Reading Response 2

Sometimes narratives only as long as six words can tell an extensive or impacting story. In my opinion the full extent of these stories are left up to the reader’s imagination. The story “I couldn’t believe she’d shoot me.” By Howard Chaykin and “TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!!...nobody there…” by Harry Harrison, both containing the entire narrative in their titles, can really tell an imaginative story if left up to the reader. For example, the first one could have a surrounding story of a man’s lover shooting him for something he had done wrong, or for a wrongful purpose on the female lover’s part. And in the second one, a man or woman could have taken a time machine to the future only to find out that at that point in time the world was already a post-apocalyptic wasteland. A story with the words “To save humankind he died again.” By Ben Bova could entail something of a martyr figure of a human dying to save humankind from the sins of the world such as Jesus Christ did. These stories all show how short narratives can really have a deeper meaning than just the few words that you see on the paper.

Another type of short narrative exists in FOUND magazine created by Davy Rothart and Jason Bitner. They created a magazine that contains short narratives, lists, and other organizations of words that have been randomly discovered from all over the place. “Stupid, Stupid, and Stupid” by Jarrod, is a poem from a handmade poetry book made by five year olds. It goes “Stupid, stupid, and Stupid decided to destroy the world. They took a big bomb And threw it up in the air. It came on them. They got killed. The end.” This story, even though created by a five-year-old, could describe a deeper meaning of foolish humans creating and using nuclear weapons, eventually destroying the entire world on accident. These short narratives also show how small stories such as these can have an impacting meaning, even if only written by a five-year-old.

Also, implied stories, or stories with deeper meanings can be found in pictures that contain little or no words as well. A Polaroid snapshot called “SCIENCE” that was found as well shows a girl sleeping on top of her science binder and homework while a frilly appendage covers the middle of the photo. It appears to be some type of alien specimen or deadly plant. The photo could show some sort of story where a girl has fallen asleep while doing her boring science homework and now is about to be punished for it by a being of science.

In “FAMILY”, a comic strip on the cover of “The New Yorker” from November 27th, 2006, shows both pictures and words used together to show a short narrative. A punk teenage girl leaves her family thanksgiving dinner because they would not make the food the way she liked it. She goes and hangs out with her friends talking about how someone was “emo” and then sitting down at a small restaurant with her friends talking about being thankful that there’s no slavery anymore. I think that this story has a deeper moral meaning of how families don’t really stay and eat together on Thanksgiving or any other given day. It shows how the normal traditions of family get-togethers are not really as present as they were in the past.

All in all, narrative stories can be explained in only six words or one picture, or both, and still have a full developed meaning, at least to the reader’s imagination.

Academic Article Review

Academic Article Summaries: Anime as a Cross-Cultural Communication in Itself, Through Media, and Through the Japanese Language

Anime, or Japanese animation, shows a lot of Japanese history, folklore, traditions, and religion. When these videos or television programs are viewed by anime fans and other viewers that are not Japanese, or not from or living in Japan, they can become a way of these foreigners to learn and experience Japanese culture. The article “Cartoons from another planet: Japanese animation as a cross-cultural communication” by Shinobu Price really illustrates what the title suggests, and shows how that anime can really be a cross-cultural communication between Japan and many western countries, primarily the United States of America.

Anime is not a cartoon, like western stories that are animated by Disney; it is not full of children-oriented fairy tales about princesses and knights in shining armor with happily ever after endings of endless romance. There is a handful of anime that follow that guideline slightly, but in a very different style. However, there are tons of anime geared towards mostly adults that don’t always have happy endings, and may include the princess being a flesh-craving cyborg and devouring the prince who was willing to die for his code of honor. Most Americans may think that anime is either characterized by characters like Pikachu or school girls in sailor outfits with big boobs and eyes. However, anime is usually a lot edgier, fast-paced, and violent. Although, not all anime, or Japanimation, is geared towards older generations of viewers. It also appeals to many younger viewers of all ages. In actuality, there is not a single literary or cinematic genre that is not represented in anime form. Along with fairy tale fantasies, cyber- and steampunk mythologies, romantic comedies, and classic sci-fi, anime also includes violent pornography, sports dramas, and everyday “slice of life” soap operas. Also, big Japanese productions of animated films, such as “Princess Mononoke”, cost less than a quarter of what Disney films cost to make, and end up making almost five times what it cost to make just at the box office. It seems that anime is, at most, geared only towards viewers under forty years of age, but that trend seems to be changing, as anime fans of the current generation are getting older.
Anime is extemely popular in the west, but many people are surprised to find out that anime is only written and animated with a Japanese audience in mind. Japanimation is full of references and depictions of Japanese culture (such as folklore, legends, history, religion, moral assumptions, and aesthetic standards), shown in many everyday and stereotypical situations and practices. These situations may include eating food such as sushi and ramen with chopsticks, wearing kimonos to a Shinto festival, and sleeping on a futon right on the tatami mat floors of their homes. Scenery such as falling petals from cherry blossom trees is also seen a lot in anime to show either that it is springtime, or that someone is going to die, going with the symbolism that cherry blossoms only bloom for about three days out of the year, which could mean death in a similar amount of time. One other thing seen in anime are male characters getting a nosebleed when they see a beautiful or sexy girl.

