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Azuma, Tadanori

doi:10.4307/jsee.52.4_36

Cited by 1 publication

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“…73 Images valued by male otaku in the 1990s were not based on particular works or images by particular artists, but instead represented a synthesis of fragments and parts from what philosopher Hiroki Azuma calls the 'database' of this culturally specific imaginary, including manga, anime and SF films alongside more traditional, iconic images within Japanese visual culture. 74 Some otaku are not only extremely informed fans of manga and anime, but produce new works by reinterpreting and appropriating their favourite manga and anime works, circulating these through dōjinshi (self--published magazines, manga and novels) and the internet.…”

Section: -Japanese Concepts Of Interconnectedness Between Humans and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Canted Desire: Otaku Performance in Japanese Popular Culture

Sone

2014

CSR

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The term, otaku, which addresses varied fandom-related activities, is a buzzword in discussions of Japanese popular culture. This article addresses the most controversial aspect of otaku practice: the stereotypical male otaku’s admiration for, and investment in, cartoon images of young girl characters. While this practice has been discussed in terms of the notions of perversion and of queerness, I see this otaku practice not in terms of a sexual politics, but as operating through a highly culturally-specific tradition that understands signs in embodied terms. I consider how Japanese traditions of somatic and material conditioning relate to and assist to explain this practice. I propose the concept of ‘performance’ as a profound process for making social meaning, and the key term with which to understand the Japanese engagement with artefacts, in contrast to an idea of performance as essentially false, and to do with mere appearance. The article illustrates how an exchange between the male otaku’s coded gesturing and his embodied relations with the young girl cartoon image is derived from traditional concepts. The ‘radicality’ of the otaku’s ‘perversity’ lies in its aberrant construction of intersubjective communication through a cultural habitus that is extended to the Internet, merging the subject and the object of desire.

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Section: -Japanese Concepts Of Interconnectedness Between Humans and mentioning

confidence: 99%

Canted Desire: Otaku Performance in Japanese Popular Culture

Sone

2014

CSR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Untitled

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Canted Desire: Otaku Performance in Japanese Popular Culture

Canted Desire: Otaku Performance in Japanese Popular Culture

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