................................................... 52 Hybrid Anime from Astro Boy to the 1970s ................................................................. 63 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter Two – Robotech and Voltron against Warriors of the Wind : The Americanizing of the Anime Experience .................................................................................................. 67 Robotech and Voltron ................................................................................................... 72 Warriors of the Wind .................................................................................................... 80 Globalization Success and Failure ................................................................................ 87 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 93 Chapter Three – Convergent Anime in a Fansub World .................................................. 97 Fansubs and Anime – Tapes to BitTorrent ................................................................. 101 Producers’ and Distributors’ Responses to Fansubs ................................................... 109 vi The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi as Media Experience ....................................... 115 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 125 Chapter Four – Selling Cultic Transmedia: Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell ................................................................................................................................. 131 Cult Media and the Database Form in Neon Genesis Evangelion .............................. 134 The Database of Ghost in the Shell ............................................................................. 147 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 162 Chapter Five – Convergent Anime Spaces ..................................................................... 164 Performing Media Fandom – Media and Place at an Anime Con .............................. 165 Anime Fandom in the US ........................................................................................... 171 Tokyo as Anime-ic City .............................................................................................. 181 Tokyo in Oshii’s Films ............................................................................................... 188 The Anime-ic Documentary ....................................................................................... 190 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 195 Chapter 6 – Conclusion ................................................................................................... 198 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 208 Curriculum Vita .............................................................................................................. 233 vii Introduction – Laying the Groundwork for Anime Studies In the summer of 2007, on a whim I decided to rent the first DVD of the anime series When They Cry (Higurashi no naku koro ni , 2006, dir. Kon Chiaki). I had previously noticed that there were (illegal) fan-subtitled episodes of this series available for download on US anime fan websites, but it hadn’t seemed like a show I would want to watch. However, I had recently noticed that a second season of the show was being broadcast on Japanese television, so I decided to give it a try. After watching the first five episodes, I became thoroughly engrossed in the events of the series and felt compelled to continue. However, the DVD I had rented was the only release available in the US at that time – the remainder of the series had yet to be released. I wanted to watch the rest of the series as soon as possible, so I began downloading them from anime fan sites. The structure of the series fascinated me—the show was not linear, but rather divided into separate arcs of around four episodes, most of which ended with the deaths of one or more of the main characters. But time in the series was circular and events kept repeating, and I became so interested in the characters and their predicaments that I continued watching and reading more about the series. As I became more thoroughly engrossed in When They Cry , I found out that it