This article by Shinobu Price truly shows how anime is its own unique form of media and entertainment through its vast expanse of every typical genre, and hundreds of more super deformed anime-only genres. Price also explained how anime is a cross-cultural communication from Japan to the west through the many Japanese traditions, stereotypes, and events portrayed in the “Japanimated” television and movies geared towards Japan, that are viewed in large numbers by many people of the western countries. This article was published in Spring of 2001, and is now almost eight years old. Based on newer anime that I have seen since this article was written, certain genres of anime (mostly comedy or parody animes) have brought some American culture to the table in the form of American exchange students as characters, such as Patricia Martin from the anime “Lucky ☆ Star”. This also comes in the form of a collaborative American defense agent Ken McGwire who helps a Japanese defense team in the anime “Zettai Karen Children”.

Anime can be viewed in several different ways by non-Japanese speaking viewers. It can be viewed as an internet downloaded video file “fansub” by amateur translators who write and time subtitles for anime airing only in Japan at the time, with official subtitles on DVD or video released by a company that has licensed the anime, or with an official English (or other translated language) “dub” or audio track on DVD or video released by a company that has licensed the anime. In the article “Anime Fans, DVDs, and the Authentic Text”, by Laurie Cubbison, she explains how “otaku”, the self proclaimed geeks of the anime world prefer to watch their anime, how typical viewers prefer to watch it, and what the media companies do to satisfy both groups of viewers.

Otaku prefer to watch their anime uncut from the opening to end credits, unedited and uncensored in its complete original form, not localized with US cultural elements (That’s what cartoons are for, this is anime.), not rewritten to meet US’s political correctness, not inserting use of vulgar speech into the dialogue of a non-vulgar character, not inserting 21st century cultural references in shows set in the 70s, properly timed subtitles, properly translated subtitles, and good voice acting and direction. These otaku are mostly rooted in the group that prefers subtitles and Japanese audio as well. Viewers preferring voice dubbing in their own language are mostly typical, casual viewers who gained the preference by watching anime on television dubs. In the VHS era, the market was split by these two mediums, and VHS’s were released with only one audio track and one video track so only one of the two ways to watch the shows was able to be accomplished with a single VHS. This led the media companies to not be able to satisfy all of their viewers. Now in the age of DVDs, this problem has mostly been solved as all formats are usually available on DVDs of licensed anime. Because of this advancement in technology, most companies are able to meet all of the demands of each group of anime viewers, substantially increasing their sales and satisfaction of the viewers.

I personally prefer watching anime in Japanese with English subtitles, and I am completely satisfied with every anime DVD that I have picked up in America, as they seem to all have this format, and follow exactly, or come very close to the otaku guidelines explained above.

Recently anime and Japanese video games (mostly anime based) has led avid fans to want to learn the Japanese language to the point of becoming fluent in order to understand and play the media without having to use translations. Natsuki Fukunaga, in her article “Those anime students”: Foreign language literacy development through Japanese popular culture”, explains how learning Japanese can not only allow anime fans to enjoy anime in its completely raw and original version, but as a smart choice as a second language for business-minded college students.

Overall, the article shows that the repetitive watching of anime in Japanese language with English subtitles really increases one’s Japanese dictionary and enables the viewer to become aware of linguistic aspects, male and female speech endings, tone of voice, formal and plain forms of speech, slang, and ability to tell the difference between good and bad translation. Most of these aspects of the language are taught in entry level Japanese classes. This reasoning has led students to create their own fansubs of anime and even go on to study, or even major in Japanese to become fluent in the language, use it to watch anime and play Japanese video games, and even go on to use it in their future careers.

I have to completely agree with this article, as I have seen around eighty days or roughly 1920 hours (that’s almost 5760 episodes )of a little under two hundred series, and have been able to use that constant watching of anime to understand well over a hundred Japanese words, almost completely able to understand Japanese honorifics, and also have a general understanding of their sentence structure and use of their form of the word that means “to be” and its many different familiarity variations. I can also tell when a fansubber’s translation is no good, or close to dead on, by watching a good amount of quality subs and seeing a small amount of lower quality subs and being able to tell a significant difference just by picking a part a few common sentences that have obviously been translated wrong.

All in all, these three articles show the cross cultural communication shown in the first article through Japanese culture represented in anime, which can be viewed due to the formats made available that are discussed in the second article, primarily English subtitles with Japanese audio, which is explained in the third article to strengthen one’s Japanese-speaking ability overall creating an even more extensive cross cultural communication through the most important thing in culture, language.

Academic Article Review Rough Copy

Anime, or Japanese animation, shows a lot of Japanese history, folklore, traditions, and religion. When these videos or television programs are viewed by anime fans and other viewers that are not Japanese, or not from or living in Japan, they can become a way of these foreigners to learn and experience Japanese culture. The article “Cartoons from another planet: Japanese animation as a cross-cultural communication” by Shinobu Price really illustrates what the title suggests, and shows how that anime can really be a cross-cultural communication between Japan and many western countries, primarily the United States of America. Anime is not a cartoon, like western stories that are animated by Disney; it is not full of children-oriented fairy tales about princesses and knights in shining armor with happily ever after endings of endless romance. There is a handful of anime that follow that guideline slightly, but in a very different style. However, there are tons of anime geared towards mostly adults that don’t always have happy endings, and may include the princess being a flesh-craving cyborg and devouring the prince who was willing to die for his code of honor. Most Americans may think that anime is either characterized by characters like Pikachu or school girls in sailor outfits with big boobs and eyes. However, anime is usually a lot edgier, fast-paced, and violent.

I will go on to explain more about this article talking about a bit more about misconceptions of anime and more about how cultural exchange takes place in the medium of anime and what exactly is exchanged.

I will also summarize an article on Anime Fans and DVDs, and an article on "anime students" and literacy through Japanese culture which both relate directly to the first article on cross-cultural exchange through anime.

Reading Response 1

In the reading, “The Hook: An Urban Legend”, by David Emery, the author describes an urban legend about a teenage boy and girl that go out in the boy’s car to Lover’s Lane to make out. They parked the car at the Lover’s Lane and began to kiss each other after turning the radio on to listen to some music to lighten the mood. After a while, the music is interrupted by an emergency broadcast of an alert that a man with a hook for a right hand had escaped from prison and was on the loose in the area. The girl responded to the alert in a scared manner and asked the boy to take her home. The boy locked all the car doors and assured that the girl would be safe and tried to kiss her again. She refused, still being scared of the broadcast, and pleaded that the boy should take her home. The boy agreed that time and sped off in anger. When the boy dropped the girl off at her house, the girl shrieked in horror to see a hook on the handle of the car door.

David then went on to explain that the urban legend of “The Hook” was a moral story to show that sex was an improper activity for children of that age and that people engaged in it would be punished. Followers of Sigmund Freud suggested that the story was an example of sexual imagery. The boy wanted to get his “hooks” into the girl and his “conscience”, or the voices on the radio, told him to “pull away” or speed off from the site, and was “castrated”, symbolized by the tearing off of the escapee’s hook.

I personally do not agree with the morals of this story. I think that everyone that wants to engage in sexual activity before or after marriage, as long as they are one-hundred percent sure that they want to and follow correct procedures of protection, should be able to do so without having to worry about being punished for it. However, this story could be used as a good lesson for people with such morals.

Research Topic Proposal

Research Topic Proposal & Survey Questions

Topic: Anime

Anime is a very popular form of entertainment in America, Japan, and the rest of the world. With this research paper, I intend to explain the cultural and historical influence on anime, and its influence on the economy and culture.
Some topics that I intend to use for my explanation:

ART
WAR & POLITICAL REBELLION
GLOBAL CULTURAL INFLUENCE
PHILOSOPHY & SCIENCE
CULTURE & DAILY LIFE
ANIME FANDOM
FANSUBS
MUSICS & MUSIC PRODUCTION
ANIME MEDIA & MERCHANDISE

Along with that explanation, I wish to find out several things in regards to anime, including popularity and reception of certain genres of anime, anime games, and Japanese music associated with anime, popularity of mainstream series and games (series and games that are mostly popular in the U.S. and some that are popular in Japan, that have mainstream popularity in the states.), what subject matter anime viewers are willing to watch (by rating G, PG, PG-13, R+, Rx), anime viewers’ preference to watching anime in English dubs or Japanese audio with English subtitles, and the amount of anime that anime viewers have seen, are watching, and are planning to watch, and possibly several other things.
Survey Questions:

I plan to survey the University of Michigan Dearborn Anime Club, several members of AnimeTalk.com, and several members of deviantART.com, which are all communities/groups of people that are heavily influenced or based on Anime. I also intend to use statistics from MyAnimeList.net to show worldwide popularity of series, genres, and other statistics including amount of Anime viewed by individual members and worldwide.
I will mostly be looking for answers where the participants being surveyed will either pick answers from a list I have provided or titles and genres of Anime that they will write down based on my questions.
I will use this data to fulfill the above purpose in regards with what I want to find out for my research.
The questions will probably be grouped onto several sheets of paper, one for each subject being addressed (popularity, subject matter, dubs vs. subs, amount viewed).
I expect that these surveys should take no longer than a half-hour to complete.

Possible Survey Questions:

Popularity of Genre:

GENRES: Action, Adventure, Cars, Comedy, Dementia, Demons, Mystery, Drama, Ecchi, Fantasy, Game, Hentai, Historical, Horror, Kids, Magic, Martial Arts, Mecha, Music, Parody, Samurai, Romance, School, Sci-Fi, Shoujo, Shoujo Ai, Shounen, Shounen Ai, Space, Sports, Super Power, Vampire, Yaoi, Yuri, Harem, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Military, Police, Psychological, Thriller, Seinen, Josei

What are your five favorite Anime genres?
What are your five least favorite Anime genres?
Do you prefer the subgenre Cyberpunk or Steampunk?
What are your five favorite Anime Game genres?

Or

On a scale of 1-10, how much do you like each genre, 1 being not at all, 10 being very much.

Popularity of Demographics:

DEMOGRAPHICS: Shojo, Shonen, Seinen, Josei, Kodomo

What demographic is the majority of the anime you watch from?
What demographic is the least of the anime you watch from?

Willingness to Watch:

RATINGS: G (All Ages), PG (Children), PG-13 (Teens 13 and Older), R-17+ (Violence & Profanity), R+ (Mild Nudity), Rx (Hentai)

For each rating, show how willing you are to watch each one on a scale of 1-10, 1 being not willing at all to watch, and 10 being extremely willing to watch.

Popularity of Mainstream Series:

SERIES: Death Note, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Elfen Lied, Naruto: Shippuuden, Code Geass – Hangyaku no Lelouch R2, Ouran High School Host Club, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Spirited Away, Lucky Star, Hellsing, Full Metal Panic!, Chobits, Fate/Stay Night, Soul Eater, Samurai Champloo, Clanad, Claymore, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Shakugan no Shana, Vampire Knight, Princess Mononoke, Darker than BLACK – Kuro no Keiyakusha, Furi Kuri

Which of these series have you seen? Rate each one on a scale of 1-10, 1 being unwatchable, and 10 being masterpiece.

English Dubs vs. Japanese Audio w/ English Subs:

Do you prefer English Dubs or Japanese Audio with English Subtitles?
Are there some series that you prefer watching in the audio opposite of your preference? List them.

Argumentative Essay

Destruction of the World’s Forests Equals Death to Planet Earth

I believe that forests are the lungs of the Earth, and that the destruction of the world’s forests is going to amount to death of the world we currently know. The destruction of forests brings forth three major problems. Destroying the trees in the forests reduce our oxygen supply, which the trees contribute to greatly. The destruction of the forests also results in the loss of carbon, which helps to destroy the ozone and increase global warming. Lastly, the elimination of the forests also eliminates the habitats of all the animals and organisms that were living in the forest at the time of its destruction.

The reduction in our oxygen supply due to trees being cut down in forests could really be taking a toll on our lungs in the near future. An adult tree with lots of leaves can produce up to as much oxygen in one season as ten people breathe in for an entire year. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of trees that are being destroyed in forests, and that’s one gigantic loss to our oxygen supply.

Trees act as carbon sinks, because they absorb carbon dioxide in order to produce their food. The release of carbon into the air is a known cause of global warming and also contributes to the deterioration of the ozone layer. Surprisingly, many forests are cut down in order to stop global warming and destruction to the ozone. Palm oil, a major source for bio fuel is harvested on plantations that are built on top of leveled forests. Sources indicate that it could take anywhere from seventy-five to six-hundred years for bio fuel to compensate for all the carbon released from forests destroyed specifically for the production of palm oil.
And the last major loss caused by deforestation, is the elimination of habitats to the animals, plants, and other organisms living in the forests that are destroyed. As a result to the loss of their habitat and possible death to the machinery that is cutting down the trees, the animals’ and plants ‘ populations dwindle to or near zero. Not only are more animals becoming endangered species or close to it, valuable plants are lost that could possibly contain ingredients to cure diseases.

All in all, the destruction of the world’s forests is not a good idea whatsoever even if it gives us the chance to create bio fuels or makes more space for living. What’s the point of making bio fuel to stop global warming if it’s only contributing to it, and what’s the point of building more homes if there’s just no more oxygen left to breathe? There is no point, and that’s why deforestation is most definitely a path leading to the death of the world as we know it.

Nix, Steve. "Eight Reasons to Plant Trees." About.com: Forestry. The New York Times Company, 2009. Retrieved 17 Sept. 2009, from http://forestry.about.com/od/forestandtreeuses/ss/trees_value_3.htm

Wiley-Blackwell (2009, April 15). Biofuels Could Hasten Climate Change. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/04/090414120452.htm